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Den beat the shit out of me. Literally.
I was battered and there were scratches all over me. His demonic side was really, demonic. And here I thought elves were supposed to be peaceful. Almost all my stereotypes about them had been shattered... they were just people.
“Also, what’s up with the lifesaving elixir thing? How lucky can you get?” He grimaced, albeit disgustingly and sat down next to me. Den grabbed my hand for a second, took a look at the white insignia and rolled his eyes. “And you went and got yourself cursed too. Moron.”
Apparently that elixir thing was rare but not super hard to find. In every dungeon, there was a special room full of that stuff. But the only way to access that special room was to clear the whole dungeon. That took anywhere from a month to a few years. And some dungeons were unclearable. Mom didn’t clarify what you needed to do to actually clear a dungeon but I guess it meant defeating a boss of sorts? The amount of water I recovered was worth about eighty or so gold coins; In money terms, that was approximately 80 grand. So technically me falling into that glowing water was really damn lucky. Mom took all of it though, only giving me a single vial for emergencies.
As for the contract... well, it was complicated. Apparently, lizards weren’t categorized as dragons. And lizards were somewhat despised. This was particularly why I didn’t see a single one out in the wild. They were hunted past extinction. The few that survived, survived in caves and places humans didn’t frequent. The same went for snakes. Our friend Rexen was one of the higher lizard forms and considered a malicious spirit since it’d devoured roughly 17 villagers so far....
No wonder the damn thing was laughing so much while toying with me. It’d been toyed for generations....
So, although the contract did have some benefits (and helped me not die), it came with a lot, and I mean a LOOOT of baggage. Hence, Den and everyone else called it a curse.
“It’s a long story.”
“We have all day,” Den said.
“No we don’t. You beat me, I’m going to tell Mom and you can guess what’ll happen next.”
His proud face more or less crumbled. “I’ll buy you a Honeycrisp so chill. Just say you fell or something.”
“Ten.”
“What?”
“Ten Honeycrisps.”
Dude intentionally kicked me around in the name of training. I was not going to have mercy, no.
He sighed. “Alright. Fine.”
That said, we stayed put for a while and watched the blue skies. “What does it mean to be contracted anyway?” Mom never elaborated and forced me to wear a large as hell glove. I of course kept it on but it was coming loose.
The sun felt good. Warm, full of life. Not burning at all. Yet for some reason I was missing the comfort of that damn warm cave. Fucking hell.
“You’ll be able to perform specific stuff. Like be more physically similar. It was a white lizard, right? So maybe you’ll have better regenerative capabilities. Obviously not like the lizard but better than a Westerner. You might grow up to be stronger than typical ones too. But most people don’t notice too much of a difference, so don’t bet on it. Especially since you didn’t have much to begin with, you may never notice a difference.”
Ah yes, assuming it gave me a ten percent boost on strength or stamina, how was I going to notice that if I let’s say had a stamina of 2 or maybe 3? Does this world have a level system though?
I once tried shouting Menu and stats and other stuff and Mom genuinely thought I’d gone mad, so I tried not to do that again.
“But does this mean, I’ll have to leave this place?”
He stood up, picked me up on his back, and we were on our way back. “You would have had to leave eventually.”
So that was a yes.
Lately Mom was often sighing and didn’t smile as much. I got the feeling she was hiding something but... I’d have to leave?
“And why is that?”
“There’s only one way you can legally stay in the Southern woods.”
“That is?”
“Get your balls chopped off.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah.”
Excuse me? huh? What!
I got that these people didn’t want weak humans to spread their seeds. But seriously?
“That’s the only way?”
“Yeah. And before you turn ten, since that’s when you... well.”
I gulped. “Fucking hell...” No wonder all those guys were looking at me with pity like that. Fuck!
But wait, I still had about five years then, right? Phew.
But if they gut my balls before my teens, won’t I be a ladyboy or something? Thinking about all that gave me a shiver so I stopped thinking.
“Where the hell did you learn how to curse?” Den said. But his words just fell on deaf ears.
My mind was totally elsewhere. I imagined a pair of plums... sitting tightly. And then some guy coming in with a pair of scissors and just cutting them off... oof!
Painful! Too painful!
Why!
Yeah, so much for not thinking about that shit. Argh!
We got home. I said I fell but Mom still gave Den an earful. With that over, we were kind of done for the day. I couldn’t get the idea of plums falling from the sky though. Sigh....
I trained, ate, trained, and ate. Absolutely no abrupt change in my strength or stamina at all. I did improve slightly but that was a result of deliberate training, not the contract. As for the regen thing, my spit had some effect but licking my scratches proved to be difficult. Every time I licked myself, Den and anyone else around me would just... look at me with such pity.
Sigh.
However, on a positive note, Xerec sold the serpent thingies for a pretty penny and Mom bought me some nice delicious Honeycrisps. Coupled with the fact, that I blackmail-ahem- got some nice Honeycrisps from Den too, life was good.
Somewhat.
A month passed by and Lia often came with her friends. Every time she came with a boy, and we hung out. It was always from that group I met at her little brother’s party.
Lia was cute but I didn’t think she’d have those boys wrapped around her finger like that. That girl was still young but I had a feeling she’d grow up to be a Manizer (Playgirl?), assuming that was a thing. Isn’t she like barely 6 though?
We hung out, and it was somewhat fun. A break from all the grinding. She never brought more than one guy at a time. She was young, but she was a pro, that was for sure. I hit it off with the guys. At some point, the boys came to hang out with me on their own. Pretty weird. We did have a lot of fun though.
