Even with the slight weakness that he felt, he was still far too full of the performance enhancing drugs that the mages usually pumped into his system, and reaching the edge of the mountains was a breeze. His body had been thoroughly tempered against the elements, and he felt no discomfort from the rising and falling temperatures even with as ragged of clothes as he had. His shoulder where he’d been shot was sadly healing more slowly than he would have liked thanks to the bullet that had gotten lodged against his bone, and it had definitely impacted his hunting skills and slowed him down a bit, but he’d still been able to reach the mountains more quickly than anyone would have been able to follow him, thanks to his superhuman abilities.
However, the mountain was a completely different story.
The prey were much more scarce up on the mountain trail. He didn’t have a single bow on him for hunting the birds that liked to nest up there, and he couldn’t find anything appropriate to throw at them with his dominant arm as stiff as it was with the bullet affecting it. Perhaps if he’d thought to grab one of the guardsmen’s swords on his way out then he could have used that as a projectile, but sadly his hands had been left completely empty. It seemed that he would just have to grit his teeth and hurry across the mountain if he didn’t want to starve.
In the end, though, he had to realize that the mountain range was much larger than he’d ever thought it would be.
The monster had been the one to cross the mountains first, before their invading forces had ever even managed to step foot onto them. He had no way of knowing that the mountains would be this treacherous. Now that he was experiencing it first hand, he was sure that even with the supplies they’d set up to be brought along, a majority of the army most likely still wouldn’t have been able to make it across. Even he, with his superhuman body, had to accept how inhospitable this place was.
How was it that the monster was able to preside over such an unkind place?
~~~
After finally cresting over the mountain, the Paladin felt like he could barely move from hunger. All his life he’d been in a position to be given food, and had never had to suffer from hunger like he currently was. Even while he was the 6th child of a border noble, he’d at least not been neglected enough that he had to starve, and from the point when he was sent away to ‘serve his country’ until now, he’d never had to worry about being fed. He’d had ample opportunity to hunt for his own food before, during his training in the military, but there were always still rations waiting for him should any of those trips have been less than fruitful. Being the superhuman that they’d made him, he required much more sustenance than the average person would. But now, with over a week of no food… His body was painfully eating itself, enough that he would have been fine eating the next rat he saw whole, fur and all, if it meant that it would stop.
Luckily, after only walking for a few hours, he’d managed to stumble himself into a beautiful and magical looking forest, although he still couldn’t find a single animal to hunt. With how weak he was feeling, it was doubtful that he would have been able to hunt them even if he could find anything. He felt like he was close to collapsing. His body was swaying, and as he slumped down onto his knees to stabilize himself, he reached out and grabbed a clump of leaves from a nearby bush, giving up and desperately stuffing handful after handful of them into his mouth in a last ditch effort to at least fill his stomach with something, anything. His stomach churned in rebellion, unhappy with the food that it had finally been given, and he had to plant his butt and hands on the ground and breathe deeply to fight back against the feeling, but at least he no longer felt as awfully empty as he had been for oh so long now.
It was because he was distracted like this that he didn’t notice when the monster arrived.
The swish of a blade and the feeling of cold steel against his neck was the greeting he received.
“I was wondering what came crawling onto my land in such an odd spot! Mind telling me what it is you’re doing here?”
The Paladin looked up slowly from the ground, once again taking in the visage of the monster. His starved and tired mind laughed at how he always seemed to be looking up at the monster from this angle. Still, with his eyes now not clouded by his oncoming death, he had to marvel at the wild flower-like beauty of the young man in front of him. The monster’s strawberry-blonde hair was short, but was slightly curly and boyish, accentuating his fresh and lively face, and the way that the tips turned a vibrant red like autumn leaves only made his lovely and youthful features stand out more, speaking to his exotic heritage.
Of course, the way that his ears slightly pointed at the end all but confirmed that the young man wasn’t fully human.
There had been many whispers that the country on the other side of the mountains bordered the territory of the Fae. In fact, it was one of the leading reasons that Brisillica had chosen to attack them, instead of any of the other territories that they bordered. The fantastical crafts that the Fae-folk could create, along with the magical feats that they were said to be able to produce, were far too enticing for anyone who stumbled upon them to resist. It was their greed, pure and simple, that led them to ignore the danger that was waiting for them.
