It had been a long walk to be sure but Iris had finally reached the village. There was about half the night left but that was okay with her. This village looked very similar to the one she had been to before, though less forested. She could easily see the sky if she looked up for example. There was a gathering of people near a stone building similar to that church from days before.
They all seemed to be in a uproar, though some of that was lost to Iris. To her it sounded like a bunch of robots complaining. She got closer to try and understand what they were complaining about, ducking behind the stone building. It was muttering at first, something about snatchers. Eventually she heard some numbers, about ten. Finally she started to actually hear them.
One of them at the front of the crowd was the first she heard, "How many were there?" Someone in the crowd said three. Another added that one of them was a lesser one. Someone added that they were all lesser ones of one kind or another. A third person noted that they had killed someone on the way out as well. The man at the front grabbed his head.
"Were any pilgrims harmed?" the crowd began to look at the shorter members of the crowd, looking at necks it looked like. A few people answered back with random names, saying that those people were accounted for. Iris counted about thirteen names. The people were whipped into a small frenzy before the man at the front motioned for them to calm down.
"We will need to send someone else then..." Iris did not like the sound of that. She didn't like the idea of anyone dying, to be sure, but sending the wrong person to die seemed even less safe. The people of the crowd agreed with Iris' thoughts, though they complained about divine retribution instead. Iris took a fake breath and stepped out from behind the wall.
"Another intruder," One of the crowd yelled. Others added to her description, which quickly became rather unflattering.
"I'm not, honest," In retrospect maybe now was not a good time to show herself.
* * *
Actually, in retrospect showing herself was probably one of her smarter moves that night. Much like when she had been dragged to the front of the church in that other town they had asked her to prove herself by reading their book. Again she did. It was the same chapter too. After she read it without spontaneously combusting or trying to destroy the book the town leader had entered a state of apology which she tried to get through as soon as possible.
"So it might be a bad time to ask but... i'm here because of the pilgrimage," That statement made the towns leader freeze. He didn't even try to apologize. He just stared at Iris, she swore she smelled some sweat. He began to move again after a minute or so of silence
"We... can you wait a day?" Iris tried to act like she was thinking, though she was going to say some variety of yes when she spoke. Honestly there was no way she could get back to that cave before daybreak anyway. Her thoughts were interrupted however by a villager running into the crowd. He was dressed differently than the rest, in armor it looked like.
He spoke, "The lesser ones returned."
* * *
It was the tall guy and toothy person from earlier, as well as a third person was with them this time. This one's skin looked charred, though it also seemed to flow like a liquid. Iris was sure none of the villagers saw this though, to them it was dark after all. The three were walking through the village, though luckily no one was over that way.
The new one spoke, "There is one of them over there lord, they can see us as well," Some black goop fell off his face as he spoke, which he caught and threw back at his face. Iris swore his eye was gone for a second. He pointed straight at Iris and they all walked towards her. While she was at the front of the crowd and it was entirely possible they were just going towards said crowds front their angle and his comment told her otherwise.
She walked ahead of the crowd towards them. Iris had no confidence in her abilities but she rather they not just grab someone and run off either. The crowd seemed to get her intent and stopped . The three people still walked up to her. The taller one pulled something out of a pocket on his side. Iris was a bit confused by the object however. In that man's hands were a pipe, which he kept hitting against his palm in a threatening way. It looked heavily rusted.
They stopped in front of her and Iris began to speak, "Listen I... need those people back," she expected this would not work but she could try, "can I have them back please?"
He pulled a coin out of his pocket, "50 pieces per." Iris shook her head no, as she didn't have whatever that clear coin he was holding was.
The tall one put the coin away then laughed at her before bellowing, "Then no, not to lazy broke wimps like you lot," He beat the pipe against his hand again, "They ours now." He continued to beat his hand with the pipe. Iris wondered if he end up getting tetanus if he kept it up. They stood there like this for a awhile.
The charred one talked now, "This is the part where you give them to our lord." Iris took a deep breath, more for show really. She was pretty sure that she be in big trouble if she just let them take the people. She was also pretty sure they beat her up if she didn't. Something also told her they they wouldn't be doing the best things with these people, given she knew what one of them ate.
