The Slayer

Chapter 10 - Sumaey

Chapter Ten

Sumaey

It was many weeks before Waltz was able to leave his room at the healers, and many more weeks before he was strong enough to take part in quests again. For the longest time he had felt like a burden to the others, and they had spent a great deal of money for the healers to make him better and to give him a proper bed while they slept out in the cold. But they did not complain, not once, for they all knew the true, and although Waltz hated to admit it he knew it too.

He had saved all of their lives, but what he didn't tell them was that they were now owned by the witch.

He kept that secret to himself.

'So' Leroy said to him with a grin, 'are you ready to go on your first quest in ages?'

Waltz glanced up at him, he was still a little sore in places, and couldn't move as easily as he could before the incident. But he felt so much better now.

'Yeah' he said eagerly. 'I want to have an adventure.'

Leroy's eyes glinted at this, and he turned to the rest of the guild around him.

'Alright boys' he called to them. 'Let's go!'

Waltz was at last allowed on another adventure. Only Kenneth the blind member of their guild stayed behind, listening to them go. Beside him was his guardian, the young boy.

'Keep a watchful eye' Kenneth spoke to their backs as the guild rode away, 'and come back safely.'

*

*

It was still in the midst of winter, and bitterly cold. The guild had to travel far on this particular quest, but the journey was comfortable enough. The phoenix they had found many weeks ago in the mountains had grown. Now it was a fully fledged bird, and it was beautiful.

They brought it with them wherever they went, never releasing it from its cage for fear of losing it. It kept them warm in the cold nights as they travelled. The guild no longer lit fires anymore, but huddled around the phoenix instead, who always burned brightly. It would regard them with its human-like eyes as they did this, almost as if it were intrigued by them, and wondered what they were and what they were doing. Cold was a concept the phoenix did not understand.

The guild travelled to their destination, a small village on the edge of the map that was terrorized by horrible insect-like creatures. They were as large as horses, spitting green venom at its prey, and looked like a cross between a spider and a scorpion. Grotesque they were, but the guild managed to deal with them easily enough. Even Waltz who was recovering from his injuries had done his part.

The nests around the village were destroyed with small bombs, but the younger creatures that had already hatched and were at this time relatively harmless, Leroy did not kill, but sent away with magic, back to the deep forests where they had come from.

'What if they return?' Rude had asked Leroy.

'Then we will deal with them' Leroy replied. 'We don't just kill monsters because they cause trouble for humans, we try to make space for them and keep them apart from us. There is a line between beasts and humans, but I won't just simply kill all of them, after all, we share this world as they do.'

Waltz glanced at him as he said this, then looked away. But he said nothing.

The guild collected their reward, and returned to their camp.

*

*

When summer came, Waltz had recovered fully and was back to his old self again. But when the time came for the guild to sell the phoenix they had guarded all this time, they found they could not do it. It had bonded with each of them, and they realised it was just too beautiful a creature to be caged, and so they all agreed to release it.