Elemental Accords 1-12

Good Morning my peoples!

Chapter 12

We decided to find a place to rest after the run-in with the giant worm. Needless to say, no one slept on the ground floor. At least we were still in the part of the city that had buildings that were two or three stories. In a few blocks, that would be the rarity.

I sat down on the sofa and relaxed for a moment. A few of the women were keeping watch from the windows to give Rai and me a break. What I wanted was a shower followed by a long hot bath. Sighing at the fact that wasn’t likely going to happen any time soon, I just rubbed my face to push away some of the weariness.

“Here you go.”

I blinked and looked at the woman, I thought her name was Lucy, but I was afraid of getting it wrong. She was handing me some soup that she had heated up. I took the can with a smile. “Thanks!”

Using the can like a cup, I drank the soup quickly. I barely noticed the heat which I felt was lukewarm. Glancing around at the others, that didn’t appear to be the case. I had no way of knowing given my powers. Gold is Health could be healing it before I even noticed the burn.

I turned to ask Rai what she thought considering she was the one with the gamer knowledge, but she leaned into me asleep as I shifted on the sofa. I chuckled and decided to let her rest. The city was already hard enough a place for sleeping with all the new dangers, but the wilderness was bound to be just as bad. I just hoped the Ark proved to be a good refuge for everyone.

Crackers were passed out after the soup then everyone turned in for the night. I tried to rest but with Rai out and only a few of the women on watch, I found it hard to relax enough to actually sleep. The encounter with the worm earlier today had fried more nerves than I expected. When it came time to switch the watch, I actually felt relieved.

Shaking Rai, she refused to wake up as she wrapped her arms around mine. It would have been cute if it weren’t for the drool that was covering part of her mouth. I managed to extract myself, but she was still dead to the world. Rubbing the back of my head, I could only exhale slowly as I thought about what to do with her.

“Let her sleep. I’ll take her watch,” Lara whispered.

“You sure?” I asked with some concern. She had to be the next most exhausted out of the group. She hadn’t had first watch, but I didn’t see her get much sleep. It had looked like she had been going over some scenarios with some notepads.

She gave me a forced smile. “I don’t think I can sleep even if I wanted to.”

“Fair enough. Wake the other pair for watch. I think they’ll appreciate if another woman does it.” While I hadn’t done anything to any of them. I felt many couldn’t fully trust me yet. They waited for the wolf to reveal himself as it were. That was also one of the concerns I have about picking up any male survivors. Watching out for monsters was hard enough, watching our backs for those of us that lose to the situation was an altogether different nightmare.

“I don’t think they would mind,” Lara started but I just shook my head.

“I’d rather not push them. I’ll be in the other room,” I said moving carefully through the sleeping bodies. Coming to a window that had a good view of the surroundings, I relieved the women that were watching this route. “Anything?”

“No. A quiet night. It’s almost scary how quiet it is,” one of them said.

I smiled knowingly. The city was usually still very much awake at this time of night. For it to be this quiet was weird to say the least. “Alright. I’ll take it from here. Try to get some sleep.” The nodded their thanks before moving back to the sleeping room. I pointed out toward the street. “Summon Knight Order.”

Knight and his cohorts appeared. They had taken some damage from the last time I summoned them, but it looked like once they returned and were resummoned, they got repaired. Knight looked up at me waiting for his orders. “Hunt monsters. If you find the worm monster, kill it!” I ordered and they saluted me with a clenched fist to their chest.

They separated making their way in different directions. I sat on the cabinet next to the window, so I had a good view. It sucked I had no way to track my experience, but I knew the knights were able to gain me some during their nightly hunts.

“Everyone is resting.” Lara’s voice came from the entrance to the room. I gave her a nod as she joined me though at the other window.

“I hope I’m not making a mistake leading them from the city,” I said admitting that I wasn’t sure that was the right path for the overall group. I needed to get to the next city to get to the central bank and all the gold there, but it might be better to take these women to a survivor group first. Though I admit, I hadn’t seen any signs of one so far.

“Even if it is, they are all adults. They can make their own decisions. You have told us more than once that we were free to leave. Anyone still here is here of their own will.”

