Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

I take my first of many future weighted steps as I feel the difficulty in moving with a few hundred pounds attached to my back. I’m forced to use every single muscle in my fairly scrawny and just recently starvation-recovered body. Just after twenty steps, my body feels weak. But I grit my teeth and push on.

Every day recently seems to be exactly the same. It’s almost as if I can see the future. I’m just going to push myself to my limit until I collapse and then wake up and do it again. I don’t know how I feel about it, but I'm certainly not ecstatic.

After just a hundred steps as I begin to truly start my run with momentum now, I am forced to flow even more Ether into my body to boost myself. It gives me the strength to move a bit faster now as I am running roughly at my normal speed now without any enhancement at all. The rope burns into my right palm as I grip the rope so tightly that it won’t slip; my left is near unaffected, the toughness of the Bloody Palm far beyond normal flesh.

After close to a thousand steps, I am forced to release my constant daydreams of resisting the Bloody Palm. Despite how much I hate to do so, I need more strength. A strength that I can only get if I loosen the restraints on my legs to move faster. And that’s what I do.

The chains upon my forehead tighten once more, significantly more than usual as the manacles on my legs retreat a bit. Instantly I feel two things, one which gives me joy, and another with frustration.

My legs feel so much stronger, that I nearly double my full-on sprinting speed to the speed of a horse. I hear Esther squeal behind me on the bone slab in enjoyment while Earl whistles, obviously impressed by my swiftness of foot. But the enhancement to my travel time is not all that occurs with the transference of restrictiveness between chains.

The murmurs of the Bloody Palm return. And much stronger than the last time they appeared. Not as powerful as when they were in the darkness with me, but still penetrating and grating upon my mind. They eat and scrape away slowly at everything that is me. I hate to do this because of its risk, but without it, I’m not going to be fast enough or strong enough to make it.

All power comes with a cost. Mine just happens to be a little more sinister than others.

So, I ran. I dash out of the bone graveyard of Goliaths with a large weight trailing behind. I run up dunes and slide down them as well. I run around quicksand and through mud. I run for hours as my mind is slowly eaten into and my body is gradually weakened from Ether. I run until something breaks; my body from the strain of Ether, my mind from the shadows within the Bloody Palm, or my soul, the ephemeral construct that is me and powers me on.

And as usual, the vessel is weaker than the spirit. My body collapses in on itself from constant use of Adrenaline Surge just as Earl predicted roughly a third of the way to Rustbank. Abruptly, while just running across a flat section of sand dunes, my legs give out and I go slamming into the sand and tumbling. I roll dozens if not close to a hundred feet through the sand because of the velocity at which I was traveling at.

When I stop rolling, I just lay and take short shallow breaths as I struggle to get air in me. My lungs burn in pain and my mouth tastes of blood and iron while I lay in the dusty sand. A headache slams alongside my head like a hammer constantly while whispers touch me from the edges of my mind. Telling me to give up and stop fighting. That it’s pointless.

I ignore them. And I try and fail to stand. I fall onto my ass as I try to get up. Looking at my feet and legs, I notice what the issue is. My boots are ruined and my feet stick through them. Bloody, damaged, and admittingly disgusting feet emerge from the torn boots. They aren't at their limits, though. I can still go further.

Earl crouches down beside me and looks at my injuries and my obvious exhaustion.

“If you stop here, we would have still made a net positive on progress. You can stop. Let your Bloody Palm heal you as we continue our walk.”

I can’t do that. We need to move. If Elizabeth dies because of me… Because of my fuck ups… I won’t forgive myself. Even if I didn’t mean to do so, it’ll be just like what happened to Edmund. I can’t let that repeat itself. Even if my feet get turned to mush or I collapse from exhaustion.

Shaking my head, I tell Earl my mind.

“I can’t do that, Earl. We need to get to Rustbank.”

He looks at me, not understanding my resolve. One that I can’t completely divulge.

“What do you mean? You can. Just take a break and walk the rest of the way. You already made around forty miles in three hours. Just take a break.”

I shake my head.

“That’s not enough.”

Earl sighs, exasperated, then he says something that greatly surprises me.

“Look, I know you blame yourself for Lonnie, and you don’t want Elizabeth to be on your hands too, but don’t kill yourself saving others. Think things through. Your feet won't take another step in that shape. And I’m not doing anything while you run, so you should use the Bloody Palm on me to heal your damaged body. At the very least, do insane things with intelligence.”

