Isran the Great

Isran glanced at Elysi as they walked through the thick vegetation and then at Phaedra. They were both quiet. Isran wondered what they were thinking. She had always been so terrible at reading people. Well speaking to them too but that was beside the point.

She sighed as she looked up. The lighting in the dungeon was messing with her head. She was tired of running from potential threats to her life. Maybe the dungeon wasn’t the best place for her afterall.

“Look there.”

Isran looked where Phaedra was pointing. A man was fighting a large goblin above them, on what appeared to be a cliff edge. It was low, close enough to the ground that Isran could jump and grab the ledge. It was a good number of feet ahead of them though.

“Should we help him?” Isran hated that she had to ask that question. That whether or not to help people in a dangerous place wasn’t a certainty.

“What do you want to do?” Elysi asked.

Isran wanted to help. She couldn’t become a callous person because of a few bad experiences.

Phaedra and Elysi stayed a large distance behind her as she climbed the makeshift stairs the rocks had formed. The cliff seemed nothing more than an extension of a cave, the platform stuck out from a strange hill-like structure.

When Isran made it on she took note of two dead bodies and the man fighting two warrior goblins. He was bleeding.

The goblins swung with purpose, their blood lust a truly dangerous foe.

Isran picked the one closest to the ledge, she ran towards it as it stumbled back, parrying an attack from the wounded man.

She swung her sword in a wide arc, cutting through the neck of the goblin. She could felt her strength increase right before the swing.

CONGRATULATIONS

GOBLIN MOB DEFEATED

EXP POINTS AWARDED

When she turned around the other goblin was dead, the man was certainly capable, though it seemed he and his companions had been ambushed, he appeared to be dying.

Elysi made it onto the cliff before Phaedra, she cautiously approached the cave. It seemed like it was carved into the wall. Isran wondered if Vycor purposefully carved out, whether or not the being of creation was an active creator of if a wave of their hand created things.

Phaedra took a few deep breaths before approaching Isran and the hurt man. He was still alive, awake as well but he didn’t speak, he used his minimal strength to take in large gulps of air.

Phaedra looked at the dead bodies of the three goblins and two human men and approached a bit quicker.

“I’m a healer.” She smiled gently, approaching the man like he was a scared animal.

The man’s eyes nervously flickered to Isran. Isran hadn’t taken off her helmet and although she knew it probably made the man nervous she had to be prepared for anything.

Phaedra glanced at Isran one more time before she leaned down.

“Don’t heal him.”

Isran frowned behind her helmet at her girlfriend. Elysi looked upset. Isran had never seen such an angry and disgusted look on her face before.

“Is he a bandit?”

“He’s a smuggler.”

Phaedra took in a sharp breath, and several steps back from the dying man glancing towards the cave.

“There’s tw—one person inside.”

Isran made to follow Phaedra in but Elysi grabbed her hand.

“What’s wrong?” She whispered.

Elysi’s hand shook. “Let Phaedra heal her first.”

The man remained quiet, breaths ragged and his hand on his chest.

Phaedra exited the cave a few minutes later. She looked horrified. Her eyes did not even glance towards the dying man.

Isran picked Elysi’s hand and rubbed it softly before walking into the cave.

It was very dimly lit but Isran knew the stench of shit and piss. There was also a musky smell, like cum on bedsheets that weren’t washed. The cave wasn’t as deep as she had thought and so with the dim lighting she could make out a small figure, perhaps a few inches shorter than Elysi.

The closer she got the stronger the smell of cum. 

Soon Isran was blinking down at a mouse girl. She was filthy, her long black hair brushed the ground and stuck to her face. Her lips looked cracked and there were welts on her small arms.

What truly made Isran see red was the form she clutched to her chest. The form of a child.

Elysi had said one.

Without a word she turned around and walked up to the dying man. His eyes held a small tinge of fear when she stood over him. As she lifted her blade over his head he spoke his first words since they met.

“Wai—”

Isran kept her eyes open to see his head detached from his neck. She wanted to see him die. Scum like that deserved nothing but suffering and she hoped whatever afterlife he was sent to ensured that.

Even his dead body, blood pooling beneath it upset her. She kicked it, then the head. Watching them fall of the cliff.

Isran ripped her helmet off as she took in unsteady breaths. Usually when she had a hard time breathing it was because she was nervous but she was so angry. She couldn’t even bring herself to feel guilty for the way she had attacked him.

That was what those previous adventurers thought she was doing? Smuggling people?

The bile that pushed through her mouth burned her nose. She coughed as she vomited. Her chest rising and falling unsteadily. The smell of shit, the smell of piss, the smell of—.

Isran heaved again. Throwing up till there was nothing left and she was only gagging.

What was wrong with people in Neos? No, she couldn’t think that way, that wasn’t fair. There were bad people everywhere. It wasn’t unique to Noes. Elysi wasn’t a bad person, Phaedra too.

Isran closed her eyes and thought about the good people. Morgana, maybe Jayn. Desmarcus, Adrianna. There were good people in Neos. There were good people in Neos. There were good people in Neos.

When Isran stopped vomiting—or at least stopped trying to— Phaedra pulled Isran away from her mess, sitting her down and helping her wash her mouth before drinking some water.

When she was calm and the urge to stab the other already dead smugglers had calmed down Isran went back into the cave. The smell was even worse the second time.

She ignored the white streaks in the small woman’s hair as she stretched out her hand.

It was still a bit hard to see, but Isran noticed a small thin tail flick out from behind her hair.

Her hand was grimy but Isran didn’t care. She led the woman out quietly, having to crouch to maintain their hand holding.

They didn’t speak as they left the cliffside. The thought of looting the smugglers made her want to throw up again. So, she ignored their corpses and they left. If they could find a body of water before they left the second floor it would be ideal. The smell was testing her resolve not to return and chop up the bodies of the smugglers.