Blood Shaper

Kay jogged back into camp, just catching Eleniah as she was walking off. “Hey!”

“Back so soon? Where’s the tree?”

“We heard fighting coming from past the trees, and I decided to come back and ask for your advice.” The last part he said with some sarcasm attached. “I heard weapons, so it’s people of some kind.”

She turned and started jogging. “Good thinking. In some cases, it can be a bad idea to go towards the sounds of fighting, but since we have exactly no information about what kind of threats there are, we should check it out.” She glanced over her shoulder, “Good idea coming to get me too.”

“I like sticking together more than I like splitting up, especially when there’s a potential danger.”

“You didn’t complain when I sent you off to cut wood by yourself.”

“You kind of gave me orders and then walked off; there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

She glanced back again with a thoughtful look on. “We’ll come back to that.”

They stopped just inside the tree line, and the sounds of fighting were still audible. Carefully they snuck closer, trying to see between the trees. Just ahead, the space opened up, and they saw two people fighting a pack of monsters.

One of them was around Kay’s height, six feet tall, and gracefully slicing his attackers to pieces with a glaive. His hair was salt and pepper with dark black streaked through with various shades of gray, and interestingly, his skin was also light gray color.

The other person was big. Eight feet tall, with massive muscles, and even darker gray skin, he towered over the, admittedly small, battle. He crushed the beetle monsters swarming the pair with a large staff.

“Stupid, fucking, miserable bugs!” The massive man shouted. “I will crush all of you and desecrate your corpses!”

“That’s a bit more hostile than usual!” The smaller man called out as he bisected a beetle with one smooth swing.

“They ruined my breakfast, Uncle! Look!” He pointed with one hand at a large overturned bowl on the ground. “Ruined it!”

The smaller man chuckled and shook his head as he stabbed downward, impaling the last of the monsters. With a flourish, he removed the blade from the corpse and flicked the creature’s ichor off. “We can make you another breakfast, Darten.”

“I know, but all that good food, wasted!” He sighed and shook his head sadly. “Such a waste.”

“Yes, well, such is life. Before we cook you something else, though…” The shorter man turned to look in Kay and Eleniah’s direction. “Hello there!”

Eleniah exhaled and stepped forward out of the trees. “Hello.” She greeted them.

The smaller and presumably older man flicked his eyes at Kay with a small smirk on his face.

Eleniah sighed and gestured at Kay. “Next is working on your stealth.” She muttered as he walked up.

The larger man watched them warily as the other chuckled. “Don’t be too harsh on him; I just got lucky and saw a flash of his sleeve. Is there anything we can help the two of you with?”

Eleniah looked them over for a minute before shrugging. “We heard the commotion and decided to check out what was happening near our camp.”

“A wise precaution…” He stared at them for a minute. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your purpose in being in the area?”

“We’re exploring the untamed lands.” Eleniah replied dryly, “Searching for adventure and glory.”

The larger man, Darten, grunted and looked down at his companion.

After a moment’s pause, “I’m Meten, and this is my nephew Darten. We’re doing similar, although it’s as much to train my nephew on how to survive as it is anything else.” He stared at them for a minute more, stroking his short white-flecked beard. “Again, this might be presumptuous of me, but might you have any Agreements?”

Eleniah raised her eyebrows in surprise. “That is a bit presumptuous. And surprising.”

Meten glanced up at his gigantic nephew. “It’s is, as they say, safer in greater numbers. I would rather cooperate and do better than be alone and do worse.”

Kay sidled closer to his teacher, “What’s happening?” He whispered.

Eleniah reached down and pulled a scroll out of the travel bag she’d grabbed before they’d run out of camp. She pulled it open and read it over, then rolled it back up and tossed it underhand in a large arc.

Meten caught it and nodded at her before pulling it open and reading it over. “This is exhaustive. Very nice.” He reached into a pouch on his side and pulled out a pen and some ink. He dipped the pen and signed on the scroll, then passed both of them on to his large nephew. “Sign.”

“Uncle?” Darten trepidatiously took them from his hands.

“Remember what I told you about meeting people? Sign the Agreement.”

Slowly, glancing at his uncle multiple times, Darten signed.

Meten took the scroll back and tossed it back to Eleniah, who signed with her own pen and then wordlessly handed it over to Kay.

Kay actually took the time to read over the Agreement before signing anything. It was short and relatively simple. Anyone who signed the Agreement guaranteed no hostile action towards anyone else who signed, with the punishment for doing anything potentially harmful being that the attacker would be lit up with a bright glow to show that they were a threat the instant they began any hostile action. It also bound the signers not to share any secrets they learned about other parties without permission for two years.

Kay looked over at Eleniah. “Why are we signing this? No, actually, you had one pre-prepared. Why are we doing this?”

She looked at him from the side of her eye. “It’s… complicated. The short version is that these particular strangers in the wilderness are definitely strong enough to be a threat if they aren’t friendly, and they quickly offered friendly terms. We can break the Agreement by giving them notice if we need to, so we sign it now and talk to them in relative safety from each other. Basically, it’s a non-aggression pact.”

