Chapter 3: The Beast of the Waste

Roy comes in contact with a new creature, but is she friend or foe?

Trying to compose himself even through the tremors of fear that gripped his body, Roy couldn’t think to do nothing but to throw up his hands in surrender, a terrified, and exasperated moan left his lips as his arms moved, and it was then that it dawned on him that he was sitting in a pool of his own blood, his vision was lowly blurring as well. The excitement caused the bleeding to quicken.

 

Roy yelped and pressed both hands against he wound applying pressure to slow the bleeding momentarily disregarding the beast before him. As he panicked over his wound, the creature tilted her hairy head at Roy’s reaction, her bat-like ears twitching; it suddenly looked at him, if under the inspection of human features, with a sort of baffling thoughtfulness as the man laid there panting in fear and agony.

 

“Who are you?” She demanded from him.

 

“I…I…” Roy’s only words were but afflicted murmurs as he struggled for consciousness, “I…I’m dying.” He groaned.

 

The creature only looked at him even more curiously; thankfully she lowered her dagger and adjusted her stance to look less threatening even though she carefully guarded the blade. If Roy wasn’t half faint in shock, he could probably make out the concerned glance the furry thing flashed at him as her triangular shaped eyes roamed his body, studying it in great depth.

 

“Wh…where do ye come from? What’s yer name?” she demanded, her large cat like eyes met the large gash at Roy’s side which he tried to mend vigorously making her next words but a disquieted whisper, “What’s happened to ya?”

 

“I…I…help me..” Roy took in a sharp gasp as if a jolt of shook him, “I’m dying!” he repeated.

 

The creature, although shocked by Roy’s half dying state, still seemed pessimistic of aiding him.

 

“What are you doing here?” she asked standing crookedly over Roy, the dagger still brandished in her hairy paw, “Where’s the rest of you? I’ve seen you’re kind here before? What…what game are you playing, who are you?!”

 

“My name is…” Roy coughed and gasped, “My name is Roy…Roy Coleman. Please don’t hurt me…please.”

 

The creature darted the dagger’s tip at Roy indicated to the spear wound, her furry, feline like face twisted up in a bit of disgust, “How’d ye get that?”

 

“I was…st…stabbed…help me please…” Roy begged once more.

 

The creature now seemed more compelling; she sheathed her dagger in a flourish and raised both paws as if to calm him while folding her ears back in suggested annoyance.

 

“Alright, alright! What can I do you for, what do you want me to do?” she said before indicating to herself to reveal that she’s not carrying any medical supplies.

 

“Okay, alright…gah!” the sailor twitched and sputter, then he pointed to a dagger on the floor with an odd slanted blade like a mockery of a crescent moon, “That…that dagger…” he staggered to say, “p…put it in the fire.” He told her.

 

The creature looked at him with raised eyebrows then at the dagger he indicated to, “The dagger? This?” she picked it up and pointed at the blade with a furry little finger and said again, “This?”

 

“The fire…put the blade in the fire. Make sure it gets hot…ahhhh ehhh….see if you can find me some water. I lost a lot of blood, I’m going to die!”

 

The beast pointed at the dagger with a paw looking confused, “You…you still want me to put this in the fire though?”

 

“Yes, yes, yes! Please I’m gonna die. Just do it.”

 

The creature turned her back with a slight shrug of her shoulders than fed the tip into the hot coals of the campfire as it flickered in the growing darkness around them.

 

“I don’t know what that’s gonna do.” She murmured as she tickled the pyre with the daggers tip.

 

It was like directing a little child.

 

“Please, I’m begging you…bring me some water, please.” Roy said his voice trailing as he trembled in the fast growing numbness the blood loss brought him.

 

“Alright,” The creature made an audible sigh of retort then reached over for what looked to be a satchel made of leather, “look, here’s a wineskin.”

 

She picked it up in a paw and hoisted it above her shoulder turning towards Roy as she did then tossed it to him; the bag jiggled proving its contents to be liquid. “Here, take it yourself I’m not gonna come near you.”

 

“Thank you…” Roy reached for the bag and removed the cork and downed a mouthful of the stuff, it tasted like foul water, almost sulfuric, very different from wine. Although it gave him the urge to vomit, Roy engulfed what he could of it allowing the liquid to refresh his body, not aware of the pain that will follow.

 

“Argh!” Roy grunted as he felt the liquid surge through his injured organs, he brought both hands back around his waist as he became nearly crippled. With renewed energy, the sailor found the strength to tear off a piece of his uniform shirt and used it to give leverage to his wound.

