part0037

His face was flushed red. If it was from anger, excitement, or both, Sam couldn’t be sure. He did know one thing, though. He had to take this bastard down without killing him, and his best chance to do so would be to separate him from his cronies so that Emma and Barry could take him out.

“Hey there, you pompous prick,” Sam said with a cheery wave. “I was wondering if I’d ever see your cowardly little face again.”

The gnome’s face darkened, as rage overtook him completely.

“How dare you mock me? Do you know who I am?”

“Yes. You’re a pompous prick with an overinflated ego and too much power,” Sam replied with a shrug. Then he winked to Emma and turned his back on gnome and his party.

“I don’t have time for you now, as I’m quite busy. Maybe you and your cronies can come back a different time.”

Sam had to suppress the urge to laugh at the gnome’s scream of rage, and just continued walking at a leisurely pace, disappearing into the surrounding foliage.

“After him! All of you! I want him dead!” Sam heard him screech a second later.

He heard the telltale sound of people crashing through the trees behind him and took off running. He knew that they would catch him in a matter of seconds, as his Agility was total crap, but all he needed were seconds.

“Coming through!” he shouted, making sure that Gordon knew he was coming and invariably letting his pursuers know his exact location.

He spotted the area up ahead and took a quick peek at his Stamina bar. It was still more than 70% full, which was quite surprising. The crashing sound grew louder and, taking a quick peek over his shoulder, Sam felt his heart leap up to his throat. The fawn and both demi-humans were right on his tail, with the Fawn trailing just a few feet behind the others.

Sam gritted his teeth and attempted to make his legs move faster, but it felt as though he were trying to run through mud.

Leaning forward, Sam attempted to eke out as much speed as he could, pushing himself harder and harder. Then, without warning, his Stamina bar dropped by over half and he suddenly shot away from the three chasing him, much to all of their surprise. A message popped up, but Sam shoved it aside as his speed dropped just as quickly as it had risen. Thankfully, he had reached the trapped area and slowed to a walk.

The others, thinking that he’d nearly run out of Stamina, rushed forward in excitement and that was when Gordon triggered the trap. There was a sound like a thousand trees cracking all at once, then all the logs they’d hoisted into the trees came crashing down on the heads of the two demi-humans. The fawn was far enough back to avoid the worst of it, but she was still caught by a glancing blow and sent reeling.

Sam got the notifications, confirming that the two had been killed and that the fawn had been stunned. He grinned to himself, mentally slapping himself high five for a plan well executed.

“Alright, let’s go catch that gnome!” Sam shouted, running forward. He attempted to lift the stunned fawn from the ground, but failed miserably.

Gordon came running from the surrounding trees and, after seeing Sam struggling to lift the armored woman, bent down and clamped his jaws into her breastplate.

“Thanks,” Sam said, as the dog easily lifted her half-off the ground and began dragging her toward where Emma and Barry were probably fighting the gnome right now.

As they ran, two notifications flashed quickly across Sam’s vision.

He wasn’t too surprised at the first one, but wondered at the Charisma increase. Giving Gordon a sidelong look, he wondered if the successful plan had elevated him in the dog’s eyes. They emerged onto the path just a few short moments later and Sam began wildly looking around for the fight he was sure was happening right now.

“About time you got your cute butt back here.”

Sam turned to see Emma, standing next to a tied up and unconscious gnome. Pompayous had a nasty bruise on the back of his head, and Baron Von Tweet was in the process of defecating into his open mouth.

“I guess you didn’t need my help, after all,” he said sheepishly, as Gordon dropped the unconscious fawn at his feet.

Emma’s eyes flicked to the unconscious woman and she raised an eyebrow.

“She didn’t look like she actually cared about killing me,” Sam said with a shrug. “I’ve got a feeling that most of the guildies aren’t okay with what’s been going on, but are either too afraid or weak to do anything about it. I bet that we can make use of her somehow.”

“If you say so,” Emma said, bending down and hauling the unconscious gnome off the ground by his shirt collar.

“So, where to now?”

“It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to head to your house. How about we just go deep enough into the woods that no one will hear him scream?”

“Ooh, I like the way you think,” Emma said with a wicked grin. “Lead the way then, oh fearless leader.”

“And have you staring at my ass the entire time? No thanks,” Sam said with a snort.

Emma shrugged, then walked out in front, taking the time to turn back and wink at him. “Alright. Just this once I’ll let you stare at my ass.”

Sam just rolled his eyes, but followed her all the same, Gordon trotting behind him, still dragging the unconscious fawn along the ground.

