Milio's eyes snapped open, and her body immediately tensed. The sound of water flowing from a nearby stream and the faint crackle of a fire made her pause. She was lying on the ground, the cool grass beneath her. Her heart pounded as memories of the battle flooded back—Reibar's sword thrust into Eric's chest—and then darkness.
Her body shot up, her cat ears standing alert, and her long tail flicking behind as she scanned the area. Where was she? Was she captured? Her eyes locked on Reibar, sitting by a fire, cooking fish.
"you what have you done ?!" her hand reached her waist on the handle of her short sword. Well, it was still there, her left hand had been bandaged but better.
"Milio, it's not what you think" he stood up... finding it difficult to look her in the eye.
But that catlfolk had already seen so many betrayals in her life and she trusted her eyes more than some words of men, especially after what she had seen.
Reibar paused before continuing, choosing his words carefully. "Lisanna set up the whole thing. The goblins, the attack—it was all planned. She manipulated us" his voice getting shaky.
Milio's tail twitched, confusion creeping in. "Lisanna? Why?" Her voice dropped as the disbelief set in. She had trusted Lisanna.
Her hand was still on a short sword.
"I don't know why,.... but we... You're safe now," Reibar said, knowing the fact that they had lost someone important to them.
Milio studied him, still unsure. "Why should I trust you? I saw what you did with my own eyes! How could you, you beast! Eric cherished you!" her eyes getting watery.
reibar knew he couldn't explain anything to her this way.
Reibar rushed at Milio, his sword swinging with precision and power, and she instinctively drew her short sword to meet him. Their blades clashed with a sharp metallic ring, sparks flying from the impact. Milio's speed and agility allowed her to dodge his first strike, but Reibar's newfound strength and mastery, now amplified by Eric's skill, gave him the upper hand. With a swift movement, he disarmed her and knocked her off balance, sending her sprawling to the ground. She barely had time to react before she hit the earth, stunned by the force of the blow.
She was no fool, she knew reibar was simply not able to move like that.
"how.." the word leaves her mouth.
Eric told her about his cursed ability that if he killed someone he could get their skills including the part that it needed to be someone close to him. Of course, it would increase her suspicion that he was lying just now to gain her trust and kill her same brutal way as he did with Eric to just get her power.
Reibar stood over Milio, his sword lowered but his gaze unwavering. "Eric was the first true friend I ever had," he said, his voice steady. "Along with you and Lisanna. I never wanted to be the one to end his life, but you know as well as I do that he couldn't be saved. He was already lost." He took a slow breath, the weight of his words hanging in the air. "You can kill me right now if you don't trust me, or you can walk away. But know this—I did what I had to do to save my friend.....you "
he told her about what he hear eavesdropping that old Oolong and disguised witch lisana.
"ok I will stick with you and will kill you myself if you try anything funny," she said, her instincts could tell that he was not lying.
After discussing their plan of action eating fish reibar caught earlier they agreed they needed to reach back to willowfield and alert the lord of his life being endangered. But they can't take a straight route to town as by now lisana must've found two bodies missing from the scene and her controlled goblins would be looking around for them.
So now the only course of action left was to take a roundabout taking them 4 days instead of 2. It can only be prayed till then that nothing happens during this time.
Still, it felt like a burden had dropped from reibar shoulders after telling everything to milio.
It was best to travel during that time as goblins and other monsters usually sleep in the day, so they packed some fish for later and water from the stream and started moving for the town.
The journey through the dense woods stretching over the next four days. Each night, they found a quiet, hidden spot to camp, carefully setting up a fire to keep any monsters at bay. They took turns staying awake, Reibar keeping watch while Milio rested. During the day, Milio hunted for food, using her quick reflexes to catch rabbits and small game. Their supplies were limited, but the constant hunting kept them fed.
It was their second night, and milio seemed to start trusting reibar now. While walking in thick woods reibar smelt something horrible, like some rotten body. Even Milio felt that, they started following the stench making no sound. And we were shocked to see that it was a dead body but ... a moving one ?! What in the world was going on
The moving body was sluggish but still moving. reibar jumped from the bushed and chopped its head in one strike. The dead's senses were so low that 'it' didn't even get the chance to react, reibar would have never jumped on this if he were his old self. But still, Eric was in mind and he knew Eric would have done the same saying his skills were not for escaping but for fighting the dangers head-on.
If only it was this simple, more of those things started coming out surrounding them now. Milio sighed, "You idiot! I told u to just move on and we could have reported this to the lord" Still there was a smile on her face as she kept cutting the throats of those sluggish walking dead. She knew she could trust reibar.
Half an hour had passed but those undead just kept coming and those two were totally exhausted." I know you don't want to but leave them as be and make our escape right now if this goes any longer we'll be dead meat". reibar had to agree, it was getting hard for him to keep swinging her sword.
They start running at full speed making a passage and leaving those undead behind, they were certainly not able to follow them and thus they left.
When they were safe, reibar noticed ripping a piece from her red muffler which she always kept around her neck and covered her left arm.
"did something happen ?" reibar asked.
"Nah, it's nothing my arm hadn't recovered from the last injury and I think one of that things bit me, it's all good"
"you better next time not jump into danger else I will leave you behind, i know the reason why u did that but do you think Eric would like that you just keep throwing your life thinking of him?"
reibar didn't say anything and the night passed on.
Nothing significant happened in the other two days except that Milio had some fever building up and it kept getting hard for her as they kept moving but finally they could see the checkpost for entering town with the naked eye. All that hell of a journey and it was all going to get good now .....or so they thought.