I grinned. “Or we can tell ourselves so we can sleep at night,” I replied with a shrug.

She shrugged back. “And it will still be the truth. So yeah, I’ll sleep just fine on this count.”

My grin grew deeper, and I turned back to look outside. A full moon that almost seemed large enough to crush the entire city dominated the sky. Though it was full, the city was anything but bright. The darkness almost seemed to creep along waiting to engulf anything that came near it. All of it just felt… sinister.

~~~

“Good morning!” Rai exclaimed in a subdued shout as she came out of the group room. I gave her a legitimate smile as she handed me a mug of coffee.

“Careful. You almost look like a goddess when you come bearing gifts like this,” I teased as I took a big swig of the bitter goodness.

“You may worship me, mortal,” Rai said with a grin as she struck a pose.

“Maybe next time,” I replied with a chuckle. I stood up and stretched. I had only been on watch duty for about five hours and sadly, most of that was just sitting and starring out the window.

Sounds of movement came from the other room as the others started to get ready for the day. Anemone and Ruby came up to me as I walked into the room. “Did you sleep mister?” Ruby asked.

I kneeled and rubbed the tops of their heads. “A little. I was more worried about making sure you guys got some sleep.”

“We slept good!” Anemone exclaimed grabbing my hand. “I made you breakfast.”

“Oh?” I glanced at Lara who just shrugged with a smile. I snorted and let the girl pull me along. One of the women had set up a camp set and had cooked some of the food that would go bad before long. On a plate, there was a slightly burnt pancake. Still, it looked better than what someone her age could usually do nowadays. “Thanks.”

I sat down and quickly ate the offered food. Everyone else was in a slightly better mood after a decent night’s sleep and food in their bellies. It would be nice if we could keep up that level of enthusiasm for the rest of the day, but knowing that as soon as we step outside there could be a monster attack would no doubt put a damper on that.

“How is it?” Anemone asked with a worried expression.

I finished the pancake and grinned. “One of the best pancakes I’ve had in a long time.”

“Really?!”

“Yep!” I ruffled her hair since it was hard to resist how cute she was.

I decided to give the group about half an hour to socialize and enjoy the day before we headed out. A good mood was hard to create, so I wanted them to savor it. We talked about nonsense with the women actually not acting like I would bite them the first chance I got.

“Aurum!” Rai’s shout came from the other room just before a hail of gunfire crashed into the outer wall of the building. The women and children screamed while I pushed Anemone and Ruby down to the ground. Whatever they were using had to have a decent caliber. They were preicing well through six walls of brick and wood.

When the gunfire stopped, I carefully made my way to where Rai had been. I found her curled up on the ground, a small puddle of blood under her. “Rai!” I hissed as I got next to her.

“Just my arm! Bastards didn’t… even hesitate when they… saw me in the window!” Rai got out between gasps.

I narrowed my eyes as my anger rose. Monsters were more than enough of a problem! I’d rather not deal with other survivors too. I pulled out a first aid kit and passed it to Rai before I slid carefully to the wall. Thanks to their wanton firing, there were plenty of holes to peer through.

A band of what looked like forty people stood in the middle of the street. From their cloths, they looked like the military, but it was hard to say that made things better. Of the forty, at least a third of them stood in the middle with chains on their hands and necks. While the chained group was mostly female, there were some males among them. Though from what I could make out they were badly beaten.

A small group of them carried a makeshift palanquin that had a woman resting on it. “Good thing I believe in gender equality,” I grumbled. For the moment, they appeared to be observing the situation. The best we could do was retreat. While I was sure I could fight them, I wasn’t quite so sure I could handle killing my fellow humans.

Rai finished wrapping her arm and slammed the kit closed. “Please tell me we’re going to introduce their faces to the asphalt?!” she asked, anger rolling off her.

“While I want to, they have at least twenty armed men and that’s not even including whatever powers they might have gotten from the gods.” I leaned against the wall. “Not to mention, they could potentially use those people as hostages. I’m not sure I want that harsh of a decision on my conscience today.”

Rai clicked her tongue, and I couldn’t blame her.

Next:

Previous:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/51510824