They walked for nearly an hour, going in deep enough that the trees had started spreading further and further apart as they grew larger. While they walked, Sam took the time to check his notifications and discovered that he’d gotten some XP from killing the guildies, as well as a new ability- a surprising one at that.

Sam closed his the notification, wondering at the odd ability. He hadn’t thought that he’d be receiving any Stamina based abilities, due to his Mage class. Even before he’d chosen the class, he hadn’t received any abilities that would cost him Stamina. Pondering this, he began to wonder if he might have been limiting himself up until now. If he could have access to abilities outside of his class, he wondered what else he might be able to learn.

They finally stopped a few minutes later, when they came across a small clearing with a narrow stream running along one side.

Emma dropped the now conscious and struggling gnome to the ground, and stretched, arching her back and letting out a long groan. He’d come to about ten minutes ago and had begun sputtering and cursing. Emma must have knocked him pretty hard on the head, as he had a sizeable lump there, and it probably hadn’t helped his mood that he’d woken up with a mouthful of bird shit. They’d been forced to stop and shove a dirty rag in his mouth to keep him from talking.

Lilly, the fawn, had also come to, but unlike Pompayous, didn’t put up much of a fight. After Sam had threatened to have Gordon tear her throat out, she’d been cooperative, albeit, reluctantly.

“I do not appreciate you treating as though I were some wild mongrel,” Gordon huffed, walking in a circle a few times, before dropping to the ground and pulling his stick from his storage.

“I don’t treat you like a mongrel,” Sam said absent-mindedly, kicking the struggling gnome in the stomach and making him double up in pain.

“The way you just casually threatened to have me attack someone else for you would suggest otherwise.”

“Aww, don’t be like that, Gordon,” Emma said, crouching down next to him and scratching him behind the ears. “You know that Sam values you very much. Don’t you, Sam?”

Despite his annoyance, Gordon’s tail began thumping on the ground as soon as Emma began scratching his ears and a low, satisfied rumbling sound came from deep within his chest.

“Yes, Gordon, I value you as much as any member of our team,” Sam said, keeping his back to the dog, so he wouldn’t see him rolling his eyes.

“Sarcasm does not become you, Samuel,” Gordon said, making Sam grit his teeth in annoyance.

“I’m sorry, but can you tell me why the two of you are talking to the dog?”

They all turned to see Lilly standing on the other side of the clearing and looking around nervously. She wouldn’t understand what Gordon was saying, and probably thought she’d been captured by a bunch of crazy people.

“Oh, don’t mind us,” Sam said, waving his hand as though to dismiss the entire thing.

He noticed that the gnome had recovered and was trying to wriggle away, and decided to put an end to that.

“Hey, Barry,” he called to the brightly colored bird, who had perched high in one of the trees.

With a squawk, the foul-beaked monstrosity took off, and came down to land on the ground near them.

“Don’t call me that! My name is Baron Von Tweet!” He cocked his head to the side. “Bitch,” he added as an afterthought.

“Right,” Sam said, doing his best not to stomp on the bird. “Well then, Baron Von Tweet, how would you like to guard our prisoner, while I question our other guest?”

“I’m not your slave, motherfucker! Do it yourself,” he then spread his wings as if to take off, when Sam held out a hand.

“If he misbehaves, feel free to shit on him.”

Sam had to suppress a grin as the gnome’s already red face went a shade darker, and his muffled screams redoubled.

The bird stared at him for a few seconds, as if to check if he were messing with him or not, then slowly nodded.

“You’ve got a deal. No take-backs!”

Sam nodded seriously, then turned to face the others. He didn’t know what was with that bird and his obsession with crapping on people, but he figured it would be a good way to get him to do what he wanted. Much in the same way he could predict Gordon’s actions, if he offered him a stick.

Emma stared wide-eyed, as her seemingly uncontrollable companion was handled and set to task.

“How the hell did you manage that?” she whispered as Sam drew near.

“Just gave him what he wanted, much in the same way you seem to have an easy time with Gordon. If you want my opinion, I think that dick of an Overlord purposely gave us companions we wouldn’t get along with.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Gordon said, but Sam could tell it was a half-hearted attempt.

His eyes were half-lidded and his tail was swishing slowly, as he drifted off under Emma’s lightly scratching fingernails. A thoughtful expression crossed her features when he said this and after a few moments, she nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Excuse me, but are you planning on keeping me here all night?”

They both turned to see that the fawn was still standing there, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

“No. In fact, we’re gonna let you go,” he replied, walking over and standing just a few feet from her.

Lilly’s eyes widened in disbelief, then narrowed in suspicion.