The Paladin had witnessed firsthand just how terrifyingly powerful this man, fully Fae or even only mixed, was. It truly made sense that he’d been dubbed a monster, owing to how monster-like his power truly was, although perhaps the rulers had named him a ‘monster’ when he’d first come to warn them just because of their xenophobia. The Paladin had no room in his mind to judge another person in such a way, however; After all, his body was so tainted with strange chemicals and twisted implanted magic that he wasn’t sure he could even say that what he bled could be considered ‘blood’ anymore. No matter what, he was a person who’d learned to respect strength above all else, race be damned, and he had been thoroughly bested by this young man. If he was going to live a safe and peaceful life this time, then there was no better place to be than on the side of the absurdly powerful.
He proudly looked up into the monster’s eyes, declaring his intentions.
“I’ve run from my country and fared the mountains, all with the hopes of being with you!”
Having never been a strong conversationalist due to being locked away for so many years, the Paladin saw nothing wrong with his words. However, the young man’s cheeks soon took on a color similar to his hair, and his sword was pulled away from the Paladin’s neck in shock. His eyebrows scrunched together in surprised disbelief, and his mouth opened wide enough to swallow an entire fist.
“W…What? I… Y-you must be lying to me!”
The sword that had been pulled away soon approached again threateningly, shaking a bit when it once more got near to the Paladin’s throat. The Paladin glanced at it for a quick moment, but the determination on his face never wavered, even as he solemnly bowed his head.
“Please, Young Lord, all I wish is to live happily here in these lands with you. It is my only desire! Please permit it.”
The young man showed his teeth awkwardly upon hearing those words, and the blush on his face spread downwards towards his neck. His sword slowly lowered away, and after making a small waving noise of uncertainty, he tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows like he was very confused.
“...It looks like you’re telling the truth… But it makes no sense! You can’t have come all the way here without knowing who I am, right? So what-”
Suddenly a loud, growling, rumbling noise pierced through the air, interrupting the young man’s words. The Paladin avoided looking up towards him, keeping his head bowed, but it was obvious where that odd noise came from. In the end, he could only offer a small explanation towards the monster to save face.
“The trek up the mountain was long, and I left so urgently that I had no time to bring supplies.”
The young man’s face scrunched up in a baffled way, but soon he made an awkward expression like he’d given up, and offered his free hand towards the Paladin.
“I guess we can’t have a real conversation while you’re like that anyway, can we?”
For a moment the Paladin thought that he’d offered the hand to help him up, but soon an assortment of berries began to fill the hand, some spilling over from the sheer abundance. He hurriedly cupped his own hands beneath it, catching the berries as the monster turned his hand to dump them all out. Astounded, the Paladin looked up, his eyes almost shining like stars, in awe of the magical feat. The young man, used to such reactions, simply grinned a wide cheeky smile while hefting his sword over his shoulder like he was showing off.
“Go ahead and eat those while we go back so your stomach stops making that awful noise.”
The Paladin quickly stuffed a few berries into his face as he tried to get up, but for some reason he just couldn’t get his legs to move how he wanted. Even when he freed up a hand and put it on the ground to help lift him, his shaky body still wouldn’t get up correctly. The young man, seeing this, bent down to look at him questioningly.
“What, what’s wrong? Are your legs broken or something?”
He nudged rudely at one of the Paladin’s legs with his foot a few times, as if testing them out. Not wanting to look defective in the eyes of the very monster he was trying to make an appeal to, the Paladin desperately redoubled his efforts to get up, but still was very unsuccessful.
“It seems that my legs are refusing to listen to me...”
“Whaaat? Are you really weak or something? Well, I guess you do look like you got beat up or something coming here…”
The young man gave him one more good looking over before he sheathed his sword and reached down and grabbed the Paladin up by his arm, yanking his heavy body up into a standing position. It took less than a second for his weakened body to try and topple back down, however, with its lacking support, and in the end, he was hastily picked up by the young man, and easily cradled like a bride in his arms before he could react to what was happening.
