Chapter 3 – Blessings
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When I came to I realised I was laying on the ground with my head on a soft pair of thighs belonging to my mom. A sharp, jolting pain siezed my head causing me to grip my skull firmly and roll onto my side. Mom witnessing this, bore a terrified face, only to soften in relief as I slowly returned to normal. 

"Mom, what happened?" I said, barely louder than a whisper as I realised I was throat was completely parched. 

"It's okay, everything okay now, we're safe" She softly whispered to me, her face warm. tears swelled around her eyes and she embraced me from above however she quickly sat upright once more and took on a more serious tone. 

"Ava, Just what did you do though?" I spoke in a inquistorial tone, not harsh but firmly. I had no idea what she on about of course as the last thing I remembered was blacking the fuck out.

I wet my throat and said, "What do you mean mom?" her eyes narrowed slightly before raising up high on her face.

"Whatever happened, you saved us Ava." Her warm tone suddenly dropped as if a daunting thought entered her mind.

"I'm sorry baby but, we couldn't save him." she looked behind her back and I could see her grimmace.

Lifting myself off her thighs I could see Koko in the distance, hunched over a bear with tears streaming from her face. I lept off the ground and darted to them both, the moment I reached them my stomach churned. Lucky's still warm, dead body laid bare before me, the bolt thrown across from him and the wound partially closed. Blood surrounded his chest and had clearly flown all over his body into the ground, Koko had blood all over her hands, face and chest. 

Dropping to my knees I tightly wrapped myself around Koko as we both broke out into sobbing messes. Our friend we'd known since childhood, the dumb idiot who always pushed forward was gone. 

I eventually pulled away with my moms hand on my shoulder, turning to look around at the brutalised corpses strewn about. Had I done that? Is that why mom looked so worried? The memory of a giant cat coursing through the jungle flashed across my mind once more, what was that? It dawned on me however that while the ironclad horse was among the dead, the giant was not. 

"Wheres the iron bastard mom?" I spoke through gritted teeth.

"So you don't remember any of it? He managed to escape but you gave him a nasty wound to his side." she lowered her head. "I only wish I had done more, I'm sorry Ava."

My eyes swelled once more, taking a moment to calm myself I simply stood up and hugged my mom.

"It's not your fault mom, none of us could do anything, neither of us could save dad." I croaked.

Mom simply squeezed me tightly for a while longer.

 

 

After a while we decided to head out, mom said the best bet was to head south over the boarder, we could try to work out what to do next once we were definitely safe. Koko hadn't said a word the entire time and although I wanted to speak out to her, right now I wasn't even ready to talk. After several hours of travelling with nothing to our persons, no food or money, we could start to see a clearing in the forest and what looked like a road.

"If we follow this road west we should arrive at the town your father used to trade in." declared mom.

Startled, I shouted back, "But if thats where dad trades surely thats where those bastards came from, mom!?" Mom simply shook her head and replied,

"No, I've seen their sigil before, it belongs to a faction in the Empire of Aela to the north, we're heading into Delquin now."

Unsure of what to make of that as I'd barely been explained any whereabouts outside of the jungle before, I can only shrug and say, "if thats the case where are we heading now?"

"To the town of Geilun, its a frontline settlement that deals with monster subjegation more than anything." mom declared. Not knowing any better I nodded and we carried on in silence down the road to Geilun.

Half an hour later we had arrived at a walled settlement, several guards protected the entrance, they bore a sigil of a wolf baring its fangs. As we stood before them, one of the guards took a long look at the trio in front of him before clearing his throat and stepping forward.

"So who might you, totally not suspicious, covered in blood individuals be?" The guard somewhat sarcastically questioned. The sudden realisation that we were indeed covered in blood still we not the wisest move on our past but who could blame us really?

"We're travellers who were attacked on the road, we barely escaped with our lives. Can we come in?" My mom spoke with a slightly desperate tone. The guard paused for a moment, eyeing us once more however it wasn't a disgusting gaze I had somewhat expected from the stories of humans. He cleared his throat once more, seemingly satisfied with the answer he was given and spoke in a more warm tone this time,

"Well you'd best head to the bold and brave inn then, find a woman named ayla there and she'll look after you. Tell her Zar sent you and you'll be fine." 

Relieved that there wasn't going to be any trouble we nodded and thanked him before making our way inside. Contrary to the stories i'd heard of humans, no one particularly looked at us with distain or malice however quite a few were wary of the strangers covered in blood trodding along. Walking down the street we arrived at a building with a sign saying 'Brave & Bold' with the symbol of a fist clenching a mug. We all swallowed our spit and took a step inside, Koko just behind as she seemed even more out of it than before so I wrapping an arm around her seemingly snapping her out of it, giving me a half hearted smile. 

Approaching the counter with practically everyones attention locked onto the bloodied messes strolling inside this establishment, a smaller lady with brown hair and bold green eyes called out to us. Although she had a small stature, her voice was booming and proud, as if she didn't give a damn about anything anyone had to say. "What in the fucking fuck are you fucking doing dripping FUCKING BLOOD into my FINE FUCKING ESTABLISHMENT?!" I am ashamed to say I squeaked, what in the hell did that guard send us to?!?!? I kind of cried out,

"Zar sent us!"

The terrifying lady paused for a moment, placed a finger to her chin and pondered. Before long she lept over the counter, forcing another embarassing squeak out of me and I'm pretty sure Koko too. She hastly stepped in front of us, taking a closer inspection of us all. Mom clearly feeling as nervous as we were with the appearance of this maniac moved us behind her, swallowing her spit again asking, "Can we go somewhere private? Hopefully somewhere we can clean this blood off?"

That moment sobered my thoughts as I realised this lady was actually incredbily attractive despite her terrifying personality. Her waist line was slim with curves in all the right places, her weapons couldn't rival my moms but theres frankly no shame in that. Quickly breaking out a wry smile and lead us deeper inside the dimly lit tavern.

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