Misplaced

Chapter 7

          After only ten minutes, the tents had been dismantled and loaded back into the carriages. Zeno, who had awoken whenever Inston had yelled, was talking to one of the slaves near the rear carriage. Dimora and I had taken some time for her to teach me more about mana, and how to tell when I am near my limit. 

     "Your body will know before your mind when your mana is running low. You may get a headache or you may start feeling exhausted. The physical repercussions worsen as you get closer to running out of mana." 

     Inston walked past us and climbed into the stagecoach from the day before. Dimora glanced at me and climbed in after him. Looking over at Zeno, he was already making his way back, apparently now done with his conversation. I climbed in with Zeno right behind me. 

     As soon as we all climbed in, Inston began speaking, "Good, you're all here. I wanted to make each of you aware that today has the highest risk of us being attacked. Keep your guard up."

     "Why would today be the highest chance? Wouldn't it be tomorrow?" Dimora asked. 

     Inston sighed, "Yes, normally it would be, but I have orders from the higher ups that the goods are to be delivered by midnight. It won't be much of a problem, as we are ahead of schedule as it is."

     Dimora and Zeno had no further questions. Things must change commonly when you're on a quest. Still, even with Zeno and Dimora by my side, I felt nervous thinking about what Inston had said. I need to be careful to not get myself killed. 

     Half of the day had gone by without us stopping. Dimora, Zeno, and I ate some of our provisions while in the stagecoach to save time. After eating, I watched closely out the window, trying in vain, to keep watch. 

     "Master Inston! Master Inston!" 

     Inston pushed the door open, waiting to hear what the slave had to say. 

     "There is a tree blocking the path, from the way the cut looks, I'd say it was deliberate."

     At that moment, a loud bang came from behind us, followed by an even louder thud. Zeno and Dimora jumped up and ran out of the stagecoach, weapon in hand. I followed behind them, unsheathing my sword on my way out. A tree had been knocked over right behind us as well, blocking in all three carriages. 

     Dimora turned to me and yelled, "Keep yourself safe Aspen! Don't do anything rash!", before running towards the back carriage with Zeno. 

     I assumed the stance that Zeno had taught me, in front of the door to Inston's carriage. 

     I yelled towards Dimora, "I'll do my best!"

     As soon as the words came out of my mouth, a man darted out of the bushes, coming straight for me. Adrenaline took control of my body before fear, and I raised my sword and swung it down quickly. The man easily sidestepped my swing and punched me hard in the stomach, sending me crashing into the carriage's side. My sword fell out of my hand and clattered onto the ground. 

     The pain wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, considering I had been thrown backwards so far. He followed with a powerful swing, throwing as much force into it as possible. Luckily, I had trained relentlessly in my world to deal with aggressive fighting styles like his. His right fist, coming straight for my face was relatively easy to dodge. I slipped to the left of his swing and threw the hardest knee I could into his stomach. Unfortunately, the best it had done was catch him off-guard. He stumbled back and raised his fists again. 

     "You are not my target. Get out of my way if you value your life." 

     In all honesty, I was too scared to speak and the pain in my stomach was getting worse as time went on. There were some screams near the back carriages, but I was too busy to pay close attention. 

     Assuming I wasn't going to move out of the way, he rushed me again. This time, aiming a quick punch towards the same area he had hit before. I pushed his fist downwards, forcing it away with my right hand as I swung my left fist towards his jaw. Twisting to throw the punch sent streaks of pain throughout my stomach, throwing my balance off. My fist only grazed the side of his face, doing no damage. Without having the time to react and balance myself, he had an open shot to anywhere he could possibly want on my body. Unfortunately for him however, a sword suddenly stabbed him directly through his neck, causing him to fall to the ground. His death seemed quick, without much suffering, but watching someone die in front of me still made me feel nauseous. 

     Zeno ripped his sword out of the man's neck, disgusted by the blood on his blade. 

     Dimora was there too, panting while holding her large warhammer in her hands. 

     Inston slowly opened the door to the stagecoach, peering out. 

     "You can come out. They're all dealt with." Dimora reassured. 

     Zeno looked towards me, with a surprised look on his face, "What was that, Aspen?! I didn't know you were so good at hand to hand combat!"

     Before I could reply, a woman appeared out of nowhere, holding a short sword. Without any time for us to react, she shoved the sword through Zeno's upper back, with the tip coming out of his chest. She jerked the sword back out, and took a quick step backwards. I shot forward and tried unsuccessfully to catch Zeno before he fell to the ground. Before the attacker had a chance to reapply the invisibility spell, Dimora's hammer hit her so hard that her upper body was almost completely separated from her lower half immediately, and her body was thrown into a tree, covering the area in blood. 

     "ZENO!!" 

     Dimora dropped her hammer and yanked her bag in front of her. I was panicking, with no clue what to do. There isn't much you can do in the scenario that a sword was shoved entirely through someone's torso. Dimora quickly pulled a large potion out of her bag and tried to force it into Zeno's mouth. However, Zeno pushed the potion away, while coughing and weakly wheezing. He seemed to be trying to say something, but there was blood in his airways, causing a gurgling noise instead. 

     "Aspen, grab his arms! Please!"

     Without thinking, I forced Zeno's arms down and let her pour the potion into his mouth. His arms became limp and his face was ghostly pale, but he wasn't dead yet. Almost immediately after the potion was swallowed, color started coming back to his face. His eyes were still closed but his life force seemed to be returning. 

     Dimora collapsed beside him, with tears in her eyes. 

     "He'll be okay. Although, it may take him a while before he wakes up. Thank you for helping."

     Still in shock from the entire situation, I said nothing and also collapsed next to him. Almost immediately after my muscles relaxed, I vomited onto the ground near the man I fought. The pain in my stomach took over my body and I rolled onto my side, gasping for air. Dimora shot back up, worried, but I waved her off. The pain was very intense, but not life-threatening. 

     Inston, who had been watching from the stagecoach's doorway, walked towards the body of the man Zeno stabbed and starting ruffling through his pockets. In the man's inner jacket pocket, there was a small, folded piece of paper. Opening the paper, his brows furrowed as he struggled to understand the language on the page. 

     The pain, which had caught me off-guard a moment ago was subsiding. Although, It was still very painful and it was difficult to take deep breaths. 

     Dimora, who still hadn't left Zeno's side, spoke up, "Let me see it."

     Inston handed her the paper and shrugged, hoping she somehow understood it. Dimora looked at the page for a moment, before opening her bag again and pulling out the same enchanted goggles that she had let me wear. After putting them on, she scowled at the writing on the page. 

     "The Azmarin army kept his family hostage as leverage for them to kill you, Inston. These weren't mercenaries or soldiers that attacked us, they were prisoners of war."