Kid Quest

The Little Death

Billy was tired of running. He'd instinctively followed Trixie out the door once they'd seen the man's true form. A nearly feral wendigo, who'd bore false children with an unsuspecting half-troll, but why? This wasn't normal behavior.

The monster was mere inches away from the black rose bobbing above Billy's head. He could feel its breath on his neck through the gap between armor pieces, the thumping of its feet as it ran echoed in his helmet, eerily matching the rhythm of Billy's footsteps and Trixie's frantic breathing. But as the fog returned, and a giant hand came crashing down to stop the creature, he and Trixie were shunted out of the mist, thrown by the shockwave of the crashing hand.

They stood, side by side, watching the fog in agonizing silence. No crickets or birds chirped, no breeze blew, nothing moved, it was as though the world itself was holding its breath. Then Billy spoke.

"We have to leave." He said, his voice deceptively calm.

"Leave!?" Trixie exclaimed, "That thing is still in that town, if we leave now people could get hurt!"

"That's not our concern."

"They were so nice to us, of course it's our concern!"

"You don't understand, that creature was a Wendigo! It can't be beaten by us, we will be eaten and no one will know!" Billy yelled.

"We have to help!" Trixie yelled back. She was furious, and stomped her feet in the beginnings of a tantrum, but seemed to catch herself. "We can't just do nothing!"

Billy looked at the ground and thought for a moment. She was right, they couldn't stand by, but they couldn't win either, not against that, not yet. Then Billy heard something. He looked up and saw Trixie looking away from him, he followed her gaze and was met with a sight he couldn't quite process.

First he saw the horse, or what was left of a horse, running full speed in their direction. Then he saw the skeleton, expertly controlling the steed. Finally, he saw the face of a young boy, leaning to the side of the horse's head to see in front, as he was too short to see while sitting upright.

"Hey, I found you!" The boy yelled, prompting Billy to look at Trixie expectantly. She met his gaze roughly through his helmet and smiled brightly.

"That's Orlan!" She exclaimed, "I can't believe he found us," she looked back at Orlan, "I wonder what the skeletons are about."

"That's Orlan!?" Billy exclaimed under his helmet, "Orlan is a necromancer!?"

"What, Orlan?" Trixie questioned, "No way, he's too sweet, he probably just made friends with them in a dungeon or something."

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" Billy screamed, the idea that she could be this calm about what she'd just suggested made Billy's stomach churn. He wanted to rage, he wanted to rip his helmet off and throw it at something, he wanted an ogre to fight as it would've been easier, but instead he stopped, took a deep breath, and forced himself to remain calm. The creature was more important.

"Hi Trixie!" Orlan exclaimed as he reached the duo and dismounted the undead horse. He gave Trixie a hug that seemed a tad bit too tight, then gestured to the knight after pulling away. "Who is that?"

"Oh, this is my new friend. Sep Talie Myrkul, he's a goblin knight." Trixie replied, taking great care to enunciate each part of the name correctly.

Billy roared, "We don't have time for this, we need to get as far away from here as possible!"

"Why, what's happening?" Orlan looked around to see what could've been causing such a fuss with the knight.

"Well, to start, there's a monster in that mist," Billy pointed behind himself towards the town, shrouded in mist, and was about to continue when he was interrupted by Orlan.