“Fuck!” Kraghtol exclaimed and sprinted. Behind him, Valir and Dagna, who had watched the scene in stunned silence, started shouting, but the half-orc ignored them. As much as he would have wished for his Orcish instincts to take over, this was all him. This was all going horribly wrong, and it was his fault!
Running and sliding down the slick mound was no simple task, and Kraghtol fell down more than once, but jumped up as quickly as he could. A wave of mud erupted as the demon landed right on the back of the younger man, and perhaps it was just his imagination, but Kraghtol was sure he could hear the ugly snap of his back breaking like a twig. The demon raged brutally, clawing at the last remaining orderkeeper now, who only barely backed away. He was trapped. All around him were dense brambles that would take far too long to break through. The demon was guarding the only exit, and Kraghtol realized it knew. There was a glint of horrifying intelligence in its eyes as it slowly approached the man in the red jacket, who had nowhere to run now.
Kraghtol was nearly at the foot of the small hill, with the dangerous foliage right in front of him, separating him from the clearing. With all his strength, he launched himself off the spongy ground to jump over the barrier, which only half-worked. He passed two-thirds of the bush, but landed right in the middle of the last part, thorns and brambles cutting into his flailing arms and legs. Pain erupted, but he shoved it aside and ripped himself free, which only added to the agony and cost him precious seconds. Finally, he broke free, just in time for him to see the demon’s horrendous maw rush forward. Roderic had been expecting the attack and thrust his blade forward, right between the teeth-laden jaws of the beast.
The huge demon roared as sharp iron wounded the soft inside of its mouth, but the stab had not been strong enough to kill it. Instead, the jaws closed shut, snapping his upper arm in two as if biting through the bone was nothing.
Roderic stumbled back, falling on his back as the demon spat out the blade, with his arm still attached to the hilt. Kraghtol was amazed the other man was still conscious and alive, but that would soon change. With another terrifying roar, the demon rose on two of its hind legs, the other three limbs raised into the air, ready to finish the job.
Finally, the last bramble let go of him, and Kraghtol dashed forward as fast as his strained legs would allow. This was madness! He didn’t even have a weapon of his own! But he couldn’t stop now! He passed the prone orderkeeper on the muddy ground and made a fist. An incoherent scream was erupting from deep within him, breaking way out of his tusked mouth, just as he launched himself at the demon.
The strike was forceful enough to have knocked out one of Fennew’s friends back at home instantly, breaking one or two bones in the process. The demon, however, barely flinched, only sliding back a few centimeters through the mud from the force of impact. Its hide was far too thick for the fist to have any actual effect, and yet, Kraghtol followed through with his left one. Familiar pain shot through his hands, but he didn’t stop.
“No!” he shouted and struck with all his might, not doing any actual damage. Mud splattered all around them as the demon heavily dropped to all five legs again, bringing its open mouth right in front of Kraghtol. Stars above! It was about to bite off his head! The deafening roar splattered beastly blood from the wound in its mouth all over Kraghtol, and he got ready to dodge. He didn’t know what he was doing; it didn’t make sense. After killing him, the demon wouldjust continue with Roderic and then Dagna and Valir. He was just throwing away his life for nothing.
The attack didn’t come. The mouth snapped shut only centimeters in front of his face, and evil eyes pierced through his skin, accompanied by a menacing growl. Then, after a long moment, the demon turned around as if suddenly losing interest, broke through the brambles without even slowing down, and disappeared into the darkness.
Kraghtol just stared. He was unable to grasp anything that just happened. Suddenly, he felt dizzy.He should be dead!Dead like the three orderkeepers around him. He punched the bloodthirsty beast with his bare fists, and yet, it just left. He spun around at the fast footsteps rushing behind him. Valir ran through the mud, uncaring of the earth and blood dirtying his clothes, until he stood right in front of him, out of breath.
“Kragh! Are you okay?”
The half-orc could only nod, and Valir exhaled. “Stars above…”
Then, without warning, he grabbed Kraghtol’s head and pulled him close, pressing his own trembling lips against Kraghtol’s dark green ones. Kraghtol’s world stopped, and for a moment, there was nothing else. Just Valir’s lips on his, overwhelming his every sense. He didn’t know what to do with his hands. Or with his mouth. But none of that mattered, as he felt himself melt into the kiss, and for one single beautiful moment, he wasn’t in an unnatural, evil swamp, surrounded by blood and death.
It was impossible to tell how long they remained like that, but one thing was certain: it was too short. Despite everything, Valir wassmiling, and Kraghtol wouldn’t be surprised to find himself grinning like an idiot as well.
