The Bear (Pt. 3/4)

Charlie stood, his muscles tense. Telbes' foot could come crashing through the roof of his home at any moment. Maltus even growled in all his timidness.

Charlie tumbled to the ground in fright when a rapid, urgent pounding came at the door. He calmed himself from the slight scare and answered the door.

He thought it odd that anyone was at his door for two reasons. One, no one lives for miles around, and it isn't like anyone he knew was going to pop by on their way to Woaven, The Land of the dead, and two, Telbes, the Eater of All, may I remind you, was clearly up and hunting.

Charlie opened the door to his friend Jobi, who mind you, lives on the other side of the entire country of Breliviel.

Jobi, not even bothering to say hello, forced himself into the small one-room house and slammed the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie inquired in a hushed tone.

"Just thought I'd pop by," Jobi replied, caressing the dog's ears. Charlie knew this wasn't why, but he let it go, knowing that his friend would eventually get to the point.

Now Jobi wasn't a normal human like me, or hopefully, you, he was a he belonged to a different kind. The Dracovir. They are an interesting 'people'. To help you out, picture this. A short man, around 5' 6", but mix that with a dragon. Their legs have four joints instead of our three, just like a common dog, the head of a dragon, but to scale with a man's body, and claws, horn, etc.

Their people have much pride in their history and culture, with almost the entire country of Breliviel run by their kind. Most of the shops and taverns are run by them, as well as most of the government, which wasn't a large majority of the small population anyway.

"Well, whatever you're doing here, it had better be important," Charlie stated firmly, cleaning up his mess from the daydreaming incident.

"What's that about?" Jobi questioned, leaning over Charlie's shoulder and pointing to the mess of water and wet coals.

"I spilled my boiling fish earlier, is all. It's fine." He replied, not wanting to point out his burnt arms, which were still in pain.

"Oh," Jobi remarked, just now noticing his friend's arms, which were wrapped up in white linen. What you could see around his wrist, just peeking out from under the linen, was some red, wrinkled skin, and Jobi immediately knew what had happened, but decided to say nothing.

Jobi uncovered a small pouch from within the folds of his rather large belt and guided the drawstrings open. He pulled out two small, circular pills and popped them into his mouth.

Charlie watched the whole process, not remembering his friend ever needing any sort of medication. Then again, they hadn't seen each other for a few months. A lot could've happened.

And a lot did happen.

As quick as Charlie could back around to continue cleaning the mess, he heard a thud and Maltus yelp. Charlie whipped around and found Jobi lying on the floor, with the dog halfway underneath him.

Charlie rushed over and flipped his friend onto his back, freeing the dog.

Jobi's eyes were open and he was breathing, but even so, it wasn't very much.

"What happened?" Charlie asked desperately hoping his friend could hear him. Jobi struggled for a moment to form his words, then let out a riptide of information.

"I was sent here by Rumlar Addington. He wanted me to tell you that Telbes is coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop your death by the hands of Telbes." Jobi paused, his huge eyes, filling up with tears. "He set up this meeting so you wouldn't have time to prepare or grieve my death soon. I sorry I have to do this. I couldn't..."

Charlie cried out Jobi's name. Jobi's lifeless eyes rolled up in his head.

Maltus barked, letting Charlie know of the imminent danger surrounding them. When Jobi was on the floor, he had dropped a small flame onto the dry floor of his house, slowly setting it ablaze.

Charlie's eyes widened and he grabbed the dog, rushing out of his small home into the chilled autumn air of the Soundless Marshes.