Cassius wasn't dead. He felt it. Power inside him, and he knew where it came from. Dai's soul. He felt it inside him, he felt his own soul absorb and subjugate it. He felt the mortal wound being healed from the energy that it contained. The rest sustained him, it grew him. He felt it seep into his being. Cassius opened his eyes, the sky was still beaming above him with the damn eternal sunlight. Cassius could hear Big Man close to him, he was stripping Dai. Taking his clothing and items from his body. He snorted at a small bead necklace that he tossed into the grass. Cassius was still holding the knife. Slowly, the reborn boy rose to his feet, he held the knife in a reverse grip. Big Man turned as his shadow fell over him, eyes going wide right as Cassius rammed the knife into his eye, through the socket, and into the brain. A wet squelching noise rang in Cassius's ears as… Manaka collapsed to the ground. As soon as Cassius killed him he knew the man's name.
He felt it again, a surge of euphoric warmth swept into his body and soul. His soul, his spirit easily absorbing his enemies and he felt it seep into him. Energy flowed into his body and his breathing became easier. His heart… beat slower, a calm flooded him. Cassius had to move, surprise and resurrection had helped him… no. He'd never died, Dai's soul had healed only the mortal wound. Manaka had healed his leg and then healed the muscles in his body. It had made him physically stronger, repairing the tears from the physical excretion. Cassius bet that a shot to the head would kill him, as he would die instantly. He had a minute though. Cassius was surprised to find that Dai's clothing was only a little too big on him, Manaka was several times bigger and stronger. Cassius had no doubt he'd have died if it had been Manaka instead of Dai he'd tried to fight.
The thick furs felt good, and he had to cut a new notch on Dai's belt, but it would do. He scavenged both bows, both quivers, and ran for Dai's horse. He'd ridden a horse once or twice. He was no expert but he could get by. Also Dai's horse was smaller and seemed a little easier to deal with than Manaka's. A brown mare with a white stripe down the nose. It would have to do. Cassius got into the saddle and took the reins, the horse didn't seem to mind and was well trained as Cassius urged the horse into a gallop by digging his new boot heels into the horses side. As he put distance between himself and the rest of the horse riders, Cassius realized that he'd done it… he'd unlocked his power. However… to get stronger he'd have to kill again, and again. He would have to fight. He still didn't know what his actual Trial goal was either. These thoughts passed through his mind as he galloped as far as he could from where he'd killed the two men. He took his first draft of water from Dai's waterskin. He didn't know if there was any food on his new horse.
From the way the two had been talking it didn't seem like there was much to eat out here except roots and small animals. Why not eat horses? Why eat humans?" It didn't make too much sense unless horses were hard to come by and valuable. Cassius did know one thing though. He was going to kill all of them before his trial was over.
…
Malen and Val watched, astonished as Cassius galloped away from the scene of his kills. Val smiled as Malen shook his head.
"I didn't give him that… did you?"
Val shook her head, making her golden hair fly back and forth. "Nope. I didn't even know that he was going through his trial until you called me over, you're right… it was a riot."
"I can't tell if he's the unluckiest or the luckiest mortal I've ever seen. Though, it was impressive." Malen rubbed his perfect chin, his sky blue eyes flashed as they watched him gallop across the Steppes. "Remarkable either way. You want him?"
Val raised an eyebrow, "you don't?"
"No, he's more your type. Brown hair, innocent forestry eyes, and a raging fighting spirit and bloodlust to match? Those eyes won't be innocent for long. Make sure you claim him fast though. My scry is all yours if you want."
Valkyrie grinned, she looked down at Cassius. "Let's see just what you have in store."
…
Cassius looked at the small wood cylinder in his hands, it was an interesting take on a telescope. The image was cloudy at best and barely magnified past like… six times but it was something. He was at the top of a knoll, looking towards a group of tents. He saw women and children, some men who looked clean… and a herd of horses. Along with a fire, where a horse was being cooked. That raised some questions. They didn't look like cannibals. At least from a distance. Cassius needed to make a decision, he could approach and take a chance. Or he could go it alone. He didn't know how much time had passed, but he'd slept twice since his battle. He counted that as two days.
He was also out of food and had little water left. The small bitter roots that had been in the saddle bags hadn't even been worth the killing. No wonder they were cannibals. These people however seemed to have no qualms about cooking and eating horses. Cassius shrugged, might as well give it a try. Cassius urged his horse forward. He could tell that she was dehydrated as well. He'd tried to give her a drink but for some damn reason streams didn't exist in this forsaken trial.
Cassius wondered what he would say, if he even got a chance to say anything. Hi, I'm on a Trial made by magic, none of you exist outside my dream and your lives don't matter. That would go over so well. Applying logic to the trials never went well, though Cassius's seemed to be a little more difficult than any other he'd heard of. Then again, his abilities were astounding and unheard of. No wonder the Trials were being harsh. Cassius held his stolen bow across his lap; he didn't have the skill to shoot it accurately, despite practicing shooting at a small shrub the day before from about fifty feet. He'd made a tiny bit of progress at getting the arrows kind of close to the shrub, but he'd given up though as he broke a few arrows. He had no idea where they'd gotten wood and feathers for the arrows though. He still hadn't seen a tree. He didn't bother looking at the sky for birds, it wasn't like he'd be able to hit them anyway.
