User blog:Darknessabove/Strange World: Volume 1, Chapter 2: Recognition

I woke up, rubbing the back of my head as i got up, i had spent the night in a tree, since with no currency (well, the currency of this world), i couldn't afford to sleep in any of the inns that were located in the town i had entered yesterday, not to mention the current language barrier between me and the local populace and the fact i didn't want to sleep in some back alley, not because it would be uncomfortable, but because i didn't like the though of being in a area with people passing by, never did like crowds.....or people.

I hopped down from the tree, holding my hand up to my head to shield my eyes from the sun, so i could my eyes time to adjust to the change in light.

"Well, first things first, food and water" i muttered to my self as shook my head, ready to start exploring the local area for any sources of water and food.

Different world, same crap

I walked through the forest, making sure not to stray to far from the town, if i encountered anything.....nasty, i wanted to be able to retreat to the safety of the town, i may hate crowds, but hate dieing more (well, potencally dieing),

I passed a bush full of berries (well, i believe they are berries), i picked a few, but decided against eating them there and then, since if they turned out to be poisenous i didn't want to be caught with my pants down (in more ways then one).

After a while, i came to stream and quickly went about filling my canteen, with its built in filter, it would get rid of any thing toxic in the water.

I took several gulps from the canteen, the refreshing feeling of water rushing down my throat was a great relief since i'd been without water for a good 10+ hours now.

After wiping my mouth, i refilled the canteen and left the stream, i simply needed to eat now (the game i caught yesterday had little meat on it, so it wasn't worth the hassle cooking it).

"kus oe gh ak"

The sound of a woman screaming got my attention, causing me to bolt in the direction of the scream, with me arriving at a dirt path that weaved its way through the forest.

Hiding behind one of the trees, i saw a women, dressed in blue, with 3 men surrounding her, one of which had a grip on her arm.

There was also a man on the floor and judging by the fact there was a pool of blood, the 3 men were probally bandits, which had attacked them, killed the man and were planning to ether kill the woman and rob their corpses, rape her, sell her as a slave, or a mix of the three.

"ns le ios uwhs, hj wiu aks iush ywo" one of the men said as he smiled as he held a knife up to the throat of the lady, before using the blade to start cutting the fabric of her dress.

"Yep, gonna rape her" i though to my self, personally, it didn't concern me what happened to other people, especially if i didn't know them, however, judging by what the dead man on the floor and the woman had, they were possibly travelling merchants (which would explain why they were attacked), the woman being the merchant (carrying a staff which had a large jewel of some sort embedded on the top) while the man being a guard, a poor one, considering he was dead.

This presented 3 choices for me:

1. I walk away, it really isn't gonna hurt me to do that and playing the hero is just pathetic.

2. I kill everyone, take their stuff, easy enough really and well, survival of the fittest, which in my line of work, was a iron rule.

3. I save the woman, even if i can't understand the local dialect, i may be able to get some information out of her, like, what i shouldn't eat around here, like the berries i picked up earlier.

One sided slaughter

After a few moments, i decided to go with 3, for a few reasons:

Even if i turned away now, what would stop me encountering the bandits later on, when i'm the unprepared one.

I'd rather not risk eating something i'm unfamilar with, the last time i did that i almost crapped my self to death (poisened food), its not a good way to die.

I can always kill her later if she proves useless or potencial hazard.

Finally, i don't know how long i'd be stuck on this world and getting into the good books of anyone with money is always useful (provided they don't try to kill you after you've done a job for them).

With that in mind, i darted right out of the bushes, quickly closing in on the 3 men, one of them spotting me just in time to see the face of the man breaking his neck.

He hadn't even dropped on the floor as i attacked the second one, who was probally trying to figure out what just happened as i slammed my hand into his neck, at the sametime grabbing the dagger he had held in his hand as he stagged backwards, gasping for breath as he fell on the floor.

The third one took a slash at me, which i dodged by simply side stepping away from the blow before using the dagger i had borrowed earlier to slash his throat.

He died a few seconds later, hitting the floor, a pool of blood gathering underneath him.

I turned towards the lady who at this point was holding the wooden staff, taking a defensive stance as she stared at me.

Reward

I dropped the dagger and held my hands up towards her.

"I'm not going to hurt you" i said, pretty useless admitidly considering the fact i didn't know the language.

Or so i though.

Somehow, she must of understood me as she lower her staff, before running over to the corpse of the adventurer, sobbing as she knelt down and rested her head on his chest.

This went on for a minute, before she got up and turned towards me, picking up the staff.

"jsuie hso lsi sahjim op" she said, i hadn't a fucking clue what it was she said.

I held my head as i tried to think of a way to communicate with her, trying to shrug off the urge to simply kill her and grab all the goods i can (my patience was very thin).

"ks ury hsatl us jek powj uhsiet, eushdg haisi hsji nch uis usjejksiu ueiwjsgf pw hsjeihdbed kl" she muttered, which drew my attention, that and the fact that blue energy was swirling around her.

"What the hell is happening" i though to my self as i went to draw one of my pistols, she was doing something, didn't know what, but i didn't fancy her continuing.

As i aimed at her, ready to fire, the energy flew right at me, passing right through my body, before swirling around me, then disappearing.

I went to fire at the bitch, but stopped when she spoke to me.

"Can you understand me" she said, that single sentence caused me to drop my guns as i stared at her in shock.

"What the fuck"

Magic

Me and this strange lady walked down the dirt path, heading towards the town i had entered yesterday, with me checking my body, trying to ensure that nothing had changed, like growing an extra hand.

"You don't need to worry so much, its a simple magic spell that allows the person hit by it to understand the language of the caster" she said to me.

