Chapter 265

When the naked halfling approached him, Brain stepped back out of the water and went to where his meager possessions sat. Her walk was more or less bow legged, and the signs of just what kind of abuse she endured was enough to sicken the former bandit. 'Even I have some standards… but I guess there is always someone worse.' He thought and when she came closer, he reached into a pouch left sitting beside an old log to remove a small vial. He held it out, and she stood still, just out of reach.

It was pointless, but she refused to move even though he could have come close and snatched her up in an instant if he wished. Finally he sighed, crouched down, and putting the little cheap vial on the grass, he flicked his wrist and rolled it over to her. It bumped gently against the top of her foot after rolling up her toes, then rolled back down where it came to a stop a few finger widths away. "Rub that on your wounds, it will take away the pain."

She crouched down as he reached into the pouch again, and from it he pulled another small pouch. A little brown thing bound shut with cheap twine, he lightly tossed it so that it too landed by her feet. She instinctively shrieked and fell back, then froze stiff on the ground. Her breath caught and then she began to hyperventilate, ready to cry again until she realized he hadn't moved.

"It's just the herb I promised, ground down to nothing. Put some on your tongue, it will prevent infection." Brain said to her, and with her one good eye, she looked at him with suspicion.

But he said nothing, instead he only went to the log and sat down to wait to see what she would do.

Her hand moved with great slowness, and her eye never left him. "Humans here play trust games… tormenting us, making us think they're not bad, just so it hurts more when they turn on us… I won't lose to you. I won't play. All I want is to borrow your sword and get this nightmare over…"

"I'm not from this country." Brain said, "I was born there." He pointed north, "In a village in the Kingdom of Re-Estize."

"Oh." Layali replied and when he politely looked away, she began to smear the sticky solution over her injured body. It smelled foul, but he was right. 'The pain… it's gone…' The stuff in the vial was green as leaves or grass, its wet stickiness made her shiver, its smell, all the sharper thanks to her sensitive nose, made her gag. 'But the pain is gone… so it's worth it.' She thought, and then untying the little herb pouch, she took a pinch of gritty ground plant and placed it on her tongue. 'Infection… bad way to go… quick is better.' She told herself and then retied the tiny pouch.

"Here." He said, and took a cloak up which lay on the grass and threw it to her. "It's not sized to you, but at least you won't be naked."

It landed in a heap at her feet. She crouched down, picked it up, and wrapped it around herself, to call it oversized would have been an understatement, the brilliant blue dragged on the grass well behind her feet, laying like a little blue puddle of clear water on the ground.

Her belly rumbled.

"You hungry?" He asked, and his own belly rumbled in turn. "Me too." He said without waiting for an answer. "You scared the fish away though."

"I'm sorry my attempt at suicide was an inconvenience." She said with a flat, empty voice.

He shrugged. "It's fine. They'll be back in a few minutes."

"How do you know?" she asked, glancing toward the river that failed to kill her.

"I've run the length of that river as far as the Troll Kingdom in the east and as far as the world's ocean in the west. I know how the fish who live there 'think'." He tapped the side of his head with one finger. "In the meantime though," he reached into his pouch and took out a little round golden fruit, "here, you've got most of your teeth left, right? Eat this." he said and rolled it across the grass to her.

"Y-yes. He only removed the ones… in the way." Layali said and blinked her eyes before going down to pick up the little fruit.

Brain felt a vague sick knot in his guts at her foreboding statement. Her jaw was somewhat askew too, even talking had to have hurt before applying the numbing agent. 'Maybe I should just go ahead… if I don't, what happens then, we're still in the Theocracy, nothing good will happen to her here…'

She stayed on her knees but took up the apple and began to tear off pieces of it with her bare hands and shove pieces into her mouth.

'On the other hand, it's not that far to the Kingdom of Carne… they're friendly toward nonhumans now… and traveling alone is dull.' Brain thought and while she slowly chewed he said, "If you really want to die, I don't have a right to stop you, but if you go the same way I'm going, I can leave you in Carne. They're friendly to nonhumans there."

