Chapter 11
We went to a grove of trees more than ten meter tall on one of the hills surrounding the city to celebrate. We hiked for half the day to reach this spot, a spot we used in the past whenever we wanted to celebrate anything big or small, from birthdays, to someone making an extra copper coin, and today we were celebrating a new part of our lives. The day we stopped being homeless criminal vagrants and becoming normal people, with no need to worry about tomorrow or yesterday.
So when we reached our destination we spread a picnic blanket and prepared some of the most luxurious meals we had ever eaten, from meet to fish stolen from the docks on a particular adventurous visit to the docks and even a cake we had prepared some time ago that we had never completed. We could have had ale or beer, but I refused to drink any for fear of losing control of my powers, and Pera didn't like the feeling of being inebriated. That is how we spent the rest of the day enjoying each other company.
In one conversation I asked her about something that has been nagging me for the past couple years but had never had the courage to ask about, but now that we were transitioning to the next stage of our lives I had to ask, "will you ever go back to your tribe?"
She was caught of guard by my question and stayed silent for a couple moments, and in those moments, I realized how much I had grown to depend on her, because when I thought that she would say yes, my heart constricted and I became to feel suffocated and my powers were going wild inside of me begging to break out and devour everything that could go wrong. All of happened in a few heartbeats and before my powers could go wrong she answered, "I would like to go back," at that she must have seen my devastation because she continued faster than I had ever seen her speak, "but I won't, I like spending my time with you and are the only person that matters to me left, I know my uncle will love me if I went back, but I can't… If I go back and I don't see my parents it would be too much, I am not ready to face that yet, and I have you here."
At that I went closer to her and hugged her to reassure her that I would never leave that I would always stay with her. After calming down a bit she continued, "someday down the line, I would like to go back and introduce you to my remaining family, I know my uncle would love to meet you, and I would also like to finish my shaman training if only to honor my mother."
"It would be my honor to go with you, just say the word and I am sure Murtok and I could find a way to find them," at that Murtok cawed in agreement.
We prepared our bedrolls to sleep on the floor. As we lay on the ground looking up at the starry sky we talked about anything and everything. Sometime between watching the sky and talking to Pera I couldn't help but wonder if there are other like me. People with abilities like mine, or abilities in general. So, I asked her. She answered, "when we go back to my tribe, they will know more about things like this. So, if you can wait, when we go back, we will continue our journey and go on a grand adventure to uncover the secrets in our world and the secret behind your power. We will visit other countries and other cities, we would ride on boats and sail on the seas. We will not stop until we know what we want to know."
"Sound fun, we should defiantly do that even if we don't search for answers visiting new places sound fun," she hummed in agreement.
Amidst dream of distant land and distant seas we fell asleep to the sounds of nature, to the buzzing of cicadas and the rustling of the leaves, Murtok watching over us making sure no twisted dares come near us.
Next morning, we woke up to the sun shing down on us and we started, we started cleaning up after us preparing to go back and finish the paperwork necessary to officially become home and shop owners. It was then that I heard the rustling of leaves and the snap of branches somewhat far from us, so I sent Murtok to investigate of the twisted somehow found a place they could hide to ambush us as we were returning. When he was above the noise, he told me it was a group of humans. Curious I joined with him to see if we should run or we could stay and we wouldn't be troubled by them, I saw five youngsters about my age and older by no more than two years dressed nicely and five guards in their 30s accompanying them.
I figured that they looked like nobles so they wouldn't cause us any trouble, at most they would look at us with disdain and disgust as if they aren't the reason that people can not afford to do anything in the city without spending even more money on taxes not allowing even the poorest beggar to retains some of his gains and hang him if they couldn't pay. Or they could have tried to attack us just to have fun, but I figured that when they got closer I would feel their intentions if the malevolent I would hold back the guard while Pera ran, then I would run while binding them with their shadows and giving us time to run away, but the path they were taking wouldn't pass by us.
I stopped sharing with Murtok and continued cleaning with Pera, we started with the picnic blanket and when we moved on to the bedrolls the nobles came upon us, I didn't even realize that they had changed directions, and Murtok went to find some berries to eat, so I was surprised when they came upon us. I tried to feel their intention but they just looked at me as if I was a rat under their feet.
The first one said to one of the other older nobles that looked somewhat like him, "look brother we came hunting and found some rats, they should have stayed in the garbage heap they come from."
The others started laughing at this as if they had heard the funniest thing in the world, while they were laughing Pera heard the commotion and came to stand beside me. At that exact moment I felt their intentions turn evil even the guards as they looked at her. I started formulating plans in my head to stop them, as the sun still at rising the shadows I could control would be at their weakest but I was still confidant I hold the nobles, but the guards were wearing steel and the light was reflecting on their shadows so while I could hold them it wouldn't be for as long as I wanted.
While I was thinking the one called brother started answering, "but at least one of these rats is good looking, look she is even getting a bed ready to welcome us."