“Why the secret-keeping part then?”

“It comes standard when you order them for no extra cost. They actually charge more to take it out, so I just had it left in.”

“Oh.” Kay looked down at it again. “So basically it’s a ‘lets talk without being worried about an ambush’ type Agreement?”

“Exactly. Don’t tell any secrets if you don’t have to. I’ll make sure we avoid the topics we don’t want to address. They’ll almost definitely do the same.”

Kay awkwardly signed the Agreement using his leg as an impromptu table. “This is an incredibly convenient thing to have with you.”

“Right?” She grinned at him, keeping her eyes on the other pair. “Apparently, before Agreements came around, the world was a whole lot more perilous every time you met strangers.”

Kay handed her back the scroll. “Why is it a scroll, by the way?”

“It’s easier to throw to people as opposed to just a sheet, and the bound versions are more expensive.” She nicked her finger and let a drop of blood hit the surface of the Agreement. The scroll glowed a silvery sheen, then it dissipated. Eleniah rolled up the scroll and put it away in her bag.

With a smile on his face, Meten walked up to them. He stopped about a foot away from them both with his hand outstretched. “Wonderful. It’s much nicer to meet strangers that are at least willing to talk. The ones that attack you or the ones that stare all suspicious like from a distance are… Well, I like them less.”

Eleniah snorted and shook his hand. “I’m Eleniah; this is my student, Kay.”

“Ah!” Meten shook Kay’s hand too. “So we are very similar in our goals. Adventure and training for our disciples.”

Eleniah sorted again. “I wouldn’t call him a disciple.”

Meten glanced up and back towards his nephew, who’d stopped behind him. “No, I wouldn’t call Darten a disciple either, but it’s more fun to say than just ‘student’.”

Darten bent down a little to shake both their hands. “Hello, I’m Darten. Don’t pay much attention to my uncle if you don’t have to; he’s a bit of a weird one.”

Meten laughed loudly.

“I’m Kay; nice to meet you.” Darten’s hand was three time’s the size of Kay’s, but he was quite gentle as they shook.

“So, I heard that your camp might be nearby? Would you mind, now that we’re at least on neutral terms if we borrowed your fire?” He gestured at the empty bowl that Darten now held. “My nephew could use another breakfast.”

“My food.” Darten mourned.

“It’s your own fault for walking and eating instead of just finishing before we broke camp.” His uncle chided.

“You eat too quickly and then demand we leave! I need more food than you do!”

Eleniah chuckled at their antics and led them back to their camp. Darten had a little bit of trouble moving through the dense trees a time or two, but he didn’t need to rip any of them up to get through. Not that Kay thought he could. They weren’t the giants of the forest they’d passed through to the south on the way here, but the trees on the northern edge of the valley were still bigger around than Kay was, for the most part. As big as he was, he didn’t think Darten was that strong.

When they made it back to their camp, Kay stoked the fire while Darten pulled out some supplies from a large back and started making himself another meal. After he finished, they sat around the small fire and looked at each other.

“I guess we’ll go first since we’re partaking in your hospitality. Once again, I’m Meten, and this is my nephew, Darten. We’re looking for some adventure and interesting escapades while we get Darten a little more life experience.”

“I’m Eleniah, and this is Kay, and we’re basically doing the same, without the family part.” She looked up at Darten. “If it isn’t rude, why are you so much smaller than your nephew?”

Meten laughed, “I’m an Oni, and Darten is an Ogre. My sister is on the taller side for an Oni, and she ended up marrying my brother-in-law, who is an Ogre.” He looked at his nephew with evident fondness in his eyes. “Darten here came out Ogre, while my other niece and nephew are both Oni.” He saw the look of surprise and confusion on Kay’s face. “What? Something the matter?”

Kay, remembering Alice and the others telling him to be better at keeping secrets, glanced over at Eleniah.

She shrugged. “It’s fine. You run into a few here and there. Not a big deal.”

“I’m sorry?” Meten glanced between the two of them, and Darten looked up from his cooking.

“I’m an Outworlder,” Kay told them, “The names for your Ogre and Oni just translated interestingly in my native language.” While Darten was huge and muscular, he wasn’t a grotesque monster with low intelligence and an appetite for all things meat, based on the vegetables he was cooking into his meal. And Meten wasn’t a massive blue or red-skinned monster with horns and a tiger skin loin-cloth, although those were more traditional Oni if he remembered right. He shrugged mentally. This wasn’t a mythological Earth, and all translations across languages were going to have difficulty now and again. Better to just accept that things would be exciting and move on with it.

“Oh, an Outworlder, you say?” Meten smiled widely, “It’s my first time meeting one! What was it like to end up in another world?”

Kay glanced at Eleniah again and got another shrug. Kay nodded at her and settled in to describe his time on Torotia, hopefully keeping all his secrets intact along the way.