The Fractured World, page 10
My skin turned to ice. Something welled in my throat. Why had I looked? I already knew what had happened. And I knew what came next.
Death.
No! I can’t die here. I don’t want to die!
There was still so much I wanted to do. Nothing big, nothing fancy, but why should that matter?
Actually, that was a lie. There was still something important I’d left unfinished. I’d become Casella’s mate to save her. If I perished here, I’d be letting her down. I would pretty much be killing her with my own hands.
Another woman I cared about dead because of my ineptitude.
Heat pulsed through my veins. I jerked my shoulder, smashing the monster in the face.
It stumbled back with a howl.
I dragged myself off the blade and collapsed to a knee. The rest of me was freezing, yet my wound was volcanic. I squeezed my midriff. It did nothing to stop the blood from pouring out.
The monster clicked its mandibles and set its sights on me.
I gritted my teeth.
Got to run!
My legs somehow obeyed but not at full strength. The terrain didn’t help either. I slipped before I had a chance to get going.
The mantis monster pounced on me.
I slammed back against the cold stone and just about managed to block the scythes from reaching my face. The sharpness sliced through my gloves and cut into my palms.
The alien opened its pincers and came in for a bite.
I responded with a swift headbutt.
Its face was split open by the crunching blow. Green gunk poured out as the creature lurched back.
I kicked its stomach and scurried for the exit. When I reached the edge, it dawned on me. I was up in the air. The quickest escape route involved dropping three stories.
My opponent recovered and let out a hissing screech. It charged my way while swinging its blade arms in a mad flurry.
Shit! It’s gonna slice me into bits.
I looked between death and the ground and made my decision. Steeling myself, I kicked off the mound.
The fall lasted for mere moments before I landed with a thud.
Spiking pain shot through the wound in my back. A duller agony encompassed the rest of me. I groaned as I tried, and failed, to move. Just twitching my fingers made my misery flare. Still, I was alive. The snow had broken my fall. It cradled me in its cold embrace and kissed the searing hole in my back.
Talk about a face turn.
Letting the snow tend to my wounds felt divine, but I couldn’t rest. The mantis killing machine was nearby. If I didn’t get moving, it would come and finish what it had started.
Got to get back to camp. My mate’s waiting for me.
I snarled as I forced my aching body to work. My back was still in one piece and my legs weren’t broken. There was no reason I couldn’t move. Squeezing my leaking stomach, I shuffled through the hardening cement previously called snow. Each step took more out of me. My body temperature tanked and my vision started to waver. Darkness encroached on the edges and gobbled away at how much I could see. However, that didn’t stop me. One sense stood tall as others crumbled. It was my connection to Casella. Our bond as mates was indestructible. I always knew I was heading the right way no matter how difficult it became to follow that invisible link.
The return journey took so much longer than the one which had preceded it. After a couple of hours of playing zombie, a beautiful face filled my blurry vision.
“My Brandon!” Casella said with a giggle-filled cheer. She held up a bundle of fur. “Look what I started. I’ll have warm clothes before you… my Brandon?”
I didn’t know how to reply. My strength was so lacking I couldn’t make out what she was trying to show me.
“What happened? You’re… you’re bleeding!” Casella screeched.
“Yep,” I groaned. It wasn’t the most reassuring thing I could have said, but I wasn’t exactly in the best condition. In fact, once I realized I’d made it back, my entire world turned black.
“Miss Faris! Please help!” Casella’s fading voice cried.
I didn’t get to see whether or not she came to my aid. My wavering consciousness surrendered to the darkness.
Chapter 12
The dancing glow of a flickering fire bounced off the stalactites.
I sighed. So, hell it was. I couldn’t say I was surprised. It was the fitting place for somebody who couldn’t protect those he cared about.
First, my sister. Then, Casella. Both let down by the same stupid little boy.
I tried to move. A pain stabbed at my midsection, causing me to groan.
“My Brandon?” a puffy-eyed Casella said as she appeared in my face.
I stared in disbelief.
What’s she doing here? She doesn’t belong…
It dawned on me. I’d been a bit premature in going through my Last Rites. Somehow, I was still alive. I was back in the cave lying on a bed of fur.
I showed Casella a relieved smile to surpass all others. “Hi there.”
“You’re awake. You’re awake!” she cheered, wrapping me in a hug.
I winced under her weight.
She jumped back. “I’m so terribly sorry, my Brandon. I didn’t mean to…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m completely fine.” I shuffled to a seated position while trying to hide my pain behind gritted teeth.
“Be careful,” Casella said. “The stitches.”
The wound on my stomach had been closed by a tidy leaf stitch. A quick brush discovered the same thing on my back.
“It missed your vitals,” Faris said as she offered me a thick slab of freshly cooked meat. “You lucked out.”
“Hello to you too,” I said with a laugh.
“It’s a fact. You should be dead.”
“Tell me about it,” I said as I dug into my breakfast with the vigor of a man eating for the first time in his life. “I’d be playing fiddle with the reaper if you hadn’t stitched me up.”
“It wasn’t me,” Faris replied.
Huh?
Casella toyed with her hands and struggled to look me in the eye? “How does it feel? It was my first time using my sewing skills in such a way…”
“She insisted she do it,” Faris said.
“Only because your hands were too shaky.”
Faris clammed up.
I laughed and rubbed Casella’s head. “You did a wonderful job. A pro couldn’t have done it better.”
“Really and truly?” she cooed.
I nodded. “You saved my life.”
