Paladins' Parabellum

Chapter Three: Calm Before The Storm

Ulrika and I walk back to the cabin to recover the dead elf's corpse. We haven't talked a word since we left the town. She stays close to me, bumping my arm with hers. I peek over at her, using my eyes only. She stares ahead without moving her eyes or blinking. It's like she's looking beyond the trees in front of us. I interlace my fingers in her right hand. Her lifeless stare breaks into a torrent of blinking. She looks at me with a blank expression, but it breaks into an acute encouraging smile.

"Are you okay?" I say. I direct us off to the side of the trail, so I can examine her. "How are you holding up?" She scoffs, looks up the path for a quick moment, then frowns.

"You already know what I'm feeling, Kaio."

"Your blank stare is worrying me." She holds my hands walking me back over to the center of the trail, where she then snuggles on my right arm.

"I was thinking about the boy and other depressing shit."

"Let's talk about it."

"Maybe later."

She stays on my arm, slowing our speed into a casual stroll. I don't mind our steady pace back to the cabin. At least she's not blankly looking into the distance like her soul left her body. All this mess that's going on makes me wonder if she or I could handle these types of battles. I'm also worried about her mental state once we see the lifeless child around the paradise she sees as a home from the world.

At the turn of the trail, the boy's body is in view. Her grip on my hand tightens. She keeps her head down and continually snuggles on my arm all the way up to the cabin. We stand over him, but she doesn't move off of me. I lean down to see what's wrong with her.

"Ulrika," I say with the quietest voice I can muster.

"Right," she responds, breaking away from me in a slow fashion. She squats over the boy getting ready to remove the arrows. I tug on her shoulder, preventing her index finger from touching the shaft of the arrow.

"No, I'll do it."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to carry this memory." I pull out all three arrows from his stomach. "You don't need to experience this heartbreak."

Seeing and feeling his blood on my hands boils so many emotions inside of me. I feel anger, sadness, confusion, and fear for the future. Ulrika's touch on my right shoulder takes me out of my troubling thoughts.

"Let's go," I say, putting the boy into my arms.

**

In the heart of Thaa Alora, near the town square, people crowd around a makeshift morgue. I tell Ulrika to wait for me as I move through a thick crowd of weeping souls. Their cries almost send me into tears. Some people around me notice me and shout at others ahead of me to move out the way. Suddenly I get a clear pathway over to the dead bodies. Everyone stares at me with frowning mournful expressions. It's so overwhelming to the point I can't look at them for more than two seconds. Out of nowhere, Ulrika pushes me to continue walking past everyone.

"I thought I told you to wait for me," I say.

"It would be a disgrace for me to leave your side with this burden."

There's an open spot next to two bodies that I lay the boy in. I can't stand seeing him or the rest of the corpses, so I advert my eyes to view the ground. Ulrika reaches in for a hug, but I back away, flaring my arms up to my chest.

"Don't touch me," I say, putting another foot between us.

"Why?"

"I'm tainted with blood."