 

All the while, the creature sat by the fire and softly stared at him thoughtfully.

 

“You still haven’t answered my question.” she pointed out pressingly, “Who are you and where do ye come from?”

 

“I…” Roy tried to relay the information as best as eh could, “I don’t know. I already told you my name is Roy coleman…I…I dunno, I was…wha…what are you!?”

 

She held up a furry finger and wagged at him looking aggravated, “Less questions about me, and more about you. You’re in MY forest. Who are ye, what are ye doing er’, why are the legion after ye, and what are you doing in my bloody forest.”

 

Roy could feel himself close to fainting, “I’m dying…p…please don’t do this to me.” He urged, “I don’t mean any trouble. Please don’t kill me, don’t hurt me…please..”

 

The furry beast rolled her edgy cat like eyes and threw her paws up in frustration as her ears twitched, “I…ah, look I’m not going to hurt you but you need to give me answers. I can probably help you out better. I’ve seen the others like you, I’ve seen them around here…” her eyes narrowed as she said this, “they tried to kill me. They had those noisy weapons just like the one you have right there.” She dipped her head towards Roy’s revolver indicating to it, “They tried to kill me with those infernal thing! I don’t know what they are, I don’t know who you are, I don’t know WHAT you are.”

 

Roy coughed, “Well…if it’s all the same. You’re nothing I’ve ever seen before in my life, I don’t know where I am, and I don’t’ know why they’re trying to kill me. All I know is that I’m bleeding to death! Oh god, I’m going to die if I don’t stop the bleeding. I’ve gone to far!”

 

“Alright, talk less you’ll loose less blood.” She instructed, “Obviously you’re in no condition to tell me anything right now but expect to give me answers later on.”

 

Roy nodded his head vigorously, “Yes, yes please. Just please help me I don’t want to die.”

 

The creature visibly rolled her wide eyes this time and groaned, “pathetic.” she glanced towards the dagger she placed in the fire as per instructed by the sailor and fidgeted with its handle, “What do you want me to do with this dagger?’ she asked.

 

“Tell me when it gets red hot.” Roy managed to say.

 

“It’s not going to be like that for a while now…”

 

“I know, I know.” Roy interrupted her, “Just tell me when it gets red hot, or pick it up when it starts smoking, or…just make sure that its really hot.”

 

The furry little creature cocked a hairy brow at him and squinted her sharp eyes in confusion.

 

“What are you going to do with a hot dagger?” she asked him baffled.

 

“I’ll show you in a sec…just please make sure it’s hot.”

 

The creature was pessimistic of his demands but obviously saw no harm in abiding for she’s done so thus far. For a moment she turned away from Roy and began to prance around the campsite with the grace of a dancer and began to pick the knives she threw out of the bodies of the ghouls and replacing them in the multiple sheaths around her clothing while glancing remorsefully over the corpses of those mysterious pointy eared, fairy like creatures.

 

“Were you the reason that this platoon is dead?” she asked with not much demand in her voice as if she was merely curious.

 

“No, no, I thought it was you.” Roy gasped, “I swear I didn’t do anything to these people. Look at me I’m dying, how can I kill a platoon.”

 

“Alright.” She murmured to herself. The thing kept her gaze away from him as she looked upon the sight of the dead creatures. She continued to recover he knives, whipping the black blood off on some loose cloth she found on the ground, “So they were there when you came here?”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I had nothing to do with it. I don’t know where, I don’t know what’s going on…I didn’t do anything, okay! Just don’t hurt me.”

 

The furry little beast spun around on her heels to face Roy and visibly rolled her sharp, yellow eyes at him while folding her long ears back, “Oh by the lor, if you say that one more time, I swear I WILL hurt ya.”

 

Saying nothing more, the creature skipped over the bodies and the loot and sat down by the fire facing Roy with her thin knees pressed against her diminutive chest. Her yellow gaze studied Roy bit by bit with curiosity, to which Roy wasn’t conscious enough to find disturbing.

 

“You’re a very, very odd one.” She commented.

 

Roy said nothing. For a moment the loudest transfer between the two very different beings was the sounds of Roy’s heavy breaths. Above them the red skies were shifting from different shades of color as the afternoon grew late. Particles of dust floated through the air, barely recognizable, but in Roy’s condition he found it easy to take in with great depth he details of things right before his eyes, it was a marvel that he could make them out in the midst of his agony. The beast wasn’t to fond of them however, as she routinely patted her fur free of the stuff not looking so agitated as Roy would have guessed, it appeared to him that this was something to get use to here in this world.

