Breathing in the fresh air, Veric felt a lump forming in his throat and forced himself to swallow it down. He had gone through a death and rebirth in the tunnels and now had a goal and if he learns how to use it, he also has the power to achieve it. Faced with what he lost and gained he felt a little overwhelmed. Looking around, he tried to find his bearings before he heard some voices off in the distance. Veric felt his blood freeze and sweat dripping down his cut face and back. 'It can't be!! I should have been passed out for a long time, they should be long gone by now!!' Screaming in his head, Veric lowered himself to the ground, opening a few wounds in the process, and slowly made his way closer to the voices. THe closer he got, the more he could hear and found that the voices were all unfamiliar. Upon that realization he let out the breath that he didn't even know that he was holding in, making just a little too much noise in the process.
"Who the fuck is there!? You have five seconds to come out before I make you and shove my rod up your ass!!" "Sarah could you word it a little better, what she means is that we will beat the shit out of you if you don't come out!!" Not really seeing how it was better the second way, Veric slowly stood up and away from the brush he was in and started walking with his arm up. Walking forward, he was able to see the people that were doing the shouting in a small clearing. There were four of them all in various battle stances with the one in the lead looking particularly aggressive with the aforementioned rod in her hands ready to attack. She wasn't a large woman, maybe seventeen or twenty with tied up maroon hair and he could see on the pale skin that wasn't covered with leather armour, various scars. There was a man next to her with leather armor that had a few pieces of metal built into it, holding a long two handed sword that looked like it weighed more than two Verics. He kept looking at the girl and shaking his head. The last two were behind them, the one on the left had a black twisted stick looking staff and was dressed in armour under flowing robes, looking very proud for some reason. The one on the right had short cut hair,the bottom of their face covered with cloth, minimum armour and had a dagger in the left hand and was aiming an arm mounted crossbow with the right.
As Veric stepped into the clearing the rest were in, he saw the four faces change from their original to one of absolute horror. "Holy shit, fucking kill it tusk! It is an undead!!" The rod wielding woman was the first to snap out of shock and jumped to the side out of the way of the one with flowing robes and two large teeth growing out of his mouth. Sensing if he didn't react quick enough that he would die here, Veric quickly waved his arm and screamed, "Wait, i'm alive! Not dead!!" After he finished the one with the two handed sword held up one arm, "Hold tusk, lets see what the kid has to say. Boy, show us your other arm and tell us why you look like absolute shit?" Relieved that his execution was postponed, Veric quickly answered,"I came to Fengame Woods with my brother and we were attacked by wolf beasts. My brother led them away after a struggle and I was left like this!"
The two handed sword man looked for a while, probably thinking of the validity of the story Veric fed him before eventually hefting the sword on his shoulder before relaxing, "Stand down, he's not trying to kill us at least. Snatch, keep an eye on him." After addressing the one with the covered face he turned back to Veric, "Hauldven sake you look bad kid, we'll have Sarah here take a look at your wounds." Veric looked at the woman who still had the rod in her hands and a look on her face that seemed to want to use it.
"Sarah quit scaring the kid, just fix him up so that my nightmares wont be too bad." ordered Jack before giving Veric one last glance that had a trace of pity. Veric thought to himself, 'Do i really look that bad, i cleaned myself up quite a bit in the tunnels.' Slowly he looked down and under the natural sunlight he could see why he was seen as an undead in the others eyes. He looked at the oversized clothes and bandages that had blood leaking through them and wondered why they even hesitated to kill him to begin with. Suddenly he was woken out of his reverie with a sharp jostle on his right arm. "Wake up kid and come with me, i've got to unfuck this mess you've made." he then slowly followed the woman hoping to receive some actual first aid and not just some dried leave stuffed into the wounds and looking at how upset she seemed to be he figured that that was a likely possibility.
