The Last Favor

Chapter 2

Many long hours have passed since the two chaps entered the forest. While Bryce is enjoying the adrenaline boiling his veins with the thought of an exciting adventure, Tristan has gotten quite skilled at ignoring the kid who tends to nag a lot but one threatful glare is all it takes to silence him.

During those precious moments where Tristan can enjoy the melody of a quiet forest, he was able to remember how convenient he finds the woods. He was able to stock up in plants and many other ingredients that will come very handy when he uses magic. As expected, every time Tristan picked something up, Bryce would bombard him with questions that remained unanswered, much to the poor soul’s disappointment.

As darkness quickly took over, our travelers stopped at a spot Tristan deemed safe enough for him to spend the night while Bryce simply held his small dagger tighter than ever before.

Using his heat-absorbent bracelet, wood and magic, the Lezterp lit a fire that he used to roast a rabbit for dinner while the defenseless human settled with a few handpicked fruits. The little lad, afraid of poisoning, tried to ask for his guider’s help but the latter being as heartless as ever ignored him once more. Finally, he watched Tristan eat a few fruits here and there and Bryce chose to eat only from those trees as he was sure they were safe.

Though it may have been a coincidence, the small guy was convinced that this was Tristan’s way of helping him which led him to believe their relationship was improving. Meanwhile, Tristan was still wondering why this little parasite was still following him.

The next day, they woke up to a position that wasn’t all that surprising because once again Bryce had snuck up to Tristan’s lap during his sleep. They were both wondering just how deep of a sleeper is Tristan?

While one bloke went to get more fruits for the both them since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the other was taking out his weapons and enhancing them using spells and potions because the mountain was getting near and it should not be much longer until they come face to face with the Taem and a fight is bound to break out.

When Bryce came back, Tristan was drinking some sort of concoction he had made.

“What’s that?” The all too familiar question popped out of the child’s mouth.

“A potion,” Tristan simply replied.

“What does it do?”

No surprises there, that last question was met with silence which efficiently ended Bryce’s investigation.

The youngster, beginning to adapt to said silence, offered Tristan half the fruits but as always, having a mind of his own, the jerk disregarded him. He pulled out some food from his haversack and the ‘companions’ had breakfast together.

And thus, a new day began as they headed towards the cave near the mountain in hopes of earning the 200 gold.

The cave turned out to be a couple of hours away which gave Tristan enough time to recall all that he knows about Taems. Not that one could forget those possessive flesh-eating monsters with their single eye and sickish green skin and their body hair that is thick enough to replace clothes. However, all of that did not matter. What was of real importance was the Taem’s claws which are as sharp as a blade and his skin tends to be almost as hard as rocks.

While our Taem expert was caught up in his mind, he failed to notice that the kid who was far too excited had run too far ahead, not that Tristan cared.

The child’s loud commotion a few meters ahead did eventually catch our explorer’s attention. The Taem took his bait sooner than he anticipated.

Right then and there, Tristan activated the enhancement spells he had prepared in the morning and swiftly followed the kid’s horrified screams which almost immediately led him to the cave that must be the Taem’s home.

And hence, the fight begins.

With his left hand, Tristan pulled out his talisman from under his shirt while he held his sword with might. He dropped what appeared to be a rock on the ground as his talisman glowed brightly while he threw a fireball at his opponent who caught fire so quick he ended up throwing the kid away from him and, turning to face his new found enemy, he ran growling like a savage and grabbing Tristan by his neck. As his claws start digging unto his skin, his face grew closer to the beast’s disgusting mouth whose teeth threatened to chew his head off in seconds while the kid lays in a corner crying of fear.

The Taem was caught off guard by Tristan’s talisman that started glowing once more. It turned out that the rock like object Tristan dropped earlier was a smoke bomb he had prepared earlier that day which burnt the monster’s eyes as Tristan, immune to the smoke due to the potion he drank that same morning, grabbed his sword once more and quickly finished off the creature.

If there’s one thing he learnt in all his years of fighting it’s that to have the slightest chance in a fight against a stronger opponent, you have to end it as fast as possible by fighting with strategies instead of strength.

While Tristan was sitting in a corner, still recovering his breath, Bryce ran towards him with tears in his eyes and hugged him like his life depended on it.

“Despite you saying you don’t like me, you still came to my rescue, Tristan! You’re my hero!” Bryce proudly exclaimed.

“No.” was Tristan short precise answer which Bryce failed to hear.

While the kid celebrated Tristan’s ‘heroic’ act, the latter was in a bit a shock. How stupid is this kid? Why can’t he see that he was using him as bait? How has he not noticed that Tristan had no intention of saving him?

All these questions buzzed his mind while the child was naively clueless, but the thought that dominated the rest was how could Bryce see a difference between him and the Taem when they both captured him in similar ways with ill intent? Because to Tristan’s eyes, he was no different than that or any monster. But to that kid’s eyes, he was somehow a hero when all he did was try and get him killed.