Phoenix: The nuruk beast.

Chapter Twenty five: The bargain

 As the group strutted atop their horses through the fields, Aldrich asked Lydia, "Why did we have to use one so far away then?" Lydia signalled everyone to halt on their horses and got down from hers'. She began to strap on her leather bracelet and said to him;

"We were also trying to steer the beast away from Dameran, remember?"

"Oh, of course." In that moment, Aldrich remembered what made this particular mission far more important than every other one he had ever gone on. The grave yet relieving reality that the whether or not he lived after this, the very reason for this journey will be fulfilled left Aldrich feeling in a way he couldn't quite understand. He heard Lydia say to him;

"You'd better get ready now, that castle is infested with bandits." Aldrich looked back to Evelyn and saw her putting on her own armour. The same was the case for everyone else, he took off the black leather jacket he wore revealing his usual sleeveless tunic. And like Lydia, he also put on his leather bracelets. It took both him and Lydia a few minutes to strap on all their daggers and knives concealed in various parts of their person. The craftsman's work had proved indefinitely useful during battles, it however also proved to be a hassle to equip. Aldrich understood this was the reason Lydia wore her armour most of the time, as he also did now. He and Lydia approached the front door with their blades strapped to their backs,

"When last did you and I do something like this?" Aldrich said slightly grinning. Lydia returned his look with a smirk of her own as she remarked;

"It's probably because you were always scared of being outshone." Aldrich's smile widened a bit as he replied;

"I never tire of you empty taunts Lydia, as untrue as they always are." Lydia faced him wearing a mischievous grin and said;

"Since you feel so confident, how about we make thing more interesting?"

"The usual?"

"Of course." She gestured towards the door, "After you." Aldrich sent the wooden doors flying off its hinges with one kick, one of the doors went clashing onto some of the bandits sitting by a long wooden table.

"That's five for me already." Aldrich muttered loud enough for only Lydia to hear as he drew out his sword. The bandits all rose up in anger and charged towards them. Each member of the group armed themselves with their weapons and charged back at the bandits. Aldrich and Lydia seemed to be the most excited by this fight, their swords continuously clashed with other blades, as they continued to knock the bandits out while keeping count. Aldrich who held and unconscious man by his tunic turned to Lydia and asked,

"How many?" Lydia had just plunged her dagger in a bandit's thigh, she struggled slightly as she pushed him towards the floor dragging her dagger back out while doing so. She whipped her backwards away from her face and said to Aldrich;

"Eleven, you?" he tightened his grip on the man and flung him like a mace towards two other men who were running towards him,

"Thirteen." He breathed. As they continued their brawl through the next half hour, Aldrich couldn't help but notice a few of them becoming mad shortly before dying, it was only a matter of time before the whole main hall's floor was covered with unconscious men, few dead. Aldrich made his way trudging through the heaps of bodies and approached Lydia,

"Twenty-three." he said with his arms gestured wide, she looked to her side and saw a man struggling to get up. She flicked her wrist pulling a dagger from her bracelet, she then hit the man on his head with its hilt knocking him unconscious.

"Twenty-four, you owe me a glass of ale when we return to Dameran." she said to Aldrich with a grin on her face, "Now come, we have to take them all out." Aldrich picked two men and placed them on his shoulders while Lydia and a knight struggled to carry one. As they left the castle, Alston who was helping Evelyn carry a body asked her as he looked towards Lydia and Aldrich.

"Don't you think it's strange?"

"What is?"

"You have been the one fighting by her side years now, but seeing them work together now makes me wonder--"

"They just work well together." Alston thought he was imagining it but he could see a gleeful smile on Evelyn's face as she looked at them. Aldrich placed the bodies right next to some trees and Lydia tied them to it, he remembered something he had heard a bandit yell to Lydia during the fight, he called to her,

"Lydia?"

"Yes?"

"I heard someone call you something during the fight, I think, scarlet slate." She planted her left foot on a tree as she pulled on a rope to tighten the knot.

"Scarlet snake." She corrected in a strained voice, "I've been to many places slage. Different people know me by different names." She threw the loose end of the rope on a tree branch and looked faced Aldrich. She asked, "Have you had any progress with your nuruk?" Aldrich turned his head away and said,

"No, but I think I learning what the problem might be." Lydia held him by his shoulder as she passed by him and said,

"That's progress Slage." By the time they had cleared out the floor of the main hall, the sun had already begun to rise, after eating up what food they had found in the castle. Lydia ordered them all to get some rest. One of the knights volunteered to keep watch for the beast, but Lydia said to him,

"That won't be necessary."

"Why?" asked Evelyn,

"Didn't you notice I tied the bandits to by trees and spots that surround us?" she unstrapped her sword from her back and sat on a nearby bench, "What better warning sound is there than their screams of terror when the beast passes by them."

Aldrich looked at her in shock and said, "That is just horrible" but she however replied nonchalantly,

"It not like it will kill them, it's after you."

"Well that comforting to hear." he mumbled.

As soon as they all went to sleep, Aldrich sat by the far corner of the castle and drew out the dagger that housed the nuruk and held it by its blade. There he sat as day passed away. The sun had already set when Lydia and the others had woken up, she met Aldrich asleep where he sat with the nuruk in hands. Seeing how peaceful he had become while sleeping even with the dagger in his hand put a smile on her face. She kicked him on his knee to wake him up.

She called on the rest of the group and said to them, "The beast should be here anytime from now, in order to increase our chances of killing it, you all will have to trust me." She looked to Aldrich and said, "Now we all know the beast is after slage, so we are going to make sure it meets him in this castle where it favours us most, the hallways that lead to the chambers.

And so with the aid of Aldrich's strength, they spent the next half hour barricading all other possible entrances, Lydia however spent her time with Evelyn collecting throwing spears, long broadswords and all other kinds of long weapons left behind by the bandits.

It was well into the night when they had finished re-structuring the castle for their battles, all things like the fires, traps and the main bait which was Aldrich had been put into place, Aldrich who sat in the abandoned throne room stared at his dagger as he remembered Lydia's last instructions to him.

"Oh and slage, once you break your skin with the blade of your nuruk, its entirety will immerse into you for a short while."

"But I'm not ready to use it yet."

"I'm not saying you have to, in fact I hope you don't but if the situation calls for it,"

"I understand."

Aldrich could feel the weight of the silence around him as the winds howled through the rusting windows of the castle, he closed his eyes trying to collect himself when he felt a similar chill run up his spine, the horrified scream of a bandit in the woods had him shoot his eyes wide open.