After I heard this comment I wanted nothing more than to kill them all, but I knew killing them all would cause us trouble in the long run, so I started stalling to give us optimal conditions to run so after looking at Pera hopping she understood the message in my eyes, she nodded and I replied, "look some worms are here trying to talk to their betters," looking at the guards standing in front of them with the most mocking grin I could muster and the most sarcastic voice I continued, "look they even need some dogs to protects them from rats, but I can't see any here so they must also be damaged in the head seeing visions of their worst nightmares."
They started fuming at my comment and looked murderous, and just as the guards started pulling out their swords to attack us I commanded their shadows to bind them and wait until we escaped until they let them leave. The shadows started crawling from and they rose until the covered them in their entirety, all of this happened in the blink of the eye, so I made sure Pera started running while I stayed behind a moment longer reinforcing the shadows.
I turned around just in time to see five more guards coming out of the trees on the other side, the side Pera was going to, and see on of then capture her and hold a dagger to her neck. Then he spoke in a voice that annoyed me to no end, "if you don't want this cutie to die then stop doing whatever you are doing to them," pointing at the guards and the noble brats I had restrained, "and if you try to do anything else to them or us I will kill her faster than you could blink."
I could see the fear in her eyes and but I could also see the trust, she trusted me to get us out of this and I was determined to do so. So, with no other option in front of me I released the bindings on those behind me while maintaining eye contact and urging Murtok to come back.
Now that they were free and I couldn't do anything to stop them the noble cam and started kicking, while cursing me. First the kicked me in the back of my knees causing me to fall on the ground saying "a rat like you should learn to stay on the ground in front of his superiors." Then they started kicking me and insulting me all the while I could see the tears forming in Pera's eyes and trying but failing to come up with a plan to stop them and save her, even if it meant sacrificing my self.
Suddenly one of the nobles said, "stop we don't want to kill him before he sees want, we are going to do to his little girlfriend." And they stopped smiling with sadistic pleasure with three staying next to me and even pulling me of the ground and holding me still to see what they were going to do next.
I saw the other two walking forward and stopping next to Pera, one touching her cheeks, and the other pulling a dagger and starting to cut her clothes with the most agonizing slowness to torture us, he turned to me saying, "your girlfriend is crying and all you can do is look at me like that, even I am ashamed of you."
Seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks was the final straw that broke me, the power inside of me that I have been controlling and keeping inside of me broke free and I didn't even try to stop it. Instead I encouraged it to explode with more force, shouting in my mind "BY MY NAME KATHINOX RISE, by the command of child of the beyond RISE, I command you RISE and claim my hatful enemies. RISE and claim your souls, RISE and curse them to die, RISE and take them to my father's domain, RISE without the MERCY and COMPASION of death. RISE as DEATH SLOW AND TORTUROUS." As I finished the last word I felt the power almost spilling out of me it just needed to be acknowledged in the real world, and make it real, so with a voice that could not belong the realm of the living, a voice that haunts the dreams of those that hear it, a voice that breaks the strongest of wills I shouted at the top of the longs with the furry and agony of a million tormented souls, "RISE", and rise it did.
Black energy began seeping from me tainting the entire hill and sky above us a black that the darkness of night envies, and then the screams started. It started with my captors first, they began to wither and age until they became old men and then turned into ashes and then the ashes disintegrated as if they had never been born, they were erased. As the energy began advancing towards the others the one holding the dagger at Pera neck said in a voice full of fear, "s-stay b-back… or I w-will k-kill h-her," because of the fear he couldn't even get a single word out correct, and you how everyone says if looks could kill, well that day they could, I gave him a single stare and nothing remained of him. The others started begging for mercy some calling me a monster but I didn't care my only goal to reach Pera, so I ran faster than my legs could carry me, by the time I reached her everyone else was dead.
The instant I reached her I hugged her to my chest so tight that I might have broken a rib or two, but she didn't care she just cried until my chest was wetter than if I had taken a bath. Seeing this my anger flared again and my powers grew again the entire hill once green and full of life was now the brown of dirt and lacked and life be it plant or animal except us and the recently arrived Murtok. Feeling this Pera stopped momentarily crying and looked me in the eyes, when she did this she must have seen my fears, my fear that I would have lost her to some low life bastards, and my other fear that I lost her because of my display of powers. So the next words she said made me feel relied I have never felt before. She said, "it's okay, I will never leave you, and you better not leave me because of this I am counting on you to keep protecting me," seeing me not responding she sent in a sterner voice, "promise me, okay?" So I did the only thing that I could I nodded at her and my eyes conveyed everything that I couldn't the love that I held for her and the promise that she is stuck with me for the rest of her life. Seeing this she smiled and lost consciousness from the exhausting experiences of the day.
While hugging her unconscious body I took a pen and a piece of paper I wrote, "we have to leave for a month buy the house for us, we will be back it urgent." I called Murtok over, but before he came to me, he swooped down on a spot where one of the nobles died and came over. In his beak was a ruby coin, the exact amount we needed for the house, as he already knew what I wanted him to do, I gave him the piece of paper and the certificates, and he put them a portal similar to those that I use and went to find Darius, as he understood that it would be best if we didn't leave the cave for a while to avoid the trouble that this incident would cause. So as Murtok flew towards the city, I stood carrying Pera in my arms and headed back to the cave to rest, recuperate and find out how I did what I did with my powers.