"Well sorry if i'm a bit skeptical, but i'm very much use to anything so convient having some form of backlash" i replied to her, still somewhat confused over what had happened.

"You don't seem to be familiar with magic, where are you from" she asked me as we continued to walk, it seems she wasn't a merchant but some kind of magicain (she called her self a mage), which in my experiance, was some one which had some cheap tricks and the ability to fool people, not say a few words and instantly grant people the ability to speak an unknown tongue, it was unnerving to say the least.

"A far away place, lets keep it at that, any way, this... magic, what else can it do" i asked back, trying to pry any bits of useful information out of her.

"Anything the caster desires, provided they know how to cast the spell properly and the spiritual energy to do it" she replied, swirling her staff, causing water to gather in a ball of water infront of her, before grasping it with one hand and drinking the water.

"Cheating bitch" i though to my self, usually i had to go to the effort of finding a source of water, then filtering it, before drinking.

I was about to ask her more about magic but suddenly she stopped, grasping her staff as she stared forward.

I turned to look forward to see a woman standing on the dirt path infront of us, the same one that had attacked me yesterday, her tail swinging wildly.

Insanity

The lady next to me was shaking, she was frightened of the woman in front of us, who at this point was swinging her tail wildly as she smiled.

"Salamander" the mage lady muttered as she continued to shiver, i assume its the name of this scaled womans species.

"Going to run away again?" she shouted towards us.

The lady next to me was about to speak but i stopped her.

"Don't, i have a score to settle with this bitch" i said as i walked forward towards, drawing my staff, ramping up the charge in both ends of the staff.

"Not this time bitch, i plan on making sure you don't come after me again" i shouted back at her, which only seemed to make her happier.

"Brilliant, i can't wait to see how hot you get me" she shouted as she charged towards me.

She is going to regret the day she set eyes on me.

I stood there as she took a slash at me, with me side stepping as i twisted around, swinging my staff with me as i went to hit her.

It seems shes a fast learner, as she quickly disengaged, before coming in for another strike, this time i redirected her blade using the shaft of my staff, which created a opening for me.

I quickly hit her in the stomuch, but as i went to hit her with an electrical discharge, she grabbed onto me.

"Time for you to have a taste" she said as the electricity ran through our bodies, causing both of us to convulse before we both fell backwards.

She probally hoped a blow like that would take me out, she was wrong.

I quickly got back up, it wasn't the first time i had received a electrical shock, so i had somewhat got use to recovering quickly from them.

Its a shame that she seemed just as resiliant, she was back up on her feet mere moments after i was.

"Amazing, so strong, your making me so hot inside" she gasped, her tail was swinging wildly now, a massive grin on her face.

My blood was boiling at this point, every fibre of my being screaming at me to beat the shit out of her.

"By the time i'm done, you'll wish you'd never met me" i shouted as i charged at her, i hadn't picked up my staff, but at this point, it didn't matter, my blood lust simply had complete control over me, rational though was out the window.

She attempted to swipe me with her sword, but found she only hit thin air as i ducked underneath the blade, ramming into her stomuch, causing her to fall on the ground.

Before she could recover, i started hitting her with my fists, i got in several good strikes before she grabbed me and rolled over, pinning me down as she started to hit me back.

The blows were hard, the only reason i didn't lose consciousness was because of the sheer adrenaline in my system, i had an overactive gland which could cause me to go berserk if i hadn't taken any medication before hand to control the flow.

I kicked her in the stomuch, which caused her to flinch, giving me the oppotunity to get out from under her and stand up, with her quickly standing up as well.

We were both panting at this point, blood dripping down our faces, with her still smiling, this pissed me off immensely.

"Ah....ah.....i've never met some one so strong, so ferocious, its making me so wet and hot, i must have you" she stated.

Even if it killed me, i would bring this bitch down, this was my only though, only the urge to fight remained inside.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light caused both of us of try and shield our eyes, moments later, i felt wind flow around my body.

When i opened my eyes, i found myself at the gates of the village, with the staff lady kneeling on the ground, sweat dripping down her face.

Price

After a few minutes, i manage to calm down, though i quickly turn towards the mage lady who is now on her feet, looking a bit exhausted.

"What the hell was that, i was busy kicking her arse" i shouted, which caused her steb back in surprise.

"Are you mad, she'd of beaten you senseless and then carried you off to god knows hwere, never to be seen again" she replied in anger.

"I saved your life" she shouted again, this was drawing the attention of the guards stationed at the town gates.

"And i saved yours" i replied, before examing my self for any abonormalities, baring blood on my face, there was no changes.

I then realised i was missing something.

My staff.

"Oh fucking hell" i shouted as i began to walk away from the town, intent on getting my staff back.

"You need to rest" the mage lady said as she grabbed onto my arm, trying to stop me from going back into the forest.

"I need to get my staff back" i replied as i removed her hand from me, before continuing to talk away.

After a few moments, the mage lady spoke to me again.

"At least tell me your name" she shouted, causing me to stop and turn towards her.

"Karl, Karl sagen, yours?" i replied, i had no need to hide my name.

"Aria" she replied, with a slight smile on her face.

"Well Aria, if you excu...." i was about to finish my sentence when suddenly, i felt my body start to lose strength, my vision started to blur as i found it difficult to focus on anything, the world just started to distort as i found my self falling over, hitting the ground.

What was happening, i know i hadn't lost nearly enough blood to cause this, so what could be causing this.

These thoughs ran through my mind as the world around me darkened.

Chapter 1

Index

Authors notes:

And finished, finally, we got a name for the main character, still, why did he suddenly callapse, oh the questions that need to be answer, i'll let you lot draw your own opinions.

Laterz.

Critism is welcome as always.