“That was for surviving,” Valir said quietly, before continuing louder. “And for scaring me like this, I will kick you in the balls. Later. What about him?”
Kraghtol’s mind was abruptly forced back to reality. Valir was talking about Roderic. The orderkeeper was still alive! But not for long if he did nothing. Dagna still hadn’t arrived, so the kiss couldn’t have lasted longer than a few heartbeats. Roderic had moved half a meter, and his left arm was clutching his right, or what remained of it after it had been bitten off above the elbow. He was bleeding heavily, and that alone would kill him quickly.
“Fuck! I need bandages, fire, water… Valir! You still have alcohol?”
The orderkeeper was barely conscious anymore, and didn’t fight back when Kraghtol picked him up and got to work. The bite had been forceful enough to cut through tissue and bone alike, but the wound was bleeding like mad. He needed to stop that first. Using a piece of cord, he tied off the arm with a strength that made Roderic wince. He couldn’t afford to be careful.
It was still bleeding too much. He broke off a stick and snapped it in two. With one part, he tightened the cord by turning it until the flesh beneath turned pale.
“Sorry, but the next part is going to be much worse. Bite on that.” He shoved the second part into the wounded man’s mouth and took the burning piece of wood that Dagna had brought. Clenching his teeth as if he were the one on the receiving end, he held the fiery end directly to the wound. A sizzling sound and the barely bearable smellof burned flesh filled the clearing, and a split second later, Roderic screamed from the top of his lungs, the stick falling out of his mouth, before his eyes rolled back and he went slack. Kraghtol continued for several more seconds until the stump was blackened and hopefully sealed for good.
He quickly made sure the orderkeeper was still breathing before carrying him up the hill, laying him down with his feet high. He barely realized Valir helping him or Dagna keeping the branches out of his way. One mistake, and Roderic would not make it through. Keeping the body warm with a blanket, he cleaned the area around the wound, avoiding the burned parts. Water first, then Valir’s schnapps. That too had to be painful without end. Roderic was lucky he was still passed out.
Only when the stump was dressed in clean white bandages he had bought in Bronzebreak did he collapse back to sitting on the soft ground himself. His hands wouldn’t stop trembling, and he had to stabilize himself against Valir’s shoulder in order not to fall. He had done everything he could.
“We need,” he began, and cleared his throat to sound less croaky. “We need to keep the flies away. Burned flesh attracts them.”
Neither of them wanted to stay near the place of the massacre for too long, but all of them were spent, so they rested the night on that very hill. Roderic drifted in and out of consciousness as fever shook his body, but there was nothing Kraghtol could do. He didn’t have any herbs on him, and he trusted nothing that was growing here. So, he resorted to cooling the orderkeeper’s head from time to time and hoping for the best. Luckily, the fever turned out to be milder than he had feared after this kind of injury, and by noon the day after that, Roderic was — albeit weak and delirious — able to walk again.
While the orderkeeper kept his mouth shut for the entire time, Dagna was nearly unstoppable. She filled every bit of silence with a never-ending stream of excited words, ranging from wild theories about the nature of the beast to praises of Kraghtol’s ‘heroism’. He didn’t like the latter, but he was still thankful. That way, he didn’t have to think about what he did. It had been his idea to use the demon to scare off the orderkeepers. He had never intended to hurt them, even though they were after his life, but that’s what he ended up doing. Three were dead, just because of him. How was he supposed to bear that feeling? He really wished he could talk to his foster father now.
There was something else he was unsure how to feel about. Valir. Of course, Valir. When he closed his eyes, he could still feel the touchof the noble’s lips on his, and everything in him yearned to taste them there again. But how could he eventhinkabout something like that in a situation like this? By his carelessness, three people were dead, people he didn’t even know the names of, and he was thinking about a kiss? Still, he couldn’t help it. How long had the noble harbored these feelings already? Were there even feelings, or was it just a spur-of-the-moment thing? Valir was an outgoing person, so surely he had kissed his fair share of men and women without it meaning anything. On the other hand, didn’t he say he worried about him?
That simple act of affection tore at Kraghtol more than he wanted to admit, and whenever he tried to steal a glance of the noble, he found him looking away, as if he was doing the same. Finally, as they were getting ready to depart, he couldn’t endure the uncertainty any longer and caught Valir a few steps away from the others. He had tried a thousand ways to ask in his head, but there just didn’t seem to be agoodone.
“Sorry, I have to know. After the fight the other day… what did you mean by it? I mean, if you meant anything at all,” Kraghtol said and stopped as he realized he had started to blather. His heart was beating fast, and his palms felt sweaty.
The noble raised an eyebrow.
“You mean about kicking you in the balls? I trust you are familiar with the concept?”