Do insane things with intelligence. I like the sound of that. But can I use the Bloody Palm on Earl? No, the Bloody Palm might take more than it should. It obviously doesn’t want to follow my commands. I go to refuse Earl but before I do, he grabs my left hand, the Bloody Palm, and puts it on his shoulder. The look in his eyes gives no room for refusal or negotiation.

The look reminds me of when I did the same thing to Edmund. Yeah. I can do this. If it's for all of us. Otherwise, I'd be a hypocrite to Edmund. I made him do something similar, although his was a physical booster and not a restoration ability.

So, I push a small amount of Ether in the Bloody Palm and allow it to feed just a little. I feel a small stream of warm energy, which is probably just actual vitality, vigor, or some other word for life. This small stream immediately spreads out along the whole palm and a small amount exits and enters the rest of my body.

The small bit of warm energy that exits the Bloody palm goes and immediately makes me groan in pain as bones are reset and my body is rapidly healed. The Bloody Palm sure changed a lot once it was connected to a person. And it only continues to show me its changes as it attempts to pull even more of this sunny energy from Earl.

I have to clamp down hard with my mind to prevent it even amidst the murmurs of shadows. After close to a full moment of this stream of energy entering my left hand from Earl, I feel fully rejuvenated and pull back.

The only consequence that still lingers from the run so far is the headache, a sign that I’m using too much Ether and nearing oversaturation, but even that lessened a bit. The physical pain and weariness are gone. Although Adrenaline Surge numbs those feelings while it is active, they are still there and present. I can still feel them, just waiting to pounce upon me once I let up on the skill. But no longer they do.

I stand once more and walk back to the raft of bone and restart the run. I push aside the cacophony within my mind, the worries from Esther, Leonard, and Earl, and my own mental exhaustion and weariness. I push all this aside as I pull the raft alongside with me forwards toward Rustbank.

 

***************************

 

I make it another thirty or so miles before I collapse once more. Once more do I have to use the Bloody Palm to heal my damaged body. Leonard volunteers this time, and I take him up on it. But my tiredness bites both of us. The whole time I try my best to keep my left hand on a short leash, but my thoughts fray as one of the whispers makes me think of Ma and the Ogre that she was in the memory. I lose focus for just a moment through weariness and the Bloody Palm jumps at the opportunity, biting, yipping, and whispering deeply into both me and Leonard.

I rein it back as fast as I can once I realize the mistake. Leonard pulls back as fast as he can because he hears the voices too. He gives me a weird look before asking worriedly if I’m okay. Then, as he does, he passes out and falls harshly to the sandy ground.

“Are you okay? What was—”

Earl and I both go and immediately check on him as I feel a massive surge of warmth flow through me, making all the exhaustion and pain throughout my body disappear in seconds. It even lessens the headache from too much Ether by a drastic amount. From a splitting headache to a painful throb.

That’s when I know I really fucked up. I let the Bloody Palm take too large a bite in my lapse of concentration. Enough to fully heal me and lessen the burden on my body from Ether itself. Which I didn’t even know was possible. Was the Ether left behind in my body from usage transferred to Leonard somehow? Or did the Bloody Palm eat it up?

Earl picks up Leonards's head and checks his heartbeat through the large artery on his neck. Then he looks up at me and takes a sigh of relief.

“He’s still breathing just fine. I think you just took enough from him that he passed out. I felt something similar when you used your left hand on me as well, but it wasn’t as bad. Just a dizziness and lightheadedness that makes you want to sleep that lingers for a while. Here, help me put him back on the raft then we can continue. Only thirty more miles. We might just make it.”

I nod and grab Leonards's feet and Earl gets his upper body. We lift him on the count of three and place him gently on the bone slab that functions as a sand raft. He just looks like he’s sleeping peacefully, just a bit paler. Somehow he seems to pass out even more than me lately. And I feel like I do that all the time.

Elizabeth looks even paler and it seems as though she’s sweating really badly. I push Earl to see how she’s doing.

“How is Elizabeth doing? Will she be fine to get to Rustbank?”

Earl sits next to her and props her head on his leg before checking her heartbeat and breathing. Then, he answers.

“She’s breathing really shallowly and slowly. Her heartbeat is the same. Like I said earlier, I’m no doctor, but I know for sure this isn't good. The faster we can get to Rustbank the better. And for when we get there, how much money do you have? Counting what we, uh requisitioned, from the bandits, we have fifty-five dollars. It’s quite a bit, certainly enough for a doctor, but not enough to live off of for the five of us and get equipment.”

I check my pack, which holds all the supplies Edmund had and the little bit of money I took from home. After a few minutes of frantic searching and using too much strength, ripping things here or there because Adrenaline Surge and a Daydream are active, find some money.

