Yet to be named, pt14 and deadlines are hard

So I went on holiday for a week (15 - 22th July) where I could not update the blog with a new story post. And for the last 13 days I was continuously forgetting to update this place, so in exchange here you have a bigger part, and another update tomorrow.

The couple eased themselves from the constant wariness of night travel. In the dark, a horse could easily break a leg on the uneven ground, and nobody wants to get trampled by an immobile horse. Not to mention the walking dead.

But now, with no threat clearly visible, they relaxed, watched the merry surroundings and fought exhaustion. Neither spoke a word. They still felt uneasy about each other.

Such idle riding went on for a short time. The sun went higher up the horizon, beating the night chill and warming the pair. The flush of a river joined the heavenly composition of their surroundings.

They didn’t bother changing the sleepy pace, enjoying the peace for a few final moments. Behind another of the turns, a spring flowed steadily across the trail. It was a few meters wide, but very shallow. The riverbed was clearly seen even from the distance, with a few stones sticking out above the water and indicating the trail.

The couple approached it, got off the horse and stretched their numb legs, then proceeded to the spring for a drink.

The water was cool and refreshing, perfect after the long and tiring night ride. It pleased them both as they let out long sighs. The horse enjoyed the break as well - it drank to its heart’s content.

The man looked around the forest, listened to the merry chirpings of all the birds, and then looked at his unexpected companion. She was looking at him too. He shifted his gaze to the flowing water, feeling really uneasy.

‘So... was the blocked door to my room your doing?’, he asked. Even though he didn’t look
at her, he was certain she was smiling pitifully at him. He didn’t know why he thought so.

‘That’s one strange way to start a conversation.’, she pointed out. ‘After riding together for hours, I expected you to ask for my name or something on the sort. But I’ll answer your question.
It was my doing indeed’, she finished.

A small trickle of shame started by the short comment turned into a river of anger when his mind figured out what she meant. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists, trying to get a grip
on himself. Then, he made a little discovery.

‘Wait’, he remarked, ‘why has it gone silent?’

Indeed, the birds stopped their tunes, and with the abrupt end to the conversation, the area fell silent. Deathly silent. The pair grabbed their weapons’ hilts, looking around vividly. The little clearing around the river left them clearly exposed to arrows, and they were painfully aware of that. The horse neighed uneasily and quickly trotted to the pair. The sun hid behind a cloud bank to add
to the dramatic atmosphere.

For a moment, nothing moved, the only sounds being the steady flow of the river and the breaths of the pair.

It didn’t last. Slowly, the sound of rustling leaves coming from the direction of the necropolis came. They knew it meant trouble – doubtless something coming from the overrun city was not friendly – so they tightened their grips, awaiting their enemies’ arrival.

And finally the last of the brush gave way and a pack of five skeletons emerged. Four looked just like the ones he encountered last night – bare bones, empty gazes, everlasting grins of death, rust-covered hand axes in skeletal hands. The one in the front wasn’t all that different – the same figure, similar weapon, identical grin – but the eyes were so striking that he couldn’t possibly
be regarded as just a skeleton. There were little orbs of flaring blue light in the skeleton’s eye sockets. What was with the undead and all the different eyes, anyways?

‘You fought them, right?’ – His companion asked. – ‘Are they tough?

‘Yes. No. I mean...not quite. Only the plain ones. Not the blue one. I mean, the one with blue eyes. I didn’t fight him. Only the other. But they weren’t tough.’

She rolled her eyes.

‘Gods, man, work on your communication. Anyway, spread out’ – she remarked as she stepped to the left, dagger close to her side. He did, too, circling to his right, sword in front. The horse snorted uneasily and kept backing up.

Luckily – depending on the point of view, of course – the undead paid the animal
no attention whatsoever. Three turned to the woman, while the other two – the blue-eyed one and another – faced him.

He sighed and tried to block out the surrounding from his perception in an attempt to focus on his adversaries. It was a partial success. He cared too much about his loose horse and, surprisingly, about her. Maybe it was because if she got wounded, he’d have found himself fighting against five enemies at once.