The pair walked to a small tent with the snatch person trailing behind a small distance with their hand on their blade. After Veric entered the small tent sarah pointed to a bedroll and barked one word, "Undress" Veric looked at the bedroll and back at Sarah before slightly blushing and fiddling with the hem of the shirt. "Relax i'm not into little boys and i sure as hell won't be tempted to do anything with your little dick, just undress and lie down." Veric felt a little insulted as he was already aged twelve cycles and close to being a man. Planning to brush past his embarrassment and quickly strip he took off his makeshift cloth belt and went to take off his scarf. As his hand drew close to his neck he froze, 'They can't know that i am a run away dark sorcerer or when they turn me in i'll be recollared or just killed.'
Seeing the frozen kid just standing there Sarah's patience was wearing thin and she turned to grab him. "Lood kid if you aren't going to undress yourself i'll do it for you." Veric was backing up to the entrance which was more like a slight shuffle as Sarah made a grab attempt. Veric's heart was pumping wildly as he thought to himself, 'I just got my freedom, i will not let it be taken away by anyone. I won't let it be taken away!' Veric felt the warmth in his chest grow just a little as he was preparing himself to take the bone shard out of the dimensional space and try to give himself an opening to escape. Right as he activated his vital core a hand came from in between the tent flaps and caught Sarah's hand. "What the hell do you want Snatch?"
Sarah took back her hand roughly and glared at the figure that pushed the tent flaps aside and ducked in. "You are scaring the kid with your lack of a bedside manner Sarah, Let me take care of him and you can go and flirt with jack some more, maybe you'll get lucky and he will fuck you when we get back in town." Sarah kept staring at Snatch for a little while before she let out a small laugh and looked down with a slight blush to her cheeks. "You really think we might fuck? Nevermind, don't answer. I'll leave this shithead to you and go." Sarah then left after brushing past a dumbfounded Veric who thought that without her opening her vulgar mouth, and her brutish actions, that she looked like a very cute girl in love.
Veric turned to face the back of Snatch as they were facing the closed tent and mumbling with an amused tone, "Ah poor Sarah, too bad he is already getting the 'tusk' from tusk." Snatch then turned and faced Veric who was backed away with his arm behind his back. Now that Veric had a closer look at Snatch he saw that they had short cut silver hair under a black hood, grey almost ash colored skin, and eyes that had black sclera and yellow irises that seemed to glow. "So how long have you been a runaway, Dimensional sorcerer?
Veric's blood froze and his heart stopped burning as he heard what Snatch said. DUe to being shocked by what was said to him, it took a while before he could respond. "W-what do you mean? I am not a dark sorcerer. I don't even have an ability in the first place. I-i am fine, please just let me leave, you won't see me again." Even Veric knew how unconvincing and suspicious he sounded, but everything was just too much and all he knew was he was going to die here in a fight of his own will, or shackled again. Just as he made the bone shard appear in his hand and tensed his damaged and undamaged leg muscles, Snatch put up a gloved hand and spoke with a laughing voice, "It is useless to try and lie to me kid, I see everything." To emphasize their words, they tapped their temple drawing attention to their glowing eyes. "Don't worry about me turning you in, I won't bother with something that troublesome, I wouldn't get a single copper for it so why bother. Tell you what kid, i'm in a good mood right now so i'll keep this between us and i'll even take that collar off you, for payment of course. What do you say?"
Veric could see the outlines of a smile that seemed to be neither friendly nor malicious underneath the mask. He decided to abandon his obvious lie and shaky responded, "I don't have much money to pay you." Snatch just looked at Veric for a while before Breaking into a giggle at the expense of the little boy in front of them. They then stepped forward and leaned down slightly until they were face to face and pulled down the mask. With the mask gone Veric was finally able to see the whole face of the person in front of him and he only had one word in his mind, completely forgetting the situation. With a large smile on her face, exposing all four of her sharpened canines, Snatch said in a teasing voice,"I never said i wanted money from you little boy." Veric took a large gulp before he was able to squeak out, "What's the payment?"