 

“Can you at least tell me where I am.” Roy asked to break the silence.

 

“I told you before you’re in my forest, that’s the problem.” She replied nonchalantly.

 

“I know, I know, you told me. Just….what world is this? This is not where I’m from! Something’s happened, something’s changed.”

 

The creature folded her ears back and gazed up in a overly dramatic exasperated look of annoyance, “I…I don’t know.” She groaned, “You tell me, where are you from?”

 

“I dunno, It’s all in a blurr.” Roy said panting, a sudden episode of pain erupted from his side.

 

The creature waited till the contortions of his face relaxed before replying, making sure he wasn’t in too much pain to not be able to talk.

 

“Well what’s the last thing you remember?”

 

“I…I was on a…I was on a uh…arh!”

 

“Slow down, slow down. Keep you’re breathing still.” She said throwing up her paws, “I just want you to keep talking so that way I know you’re still conscious, to be honest I don’t give a bloody hell about where you came from I just want you to get out.”

 

“Okay, okay.” Roy gasped gripping the cloth he pressed to his wound even tighter as the episode of agony started up again.

 

“But really, tell me.” She insisted.

 

“Uh, the last time I remember, I was on a…” Roy let out a groan then continued, “I was on a container freight to South Africa…Cape Town I think. I…I’m a sailor, I’m part of the Merchant Marines. Uh..I..uh..we were hit by something, something happened…I think….someone cried out something about a whirlpool and before I knew it we were all underwater, the whole ship just capsized and when I woke up I was in a dungeon, okay, I don’t remember anything else after that.”

 

The beast’s ears twitched thoughtfully as she looked confused at the words Roy was using trying them on her lips herself, “A freighter…ship? Well that…that’s very odd. I never heard any of those words before.” She stated indifferently, “Freighter ship, Cape Town…Africa sounds a bit familiar but as far as I’m concerned the rest of those words were all completely foreign to me. I have no idea what you’re talking about, I can’t help you, I’m sorry.”

 

“Okay, its okay. I’ll just get answers someplace else.” Roy said predicting that the beast was going to be difficult to communicate with especially in the state he was in now, “Just as long as I’m safe for now.” He added.[HL1] 

 

As he writhed in pain, Roy tossed his gaze over towards the accumulation of those dreaded ogres he was facing moment’s ago, a shudder ran through his spine, then a thought occurred to him.

 

“How did you do that?” Roy asked the forest beast of the wastes.

 

She tossed him a yellow eyed grimace, “Do what?”

 

“You…” Roy coughed, “You killed six of them, without even touching the ground!” he exclaimed, “You were so fast, I couldn’t’ even see you, its like you just turned into a puff of smoke and killed them all.”

 

The girl glanced away with her yellow eyes and grumbled to herself, “This old thing again. Look its just something I can do, alright, and its something I’ll do to you in a minute if you don’t get out of here soon enough, so just tell me what else you need so that way we can get you patched up and you can get the hell out.”

 

“I’m gonna need a…a…” Roy’s voice was drowned out by the tremors that shook his body, “least get me a blanket or something to hold on to. My body is going through some kind of shock…” he shivered again, “the blood loss mixed with the fear of being here is throwing me into some kind of seizure, if I don’t…if I don’t calm this down soon I’m going to die!”

 

The creature leaned over towards one of the leather bags placed by the fire and began to shuffle through it grumbling to herself in annoyance.

 

“I’m going to die this. I’m going to die that…Alright here,” she pulled out what seemed to be a rough cloth cape and tossed to the sailor skillfully, “take this infernal blanket.”

 

Instantly Roy grabbed it and draped it over his shoulders. The cloth was thick and stuffy, and dust exploded into the air as he shuffled it around his trembling frame, as he grasped onto the drapery, a stream of pain came and went through his entire body causing him to yelp. For some reason it felt unbelievably relieving to have something cover him.

 

He moaned and exhaled sharply as his agony rose and fell sharply, “You said…you said you found others, like me here?”

 

“Yeah so what?” she retorted indifferently.

 

Roy shivered and licked his lips, “You said they tried to kill you? I remember you said something about that.”

 

“Yeah, yeah of course they tried to kill me that’s why I’m not in a good mood about YOU right now.” snapped the creature hotly, “Wore the exact same thing, one was tall and dark the other one was a…skinny loud mouth with blond hair, he was talking like he’s gone mad or something.”

 

“Skinny? Dark and tall?” Roy said, gasping louder as the news excited him, “Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah, I’m positive. Well he wasn’t exactly dark, he was wearing something dark.”