Her brow narrowed, the one good eye blinked at her with accusing doubt. "That can't be real. You're just going to sell me."

"Slavery is banned there. There's nowhere to sell you, and I don't have time for that anyway, I've got somewhere to be." Brain retorted.

A twinge of curiosity touched her. "Where, Master Unglaus?" She asked.

"I'm going to Arwintar for a tournament, I'm going to fight for the throne… not that I really want it, I just want to test myself." He answered, unable to resist grinning as his imagination carried him to the arena.

Her breath quickened, "My… former master, Cerebrate, is going there."

"Cerebrate." He said and spat into the grass. "I'm familiar with him."

"Y-You are?" Fear began to fill her until she saw the raw contempt in Brain's eyes. "He's n-not a friend of yours?"

"We've met. It wasn't a friendly meeting. Let's just leave it at that." Brain said.

"So you… you'd be fighting him?" She asked.

"Probably." Brain answered and got up. "The fish should be back now, I'll catch one big enough for us both. If you're going to die anyway, why die hungry, am I right?"

She watched his broad back withdraw as he descended down the riverbank.

"Are you better than he is?" She asked with sudden, wild hope in her left eye.

"I was, the last time we met." Brain answered and raised his sword up, waiting for the fish to come close to his boots again. "Who can say about this time?"

"So… if I go with you… even past Carne… I might- might get to watch him die?" Layali pressed the question and watched his sword strike down into the water, there was a brief splash, and then he held his sword up to show off a massive fish half the size of her body, wiggling and trashing on the blade.

"I don't know if it's to the death, but if it is, sure, there's a chance." Brain replied offhandedly and brought the gasping, wiggling fish over to where he made camp.

Layali thought about it. Death was only a few hours away if she wanted it… 'But then… what if he's telling the truth, what if there's somewhere I can live? What if I kept going and got to watch Cerebrate die…? Or… what if this one is just like him and is just waiting for the sun to go down…?'

Depressing as it was for her to think about it, the phrase, 'What's one more time?' Came readily to mind when it was weighed against the possibility of revenge, or at least the chance to see her tormentor die.

"I-I… what about this?" Layali said and wrapped the cloak tighter around her body.

Brain looked up at her while he beheaded the fish and began to cut away the scales. "Get me a potion or pay for a healing spell, give clothing, a cheap knife, something good enough to end my life and let me carry it. Give me food and water, and I'll handle the little things. I know how to make fire, cook food, let me travel with you. Let me travel with you to watch Cerebrate die…"

Brain frowned a little and set the fire to the spit to roast the fish. "I thought you said you wouldn't trust me?"

"That's what the knife is for. So I don't have to. You may be lying… maybe… maybe you'll do it too… maybe you're just waiting for me to trust you so it'll be worse. But as long as I've got a way to die, I don't need to trust you. I just need to trust me. I don't know why the river didn't kill me, but I'm pretty sure the knife will."

"Probably a talent, it happens. I've heard of a guy who could walk a few steps on water, another who could instantly tell how hot something was, even one who had a useless ability that always let him know who was about to fart. Maybe your body just 'rejects' drowning?" Brain half guessed, and half asked.

"Maybe… I've never heard of that… but… it doesn't matter, are you taking me or not… Master Unglaus?" Layali asked.

Brain thought it over and impaled the fish on the spit, he began to turn the stick, watching the smoke drift and briefly hug each piece on the skewer before rising up into the distant sky and disappearing. 'She's not asking for much, and I am kind of bored. She might slow me down a little, but I can easily carry her if I have to hurry, or just leave her somewhere if she's a problem.'

He searched for a downside, and didn't find one.

"Deal. You can come with me." He answered.

Layali didn't say thank you, instead she just asked, "What, no promises not to do what he did… no protests about how you'll be nice to me?"

"What's the point of a promise you wouldn't believe? If I'd do that stuff I'd certainly be willing to lie about it. If I wouldn't, you won't believe the promise anyway." He shrugged off her question again, and Layali thought it over.

She then approached him, and took the spit in hand, allowing a moment for him to remove his hold over it, and she began to turn it in his stead.