After a long pause she spoke, "I can't, however you look like you like to fight," If Iris' heart could beat it would be doing so quickly, "Maybe we could fight over it," The tall one agreed and raised his pipe.
Iris raised a hand,"outside the village please," the tall man lowered his pipe slowly and pointed to a direction. All four of them began to walk, villagers staying out-of-the-way as they went and Iris' arm aching the whole time.
* * *
It was a very open field. Something seemed to litter the ground here though she was unsure what it was. There was a wind of some kind though as far as she could tell there wasn't any grass out here for it to blow through. The three thieves stood before her, equally spaced apart.
The tall one pointed to her and spoke, "Me and you fighting, winner gets them."
Iris raised a hand, "And the loser?"
He laughed, "They die," and he ran at her. He was faster than your average human, though something told her he wasn't one. Iris prepared to dodge, even in she wasn't very skilled at it if she could outlast his stamina she be fine, maybe even be able to talk him down. His steps seemed clumsy, though it might just have been his size. He closed in and raised his pipe, Iris prepared to dodge. He swung it down, Iris dodged, it looked like he was going for her head. That was wrong however, he actually went for her arm. He hit it easily, right where that mark was before.
It hurt, that was a bit of an understatement. It was a blunt attack, which always hurt, and it was on that spot, which shot pain through her body. Her mind was filled with images of a small child playfully dodging other children, followed by that same person dodging things in the forest. Much like before Iris saw it as if she were doing so, though she knew it wasn't her. The man swung at her again, unlike earlier though her body responded. She dodged perfectly.
The man laughed, "good go, give up now I let you go with that," his two lackeys made sounds of agreement behind him. Iris grabbed at her arm, which was bleeding lightly. She was glad she couldn't catch tetanus. Her hand seemed reluctant to move, though she could lightly flick it. The tall man was gloating but she ignored it for now, letting the blood flow down her arm. Some of it passed that mark.
This time it was not pain that filled her mind, just images. Images of someone fighting something in a forest. Whoever they were they were scared but trying their best to fight some wild animal. They kept dodging the beast, eventually thwacking it behind the head. After doing so a few times it stopped moving.
The man seemed to have decided gloating was over and ran back at her. The images still filled her head, though now they seemed to be replacing the animal with this man. Something in her mind seemed to have clicked she guessed. In time with the images she dodged his blow, causing him to stagger for a second. She checked her hand, almost there.
He turned around and tried to make a quick blow now, one again she dodged in time with the images. This went on for a good half-minute more before the blood reached her hand. He didn't seem winded yet but he was slipping. He came at her once again, to which she dodged. Unlike the prior times however she flicked her blood at him.
Blood magic is either rather complex or rather simple, Iris only knew the simple stuff. She could cause it to move or she could solidify it, nothing more. This small flow wasn't very good for grabbing unfortunately, but it could still be hardened. Even a drop that was hardened was as solid as steel, at least till it burned out.
What could best be described as a blood arrow hit the back of his shoulder. He did not fall over immediately, instead turning around to try and hit her again. The pain didn't seem to slow him but his hits weren't as accurate. She kept dodging and he kept trying to hit. On occasion he would do something crafty though that was rather rare and always aimed at the flicking arm, which only increased the bleeding.
She kept flicking blood arrows at him and he kept trying to hit her. The longer the fight went however the more tired he became, Iris didn't have this issue however. He eventually fell over breathing heavily. Iris licked her wounds closed as something struck her other side. An arrow had hit her other arm, though it didn't hurt much.
The toothy man had fired it, he looked satisfied with himself, though her vision was beginning to get dimmer so it was hard to fully tell. The images said nothing to her about dodging projectiles and they had stopped as soon as blood stopped flowing over them anyway.
The archer yelled, "I'll get her lord, stay there," and began to ran across the field, mouth wide open. Iris knew that his kind hunted using their accuracy and fangs. If he wanted to he could have easily shoot anyone here in the heart with little issue, but he seemed more determined to bite now. She bit her arm above the mark and let both arms dangle after removing the arrow.