As soon as Cassius was in eyesight of the guards, a whistle went out and two men rode towards him. They had spears and bows, however their body language wasn't immediately hostile. They held their bows loosely, and hadn't even nocked arrows yet. Cassius decided to slip his bow into its holster on the saddle and stopped his horse. The two men stopped a few feet away.
"Do not reach for your weapons, who are you?"
"I'm a traveler, I was attacked on the plains, they were speaking of eating me." Cassius said as calmly as he could.
Both men's faces immediately drained of color. The man on the right, the older man gripped his spear, "How far? Are they following you?"
Cassius shrugged, "I've slept twice since I escaped them and stole this horse and gear."
The younger of the two leveled an arrow at Cassius's chest, "are you one of them?"
"I'm not, but I don't have a way to prove that I'm not besides warning you, I just need a little food and water." Cassius was speaking to the younger of the two, his words were directed at the older man.
"We-"
"Will welcome you as long as you are what you say you are. You are too pale to have lived in this land for a long period of time. Your skin is pale compared to those who have spent their lives on this plain. Come Young One, we will eat together and I will hear your story." The older man said, his logic was pretty on the spot. Cassius had only been here for two days, yet he was starting to tan. Nowhere near the amount of the denizens of the Steppe though.
Cassius didn't lower his guard completely. As he got closer he took in the details of the camp. The tent's were made of horse hide and bone, there still wasn't a lot of wood. The most wood he saw was the arrow shafts. Several people took in Cassius, wary but not openly hostile. The children started staring and pointed, comparing their own skin to his. Many of the people were mostly just curious. Cassius was led to a tent just like the others. Cassius dismounted along with the two men and led his horse to a weathered hitching post.
"As long as you don't reach for your blade you are welcome here. Deimo will hear your story before that; How many men attacked you? What were they armed with?" The older man asked, he took stock of the arrows in his quiver.
"Twenty eight, that's how many I saw. I killed two."
The older man raised an eyebrow, "so twenty six?"
"No, there were thirty before I killed them, I took… uh their weapons and arrows." Cassius pointed out the extra quiver he had.
The older man glanced at the extra quiver. "My name Tala, I will trade you for some extra arrows. How does a pound of jerky and a full water skin for twenty of those arrows?"
Cassius beamed, "Cassius and that sounds amazing, I've had nothing but these bitter roots for two days."
"Welmin roots, good for staying alive. Not much else. Here."
Cassius took the parcel and water skin graciously, opening it and inhaling a piece of jerky. He'd never been a fan of beef jerky back home, but after the roots it was like a slice of tough and chewy heaven on his tongue. As he was going for a second piece of jerky the tent flap opened and a man easily in his sixties blinked his eyes to the harsh sun. He took in Cassius, the two men, he looked at Tala, apprehensive.
"Tala, we have a visitor?"
"His name is Cassius, claims to have killed two of the Man-eater tribe, you're better at talking than I am." Tala waved a hand towards the direction that Cassius had come, "I'm taking a patrol out. We should get ahead of this. Before you blame yourself, we are in constant conflict with the Man-Eaters, if what you say is true that you killed two of them. You have my respect."
Cassius didn't know how to respond, he just nodded. The two younger men mounted up again, they rode away while the older man turned to Cassius. His skin was like a hundred year old leather, his brown eyes were kind. Though he seemed to be taking in every detail about Cassius.
"Come inside Cassius, the sun is harsh and at my age it does more harm than good for my old bones, skin is already a lost cause at this point." The old man chuckled and led the way into the darkest place Cassius had been inside since the start of his Trial. It was almost liberating. His eyes took a few minutes to adjust to the low light and he let out a relieved breath. "I am Sadoon, I'm the oldest member of this tribe. So tell me, Cassius. How did you come to these lands? We have traveled for years searching for the edges with no luck."
Cassius decided to be as honest as he could without sounding completely crazy. "I was kidnapped and dropped here in nothing but my undergarments."
Sadoon simply nodded and waved for Cassius to continue. So he told the old man about his fight, showed him the scar on his side and legs to confirm his story, and he showed the old man his bloody sweatpants as well.
Sadoon nodded, rubbing at the sharp goatee on his face for a minute or two. "Cassius, if you didn't have the evidence to back up your story I would throw you out and leave you to the Man-eaters. So, good thing you have your evidence. Also a word of that didn't sound like a lie, I can only offer you shelter and if you would like training. We need all we can get to survive, you will have to work if you wish to live with the tribe."
Cassius allowed the stress of the situation to fall off. "I would like that, and working won't be an issue."