Tales of Death´s Daughter

“Wow … that is …” We were in front of a dried up riverbed we once crossed with the army at the exact same place. And yet, nothing was like before. The trees up until the river were charred, as if some conflagration swept through the forest without leaving a hint of life behind. Not even the undead inhabited that place for tens of kilometres around me, thanks to the heavy atmosphere in this place.

“A god at work. It´s not a bad result, is it?” First of all, it was silent. Really silent. That was definitely a bonus, but was overshadowed by the miasma of death shrouding the lands in a dark embrace only I was able to see.

‘How is that a good result?’ But like usual, the goddess in my head had something to nag about. It seriously went on my nerves, mostly because there was nothing I could do to shut her up.

“Amazing … but why is the river all dried up?” Clara gave me a good excuse as to why I didn’t need to talk to Lucy which was why I answered Clara´s question right away in a hurry.

“So that I don’t have to cross it.” Just to proof my point, I jumped down into the completely dry riverbed and gave them the thumbs up. “Behold! I have overcome my fear of water!”

“… can you hear that?” Hannah held her hand at her ear, apparently to listen in one direction in particular.

“What?” I must have looked rather confused in all actuality. While my hearing was impaired by the sunlight, I should be able to hear what she did.

“I think that’s … it´s just like the ocean shore but louder.” Hannah told me with a mischievous grin on her face.

“I´m …” And I ran. As fast as I could, I ran across the river bed and climbed onto the riverbank in a hurry. Only then did I relax a little and turn around to see Hannah smiling brightly.

‘You are surprisingly easy to fool sometimes … or was that a ploy to make them feel at ease?’ Lucy asked which made my awkward smile freeze for a split second. Couldn’t she just be happy about the fact that I was capable of laughing about silly stuff as well?

‘How about you stop commenting everything?’ I thus demanded while facing the burnt demon king’s territory, or rather Aska’s lands at this point.

‘ ‘Lucinda kept complaining about her newest companion who had just awoken mere days before out of her slumber. But Lucy didn’t give up on her quest of finding out what Lucinda was up to by going on her nerves. No, I’m fact she was doubling down on her efforts.’ Lucy narrated while Lucinda swatted down to feel the dirt.’ The dirt felt more like ash than normal earth no matter how deep I dug with my fingers.

‘I’m not the protagonist of a goddamn book.’ I told her while hiding my anger from everyone.

‘Right, you are the antagonist of a tv series. I don’t know if that is better in any way.’ She really did have a talent for annoying me, I hat to give her that.

‘I really wish I weren’t. Sometimes I just want to crush these damn invisible cameras …’ I thought while Bob and Hannah gave their best to enable the four horses drawing the carriage to cross the riverbed.

‘Invisible? Oh, right. You can’t see them.’ Wait, did that mean that although we shared our senses, she was able to see them? Why didn’t she tell me much earlier?  

‘But you can? How many are there right now?’ I asked her swiftly before my other companions managed to get beside me.

‘Three.’ That was quite exact. In all honesty, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with that knowledge and as our conversation was cut short by Bob, I dropped the matter right away.

“Hey, Lucy … I think I am ready for the weapon you want to give me.” Bob was clearly scared from the landscape, so much so that his eyes scanned every part of it thoroughly.

“I’m sorry Bob, but I can’t hand it over to you yet. Hannah and I will protect you, so don’t have to fear anything. Okay?” But handing him the staff of creation wasn’t something I was willing to do yet. After all, I didn’t want him to activate it just because he saw something scary and thought he needed to flee. Reluctantly, he nodded and looked to the ground a bit ashamed.

“No … I’m sorry for asking.” He was treading from one foot onto the other like some saddened dog while I laughed a little.

“Don’t be. It’s nice to know you want to help.” I patted his right shoulder a little before turning around to Hannah who had finally bought the carriage over with the use of a bit of magic.