“And then, and then, he started rolling around!” Lia said. Her speech had improved significantly and I could finally understand the phrase- look how fast they’ve grown!
Mack had come to hang out and we were just walking around the rice paddies when a wild Lia had shown up. In these past few weeks, Mack and I became fast friends. We had much to talk about. He was often fat shamed and so he felt somewhat relieved to be talking to me. Now granted I wasn’t fat by any means, but when everyone around you was thin as a branch (super fit) and you were double their size, even if you found someone just a tad chubbier than the rest, you’d still be relieved. But Mack was probably just worried for nothing. He was barely six and kids around that age tended to be on the rounder side. Especially when their mother would force feed them boundless soup and meat. No, that’s just your mother...
“Maybe not let the newborn roll around?” I said.
“He’s a man, he’ll be fine,” Mack snorted. And he scowled at me ever since Lia came.
I got the feeling that he just wanted to be alone with me? I didn’t peg him to be the jealous type.
It’s a baby dude... No seriously, this world had awfully weird standards. Or maybe Mack had just picked up the sayings from his parents or people around him who kept whining about what constituted ‘a man’.
“Yeah, by being dead,” I snorted.
His face crumbled at the word ‘death.’ Lia stared at me quizzically. “Why would rolling on the ground kill him?”
“Because he’s awfully young, doesn’t have a developed immune system and can die from virtually anything. Even eating honey. Especially eating honey.”
“Mama says honey is good for you.”
“They’re terrible for babies though,” I said. “And young children. That’s why Mom doesn’t let me eat any.” And totally not because we couldn’t afford any.... “Though I suppose rolling on the ground would train his immune system. He will probably get sick though.”
Lia was quite confused and Mack too but they just shrugged off my comments as facts. They apparently regarded me as the guy who spent money frugally to buy books. I was known as a stupid but knowledgeable boy. I still didn’t know what to feel about that. I only bought one book folks, one book!
***
I had to make regular offerings in the cave. Once a week. Every time I went there, a group of white lizards awaited me; the big one never showed up. I didn’t go alone of course. Den took me and made sure to carry me the whole way, so I didn’t get lost. I found it a little funny how he always carried a large pitcher in case we ‘accidentally’ fell into that aerated water stuff again. We never did though.
“Not today either huh?” Den wondered, sighing. We watched the little lizards devour all the meat and then made our way out.
All in all, life was fun. Life was slow. And life was... good.
But good times hardly last.
A few weeks later, in the middle of the night I heard a thud and walked out of the room. Mom wasn’t on the bed; kind of dark. Did she fall down or something? It was a really loud fall and I might have even heard a groan.
I came out and well... there was someone on the floor but it wasn’t Mom. It was a guy in a robe of sorts. And mom was standing next to him. The robbed fellow was passed out and bleeding. Wait no... he was dead.
My teeth shook, my blood cooled down as though the temperature just dropped by twenty degrees Celsius.
“Mom...” I mumbled.
She didn’t look at me. She didn’t even face me. “Go back and don’t come out for a while.”
“Okay.”
I didn’t question her. I didn’t have the guts to. I didn’t see any weapon. And I honestly didn’t want to.
I considered Mom many things. Cook, hunter, tailor, farmer. A warrior... many things. But never a murderer.
I couldn’t stop my shivering body, and neither could I stop my rapid breath, but even so- It’s just a nightmare. It’ll disappear the moment I wake up tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, definitely just a nightmare!
But that was a person Sol, a person! No, it was just a nightmare.
Someone died! Nightmare.
Someone died!!!
Argh! I grabbed my ears, somehow forced my thoughts to die. “It’s just a nightmare...” I mumbled to myself, reassuring everything would just disappear in the morning.
Yet... the shivers didn’t stop. The pounding didn’t stop. And neither did the tears.
***
The next morning, I woke up all groggy. Suffice to say, I couldn’t sleep a wink. Not even when Mom had come back. Not even when I felt her warmth.
There wasn’t any spot of blood or any scratches on the floor. Everything was clean as though nothing even happened. Mom didn’t mention anything and I didn’t find the right time to ask either. Before breakfast Den showed up and exchanged awkward glances with Mom.
“It’ll be tough but I think I can convince him. I did save his life,” Den said; a bag on his back and he was geared pretty oddly; like he was going on a journey or something.
“Are you going somewhere Den?” I asked.
“A little out of town,” he said. “Be sure to practice... oh and don’t go out till I return. Xena will come by and take the offerings.”
“Be careful,” Mom said.
He left just as quickly as he’d arrived.
“Is this because of last night,” I said.
Mom shook her head. I wasn’t sure if that was a yes or no, but she didn’t talk. What had she done? Bury the body? Maybe burn it? Or had she thrown it away in the cave for-
No, that was just a nightmare, forget it, forget it!
I proceeded to erase all my queries. Things between me and mom were starting to get real awkward so- “Did you escort that man out tomorrow?” I asked, innocently. “Did he come to check on us or something?” I said.
Her eyes opened wide for a second but she managed to keep a normal face. “Yes.”
And that was the end of the conversation.
Den didn’t show for the next two weeks. And my training more or less stagnated.
Mom kept an eye on me always and for the next few days Serec offered to guard our place at night. But guard us from what, that I didn’t quite understand. Did the church... want me dead? But hadn’t Mom already sorted that out and... Then what? The insignia? But I was keeping it wrapped in bandages and... and... then what?
The mur-
No, that was just a nightmare.