A single mint hundred dollar bill is within Edmund’s pack along with around fifty dollars in other denominations. Earl and I both go wide-eyed at the discovery. I’ve never seen a bill that big. The largest one I’ve ever seen is a twenty-dollar bill that Ma had once saved for emergencies. We had to spend it to take Butter to a doctor when he was really sick.

Within my section of the pack that’s separate from the things Edmund left, I find only ten dollars. My whole life savings up to this point. I add together the total with Earl. I’m blown away by the amount.

“So, we’ve got a bit over two hundred dollars? Damn, that’s a lot. What could we even buy with that much money?”

“Well, a doctor will probably be between fifteen and fifty dollars depending on how bad her condition is when we get there. The rest can be spent on food, ammo, and other supplies. I would like to buy a 1st Mark Colt while we’re in Rustbank, but I’m unsure how expensive Colts are. We could also probably sell some of these weapons and tools we took from the bandits, but we’re definitely keeping that boomstick, it’s a Colt.”

The boomstick was a Colt? I guess I should have figured that with how much damage it did. I reach over and place my hand on its barrel to inspect it as half of the huge shotgun hangs out of Leonard's pack. I sense about what I expected. A feeling of toughness and strength. The name of the Sigil comes to mind.

Soldier

It’s a 1st Sigil Colt. And quite a powerful one, the base weapon already being a massive shotgun. I agree with Earl about keeping it to ourselves. If a huge monster like that spider or something else comes, the shotgun will be incredibly needed. We just need to get more ammunition for it. We only got a few dozen shells or so.

We definitely need to get more weapons, though. I grab a pistol from the pack full of weapons and load it up to five out of six with spare ammo in a pouch. Then I put it in the old holster meant for the Blooming Spider Lily, feeling a bout of sadness as I do so. That Colt really was something special. Able to kill anything it hits with one bullet. And a stream of darkness that devours the life of the victim to empower the shooter. I want to take it back from Alexos if I ever find him.

Why are so many things about taking from others? So many abilities seem to focus on that. None of my Sigils actually do, but it does seem to be a very common theme. Maybe that's just how the whole world works, though, as it seems Sigils aren't the only things that take. People do too.

I shake away these distracting thoughts as I once more grab the rope and bear the weight to carry us forward to Rustbank. With a newly restored body and a partially healed mind, I once more begin the marathon to Rustbank. I dig my feet into the sand and shoot off with renewed resolve and push even more Ether into my body.

 

*********************

 

Two hours later, we see lights in the distance. A city that seems to be bustling and full of movement. Rustbank. I stop pulling the raft of bone as we reach the point where we can see other people. And they look at us quite weirdly for what we’re doing, which is admittedly, really odd. To be carrying four people and a bunch of gear all by yourself.

So, to not attract attention, we pick up all our gear and try to keep it at least mostly hidden in the packs. Except for weapons as we quickly notice every single person in Rustbank is armed. At least a gun or some other range weapon paired with a blade. A few only wield melee weapons, but those are either very large men or men full of scars.

My first impression of the city is that it is full of danger and rowdiness. We enter just before sundown. I’m still sweating and very tired, but I push through as I restart Daydream to push away the Bloody Palm. The Ether headache is back at full force and warning me that I’m reaching my limit. But I just need to go a little bit longer before I can rest. At least my body doesn't hurt all that bad. One day of rest with this artifact ought to heal me fully.

We walk through the main road of the town as a group. All of us are armed. Even Esther. I gave her a small derringer to keep on her hip while she carries the trio of baby foxes, one being quite a bit larger than the others. This town obviously believes in the notion of protecting yourself. Earl has his two pistols and Leonard walks shakily, newly awakened from me knocking him unconscious, with the giant boomstick in his hands. He named it Kablooey. I almost punched him for it. But I already feel bad for hurting him, so I didn’t.

I walk through the city at the front of our group with Elizabeth on my shoulder, a revolver in my holster, twin daggers on the back of my waist, and my rapier that was returned to me on my right side. Several people give us side glances as if they don’t recognize us and treat us as outsiders. I just look away from them and peer around for any sign that mentions a doctor.

We continue to walk through the city despite this until we reach the center of the town where a crowd is gathered and a man stands on a stage with a noose. Beside him is another man with steel manacles tied around his limbs making him unable to move.

I try to ignore this sight and continue onward to look for a doctor, but I do activate Chain Eyes out of both curiosity and paranoia.

What appears in my eyes makes me stop in my tracks.