Memories Lost - First of Apocalyptic Hell Series

Raiding

    I woke up to the sound of something moving about, there was a voice muttering but I couldn’t tell if it was Asar or a threat. I laid completely still until I felt a warm hand grasp my shoulder. I sat up and shoved the person who grabbed me to the floor and held my moon steel blade to their throat. 

    “Good morning to you too.” Asar choked out while I pinned him down. I instantly relaxed and backed off of him. 

    “Sorry,” I looked away sheepishly, “you startled me is all.” I tucked my blade back into its sheath that was strapped to my arm under my sleeve. 

    “Well I probably shouldn’t have been sneaking around, but I wanted to surprise you with breakfast and coffee. I did my best and I’ve gotten rather skilled with a hot plate and a skillet.” He gestured to the pan that was full of scrambled eggs with sautéed vegetables and a coffee pot full of black coffee. “I do keep this place stocked well in coffee and sugar and creamers, I wasn’t sure how you’d take your coffee.” I smiled softly, even Vivaldi had his tack on although not properly. 

    “Well thank you for all of this and to give you a hand with the rest of the meal I shall add in some warm bread. No breakfast is complete without toast.” He chuckled and nodded in agreeance. I pulled out a loaf of bread and warmed it, pulled out some salted cream butter and sliced up some of the toast with butter and passed Asar a few slices. He should give himself some credit, this breakfast was delicious for being so simple. I couldn’t complain or think of anything that would make it better. 

    After we cleaned everything up I walked over to Vivaldi, who stood stoic as usual, but his tack was a mess due to Asar’s lack of knowledge. Asar walked over and watched while I went over the tack correcting/adjusting what he didn’t get right. He watched intently as if taking notes while I worked to tack him up properly. 

    “Before we go on to the next stores, let’s bring your horse to life shall we.” I held my hand out for him to place the wooden horse. I could feel the magic flow from the depths of my body and down through my arms and into my fingertips, I watched as a light blue aura of light began to flow from my hands and fingers to the little wooden horse. It swirled around and around before seeping into the wood, then it began to glow. I set it down on the floor to allow the magic to take effect, I stood by Asar and my gaze flicked back and forth from the wooden horse to his face. Watching him as he looked on in awe brought me a little bit of joy. 

    We watched the wooden horse sprout different shades of grey hair ranging from almost white to charcoal and black, it grew quickly, growing almost almost as large as Vivaldi. The head of it came around to face Asar and was looking only at him, it ignored everyone else. It pressed its nose into Asar’s chest and just stood there. It had muscular legs, mane and tail that almost touched the floor, a wide chest and rump, neck was arched and muscular as well. It reminded me of a large Andalusian or Lipizzaner crossed with a draft breed of sorts. It was built for power and speed, it should keep up with Vivaldi with no trouble at all. 

    “Oh my, it’s massive!” Asar said in awe, “It’s taller than me!” he reached out tentatively as if asking permission to touch the great beast. It leaned into his hand and sighed as it’s master petted its great neck. 

    “Now it’s time to tack it up and you’ll be ready, also you should probably name it.” Upon hearing my last statement Asar looked at me, then looked back at the beast and then again at me. 

    “What should I name it? I don’t even know if it’s a mare or stallion.” He sounded shocked as I grabbed the satchel that would have the tack stored in it and began summoning what he’d need. I chuckled at his question. 

    “The name is for you to decide and you should honestly just ask it if it’s a stallion or a mare. It will understand what you are saying, remember you are telepathically bonded with it. It can hear your thoughts and you can hear it.” As soon as I finished speaking the big thing swung it’s tail at me, whipping me in the side of the face. “Ouch!” I rubbed my cheek as it stung, “I’m going to assume it’s getting annoyed with being called ‘it’, better come up with a name soon.” Vivaldi snorted angrily at the new addition to our group for whipping me. I gave his muzzle a quick rub to calm him. 