“And what do you want in exchange for my freedom? You gonna ra…”

“Nope, not really into forcing myself onto others,” Sam said, rolling his eyes.

“All I want is some information on the guild, then I’ll let you go.”

Lilly had stopped with her mouth half open, but closed it with an audible click when he cut her off.

“What do you want to know?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest and looking him in the eye. “I won’t give up anything that will hurt the guild. Even if you torture me.” Her fingers closed around the slim silver chain dangling from her neck, as though it gave her strength.

“Again, not gonna torture you. I just want to know what’s been going on the guild since Sirus took over.”

Lilly opened her mouth to speak, but Sam raised a hand to forestall her.

“I’m not asking for guild information. All I want to know is when he came in, how he managed the takeover, and how the rest of the guild members feel about it.”

Lilly was silent for a long moment once he’d finished speaking. So long, in fact, that he wondered if they would get any answers from her at all. Then, finally, she began telling her tale.

“It all began about a year ago. Our previous Guildmaster died while raiding a new dungeon a few miles from here. Pompayous was second in command and he gathered all of us in the guild hall to tell us the news. We thought that he’d report the death and that the main guild branch in The Frozen Monarchy would appoint a replacement. Except, that wasn’t the reason he’d gathered us all there,” Lilly said with a sigh.

“As soon as he delivered the news, the exits were locked and a group of men emerged to block all attempts at escape. Then Sirus walked in. He was accompanied by his sister and an elf woman…” Lilly’s cheeks colored slightly at the mention of the elf, and Sam had a pretty good idea of who she was talking about.

“Sirus told us that the guild branch in Shtut would now be under his control and that he was appointing Pompayous as the Guildmaster.”

“Why did you go along with it?” Sam asked.

This was the only part that he didn’t understand about the entire situation. He still wasn’t sure about the guild as a whole, but there was no way they would sanction a gang running their business in their name. And why would any member stay and take those orders?

“A lot of us tried to leave, but then the elf… did something to us.” Lilly shivered slightly at the memory, and Sam’s assessment of the threat Milly posed went up a few notches.

“What did she do?”

Lilly bit her bottom lip for a few moments, before lowering her voice and answering.

“She… went into my head, and…” her face went beet red, and she buried her face in her hands.

“What did she do?”

Sam turned to see that Emma had risen from her position by the now sleeping Gordon and had come over to join them. Lilly lifted her face and seemed to take strength from Emma’s presence.

“She whispered my greatest shame, my deepest and darkest desires. Then, threatened to expose them for all to hear if I didn’t go along with what Sirus ordered.”

Sam and Emma shared a look, then turned back to the blushing fawn woman.

“That couldn’t have been enough to keep everyone in line though,” Emma prodded.

“It wasn’t,” Lilly agreed. “Those that the elf couldn’t control through blackmail, she controlled through fear. You see, she’s a very powerful Mage , and can make people do what she wants. She made an example of someone who refused to listen. She…” Lilly stopped for a moment and covered her mouth, as though trying to stop herself from vomiting at the memory.

“What did she do?” Sam asked, now becoming horrified at the type of person he’d been traveling with.

“She made him tear his throat out with his bare hands, then forced him to eat it while he bled out on the ground.”

Sam felt bile rising in his throat at the image and had to suppress a shudder.

“That… is some seriously messed up shit. Can you tell me the elf’s name?” he asked, already afraid of hearing the answer.

“Millicent, I believe he called her,” Lilly said in a quiet voice.

Sam felt his heart sink when he heard that. He’d already known that Milly was the most likely culprit for all his misfortune, but he had no idea that she was this twisted.

“Where will you go now?” Emma asked her.

“Since I’m most likely presumed to be dead at this point - or going to be in the near future - I’m going to the city of Caster and letting the guild over there know of the situation. This has been our best chance of freedom yet, and I’m going to take it.”

“But if they discover that you’re still alive, aren’t you afraid they’ll come after you?” Emma asked.

“There’s always that chance, but I think I’ll be able to make it. Caster is only four days away and if I get enough of a head start, then I think I’ll be able to make it.”

Sam nodded, then stuck out his hand for the woman to shake.

“Thank you for the information. You’re free to go. I hope you make it there safely.”

Lilly nodded, taking his hand in a surprisingly strong grip and shaking it firmly. Emma gave the girl a hug and handed her three stew rations for the road.

“Thank you,” Lilly said, bowing at the waist to both of them. “I will not forget that you spared my life when you didn’t have to, and let me go free.” Then she turned and jogged off into the darkening forest.