Birds weren’t chirping, they never were here. Nevertheless, I woke to the warm feeling of the sun having already heated the air, and the feeling of the fabric I had made my blanket. Not having to go run around in a field this morning to collect water was definitely a highlight of this day so far.
Stretching out my arms I reach out until they hit the dirt and stick walls of the coffin, and try to sit up.
That’s when trouble starts. Sharp pain on my throat. My eyes fly open to see a face above mine. Familiar. It’s the girl from yesterday. And she is… A glance down shows the hilt of my dagger and her arm holding it in place right above my neck. Actually, partly in my neck. During my attempt to sit up most likely, the blade of the dagger had dug itself into the top layer of skin. Not breaking through to my windpipe yet thank god but close enough to warn me that moving in that direction any further would be foolish indeed.
“What the hell!”
My cry doesn’t seem to concern the girl much. She starters down with harsh eyes.
“What did you do to me?”
She yells this. Some of the skeletons on guard come over to see what the issue is and quickly pull their daggers back as they move closer prompting the rest to follow suit.
“Stand down!”
Desperately I manage to squeak that line out as the skeletons are about to lunge at her. Her eyes have already been drawn to them and the blade digs once more into my throat causing me to fear swallowing for the chance it will cut me deeper.
At my command, the skeletons come to a stop after surrounding us. And thankfully the blade pulls back again slightly buying me some much needed breathing room, literally.
“I didn’t do anything to you! The only time I touched you was to bring you here I swear! I don’t mean any harm!”
The eyes turn more to a distrustful glare.
“Explain yourself.”
She really isn’t much for delicate conversation, is she.
After the explanation, she seems a little more willing to cooperate. And yet the blade stays at my neck. Impressively maintaining a delicate balance of distance just far enough from my neck that she could slit my throat at a moment’s notice.
“Could you do something about the knife?”
“Why? The moment I drop it you’ll have the advantage. All these undead around me are under your control are they not?”
“If I move the skeletons away could you consider it? I doubt I could get them to do anything to you before you kill me anyway.”
“If I kill you what happens to the skeletons?”
“To the skeletons? Hmm… I’d guess that they would either disappear or go wild.”
“You don’t know for sure?”
“I haven’t been in a hurry to find out what happens when I die. I’ve been more occupied with staying alive.”
She seems to begrudgingly accept before agreeing to my deal.
The skeletons move a ways away and the blade is finally pulled back. I almost break into a smile and breath as deeply as I can. Thankfully I restrain myself to only the second as I pull away from her as much as I can in the cramped courters and she does the same.
She is still as beautiful as she was when I first saw her. Now though I can see her eyes as well, they are a soft brown color, in my opinion, they are perfect for her. For now, though she still eyes me skeptically.
“What’s up with you? I saved you from those guys and the first thing you do is try and kill me then even after explaining you don’t trust me at all. Why is that? I know we aren’t exactly in the best place and you have every right to be suspicious but if I wanted to do anything to you I could have done it while you were knocked out. Even with that you still don’t trust me at all.”
“You have helped me yeah. I Should be thanking you technically but you are frankly very shady looking. The type of people who choose necromancer as their class are generally… not very nice or at least not very stable. Somehow you not fitting into any of that from what I have seen just makes it worse.”
Ohh. Never thought about that. In a world where there are so many classes to choose from, I’m a necromancer. That has to be at least a little taboo. It’s far from the gallant hero swordsman or the fire-slinging mage… wait. In the stories don’t they fight each other? Dammit. If I’m hated just because of my class in this world I’m not going to be too happy about that.
“Ok. I really don’t see an obvious way around that except you just coming to see I’m not a bad guy. I don’t know how to do that but can you tell me that from what you have seen so far, I seem like I’m a danger?”
“You’re obviously dangerous. You have a small army of those skeletons. You must have been training for a while to get to that rank.”
She frowns as if judging my age and whatever I would have done to get this far.
“But, as you have asked. From what I have seen and heard you haven’t acted in any malicious way. You have acted more as a concerned third party. I can at least appreciate and accept that.”
“Then can we work together for a bit? If possible I want to get to whatever the closest city is. I have been living out here for too long.”
“Living out here? Did you get lost or something? Who would choose to live near a dungeon entrance?”
“There’s dungeons?!”
“Of course there’s dungeons! Even kids know that. Where else do you think those corrupted boars come from?”
“I knew they weren’t normal!”
“Were you sheltered or something? How do you know next to nothing and yet have the skills of a decent necromancer? That sounds like a contradiction in itself.”
“I guess you could say that. I’m not getting into my skills though.”
“Fine. I’ll accept that for now. We all have our secrets in these lines of work after all.”
“Ohh! Speaking of, what class are you If you don’t mind sharing.”
“I’m an assassin.”
Flashing back to a couple of minutes ago… yeah that checks out.
“Are you going somewhere now that you’re awake? I doubt you want to stay out here in the forest.”
“Huh, hardly. I’m going back to Re’avire.”
“Is that the name of the town you came from?”
“Yeah”
“Mind if I come with? I should at least know where the nearest town is if I want to make it.”