To be fair heavy bleeding was probably a bad idea, though she was hoping to throw him off. Even if his smell wasn't as good as hers he would still get tripped up if it was leaking here and there. He was getting closer in now, though it would be a minute before he actually reached her. He also couldn't just lick his wounds away, bleeding wounds meant something.
As he closed in the images and her vision were in sync. He lunged now, aiming for her throat. She dodged narrowly, he caught her side for a moment, and she flicked her hands at him. Iris had underestimated the amount of blood an arrow wound would leak. A decent sized blood spike impaled his arm, pinning him to the ground. It wouldn't last longer than five minutes but it was enough. She licked the wounds closed again.
Iris felt light-headed, and her vision was beginning to fill red again. She walked towards the last man, who had his arms raised up in a defeated pose. When she reached him she noticed he smelled like a river.
"We give up, no need to bleed us. we could not win even if we tried after all, we am just information," That was an odd thing for someone to say but to be fair she had never seen or smelled someone like this before, "We'll tell you anything long as we can go free."
"You don't seem very trustworthy," She wanted to add 'or loyal' but she hoped it was assumed.
"We serve whoever it is best to, you would do the same," To be fair she wasn't even sure if she could bite this guy. On another note her thoughts were turning to that again, she shook her head.
"Not exactly but," Iris let it go," Why where you all out here?"
His answer was quick, "Pieces, nothing more. Humans are easy to get here and the orc over there thought it be easy to steal from the short one in that cave." Iris assumed the tall guy was the orc, whatever that meant, "The ghoul was just in it for a meal and they wanted to both seem regal so they started talking about lordship." That thought struck Iris as funny. There was nothing regal about selling people or eating them.
"Why are you here then," In response to her question he shrugged. Iris asked a few more times but he always answered the same way so she dropped it.
"I can detect levels are low," Iris didn't want to interpret that one, "they will just try this again if they get free," Iris continued to ignore his intent," death of the individual will help the whole," Iris tried to slap the charred man but it just sunk into the ground a little, "Your distress is unneeded."
Iris snapped at him, "What does that mean!"
He responded casually, "Can detect trace amounts of foreign soul, morals must be forced," Iris tried to slap him again, he swayed to the side this time.
"You cannot hide anything from us, though we mean no ill will. It is time we leave." and he sunk into the ground leaving no trace.
* * *
Iris had struck a deal with the two thieves, it was in their favor really. She was walking back to the villagers now, that pipe poking out of one of her pockets. That was part of the deal. She also was playing with a coin in one hand, another part of the deal. The two thieves were running away light-headed in the other direction, that was also part of the deal.
Her deal for them was simple really: she got the orcs pipe and the coin he had taunted her with as well as some of their blood, nothing lethal of course. If they ever came back though... Well she really didn't want them to come back. She didn't want to kill them just stop them from killing people. She had also learned where the humans they stole were, not far from the village actually. They got a lesson though, really entirely in their favor.
The villagers were rather happy to hear the news and sent people off to get the kidnapped villagers. Iris however was walking to the nearest safe house on the road, they had one near every village. She was sure the village allow her to stay somewhere but she didn't want to be a burden. Her mind was on something else anyway.
It was somewhat focused on what that fight had done to her clothing and body. Though her hand had recovered there were new scars, though they weren't very noticeable in her mind. The tears that arrow had caused on the one arm however were a different matter. She couldn't really think of any good reason to explain it away actually. She couldn't go with cooking accident, she didn't need food that way. Most everyone at work also knew that none of her (basically non-existent) hobbies involved sharp things. The matter that pressed more on her mind made her wonder about her priorities.
That matter was the flushed feeling of her face. She had never felt it before and it was actually quite enjoyable, comforting even. It was warm, something her body never was. She guessed this was what fresh blood did to someone, though she didn't want to admit it. The two thieves had tasted different as well, from each other and from what she had to assume humans tasted. The orc was sour while the ghoul tasted closer to a mix of flavors than any single flavor.
Iris shook her head and headed into the shack that had entered her vision. She had the modern world to deal with, and a delivery to make after that.