    “You are right about that and I believe it’s a mare and her name shall be Vhaenna, yes I think that will do. Vhaenna.”  the mare nickered into Asar’s chest, seemingly pleased with her new name. 

    “Beautiful name for a beautiful creature, now let’s tack her up.” I chuckled as I turned back to the table that had all the tack I pulled out for us to try on her. After some trial and error we managed to find everything that would fit her. “Now that was a task all on it’s own, time to move on to the other stores and see what we can find.” I opened the door to the store floor just enough to be able to look out and see if the coast was clear, after ensuring the coast was clear and the parking lot was deserted I motioned for Asar and his horse to follow suit. After that was finished, some clean up magic was used to clean the room and discard any traces that anyone had been there recently, even the smells were gone and the room smelled stale and abandoned. 

     “Do you know if any of these other stores are armed with alarm systems that will be set off as soon as we enter them?” I looked at him hoping he would say no. 

    “Honestly I don’t know, the only one I know for certain that isn’t armed are the stores along that wing of the plaza. The few stores along this stretch I don’t know since I’ve not tried going in there. There isn’t anything that I could’ve used to survive with.” What he said was true, as I was looking I could see a payday loan place, a phone store, an insurance place and a nail salon. There wasn’t going to be anything of value in any of those except the nail salon and that was to get more items that people could use to beautify themselves, gives a sense of normalcy in these dark times. 

    “We will go into the nail salon and take what we can there, then move on.” I could see the confused look on his face at that statement. “The things in there will bring a sense of normalcy to some people. It helps to cope with these dark times.” 

    I was able to make quick work of the salon, it was pretty easy since everything was in a few places. The next few stores were fairly easy as well, their small size made it quick to strip them clean. When we got to the mattress store that took longer than expected, using magic to manipulate the mattresses to fit through the opening of the satchel was more time consuming than I expected. The few other small stores that were there we made fast work of raiding, the restaurant that was there took a bit to strip the kitchen of all it’s supplies and whatever food that hadn’t spoiled. The large hobby store took a bit of work, but we managed and luckily the door dinged if anyone walked in. 

    “Whew!” Asar exclaimed as he plopped down in front of me, Vhaenna came up behind him and nuzzled his face before laying down allowing him to lean up against her. 

    I smiled at how gentle she was around him, even though they were golems to serve a purpose they had the complex mentality of real horses. Vivaldi stood stoic as always behind me, his legs pressed against my back. He snorted and made a noise that I could only compare to as an annoyance grumble at how Vhaenna behaved. I reached up and patted his chest to calm him. 

    ‘She is acting like a love sick filly the way she behaves. She is a warhorse and she needs to act like it.’ Vivaldi’s annoyed voice rang in my mind, and made me chuckle. 

    ‘Now, now, let her behave that way. If I remember you behaved similarly to a young colt who was being protective over his dam when I created you, lord forbid anyone even tried to get near me. You hated having to share me with anyone, I know you hate sharing me with Theoden.’ He snorted at that comment, no matter how much I love Theoden or how much he proves himself as a trustworthy Vivaldi didn’t like him. Granted he didn’t like much of anyone except for myself, but it certainly made me smile the way he acted some days. 

    ‘I tolerate him for your sake, you are the one who loves him and for you I will tolerate him. If he tries to ride me again I cannot guarantee that I will give him a pleasant ride.’ I could practically feel the sneer in his voice. ‘Besides I was not discussing our matters or how I behaved when I was still a wet behind the ears colt, we are in a time of war and here she is behaving like a love struck filly in her first heat. It’s downright dis-’

    ‘If I do recall you refused to sleep in the barns after I created you, you wouldn’t take no for an answer and even broke a squire’s nose when he tried to take you back to your stall. Doesn’t matter how dangerous the times are, let her enjoy this and soon she will learn and behave accordingly. She may not be as cold as you’ve become, she may stay warm and bubbly, she is a mare after all.’ I chastised him and reminded him of his behavior when I made him. 