 

“Like a coat?”

 

“Yes like a coat, what’s with all these questions all the sudden?”

 

“Those are my friends!” Roy exclaimed, his eyes almost tearing up in euphoria, “Ben and Allen. They’re alive! They’re my shipmates. I gotta find them. I gotta help them out.”

 

The creature looked mildly interested in Roy’s sudden burst of happiness, “I can probably tell you where they are then.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes. There’s a sanctum not far from here. It’s a hidden outpost called GreyWall.” She tossed a glance towards the dead fairy like creatures lying on the floor around the campsite, “That’s where these guys came from. They’re part of a resistance, I’m not exactly part of them but I help them out some times. You’re friends were heading in that direction last I remember, but let me tell you something, alright, I can still choose whether to help you further or to kill you right now so don’t get you’re hopes up. I’m still figuring out what’s going on around here.”

 

“So.. so then we’re on the same boat here.” Roy groaned, “Because I don’t know what the hell is going on around with me either. I mean I don’t know…I still have no idea what you are, what those pointy eared things are, what those things are trying to kill me are or anything. I just want to go home.”

 

The hairy beast stared at him thoughtfully for a brief moment, breaking her gaze to spit into the fire, as she did so she caught sight of the dagger.

 

“Look the dagger is smoking do you want it?” she asked Roy after the long uncomfortable pause of silence.

 

“Already?” the sailor lit up but his tone followed the nature of a certain dread.

 

“Yeah its pretty hot.” The beast commented leaning over the bag she rested on to play with the hilt of the dagger brewing in the fire.

 

“H..how hot is it?”

 

The beast spat ferociously into the fire and turned an annoyed look toward the sailor, “How the bloody hell do you want me to find that out!” she spewed moodily, then she sarcastically added, “Do you want me to touch it? Look its red-hot! I’m not gonna touch this damn thing right! Look do you wan it or not, it’s as hot as its gonna get ‘cause I don’t wanea talk to you anymore, and I want ye out!”

 

“Okay, okay. Look, I’ll take the dagger, I’ll take the dagger alright.” at this point the beast could note a certain decline in Roy’s mental state, he seemed to be panicking over something but of which she didn’t know.

 

“I don’t even know what you need the dagger for.” She said getting up an dusting off her fur and clothes, realizing that she wouldn’t be able to throw the dagger to him the same way she did with the other supplies she lent to him, “what are you going to do with it?” she inquired further.

 

“Jus…just…” Roy’s speech was reduced to a stammer; soon he gave up on talking and only extended his hand ready to receive the blade.

 

The beast took the weapon out of the fire and brought it to him, handing him the hilt as the blade burned red.

 

“Listen…I never done this before, and it might cause me to faint but it theoretically will stop the bleeding.” Roy told her.

 

The hairy forest creature placed her paws on her hips and gazed at him curiously, “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

 

“just...” Roy reached up and broke off a low hanging branch that was in reach. The petrified decayed wood snapped off at the hinge giving him a palms length size of wood.

 

The forest creature watched as the sailor oddly placed the wood in his mouth like some kind of peg and raised his shirt to expose his wound, while sporting the dagger in the other hand. Her eyes widened as these actions proceeded.

 

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

 

But Roy never answered. Suddenly without warning he plunged the blade into his side, not quite stabbing himself with it but more like pressing the red hot steel of the knife’s edge against the open gash on his side, Roy then succumbed to a screaming mayhem of agony. Smoke and a foul odor filled the air as the sailors flesh burned. All the while the furry beast could do nothing else but watch in genuine horror and concern.

 

This continued for only a miniscule fraction of a minute before the sailor finally peeled the blade away from his now scorched skin and tossed it away form him as if it were cursed. From there adapted a fetal position slowly lying down on the floor whilst weeping bitterly in his anguish.  The peg slid out of his mouth covered in white foam giving vent to more audible cries of pain. After a brief second his thrashing vanished, and so did his rapid breathing.

 

The furry beast of the wastes watched this for a moment until it dawned on her what was happening. With cat like eyes widening she shot to the sailor’s aid lightly rolling him over with a paw.

 

“No! No! Don’t you dare faint! Not now! Don’t you dare!” she cried.

 

But Roy’s hearing has already faded along with his vision, all he could remember was the odd feeling of soft furry paws pressing down on him and brushing his cheeks lightly. Then all was black, once again.

 

 

 

Author's Note

This is introducing a new character, this is a bit long I know I'm initially thinking of spliting it up again but then it'll be cutting out of the good stuff. If you want a better reading experience