Of Gods & Champions: Book I: Fate

XX. The Wild

ABOVE ME, BENE AND SALLAN RUSH TO the edge of the ditch, and the instant they spot me, they begin to cheer loudly.

I grin as I painstakingly crawl up to them using my sword, and they reach down and help me onto solid ground.

"You were awesome!" Sallan says, rubbing down my back. "That smart remark you shot at Adal was perfect! And then I was so worried you were dead..."

Bene cuts in, "How did you ever- what did- it was incredible!"

I open my mouth to respond, but all at once the animals and creatures drop down from the wall and the trees and quickly surround us, forming a large circle.

Sallan glances around, panicked, but we all fear for our lives when a tree bursts out of the ground and grows all the way to the top of the wall, and then lowers with the black cloaked figure we know to be Wild. The tree moves towards us, Wild controlling it with little effort, and stops a few feet away.

"Ilah Sagewood," says a voice, deep and resonant, but still slightly terrifying. Wild was talking to me! "You, a human, have killed my Champion, the Adalwolff."

I gulp, and I feel Sallan's arm circle my waist protectively.

"You killed him..." Wild continues. "And it was incredible!" He throws his fist into the air, and all the creatures yell and shout and cheer all at once, so loud it nearly deafens us.

I'm shocked and faint, and the looks of shock on Bene and Sallan's faces are almost comical.

Wild jumps off of the tree and walks towards me, extending a hand, which I'm surprised to see is young but masculine.

Confused, terrified, and exhausted, I reach out and take his hand, and he helps me up out of the snow.

"Let us feast in your honor!" Wild shouts, and he raises a hand to make a large earthen bridge stretch over the ditch, and he leads us all across and into the fortress.

The fortress is like nothing I've ever seen before. Icy ponds, that jackrabbits are skating on, tall buildings with amazing aromas drifting out of them, glass domes in which greenery sprouts, and a large building that can only be Wild's banquet hall, as he begins to lead us into it, chatting on about this and that.

"Adal was a little too strong," he informs me, tucking my arm in his like a gentleman. "I like my Champions to have to struggle a little, have to work, you know?"

I nod numbly, glancing at Sallan with wide eyes as he shrugs and crosses his arms.

"My brother, Order, thinks my methods of choosing a champion are to wild," Wild continues, "But wild is, after all, literally my name."

We reach the end of a long corridor, and turn into a large room filled with tables, reminiscent of the one in the Wild worshippers' town, and hundreds of creatures are pouring in to take their seats at various tables.

Wild escorts me and Sallan to his own table, gesturing for us to have a seat in the two spaces to the left of his seat.

I slide down onto the wooden stool, my mind still struggling to process this odd turn of events. Just moments ago I was fighting for my life against a hulking, bloodthirsty wolf; now I'm the guest of honor sitting next to the most dangerous and malicious creature known to man, who escorted me in like a gentleman.

"If he serves a duck like that duck Remus served, I swear I'm converting back," Sallan says as he sniffs the air filled with a meaty aroma.

"Don't even joke about that!" I say, but just then, little raccoons bring in clay plates, on which savory, greasy, fatty duck breasts lie. The raccoons lay them neatly before each of us, before scurrying off.

"That's it! I renounce-" Sallan begins to proclaim, but I whack him in the back of the head.

"Hush," I command, before realizing I don't know where Bene is. Last I saw him was when we were first entering the fortress, but he vanished afterwards.

"So, Ilah," Wild says as I cautiously eat a greasy sliver of duck. "You'd make me a great Champion. And that is the standard procedure, the one who kills the Champion becomes Champion."

I swallow and clear my throat. "Well, that's be kind of hard, considering I'm already Fate's Champion."

Wild instantly stiffens. Not necessarily visibly, but I feel it.

"Fate?" He asks, trying to sound nonchalant. "Has he returned to the world?"

"Yes," I reply, narrowing my eyes. "You didn't know? He's your brother, after all."

"Normally I would sense his return," Wild frowns, "but his power seems to have grown so great that he can dull my connection to the rest of the pantheon."

"Oh," I say, and I quickly fill my mouth with duck.

"By the way, I've set aside rooms for you and the fox and that woodcutter for however long you wish to visit," Wild informs me. "Normally I wouldn't be so tolerant of a human, but you're pretty extraordinary."

I can't decide whether to be flattered or outraged, so I settle on both, my face reddening.

"Thank you, but we won't be staying long, I'm sure," I say, tucking a stray hair behind my ear.

Sallan snickers, and I kick at him under the table to shut him up.

"Actually, I'm pretty sore from that fight with the Adalwolff," I tell Wild, looking down. "Mind if I go see if I can find my room so I can rest?"

"Of course!" Wild snaps his fingers and another raccoon rushes up. "Agan will lead to your room. The fox's is right next to it."

Agan dashes out the door, and I stand quickly. "Thanks. Come on, Sallan."

"But I haven't finished my duck!" he protests.

"Bring it with you!"

"Fine," he groans, and follows me out into the hall, plate in hand, and we dash to keep up with Agan.

"Wild is very benevolent," Sallan observes as we scurry along.

"'S shame, really," I say, not looking at him.

"Wait," he says, disbelief filling his voice. "You're still planning on killing him? After all this?"

"Well, those are my instructions from Fate," I shrug. "What kind of Champion would I be if I went through all of this only to not do what he sent me here for?"

"A good one," Sallan argues. "A good Champion doesn't just do what their god tells them, but makes a decision, their own call based on her judgement. That's being a good Champion, taking circumstances into account and circumnavigating to accommodate them."

"I am making a call," I sigh. "We're talking about the Wild, here. Scourge of all mankind? Killer of peace? Murderer of balance? Hangman of-"

"Okay, I get it," Sallan says as Agan rushes up to two wooden doors, points to them, and takes off the way we came. "But I've been thinking recently, Ilah..."

"And?"

"And... As terrible an impact as he's had on... Well, everything, I think that the world order depends on his existence. Without him, the world could only get worse."

I put two fingers to my forehead as it begins to throb. "I can't believe you would say that, Sallan. You've seen his cruelty up close, you should know better than I!"

"I know, I know," he says, and he looks stressed, too. "Listen, we've had a long day. We've had several long days. Let's just get some rest. Take a break from adventuring around a little bit. Stay here... Indefinitely. Then make up your mind."

"It's made up," I say firmly, and then I turn and enter my room, without so much as a goodbye.

The room is large, with a bed three times as wide as mine at home. And the mattress isn't coarse and neither are the blankets. They look pretty comfortable, and I find myself tempted to stretch out and curl up.

And I do. Drowsiness begins to take over before I even decide to sleep, and before I know it, my eyes are slowly blinking shut.