NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 221: Scent of Death
After another couple of bottles of whatever the sweet alcohol was my grama slowed her breathing and seemed to relax even deeper. “Siya. I’m curious, who has the stronger nose, a wolf or a dragon?”
‘Is she finally drunk’ “I’m assuming you want to test this somehow?”
She took another long slow breath through her nose. “Oh, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Just tell me whether or not you can smell the undead coming over the ridge over there.”
‘The what…’ I looked over to where she was pointing and my eyes focused unconsciously, zooming in until I could see several miles away through the poor lighting. “I can see them…” I muttered cautiously.
She slowly shifted her weight in the chair, only seeming to relax more while I started to tense up. “Right, but can you smell them? I knew your eyes would be better… Although I am amazed they are that good…”
The scent of death suddenly started to fill the air all around me, but it was thin and faint, nothing like how it was inside the dungeon. “I can now…”
She took another swig, swishing the alcohol around the last bottle she had on hand. “I guess I win then. My nose is more sensitive. How about potency… No wait, that’s not the right word. Oh whatever, you know, like how long have they been dead for? Can you tell?”
“Uhm… The scent is really thin… So does that mean not long? Or… Is that just because they are far away…” ‘Should I be grabbing a sword? I’m wearing my pajamas… should I change? I don’t want to get them dirty… Then again… Maybe that’s not something I should be worrying about right now…’
“You had it right the first time. They’ve only been dead for two days at most. Bandits.” She stood up with a loud groan and slowly pulled her shirt off revealing her incredibly toned muscles in their entirety. Unwrapping her hands and casually wrapping her chest as if she wasn’t doing it out in the open. Leaving me completely speechless once I realized.
‘Definitely drunk… Wait, actually from the stories I half thought that she would fight naked.’
She turned to me with a girlish smile. “Zombies tend to go at you with teeth, so it’s better to cover the parts you don’t want them to bite.” She said with a thumbs up.
‘Then why didn’t you just keep your shirt on…’ “Grama, shouldn’t we like… I don't know… mobilize the garrison or something?”
She waved her hand. “Pashaw, I can take care of this. Oh, if you want to fight with me I wouldn’t object though.” She cracked her knuckles before flexing in front of me. “I’m the one that taught your momma how to fight, you know.”
“I just got cleaned up, and zombies tend to squish when I hit them, it’s really gross, and gets messy…” I looked at her again. Mara’s scarred body was intimidating… But not nearly as scary as hers, which had no doubt seen more Battles, and had almost no scars to speak of…
“Oh no don’t worry about all that, they’ve only been dead a couple of days so it’ll be just like fighting humans. And if you don’t want your clothes getting dirty just take them off.”
“R-right…” I looked back over to the ridge. ‘Should we really be acting so casually?’ As she stretched the sloppily wrapped cloth around her chest loosened until it was practically falling off and she didn’t even seem to notice. ‘How drunk is she?’ I looked over to the empty bottles that must have combined to equal well over a gallon and let out another heavy sigh. “Gramma come here…” I grumbled, helping her.
“Ah, right… Thanks, little one. Gotta keep these safe. Now that all the kids are grown up only Grandpa gets a taste of them.”
‘Oh my freaking…’ “Ugh…”
As I was messing with it I looked over to see one of the said guards slowly turning around and felt my face heat up. ‘WHY AM I THE ONE THAT’S EMBARESSED…’
“Wait, Siya, why am I wearing pants? It just adds wind resistance when I move… Hmm…I’m sure there was a reason?”
After I finished wrapping her chest she bent over and grabbed another bottle… I wasn’t sure if it was actually just her personality, or if she was hammered… But I grabbed the bottle and made her put it down just in case. “I think you’ve had enough.”
“What, no I have to finish the last bottle, what do you mean?”
‘What the…’ I let out another sigh. “But then there won’t be any left to celebrate your victory…”
She paused, putting it down and patting my head. “You’re right… Quite right. Good point.”
‘That actually worked?’ “Wait, grama… If they are mostly like people, doesn’t that mean they’ll fight with their weapons instead of their teeth?”
She looked out over the ridge. “Oh, yeah. Guess you’re right. They might even be able to talk. So I probably don’t need clothes after all.”
I grabbed her hands as they started going to undo all of my work. “You’re still fighting a bunch of men though… Bandits right?”
She tilted her head. “Well, sure. But they are undead. Their blood isn’t flowing so it’s not like they can–”
I closed my eyes and shut her mouth with one hand. “Don’t… Just… Stop…” I sighed again. Admittedly I wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to say next… But I had a strong feeling I didn’t want to. “Just keep your clothes on please, otherwise it’ll be hard for me to focus while I’m fighting…”
Her whole body slumped over slightly. “Ah, yes. Right… That’s why I’m wearing pants.” She walked past me to the fountain. “Let’s see, I think I have a weapon around here somewhere.” She pulled a large metal gauntlet covered in blood, rust, and spikes out from under the fountain. “I remember your mom telling me that kind of thing made you uncomfortable.”
‘Can we just stop talking about this…’ “Seriously… You’re a worse drunk than my sister…”
“Little Lu?” She strapped her gauntlet on, bending her fingers over and over to get used to it.
‘No not… Not that one…’ “Just forget it. Do you have a sword?”
“No, why would I have a sword? You can find your Grampas weapon over where he was smashing coal when you got here.”
“Grampas weapon?” ‘You mean… The several hundred-pound hammer… I’m a little girl grama!’
“His weapon?” She repeated. “Oh, I meant his hammer. Uh, the big one… No, you know. The thing he uses to smash rock, not the thing he uses to smash me.”
‘I’m going to just pretend I didn't hear that last part.’
“Although ones about as strong as the other–”
“GRAMMA, Just go kill the zombies! And then go take a cold shower or something… Geez…”
She smiled brightly again, her cheeks still bright red, if not from the alcohol then from something else… After giving another thumbs up she turned and started walking towards the approaching raiders.
‘This woman is making me lose my mind…’ “Hey, you there.” ‘Just in case…’ “Did you hear all of that?”
“Yes, I’ll let the others know don’t worry. We will be on guard in case you miss any.”
‘That’s… Not really what I meant…’ “Can I borrow a sword?”
He pulled his sword from its sheet and walked closer. “Does this mean you don’t intend to use the lord’s hammer? Is there a reason? Ah, maybe you're just not strong enough quite yet, apologies.”
‘Dick…’ I sighed. “No… You’re right. You’ll need a weapon too in case something goes wrong right? I’ll use the hammer…” ‘Is this really normal? No way right? Ugh… But I already said I would use it now…’
I walked back to the field and found the large hammer leaning against a giant tub of powerderized coal.
I slowly wrapped my small hands around it and even before picking it up I could feel its weight. The heavy metal felt like it had a soul of its own, or like I could feel the weight of how many souls it had taken. Even with my magic reinforcing my body the weight of the weapon felt like it made it hard to stand.
I didn’t have time to change, but I had a feeling I would end up either fighting or training in some way if I continued hanging out with her, so I already had my chest wrapped just in case. Keeping my shirt clean was one reason to take it off, but it was also oversized, so it didn’t feel great to move around in.
‘She’s not rubbing off on me, right? No… I have a legitimate reason for doing this…’ I sighed, flipping the hammer up over my shoulder and feeling the ground tremble under my feet. A gust of wind brushed across my bare skin and after a short pause, I put the hammer down and put my shirt back on before heading out. ‘Maybe… I’ll just wash my clothes when I’m done…’