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Hero’s
Reckoning Chapter 6 All Characters and story copyrighted by Rekk, Not to be distributed without the authors permission.
I
awoke with the morning sun as I always did, and found myself cradled against
Rekk’s chest, I looked up at his peaceful face and smiled to my self, then
snuggled up to him a little more. It
was rather a good morning to sleep in. ********************** I
woke up refreshed, but with a feeling that my scales had frozen to my flesh, I
bundled up in my thick cloak and went out to start the fire. It
was just sunrise, and quite chilly, so I hurried to get the fire started, after
a few tries, I finally got it to light, and huddled up close to it, seeking to
warm my semi frozen body. I
sat there by the fire, waited for the others to wake up, and watched the sun
rise. Wyn
was the first to wake up, crawling out of his tent and popping his neck, I
looked up to him and said, “good morning Wyn,” “Morning
Anya” he replied, yawning, “any one started breakfast yet?” I
shook my head; “I’m the only one besides you awake.” “Okay
he said, pulling on a clean tunic, “I guess I will do it.” He
went about preparing our morning meal, some bread, a block of some strong
cheese, and some bacon. He handed
me my helping of the food and I murmured my thanks and dug in, quite hungry. About
an hour after breakfast was ready, Rekk and Shimmer woke up, in the same tent.
Wyn raised an eyebrow at me, but nothing more.
By the goddess, he was cute, strong, single, and polite! When
they stood up from Rekk’s tent, he embraced her, then kissed her lips briefly
before they went about their separate ways this morning. Rekk
walked over to the fire and Wyn handed him a plate. “You
sleep okay?” Wyn asked Rekk. “Oh
yeah.” Rekk said, and we left it
there. “When
are we going to start out again?” I
asked him, still rather chilly. “Oh,
in about an hour.” he replied, tearing a chunk of bacon off with his teeth. “Oh,
okay.” I replied, still trying to
warm up all the way. “Are
you cold Anya?” Wyn asked me “Yes,
quite.” I replied, shivering
slightly. “I
guess you’re not used to cold weather.” he said as he stoked up the fire. “It
takes my body a little longer to adjust than it does yours, I should be fine in
a few minutes.” I replied, and
scooted close to fire. “That’s
good, the last thing we need is a frozen healer.”
He replied. I
sat by the fire and thought about this trip, I wondered where we would go after
we entered the wild lands, no one had ever mapped them, so this was going to be
quite dangerous. I
was suddenly hot, a signal that my body had adjusted to the temperature, I stood
and walked to my tent to put my armor on. No
matter how many times I wear it, I just cant get over the fact of how light this
armor is, I can barely tell I’m wearing it. I
walked up to the edge of ridge, where shimmer was standing, looking eastward,
and the guys were sitting about the camp fire, talking about the uncharted area
we were entering. I
stood next to shimmer, who was clad in her mail again. “What
are you looking at?” I asked her. She
raised her hand and pointed at a line on the horizon. “That
line is a forest, it is where most of the travelers were lost, and it also
covers the land all the way to the mountains, so there is no getting around
it.” I
stared off to the line of forest, “that is miles away, why worry about it
now?” She
turned toward me, “because I have never been there, unfamiliar areas make me
nervous.” “I
have to agree with you there.” I replied. We
sat there looking at the sunrise for a moment, then shimmer turned and said,
“we will be leaving soon, we should help the boys pack”.
I nodded my head in agreement. We
walked down from the ridge and found the boys already breaking down their tents. “Hi,
girls” Rekk said, “mind helping us with the tents?” “Sure”
I said, “that’s what we were coming to do any way.” Shimmer
and I broke our tents down with minimal pain and cursing, And
helped Rekk and Wyn finish packing for the road.
