The Land of Casus

Chapter 4

Thea did not sleep at all that night. She was not accustomed to sleeping on the forest floor and her mind was riddled with thoughts. She did not want to do this. She did not want to be the chosen one. Why would the wolf have chosen her, she was a nobody. A nobody who had panic attacks, was too nervous to speak to strangers and was definitely not brave enough to take on the King, let alone kill him.

"Could you not have picked someone else?" she whispered into the dark forest.

By the time dawn broke, Rex, Archimedes and Thea were up. Rex dug a hole in the ground to hide the ashes and tried his best to hide their presence by take large leaves and covering up their camp site.

"We need to head to the next village" Archimedes said. "The food we have will not last long."

"And what is the plan after that?" Rex asked.

"I do not know."

"We need a plan! Wondering around aimlessly will get us killed."

"I do not know what the plan is but I do know we need food."

"Yes, but what then?" Rex asked angrily.

"I do not know!" shouted Archimedes, "There is no script to tell us how to find Pistis Arcus, no guidelines, no step-by-step process. We are essentially walking into a death trap but we have to try..."

Thea felt overwhelmed. The tension and the severity of what they had done and what they were about to do was starting to settle in and the reality of it was horrifying. She turned her head and saw the wolf again. He was looking at her with his head tilted to the side as if expecting her to do something.

She stepped between Rex and Archimedes. "Why are we even here. Why are you two even helping me. I haven't met many people who would basically sacrifice themselves for a complete stranger."

"I have been around for a very long time," Archimedes said more calmly. "You saw how my village looked. People are poor and their is no joy in their lives. Everyone is scared and rightly so. The King takes without remorse, kills anyone who dares cross him. His only goal is to make himself wealthier, regardless of the people who suffer because of it. This is my chance to help make things right, to fix my mistakes."

Mistakes? What was he talking about? Thea thought.

Rex looked down to the ground. "I have my own reasons for hating the King." His voice was low but hatred seeped from every word. "I would give anything to see that man killed, would do it myself if I could."

"Whether we want it or not, we are in too deep. The guards will be looking for the man who killed their friends and the girl with the red hair and a wolf tattoo on her arm. The universe has laid a path for us and we have no other option but to follow it." Archimedes slung his satchel over his shoulder. "Step one, go to the next village."

Rex nodded, "It is a day and a half's walk from here. Once we have gathered more supplies we think of a plan. We need to know how to find that bow, without it, nothing will be accomplished."

Thea looked at the wolf again. He was sitting now. He gave a subtle nod of his head before disappearing into thin air. When Thea looked away, she saw that Archimedes was looking at her with a suspicious look on his face. She quickly looked down to the ground. She was not ready to tell them that she sees a glowing, green wolf.

"How do you two know each other?" Thea asked as they began the trek to the next village.

"I helped Archimedes catch Wetir Pixies once." Rex explained

"What are Wetir Pixies?"

"They are fairy like creatures that live in lakes. Pretty harmless but ever so often they will come to the surface to terrorize villages."

"One day when they came to the village, I attempted to catch them with a new potion I had been working on. It was designed to trap them in a water bubble which would then transport them back into the lake. I probably should have worked on it a bit more because instead of it working as intended, it nearly flooded the village." Archimedes explained

"So I had to swoop in and save the day. A few of the villagers and I managed to catch them while our entire village was almost submerged in water. Looking back, it was quite funny, actually." Rex laughed.

A day later and they were standing on the outskirts of the next village.

"How are we going to remain unseen?" Thea asked, staring at the village.

"You two will have to go in, disguised as a couple" Archimedes explained "Thea, you can use your shawl to hide your hair."

With the shawl hiding her hair, Thea and Rex walked into the market place. People were walking in between the stalls, merchants trying desperately to get people to buy from their stalls. The quality of the items were not good. Fruit was far too ripe, bread was stale and meat was rare. When the villagers bought items, they only bought what they needed to survive. It seems that everyone was struggling to make ends-meet.

"How do these people survive," Thea quietly asked Rex while surveying the market.

"They don't have a choice," he replied "With the King's high taxes, it doesn't leave much money for the people to survive on, but they have to find a way."

