Story of the Wild Ones

Not Alone

         "This is Mourner, Mystic, Destroyer, and Deviant. The members of the Wild Ones. Together we lead the Legion of the Black, which is made up of everyone that way, and a few camps scattered about a few miles apart." Prophet pointed to the large group of tents he had run through the day before to find her.

          A few days had passed. Wanderer had taken the time to heal and gather her strength. She had been decently talkative when she and the Prophet had spoken that night, but since then she remained almost entirely silent. She was up now and was walking beside the Prophet as he showed her around the camp. Her goggles still remained on her face and she had her hood up to block her from the sun. While they walked, she munched on some stale bread that he had given her. 

        "Hey look who's up and around. We've been curious about you." Destroyer smiled and walked up to her. "So you're the Wanderer huh?" 

        She nodded and shook his hand as he offered it. 

        "You're all anyone is talking about right now. No one has ever come from the wastes before."

        Unsure of how to respond to him, she shrugged and took another bite of her bread. Her attention went elsewhere as she watched a few of the legion's fighters practicing with one another. 

         "Hey, everything alright?" Prophet asked as he tried to follow her gaze. 

          Without a word, she shoved the rest of the bread in her mouth and walked towards the practicing fighters. She tapped one on the shoulder which caused them to turn around with a knife in their hands. Within seconds she disarmed them so as not to be stabbed. 

         "Holy... Don't sneak up on someone like that!... I just about..." The person stammered. 

         With her mouth still full of bread Wanderer shook her head and waved off their apology as not necessary. Then she picked up the knife and held it in front of her. She swallowed her bread and took a breath. "You're holding it wrong."

         This irritated the person. "Mind your-"

         "You'll die like that." She stepped in front of them and motioned to the other fighter who was holding a spear to come at her. 

       With hesitancy they did. They lunged at her and pointed the spear directly at her. It was capped as to not kill her. As was the knife she held. Without so much as a flinch, the Wanderer slid out of the way of the spear and ducked down. She pushed the spear out of the way with the edge of the knife and followed the shaft upward. In a blur, she was right in front of the fighter with the tip of the blade pointed at their throat. She gave them a thank you and then stepped away and spun to face the other one. "That is how you hold a knife. Your way would have made you drop it." She stated blankly while returning the knife to their hand. She was not trying to be rude and was simply being informative.

       Silence fell over everyone who had seen the scene. Wanderer stopped mid-step as she realized how quiet it was. She looked around and eventually made eye contact with Prophet and gave him a questioning tilt of the head. 

         Prophet walked over and signaled for everyone to continue on with their days. He moved an arm behind her back and led her off away from everyone. "That was incredible. I have never seen anything like it."

         "I just... was showing them how to hold the knife properly..."

         "And in the process showed them a way to counter the spear attacks of the fear shadows with enough speed and unpredictability to probably prevent them from teleporting. That would save so many lives."