Shimmer changed back to a dragon, and Rekk loaded the saddle and saddle
bags on her then climbed on her back, got comfortable in the saddle, then turned
and said, “you two are coming, right?” to Wyn and I. “Yes
we are,” I said, imitating a hurt tone of voice. “Well,
then get on your horses and let’s go!” Therefore,
we got on the horses he had provided for us and rode off after him and shimmer,
who were already riding off down the road. I
sidled up next to Wyn and asked him, “do you now where we are going?” He
leaned forward in the saddle and squinted at the horizon, “we seem to just be
following the road.” he said. I
got closer and said, “ see that line of green out there”, I said, pointing
at a streak of green. “Yeah,
I see it.” “That’s
the forest that marks the border of the wild lands, that’s where we are
headed, according to shim.” He
leaned back in his saddle, “well this should be a interesting journey, no has
ever came out of the wild lands alive, or sane.” “Well
I say we are going to be the first, just tell me anything in there that’s dumb
enough to mess with Rekk when he’s in one of his rages.” “You
make a very good point,” Wyn said, “I was traveling with Rekk a few years
back, we were in the northern mountains and ran into a pair of hill giants, I
was keeping mine off balance, but the one Rekk had had just scooped him up and
wrapped him in a bear hug and started to slowly squeeze the life from him. All
Rekk did was go absolutely red in the face, through the fur, and lean his head
back as far as it would go, and bring his forehead crashing into the giants,
flattened its head like a piece of fruit. A testament to the power of Rekk’s fury.” I
sat there silently, staring at him. “Shim
and I have figured out what it is that happens to Rekk during those times,
whenever Rekk gets to a certain level of anger or pain, and it takes a lot of
pain or aggravation to make him do this, but he goes partially feral, he is
still coherent, but he gains enormous strength speed and agility, but remains
focused on a single target at a time, making him a very dangerous opponent, each
rage leaves him exhausted, so it is dangerous to him as well.” I
sat and thought about this for a moment, “so he is almost unstoppable when
angry, but this will almost completely drain every reserve of energy in his
body.” “In
a nutshell.” This
was an interesting facet of Rekk I was left to ponder. ******************
About midday we rode between some rock formations rode up next to Rekk
and shimmer, he looked down at me and said, “hey Wyn, did you need
something?” “Yeah,
the horses are getting tired, we should rest soon.” “You
are probably right, once we find a clearing in these rocks…” “Rekk.”
shimmer said sharply, “something doesn’t smell right here,” she sniffed at
the air, “Rekk! Wyn!
Anya! Get down!” she
yelled at the top of her lungs, which was really, really loud. Seconds
after shim yelled and we dove from our saddles, there was a loud TWANG!
A flight of arrows came flying at us from both sides of the road. We
had to duck, but shim just sat there while the arrows broke on her armored hide. “Brigands!”
I yelled to Rekk. “No
shit!” he yelled back. We
all drew our weapons as they came pouring over the rocks, screaming battle
cries. There
had to be at least two score of them, that should have meant we were in trouble,
but shim was here! She swung her
tail in a arc and ground about eight of them into the rock wall, she turned
towards the others and let out a earth-shaking roar that blew the helms off the
ones closest to her, she them blasted them with her breath weapon, a cone of
freezing air that froze nine of them into solid blocks of ice. We
were content to let shim deal with them, until we heard the battle cries of a
dozen behind us. We
turned and Rekk looked at me and said, “shall we?” “We
shall” Rekk
turned to the group, extended his blades, and yelled, “Bring it on!” He
then broke into a full out run, blades held to either side of him, decapitating
and disemboweling his enemies before they could lay a finger on him. I
on the other hand, put my shield up, and started an even paced advance, cutting
down my enemies as they approached with my huge bastard sword. Rekk
and I had this group under control, when I checked on him over my shield, he was
going wild on five of them with that kung-fu thing he does, while I just
continued my grim advance through the mob. I
met up with Rekk in the middle and we set ourselves back to back and took out
the remaining four as a team. I
turned to Rekk and said, “your still a badass my friend.” “Hey,
you’re not that bad yourself.” he replied, catching his breath. “Um
Rekk, Wyn I think we have a problem”. Anya
said behind us. “What’s
the prob-“ I turned around and saw a brigand, a lion, with a knife to Anya’s
throat. “He
surprised me,” she said. “You
let me go!” he said nervously, “or ill kill her!” Rekk
calmly sheathed his blades and said, “Anya, do that thing I taught you”. She
nodded and slammed her elbow in to his gut, he let go of her, and doubled over
in pain, then she punched him squarely in the jaw, dropping him on his back and
out cold. “That
is for touching me, jackass.” she said, cracking her knuckles. “Whoa,
nicely hit Anya.” Rekk said. “I’m
a fast learner.” she said with an evil grin. “Well.”
shimmer said walking over, “I say we interrogate him when he wakes up.” “Yes,”
Rekk agreed, “I know some great methods of torture.” “Rekk,
I have seen your methods, we want him sane when we talk to him.” shim said. “Hey
I’m just too good a torturer, it drives them crazy.” “Either
that, or when you pull their tongue out the back of their head.”
I said, smirking. “Hey,
don’t make me monkey slap your elfin ass.” Rekk said. I
broke down in the road, laughing like a mad man. “What’s
wrong with him?” Anya asked
shimmer. “One
too many blows to the head.” she replied “Well,
this is as good a place to rest as any, besides I want to talk to kitty boy when
he wakes up” Rekk said, giving the unconscious brigand a kick in the head.
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