    I still remember hearing that squire squeal like a young girl when Vivaldi headbutted him to get him to release him. That night we were about to lay down when we heard the scream, before Theoden could grab his sword and make it to the opening to our tent when Vivaldi came barging in. The squire came in shortly after holding a cloth against his face, the cloth had a fair amount of blood on it when he came in to grab him. 

    ‘I-I just didn’t want to leave you unguarded! It is my duty to protect you and to bring you home safely!’ He snorted just before he lowered his muzzle next to my ear to blow into my ear, I rested my head against his muzzle and stroke the opposite side. ‘I couldn’t live with myself knowing that it was my fault that you were harmed. You are my rider.’ A warm feeling blossomed in my chest and brought a smile to my lips. I had created him with the help of Queen Alenia just the day before and the bond was incredibly strong. Vivaldi has been my best friend since that day and I don’t know what I would do without him. 

    “I was wondering if he could be affectionate, he always seems so cold all the time.” Asar’s voice was filled with amusement as he watched Vivaldi open up and give me affection. Upon hearing his words, Vivaldi turned his head away from me and snorted at Asar, causing both of us to start laughing. 

    “Alright let’s rest up before we head to the next location, we have a lot of work ahead of ourselves.” I sighed and stretched before pulling myself up to try and find something comfortable to use as a bed roll. 

    “Do we have to move on today?” Asar asked, “We could always take a break and rest up a bit longer and go back out in the morning.” I could tell he was already growing tired and we have done a lot of work just in two days, he isn’t used to going to these extremes and I shouldn’t push him so hard, but we don’t exactly have much of a choice. 

    “Unfortunately we have to keep going, we can’t waste time and as much as I wouldn’t mind taking a break, the sooner we get this raid finished in this city, the sooner we can head to the next place. We will continue to travel and if we find survivors they will come with us as well, we won’t return to Eindenia for a while yet unless I feel it is necessary or we find more survivors. If our group grows to 5 or more then we'll return sooner, I won’t be able to keep a group that large safe on my own.” I could see that Asar was growing tired already, but he will have to strengthen up if he is going to survive, “I’m sorry, but I have a mission to complete and I will do what I can to do so.” 

    “I understand and I don’t want to get in the way of your mission, I guess I’m not used to going to these extremes to gather supplies. I would just gather what I needed when I needed it, I tried not to venture outside very often.” 

    “You will grow accustomed to this way of life sooner than you can imagine. I’ve seen many humans surviving this and they are faring fairly well in the Fae realm.” I pulled out a roll of material that was fluffy and soft, after making a mat large enough for a few people to lay on it then rolled some of it up to make one large pillow that stretched the length of the mat. “Come and lay down, it’ll be more comfortable than sitting on the hard tile floor.” He looked cautiously at me as if he thought I was going to pounce on him, “Asar, I promise I don’t bite, but I’m not above taking advantage of simple comforts when I can. If you’d rather sit on the cold hard tile be my guest.” I left it at that while I stretched out on the material. 

    It wasn’t quite as comfortable as a bed, but it functioned just the same. Vivaldi began to fluff the hay I had pulled out for him before laying down next to me, he tucked his nose over his legs so his muzzle was next to me. He may not be the most affectionate horse around, but he certainly has his moments. Asar finally decided that he’d rather rest on the makeshift bed and not sit on the cold floor, but made sure to put as much space between the two of us as possible. 

    Vhaenna looked over at how Vivaldi was laying on his hay so she did the same, only she almost laid on top of Asar. This caused us both to burst with laughter as she gingerly laid down, but nearly crushed him. Once she was comfortable and Asar was not being squished, she laid her head across Asar’s chest and nickered affectionately. Vivaldi may have looked to have fallen asleep but he was awake enough to give out an exasperated snort of annoyance. I chuckled lightly at his reaction, my hand rested under his chin and I scratched there till my eyelids grew heavy and I drifted off to sleep.