"What do you mean you'll go yourself, Lord Wulf?" Alain Aubet asked as Kenric, Elizabeth, and Noodle made to leave.
"You want your problem dealt with sooner rather than later, right?" Kenric asked, "It'll go much faster if we deal with this ourselves."
"I wanted your troops, not you!" Alain said, "Can you even—I mean, is it even possible for you to…?" He looked meaningfully at Kenric's cane.
Kenric noticed his gaze, "I can still fight, Lord Aubet. We'll be back soon enough, if you could just lend us a few horses."
"Yes, yes, of course," Alain said, still taken aback. As they turned to the door again, he remembered, "I'll lend you a map as well; you can see what route my soldiers were taking."
The three left the lord's hall and a servant led them back to the bailey. He bowed and left the three there on their own to wait for their horses. Now confident that their privacy was secured, Elizabeth said, "Slay an unknown evil… I did not expect a request like this."
"He's scared," Kenric said, "the Forest of Antome is almost right next to Brio. The thought of some inexplicable danger being this close to him terrifies him."
"The thought of some inexplicable danger terrifies me…" Noodle muttered.
"I thought 'that's just what you do?'" Kenric said amusedly.
"I'm a bodyguard, not a monster hunter!" Noodle said.
"Well, I'm about to go face a monster, so guard me well," Kenric said.
A servant came out with three chestnut horses, and Kenric patted the one handed to him a few times before hopping on. He tested the reins slightly, getting used to them and the horse itself.
"Shall I hold your cane for you, my lord?" Elizabeth asked from her horse.
"I'll be fine," Kenric said.
The servant handed them a map next, and Kenric took a look. "Come," he said, folding the map and securing it in his vest before snapping the reigns lightly, "Let us go find ourselves a nameless evil."
They rode out of the castle and onto the city streets, slowly growing comfortable with their horses. Once they made it to the gates and exited the city of Brio, they found the path south and broke out into a full gallop.
Kenric had been right, the Forest of Antome had not been very far at all. They veered from the path, entering it. The trees towered high here, clawing at the sky with brown, leafless branches. Most of the leaves had fallen on the ground by now, and as the horses galloped through them, it could be seen that the dirt and leaves were starting to become one.
"It was brazen to ask for a whole year's worth of food," Elizabeth said hesitantly, "I'm surprised Lord Aubet accepted."
"As am I," Kenric said, "I thought he'd negotiate down. His stores must be vast," he added on thoughtfully, "I should have asked for more..."
"Any more and you would have risked offending Lord Aubet," Elizabeth said, "Even asking this much risked offended him."
Kenric did not argue. He checked the map again as they slowed. The horses could not move at full speed in the dense forest. "The disappearances occur somewhere near the centre of the forest," he said.
The good thing was, the Forest of Antome was not very large. They rode for a bit before Kenric began smelling a familiar stench. It smelled of rot, of faeces—a smell that clogged the nose and sat on the tongue. It was a smell that aroused a deep, instinctual disgust in any human.
The smell of death.
Kenric dismounted his horse, tying it to a tree. Elizabeth and Noodle followed his lead. He followed the smell, having already gotten used to it long ago to recoil from it. Noodle had too, but Elizabeth seemed to be having some trouble. Kenric was not surprised, she had smelt blood before, but this lingering death was a different matter.
They pushed on until they reached a clearing, and the source of the smell became obvious. Bodies in steel armour were strewn about the clearing, crushed and mangled to grim states. At their centre stood a creature of rock. It had the rough shape of a human: a head, torso, arms, and legs. It even had a face, with white light shining from the circular holes where its eyes should have been, and a great big crack separating its lower jaw from the rest of its face.
It towered over them, both in height and width, and when it noticed them, the light in its eyes grew stronger, "Oh!" The crack on its face that should have been its mouth did not move, but it spoke anyway, its voice sounding echoey and strangely far away, "New challengers!"
"It's a golem!" Elizabeth said, her hands cupped over her mouth and nose to dull the smell.
The golem pointed its stone fingers at Elizabeth, "Correct! None of these guys recognised my superior existence." It gestured at the corpses around it.
"I've never heard of a golem being able to talk like you," Elizabeth said.
The golem sounded like it was smirking, "Heh! I'm special. I was a living soul transferred into a golem. I can talk, I can think—I'm basically the perfect existence!"
"A living soul…?" Elizabeth looked horrified, "That's inhumane!"
The golem looked down at her, the circular holes that were its eyes narrowing, "Didn't you just hear me? Instead of a fleshy body of disgusting weakness, I am made of impenetrable stone. I much prefer this."
Elizabeth looked scared at the golem's scrutiny upon her, and Kenric slammed his cane on the ground to bring attention back to himself, "You called us challengers. Why?"
"Are you not?" The golem said, turning to him. It gestured once more at the corpses around it, "These squishy folk were. I was reactivated, but the person who reactivated me ran off, and I was left here with no direction. Some of these people found me, and when I tried asking them where I was, they attacked. Of course, their weak bodies of flesh could not withstand my brilliant stone power, and were crushed. More came. They too were crushed."
Noodle gulped, "That doesn't sound like they were challenging you…"
"They attacked. It was a challenge," the golem said, "Now, surely you have some courage as well. Care to try your luck?"
"You seem to want us to challenge you," Kenric noted.
"Of course!" The golem exclaimed, "It's why my master built me! I have to show off his greatest masterpiece!"
"You were built to fight?" Kenric asked.
"Golems are weapons of war," Elizabeth said, "Though they usually have no will of their own. I don't know why a golem with sentience would want the same thing."
The golem made a noise of disgust, "Listen, woman. I told you already, I am my master's greatest masterpiece, I must show myself off to the world!"
"Very well," Kenric cut in, "We challenge you. But let us relocate. The smell of this place is not pleasant." He could see Elizabeth had been getting more and more overwhelmed, and he could tell it was the smell that had been affecting her the most.
"The smell?" The golem asked. It threw up its stone arms, "I forgot, you flesh creatures have all kinds of weaknesses. To be hindered by just being around a few dead bodies—honestly! Fine, let's go."
The golem began guiding them through the forest from behind, away from the site of its massacre, and Kenric said, "Were you not a flesh creature once too?"
"Yeah, but I'm not anymore, am I? Besides, I don't even remember my life before I was a golem."
"Wait, so you don't even remember what you left behind to become one?" Noodle asked.
The golem gave a heaving shrug, "Eh, sometimes I get a glimpse of a memory or something. Doesn't matter, I was told I voluntarily submitted to the experiment."
"It's easy to lie to someone who can't remember the truth," Kenric said.
"Maybe, still doesn't matter," the golem said uncaringly, "I mean, I'm made of stone! What could be better than that?"
They arrived at another clearing, where the air was much cleaner. Elizabeth had removed her hands from her mouth and nose, but still looked uncomfortable. Kenric knew from experience that the smell would linger within for a while.
"All right, let's do this!" The golem said to Kenric, "You ready?" It raised its arms in a fighting pose.
"Me?" Kenric asked. He took a seat on a nearby rock, "Why would I need to fight you when my bodyguard is right here?"
It took Noodle a moment to realise what he was saying, "Wait, what?"
The golem looked Noodle over up and down, "…This guy? Really?"
Kenric smirked, "I assure you, even the lord of this land praised him."
"Wait, no—seriously, wait!" Noodle stuttered.
"Go on then, Noodle, show him… her—?" He looked questioningly at the golem,
"I'm pretty sure I used to be a him," the golem said.
Kenric nodded, turning to Noodle again, "—Show him what you're made of."
Noodle looked like he had just swallowed a marble.