Chapter 42 – A Big Mistake

Alya doubles over, her hands on her knees, wheezing and sobbing all at once. After she stormed away from Bishop, she had started to run, and had not stopped running until her legs has turned to rubber, until her side started to burn, until her lungs cried out for air.

She plonks herself down on the grey earth, covers her face with her hands, and screams into her palms; a long, loud, high-pitched shriek of utter frustration and despair.

Bastard, she curses, ungrateful sonofawhore...how dared he?

How could he accuse her of pining for Casavir? No, lusting after him, that was what he insinuated.

She hugs her knees to her chest, and cries into the crook of her arm.

How could he even think that, after everything she's done?

Coming here was a mistake...

A big mistake.

She feels Karnwyr's cold wet nose nudging the side of her head. With a whimper, she throws her arms around the wolf's thick mane, and buries her face in his neck, staining the creature's fur with her salty tears.

I shouldn't have come...I shouldn't have bothered...

I should've left him to rot in that stinking wall...

Sitting there clinging to Karnwyr, in the middle of the barren plains of Hades, she has never felt more alone.

She feels more alone now than when she grew up an orphan, with a foster father as distant as he was harsh.

She feels more alone now than when she spent all those isolated years on the Star Mount training under Q'ian Zang.

Or when she returned to West Harbour to find the Shadow Reavers had massacred everyone in her village.

Or even that day in the woods, when the Mossfeld brothers...

A fresh wave of tears flows at the memory.

The worst time of my life, she thinks. I relived the most traumatic moment of my life for him, and this is the thanks I get?

"You just can't let go of the past."

Hot rage flushes her cheeks as she recalls the ranger's remark.

Says he with the wagonload of emotional baggage.

She wipes her tears with a sleeve, her anger overriding all other emotions.

Selfish, conceited hypocrite, that's what he is.

I am not going to waste any more of my time on him.

She is going to make her own way to the edge of the Iron Forest, to the portal that will take her home.

Then she will get on with her life, and forget all about him.

Whether he makes it to the portal in time or not...well, that's his problem, not hers.

I am washing my hands of him.

After taking a deep breath to compose herself, she stands, brushing the dust off the seat of her pants. With renewed resolve, she marches on.

She hasn't gotten very far when she bumps into a hulking goristro.

The massive demon appears first as a small dot in the horizon, one that gradually grows bigger as it moves towards her. When it gets close enough for her to recognise it for what it is, she unhooks her nunchucks, and advances slowly, eyeing the creature warily. The monster shambles along, grunting to itself, its meaty knuckles dragging along the ground as it moves.

It stops briefly ten yards away from her, its black pupils shining as it cocks its boulder-sized head, as if seeing her for the first time.

Alya tightens her grip on the chucks. Karnwyr growls beside her, his hackles raised.

But the goristro drops its head and continues walking, seeming to show no interest in her whatsoever.

Surprised but still on guard, the monk loosens her hold on her twin rods, but the wolf continues to snarl, lips pulled back, revealing his sharp fangs.

The demon is twenty feet away now, moving as though it intends to stroll right by her, like strangers passing each other on a busy city street.

I guess it's not hungry.

The monk straightens up from her defensive stance, and lowers her weapon.

Big mistake.

At ten feet, the goristro lifts its head. Its cavernous nostrils flare as it appears to sniff the air.

Then, without warning, it charges.

Straight towards the half-elf.