“Are you really sure we can use the carriage?” Hannah looked at the charred ground a bit distrustful, but I had no such feelings.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” I quickly climbed back onto the carriage, looked back at the compass and laid down on the roof as the horses started to pull … for ten minutes. The lands turned into a weird moor rather quickly which was completely intraversable for the horses and so we saw no other choice but to let them go their own way and wait for the night. Only as the twins woke up again did we continue our journey through the infested landscape. The ecosystem had already been changed once before, but the transformation in front of us was even more stunning as it was done in a matter of weeks.

But that was what a god could do … what I should be capable of doing. It was my birthright after all. But apparently I was just some broken part of Aska, so I would never be able to achieve that level of strength, not even close.

‘We can only hope my mothers presence will diminish his abilities a little.’ We could only hope for that to be true and even if it wasn’t, I doubted it would matter much.

‘Just do as I told you to and it’s going to be fine.’ I thought and glared at the twins so that they finished packing their stuff already.

‘As long as you can do what you claimed you could.’ Just to prove my point, I let death swirl around myself which turned out to be a bit harder than expected. Aska was controlling this part of himself more or less consciously after, which meant I had to work harder for the same result. But that was exactly the problem I faced which I chose to ignore at this point.

“Lucy, why is it so silent here?” Bob asked a bit terrified, finally noticing that there weren’t any animals around.

“That’s because the boogeyman eats all the living creatures.” I told him while glaring at Hannah as she was just about to burst out in laughter. Luckily she stood behind that pitiful beggar, otherwise he may have noticed the absurdity of the situation.

“Really?” He asked oblivious.

“Yeah.” I didn’t bother with him any longer as Hannah placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Can’t we just take the dragons to fly across the lands?” She proposed in a monotone voice.

“They have feelings too, you know?” And so did Bob. I really didn’t know what he would feel after seeing three half rotten dragons … and I didn’t want to find out. “Nobody likes to be rode.”

“Except Bob maybe?” Hannah proposed which made me reevaluate her humour a little bit. I never expected her to crack this kind of joke after all.

“Excuse me?” Bob blinked a few times, neither in joy nor anger … he was just confused.

“Just ignore her. It was a … atypical joke from our typical elf. Did you know that pandas and elves share about 68% of their DNS?” Both of them didn’t get my joke at all.

“What is a panda … and DNS?” Bob asked stunned.

“Wow … I just wanted to make one joke about why elf’s have such a stale love live and this is what I get?” That was honestly the most depressing part of joking around with them. Either they didn’t understand them or they didn’t like my dark humour.

Shaking my head in frustration, I kicked the dirt a little, only to see a small cloud of dust being created in the process.

“Can we even take the carriage with us in this terrain?” A burnt forest wasn’t exactly the best place to travel through, I had to admit that. Even worse, thanks to the previous occupation all the streets had been rendered useless as well.

“Nope. Well wait till night.” And waiting we did. Truth to be told, that was the most boring wait I have ever experienced. There was nothing to do after all … well, except maybe taking a bit of inspiration from the heaviest drinkers of history, but that was basically it.

As such, the twins probably witnessed a rather bored group of three as they stood up from their comfy carriage just after sundown.

“Why is it so dark?” Clara looked at the dark sky astonished. Even as a vampire, it was quite dark, I had to admit that. The majority of light came from the campfire we had managed to scrape together and that was basically it.

“It’s because of a natural phenomenon that happens when water changes states because of heat.” I explained bored while stroking the embers with a charred stick.

“Hm?” Clarice asked confused.

“It’s called clouds.” Hannah told them quietly.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Clara blamed me for their missing knowledge, but I didn’t see myself at fault there.

“Because you two skipped on classes yesterday.” I haven’t asked them either in an attempt to increase the distance between us further. Putting, they both crossed their arms in front of their chest and dig their heels into the ashes. “Stop crying like babies and pack a few blankets.”

We needed to go. After all, Sofie and the others were already on their way.