They walked up to the closest stall and purchased bread, fruit and slivers of dried meat. A glint of steel caught Thea's attention. In the next stall was a whole array of daggers. One in particular that caught her eye. It had a straight blade with a sharp edge on either side, joining to form a pointed edge. The blade was slightly longer than she would expect a normal dagger to be. The hilt was gold with three emerald stones down the center.

"Do you like that?" Rex asked, watching her.

"I have never seen anything like it."

"Well you probably need a weapon anyway," he said walking up to the merchant. After an exchange of bartering, Rex handed her the dagger.

"Thank you." said Thea gratefully, taking the dagger. She rotated it in her hands before putting it in her satchel.

"There is just one more thing I need," she said.

Thea returned to Rex, who was leaning against a wall.

"Ah, you changed your clothes."

Thea did a small twirl. "Way better than a dress I think" she said with a smile, spreading out her arms.

She had kept the boots but had exchanged the dress for black pants and a blue shirt. She returned the shawl around her head and linked arms with Rex. As the turned the corner on the way out of town, two guards were amongst the crowd.

"Have you seen these two people?" the guard asked a merchant, showing her a hand drawn portrait of Thea and Rex.

"I think we have overstayed our welcome," Rex guided Thea in the opposite direction. "Let's go find Archimedes and get out of here."

They found Archimedes where they had left him in the forest. He was sitting on the ground sprouting flowers from the grass with magic.

"We need to leave," Rex said hurriedly, "Guards are in the village looking for us and they know what we look like."

"How do they know what you look like, you killed the guards at the tavern."

"Except one. The first guard I just knocked out."

"We better be on our way" Archimedes said, getting up from the ground, a worried look on his face.

The sun was beginning to set by the time they stopped to make camp. They sat around the fire and sparingly shared out the food that they had bought.

"We need to figure out how to find the bow," Archimedes said between mouthfuls.

"How? No one has seen it for five centuries. Where do we even -." Before Rex could finish his thought, someone stepped out from behind a tree.

"Well look what we have here. A girl, an old man and a wannabe swordsman, sounds like the beginning of a bad joke." It was the guard who had grabbed her at the tavern.

Behind him came a growl, and from the shadows emerged something of nightmares. It looked like a puma but twice as large. It's coat was darker than the most blackened soul, nails as sharp as talons, and bat-like ears. It's eyes were a glowing yellow and behind them was only hunger and a taste for death. It had razor sharp teeth and fangs that were almost as long as Thea's arm. Saliva dripped from it's mouth as it as gave a bone-chilling growl and licked it's lips. Next to it, two more appeared, each scarier than the next.

"Wesans, they are amazing creatures," the guard said with a satisfied grin. "Bloodthirsty, killing machines and excellent sniffer dogs. How convenient that we found the girl's carelessly discarded clothing with her scent all over it. A beacon, to lead us straight to her."

Thea's heart stopped at her mistake.

"Run"

Thea ran as fast as she could, hoping that Rex and Archimedes were doing the same. The Wesans gave a howl of excitement and began the hunt.

Thea's heart was pounding against her ribcage. She pushed herself to run faster. She could hear the Wesan behind her, almost on her heals. Twigs and branches scratched her face and arms but she kept going. Fear kept her body going forward. She tripped over an erupted root and crashed to the ground. She quickly turned onto her back, just before the Wesan leaned over her. It's breath smelt of rotting meat. She thought of it's teeth, sinking into her neck. She only hoped that death would be painless.

Her right arm started to pain with a burning intensity. She looked from the tattoo and back at the Wesan towering above her. Her eyes had turned to a green glow. Then, as if her soul was leaving her body as a ghost, the wolf leapt up and knocked the Wesan off her. Seeing the wolf up close, he was almost the same size as the Wesan. Before the creature could react, the wolf grabbed it by the neck and shook it until he had crushed it's windpipe. The wolf let go of the Wesan and it fell limp to the floor, dead. Thea slowly raised up from the ground. She stared up at the wolf with glowing green eyes and he looked down at her, staring back with the same eyes.