NOVEL SIMPLE Ch.39 – An hurdle on the Way
POV: Luchael
When an adventurer said he had found someone in the vegetation around them, the leporan shuddered. His large, hare-shaped ears rose high above his head as his right hand went to touch the hilt of his rapier, this had become a habit whenever he felt anxious or afraid… if he felt that his spirit wavered, he had only to touch his weapon to once again feel Velen's blessing and his musical voice, like that of a fresh stream of water.
Some travelers had taken cover inside the wagons in an attempt to hide from a possible impending enemy, others instead had taken some weapons and had grouped together to organize a defense around the convoy, some of the adventurers instead reached the one who had raised the alarm only to return a few minutes later with a woman who seemed to have seen better times: she was walking barefoot, with her clothes torn and stained with blood and her hair disheveled with leaves and twigs stuck in the tangled locks. The adventurers who had come to rescue her were helping her, holding her up and keeping their attention high so as not to be caught by surprise by potential monsters or even by some bandit from whom the girl had escaped or was being used as bait to make the man lower his guard. their next target.
Helen was the first to approach, with Luchael only a couple of steps behind her. The other adventurers had rushed to get a blanket and something warm for the poor unfortunate girl to drink. The woman was still shocked and weak, there was no healer among them and the most they could do for her was give the leporan some herbs and pieces of monster which he split and mixed into a concoction which he then made the woman drink to help her at least to calm the mind.
“Th-thank you…” the woman whispered, making herself small inside the heavy blanket that had been placed on her shoulders.
“Don't worry, you're safe now,” Helen said, smiling slightly and softening her voice, “what happened? Do you want to talk to us about it?”
“I… I-I don't know…” Her eyes passed over the small group of adventurers who had rescued her, “it's… they… they're little better than monsters,” she said, putting a hand to her forehead and grabbing her disheveled hair. The poor woman had bowed her head and was biting her lower lip nervously.
“Bandits,” one of the adventurers muttered angrily, clenching his fists, “I live in these areas; those damned are the scum of every humanoid being on the continent. I've lost count of how many times I've had to fight them in the past, and no matter how many you kill, they never seem to end.”
“Do you know if there are other people still alive who could be in danger?” Helen asked, keeping her tone gentle and trying not to give the impression that she was trying to force the young woman to talk. The templar raised her eyes towards the adventurer who had just spoken, "if there are bandits and they have prisoners with them it is necessary to intervene."
“I thought you would say that, those you are wearing are the sacred clothes of Gornowayl,” said the adventurer, closing his eyes and lowering his shoulders, the man didn't seem very convinced that he wanted to abandon the convoy, probably because it wouldn't be a paid job.
“Y-yes, there were other people… they… we were on a convoy that was attacked two days ago, we didn't have much money to hire adventurers to escort us and so when we were ambushed they captured everyone,” the escaped prisoner bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood, “p-please, please don't let them take me again…”
“From the way you speak it sounds like you have no intention of helping me,” Helen said to the adventurer in a harsher tone, “look what they did to her, how can you go to sleep peacefully knowing that you don't even want to try to alleviate the suffering of some unlucky people??”
“Don't worry, we won't let anyone touch you,” Luchael whispered, giving the young woman a smile. “Helen, I… uh, I'm coming with you!”
Helen gave him a surprised look, but a moment later she nodded heartily, “who else would like to join us in going to free these poor people from their tormentors? Are there any adventurers who see their role as an adventurer as a benevolent force in the world??”
There were six adventurers who had been hired to escort them, three were dwarves returning to the mountains, two were humans, and one was a croconoid; the small group looked at each other a few times, talking in low voices, but not enough so that Luchael's large ears could not hear what the subject of their discussion was: money.
The leporan made a disgusted face, the leporan were probably the most communal race among all those that populated the continent, to the point of even managing to ignore their fearful nature when one of them was in grave danger. How could there be people capable of putting their own interests ahead of the interests of the group?
“Ah… you young guys are too idealistic,” one of the dwarves grumbled, stroking his thick beard with one of his large, calloused hands, “Volgrom, what do you think? Shall we participate?”
Volgrom – a rather tall dwarf for his race and with ash gray hair – snorted deeply through his nostrils, “no one will ever pay us for this, but we certainly can't refrain from collecting a new story to tell in front of a dozen mugs of beer when we get to Kharna Mora!” The dwarf laughed heartily.
“Okay, I'll come too!” Exclaimed the third dwarf, “Come on, girl! Tell us which way we can go to find these heads to smash with my hammer!” He said to the fugitive.
She raised her eyes looking at her saviors with a glimmer of hope, maybe there was someone she cared about among the prisoners still in the hands of the bandits. “They're north of here, I couldn't say how far north since it was already dark when I managed to escape, but it can't be more than a few hours.”
“Very well,” Volgrom nodded, “it is best that we remain on alert this night and go to free the prisoners tomorrow. For us dwarves there is no difference between day and night, but for you two it is not so, or is it, eary friend?” the dwarf said turning to Luchael.
“Yeah… I’ve good hearing, but my sight isn’t any better than humans in the dark…”
“I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight,” Helen said, “but thank you, I'm sure Gornowayl will favor you for your altruistic choices.” The templar also turned to the leporan, smiling at him for the first time since they managed to recover Aradra from the Sleepy Swamp dungeon, "we will leave at first light."
Luchael nodded at the templar with a wink, if I could get Aradra to kill these bandits it would be much easier, he thought looking around. Aradra had not approached the group of adventurers, perhaps fearing to attract too much attention from one of them, she had instead moved, partially hiding behind the wheel of a wagon and leaning on it with her stubby little hands.
The leporan approached her leaving Helen and the other adventurers to continue taking care of the escaped prisoner, the problem with the bandits was not in their levels or classes as they usually had Commoner Classes and their levels ranged between the fourth and eighth level , the problem with them was in numbers, and that could be solved with a high-level adventurer, or in Aradra's case, a high-level monster.
“Hey… do you want to go kill some bandits and save some poor people?” The leporan asked, lowering one leg to rest his knee on the ground and be more in line with the lizard monster, "maybe it could be a good way to convince Helen that you're not evil."
Aradra's body did not allow her to communicate and the inability to write further limited any possibility of understanding each other, however, her body language was enough to make him understand what she was trying to say: she was refusing.
"But why?" Luchael asked raising an eyebrow, “they're just low level bandits, it would be a piece of cake for you to take them all out!”
Aradra shook her head again, and even with more conviction than before.
“I don't understand, who knows how many monsters you killed to become so powerful while you were in the dungeon. What changes now?”
Nothing seemed to persuade Aradra from her intention not to fight to free the prisoners.
“Okay…” the leporan said, sighing dejectedly, “can you at least come with us? I would feel safer if I knew that even if you didn't want to fight, you would still be around to assist me and the other adventurers if things were to go worse than expected.”
The lizard monster lowered her head, raised a stubby hand to her chin, perfectly mimicking a human gesture, as if she were a human being in the body of a monster. She remained in that pose for a few seconds before raising her head, bringing her yellow eyes with vertical pupils to the leporan and nodded.
Thank the gods! Luchael thought, knowing that even if Aradra didn't want to fight, she would certainly step in to help him if she saw him in danger. I hope that nothing will inexpectedly go south tomorrow...
