The Return pt.08
For some time, Lucien continued to follow the main road west. As Cyra had told him there was a road that led south but he ignored it in favor of the shorter, more direct route to Salver. Thus he stuck to the main until he came across a strange village that must have been one of the so called penal villages he was told about.
From outside the village it resembled less a village and more of a mud soaked slum. Very little resembled an actual village aside from a few well-built wooden buildings but most resembled hastily assembled shacks. Even forts built on campaign were better than this.
As Lucien approached the sounds of loose women applying trade and sudden violent death came to his ears. The stench of human waste, mud, blood and rotting flesh came to his nose. And the sigh of downtrodden and abused people came to his eyes. Everywhere he looked Lucien saw defeated and miserable looks on the faces of the people living here. The only ones that had any semblance of pride left were the criminal gangs openly applying their trades as they eyed him carefully and theirs was a false pride built upon lies that they told themselves.
Lucien felt disgust at the state of these people. How could someone let their people come to this? It was the responsibility of a king and the nobility to look after all of their people but this was not it. This was far from how a people with true rulership should look or behave.
In the past if these people had been Dharan, Lucien would have freed them from this misery and gave them a reason to feel pride in themselves. But these were not his people nor was he a proper king anymore after eight centuries, so he had no responsibility here. This was Duke Castellen’s responsibility and Lucien felt his disgust and hatred towards a man he had never met increase by a great magnitude.
One would have to be blind to not see the gang moving to get ahead of Lucien as he moved through the village. It was quite obvious even as they tried to mask it from him. To them he looked like an easy target but Lucien was far from it. He was by far one of the most powerful people they could have chosen to target.
Stopping near the exit on the western side of the village Lucien looked out to the gang blocking his way and told them “Move aside or die.”
Laughter broke out from the gang as five approached Lucien while drawing their weapons. Many people of the village looked away not wanting to see another death but before a single taunt could be had from the criminals, Lucien had drawn his sword and erased their lives in a moment. The laughter had ceased and been replaced by fearful whispers as the villagers looked on in fearful surprise.
Lucien then looked to the gang again and as he points his sword towards them he tells them once more “Move aside or die.”
All but one moved aside and that one man watched Lucien with a wide confident smile on his face. Lucien stepped forward intent on removing the man’s head for not moving aside when he felt something heavy collide with the back of his head causing him to collapse down into the mud.
As he gathered himself Lucien heard a feminine voice ask from behind him “Did I get him?”
Lucien reached to the back of his head as he said “No, you did not. If I was that easy to kill I would not have survived all these millennia.”
Standing up from the mud Lucien looked at his hand and found it soaked in his own blood, a sight he had not seen in a very long time. But as he turned to kill his hidden attacker Lucien froze in his surprise. His hidden attacker was a young woman just out of her teens, if she was out of them at all, disguised as a man with a small makeshift war hammer in her hand.
“Why is a woman doing working for a gang like this while dressed as a man?”
The young woman’s eyes went wide in fear and anger as she began to swing her weapon at him again shouting “I am not a woman!”
Lucien easily grabbed the wild strike but his interest only grew. Women fighting was nothing new to Lucien. In his time he had seen many female warriors and he currently had two serving him but this one was different. How could she have snuck up behind him without him noticing? That was normally not possible even for Morrigan and all of her skills. Lucien’s senses were far too great for that but somehow this here young woman had not only managed it but she also landed a strike that would kill a normal man upon him.
Now easily holding the young woman’s wrist, Lucien says “You never answered my question girl.”
The young woman screams out at him “I’m not a woman you damn monster. My name is.”
But she did not get to finish her sentence as Lucien leaned in close cutting her off “Do not think that what fools other humans would fool me my dear.”
Embarrassment and rage flooded her tanned face turning it red as she tried to pull her hammer away from Lucien’s grasp.
“I’m not a woman.”
Sighing, Lucien finally releases her hammer from his grasp and watches her stumble backwards before saying “I can play with you a little longer my dear but do not think I will not collect repayment from you for hitting me.”
Lucien can see her eye twitch as the young woman resumes swinging her hammer at him wildly.
After several strikes Lucien is no longer content on just deflecting them or stopping her. Instead he begins shifting her off balance and controlling her movement using his footwork. With each step he forces her to do as he wishes and before long she swings too wide and with just a light tap he sends her down into the mud.
Everyone around had been watching on in awe as Lucien demonstrated his skills. But as the young woman pushed herself up from the mud Lucien asked “How much longer do you intend to go on?”
She goes to drag her hammer from the mud and swing it at Lucien’s legs as she shouts at him “Damn you,” but Lucien stepped on the hammer and held it down in the mud.
The young woman struggles with all her might to pull the hammer out from under Lucien’s armored boot but cannot make him budge.
“Get off my hammer bastard.”
With those words she lunged at his legs trying to take him down but she found that Lucien was incredibly heavy and impossible to move.
“Even the strongest of humans would have trouble moving me in this armor my dear.”
The young woman continues to struggle in vain for another few moments before collapsing back into the mud, exhausted from her efforts.
Seeing his opportunity to actually converse with the woman now, Lucien reaches down and with ease lifts her up by her shirt. As he holds her up at eye level Lucien asks the young woman “Are you ready to answer my questions now?”
Clicking her tongue the young woman asks “Why do you want to know about me?”
Lucien does not need any time to think of a reason and easily answers “Because I find you…intriguing.”
With a roll of her eyes the young woman says to him “Fine, what do you want to know bastard?”
Staring deep into her dark eyes Lucien says “You already know my first question. Answer it.”
“Because it’s the only way to survive here. I don’t know how to farm. I’m not loose. So this is my only option.”
Lucien continued to stare into her eyes as she answered him. He could sense no lies or misdirections from her and felt satisfied by her answer. A woman in a village like this would suffer many challenges, so Lucien did not find this unusual. But he did have an old thought resurface, "if only other peoples loved their own as much as we Dharans do."
Now content with why a woman like her was doing such things Lucien’s mind fell to more important questions.
“How did you sneak up on me? That is normally impossible so tell me why I could not sense you until you spoke.”
Confusion filled the young woman before she answered “I just slowly walked up behind you and hit you with my hammer. I didn’t do anything special I swear.”
Lucien’s mind quickly goes through many of the possibilities before asking “Do you know who your family is?”
The girl quickly shakes her head no before Lucien tells her “No matter then.”
He then dropped her back into the mud before walking away.
“As repayment for striking me, you will accompany me to Salver. Consider yourself fortunate that I do not have you join the others.”
As the young woman slowly pushed herself up from the mud for a second time, her mind briefly contemplated picking up her hammer and taking another swing at Lucien but his tone, the choice of words and the skill he had displayed up until now made her realize something, “he could easily kill me.”
“Hurry girl. We must reach Salver quickly. There is someone important waiting for me there.”
The tone of his voice caused the young woman to quickly stand and jerk her hammer from the mud before following close behind him. Whoever needed his aid was clearly very important to him.
Approaching the last criminal in his way Lucien reached out with his sword and pressed the tip against his shoulder. Without any words or force the man stepped aside. His earlier smile nowhere to be seen.
“Smart man,” was all Lucien said as he walked by the man before he began to clean his sword of the mess.
Seeing this surprised the young woman, who offered a small bow of her head to the man before continuing to follow Lucien closely.
