Chapter Fourteen

‘Am I just destined to be wrong every single time?’ Varus wondered when the pair snored, interrupting him even as he tried to write one line after another…

Occasionally he looked over his shoulder and found the pair huddled together, having inched their makeshift beds closer to one another, though whether that was by accident or intent, he wasn’t sure. ‘If I had to guess, they did it on purpose, but who knows? Whatever tribe they came from, life couldn’t have been easy for them… and I- I suppose I should ask about their parents. Why didn’t I bother to do that? If I’m going to fob them off on anyone, it should be-’ He paused. He recalled their shock when he didn’t get upset about the broken glass, and took a deep, if needless, breath.

‘Nobody with any sense would end up that deep in that forest on account of a good, happy family life. I suppose if I can get my act together for ten minutes and think my way through how to interact with people properly through a summon…or at all, I can maybe find out more about their parents later.’ Varus contemplated these thoughts as he watched the pair wiggle around close to one another.

Despite needing less sleep, less food, and less recovery time than say…a human, when the pair slept, it was deep, when they ate, each meal was a feast, and they sought to be active much faster than he expected.

He recalled a vague memory, one only half formed through the haze of alcohol he consumed in his younger years…

The heavy hand clapped hard on Varus’s back, striking so hard he didn’t need to look to know it was Hero…or to know that the mug he held was not his first. “Y’need to relaxsh more, Varus. We won, and we won big.” Hero said, leaning forward with a wide, goofy grin on his youthful face. He came in so close that Varus could feel the heat of the warrior’s breath and smell the beer he’d been drinking.

Varus exhaled heavily and looked around the room. Hero wasn’t alone in his intoxication. The noise of wooden mugs clattering together was only ‘mostly’ drowned out by the sound of drinking songs as men and women still clad in armor let loose the tension of the day. “I am relaxed.” Varus answered, a little half smile on his face as he put his hand on Hero’s back and guided his body over to the nearest chair, keeping a firm hand in place to make sure that the thud of the body coming down was not followed by another of him falling off his seat. “I’m just being cautious. The scouts haven’t come back yet, we can’t be sure, sure until we’re really sure.”

“Y’think they’d come after a camp with me in it after that?” Hero asked, a silly grin and half limp head contradicted the fierce question and he broke out into a deep laugh a moment later, jabbing his thumb against his armored chest. “I’m Hero! One day… one day people will use my name ash a declara-deca-dexa… ash a way of sayin someones’ great, powerful, an shaved the day!”

“Sure they will. You’re absolutely right.” Varus said and discreetly began nudging a bucket over to the space between Hero’s splayed out feet.

“You wash me! One day, when itsh all over- hic, people won’t shay, ‘I need a knight! No, they’ll shay, ‘I need a hero!” Hero declared again as his hand fell limp, “Even Hero’s gotta unwind after hard times though… hard timesh… thash what I wanna do, make them timesh all go ‘way… far, far away…” Hero was rambling, but it was cut off at once by the flow of vomit from his mouth into the bucket.

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Varus watched them all, they were doing the same thing, most of them, at least. Noisy, rambunctious, letting loose between the superabundance of alcohol and food that had been plundered from the demon king’s encampment, it was a rare moment of peace after an absolute victory, so he didn’t fault them for it. He took a slow slip of his beer, and then began to sway a little on his feet and hum along with the drinking song. ‘Let them enjoy the day, they’ve had enough hard ones, so they’ve earned this.’

The memory began to fade, and he shook his head. “Blind fools, all of us…but Hero had a point. When people have a hard time, they need to be able to relax afterward…though,” he paused and tapped the side of his jaw in thought, “I don’t think I’ll let Hannah or Tuesday have alcohol…not for a while at least. Oh… wait…” He turned his head away and back toward the manuscript where his characters were waiting, ‘That won’t be up to me.’

He stared down at his manuscript, he could feel the ghostly hands on his shoulders from his characters, their words echoed in his mind as surely as if they were there. “There’s no way I’d say anything that sappy. I’d smack his butt while the priestess blushed and tried to get through her part of the bonding ritual.”

“I-I-I don’t a-always b-b-blush!” She eeped out, and Varus watched the ghost of his character tremble and clutch her staff, her bright white ceremonial robe was almost ‘real’ in the candle light of the cottage, and a wide eyed stare was fixed on the protagonist and his companion.

“Yes, you do.” Varus thought, in sync with the others. Normally this would have been the way it went when he was in the flow of his river of creation, carried along by the rapids of the story he dreamed of telling…

But while the characters bantered around him in their wedding finery, preparing to marry on the very eve of their battle, Varus only tapped his fresh quill on the paper. ‘Right, I forgot, I need more…’ He thought as he glanced at the nearly empty cup, and cursed his forgetfulness. ‘Not that I’m getting much use out of this one.’ He told himself, the snoring behind him was…not insignificant. ‘I’ve heard less noise in a military camp.’ The Elder Lich told himself and inhaled deeply when he felt the mood of his characters shift.

“Hurry up, get to the wedding night! It’s already dawn for you!” The couple said and leaned in over his shoulders to look down at the paper where his quill tapped idly.

“B-B-B-Be nice! He’s trying! He’s just distracted.” The priestess declared, but their pointing out that it was dawn already was enough to break the spell.

The trio vanished with a groan when Varus stood up from his seat and said, “If it’s this early, I might as well go ahead and replace my quills and-” He stopped his spoken thought and stared at the wall.

[Detect Life] He whispered the spell, and black circles of mana that only the caster of the spell could see began to appear at his feet, one after another they appeared like ripples in the water of a still lake when a rock dropped in to shatter its tranquility, growing farther and farther, expanding far beyond the wall, out into the open air, and all the way to the forest across the old earthen road. “Deal with my guest.” He finished the thought, and canceled the now needless spell.

He looked down at the pair of sleeping girls, a sharp pang struck him again, and he muttered under his breath, “I thought I’d have at least a few more days…I’ll…wake them after, let them sleep for now.” And with that, he stepped with care around their cuddled together forms and toward the door to face the inevitable.