Necromancer

2. A brilliant conversationalist

On their way sylvari has tried to make conversation but after a few times he gave up, quiet warrior seemed even worse companion for travel than he has thought! And he was already getting so impatient of thinking he is finally in Elona, so much closer to meeting the Great Lich himself! Having finally picked a place for shelter and made small campfire hidden from wind behind some rocks, Dedraime was in mood for asking more questions again. And for receiving more answers.
After getting some insight about their way here and the arrival time, sylvari asked, curiosity clear in his voice: "And the Awakened, how are they?"
Charon eyed him from the other side of flames, squinting his eye as the brightness of them contrasted widely with the darkness of the night. He frowned and reached for material wrapped around his neck to cover his arms a little more with it. The night brought drop of temperature and human was starting to feel it as they've settled in one place.
"I don't know, I haven't seen many in the city. They are just... walking corpses, reeking of tar", he answered shortly, turning his eye back to the darkness.
"Just walking corpses", sylvari repeated after him, dissatisfied with such a laconic answer. Typical for someone not knowing anything on the matter of necromancy. Dedraime turned his back to the warrior, looking around himself. It was too dark to admire lands but when he was finally awake, he didn't want to go back to sleep so fast.
"You can rest, I'll be the lookout", he said to Charon. Human thought for a short while but having remembered necromancer probably doesn't need him asleep to kill him anyway, he finally closed his eye to catch some sleep before sylvari changes his mind.
"Fine", redhaired murmured, leaving the necromancer alone within the night with all the peace in the world he could have wanted. But having woken up as the first rays of the sun started to lit up the sky, Charon found himself alone near remains of their firepit. Was Dedraime gone? When did he wander off, leaving his post? Normal person would probably consider themselves lucky for not getting surprised in the middle of the night by a man-eating beast but this young warrior certainly had a death wish. He sighed, stood up and went to look for the weird sylvari.
Surprisingly, he didn't need to go far to find Dedraime next to a corpse of something that seemed to be a sand shark in the past but now was mostly a pile of bones, skin and a few pieces of half-rotten, half-dried meat.
"Ain't you an early bird?", sylvari asked, giving him only a quick glance. "Or, more presumably, a hungry one", he smirked, hearing how loudly Charon's stomach demanded skipped meals. "I am pretty sure there is something edible walking around, just need to find it. I think I am getting quite hungry myself."
"Right", murmured warrior in answer.
"I haven't been hunting for a while now", added Dedraime, excitement rising in his voice. "Let's look around", he decided, standing up from the corpse.
And Charon followed.
It didn't take them that long too track a pack of gazelles with human's tracking skills and necromancer's life force's detection. It would have gone a lot smoother if not for the snake hiding in the bush near the pack whose rustling alarmed the pack causing them to flee in different directions. Warrior tried to chase one but it soon hid behind some rocks, jumping higher and higher on cliffs. It'd take time to string his bow and animal has already ran off too far. Charon came back defeated only to find out that the necromancer was able to catch one of gazelles with his necrotic grasp and was waiting for his companion to come back.
Wandering further with prey seated safely at Charon's shoulders, they arrived at a small plateau with some rocks and a lonely, long-dried down tree. After deciding to make fire there, which was hurried by human's growling stomach, they sat near one of larger rocks. Warrior threw the dead animal on the ground and put down his quiver and bow. At first Dedraime simply sat and planned on waiting for the meat but then... it was long since he had a chance to play with corpses. While Charon was busy getting of some wood, sylvari reached for his quiver.
"You do carry a knife with you, don't you?", he asked, his hands already on the other's belongings. Redhaired looked at him, hesitant to answer.
"...It's inside the quiver. But I'll need it for gazelle."
Dedraime only smiled widely, reaching for said knife and taking out quite long hunting dagger.
"You can at most watch the master at work."
Charon sighed, crouching to gather branches that he has broken off the dry tree and returned, thinking if consciously giving a weapon to a crazed person was a good idea. He could probably easily scar him again. Or kill him. And he needed to know if his brother has survived first.
But when warrior finally put down the wood and glanced at Dedraime's work, he froze where he was crouching, both astonished and scared how precise his companion's cut were. Almost surgical.
"Like what you see?", asked sylvari with a smirk, looking towards Charon and pausing his work for a second.
"You are pretty good with knife", human admitted.
"Only pretty good?", Dedraime asked, visibly insulted and Charons' eye widened. But then necromancer realised that warrior is no longer looking at him but somewhere above his arm...