Casella giggled. “Anything for my mate.”
I smiled. That hypnotic sound was the best medicine a guy could get.
Faris cleared her throat. “Enough flirting. What happened?”
I told them everything.
Casella’s face paled with every gruesome detail. Faris withstood it all without giving anything away.
“Where was this? Close?” Faris asked once I’d finished.
“Not on our doorstep but closer than I’m comfortable with. And who knows if it followed me.” I’d rolled out the red carpet in a twisted literal sense.
Faris grumbled. “We should move.”
“We can’t,” Casella said. “My mate’s hurt. He’s in no condition to go anywhere.”
“I’m better now,” I said. As I shifted, a hot slice of pain stabbed me in the midsection. This time, I failed to mask my grunt.
“You’re not,” Casella said. She put her hands on my shoulders to stop me from getting away. “You need rest.”
“No rest for the wicked, remember?”
“You are by no means wicked, my Brandon. You have been an exceptional mate and I don’t wish to lose you.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Please, my Brandon.”
I eased back into my fur bed. Is there a man out there who isn’t weak to a crying beauty? I’ve yet to find one.
“This doesn’t solve our problem,” Faris said. “We’re vulnerable.”
“She’s not wrong,” I agreed.
“Then I suppose there’s no choice.” Casella rose and puffed her chest out. “Miss Faris. Please teach me how to fight.”
Faris and I both gained the same bewildered expression.
“What?” Faris said after a good pause.
“I will protect my mate until he is back to his best.”
“No.”
“I insist!”
“I refuse,” Faris growled. “You are not to endanger yourself.”
“Why? Because Lord Bogdan ordered so?” Casella said.
“You are his.”
“I am Brandon’s and Brandon is mine. He is my mate and I will protect him if I must. If Lord Bogdan won’t let me… then I don’t want anything to do with that jerk!”
“Princess—”
“Don’t ‘princess’ me,” Casella said. “I have a name, if you haven’t realized. I’m sick of you treating me like nothing. I thought that was normal until I met Brandon.”
Faris didn’t know what to say.
I could understand why. I was in a similar predicament. Casella was the last person I’d expected such an outburst from.
Finally, Faris snorted. “I’m not the villain here. I’m only doing my job. I can’t go against my orders.”
“You are not,” Casella said. “All I ask is you teach me to fight. I don’t wish to remain but a helpless princess relegated to housework all day. I want the strength to support my mate whenever I can.”
“That’s not your role,” Faris replied.
“I don’t care. Our situation isn’t exactly normal. I never would have considered such a thing if we hadn’t landed here.” She glanced at me. “If I hadn’t met Brandon.”
“Don’t put turning into some Xena Warrior Princess on me,” I said. “Not that I disapprove.”
Casella’s face lit up. “You don’t?”
I shook my head. “Don’t get me wrong. If it was up to me, you’d be wrapped up in so much cotton wool a missile couldn’t hurt you. But we need to be realistic. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Hell, I almost died today. If something happened to me, I’d want my mate to have the best chance of surviving possible. As far as I see it, that includes knowing how to fight.” I stared at Faris. “Your main mission is getting Casella to her fiancé, isn’t it? Then you should want her to have the tools to protect herself if the worst might happen.”
Faris snickered. “The male raises another good point.”
“Hey, Casella’s the one who started this. I’m just giving her an assist.”
“A wondrous assist,” Casella said. “Please, Miss Faris. I promise not to place myself in needless danger.”
Faris sighed and hung her head back. “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this.”
“You do?!”
“With a condition.”
“Here we go again,” I said.
Faris glared at me. “You join in as soon as you recover.”
“Wait, what?” I blurted out.
“You heard me,” she said as she turned her back. “Are you in or out?”
“In. Definitely in!”
“As expected,” Faris said as she took her leave.
I gawked at the empty cave mouth. I’d expected something closer to me not being in the same time zone as their practice sessions. Instead, I’d been recruited.
“Is this not amazing news?” Casella said. “Soon there is nothing which will be able to stop us.”
“I think you’re counting your chicks a little too early,” I told her. “There’s still a lot more we need to do before we can stand a chance against those monsters.” The cuts on my palms were barely visible even if the memory burned prominent.
Those bastards weren’t fiends to be taken barehanded. We needed weapons. Not just that, we needed some defenses.
I couldn’t believe how naive I’d been. This near-death experience was the kick up the ass I needed.
That very same day, Faris started coaching Casella in the art of combat.
To say the lessons started slowly would be an insult to sloths everywhere. Casella was beyond a novice. She didn’t have a vicious bone in her body or any experience to fall back on.
Even a crumby fighter like me had a drunken scrap or two to reminisce about.
Casella was starting from nil. First up was just about putting her through her paces physically. She was stripped to her underwear and given a workout that got her sweating.
If I’d lacked the searing hot motivation troubling my midsection, I likely would have lost myself in the sway of Casella’s plump curves jiggling mid-exercise. Instead, I got started on a project of my own.
I didn’t allow being bed bound to stop me. There wasn’t time to feel sorry for myself with death’s messengers lurking outside.
Faris kindly gathered me some ingredients. Wood, leaf rope, and plenty of rocks. They were the cornerstones of beyond old-fashioned weaponry.
For once, Keith was not my guide. I drew from the wealth of knowledge I’d accumulated playing early access survival games.
First up was sharpening the rocks. I needed something which could compete with those skin-shredding blade arms. A few dull pebbles wouldn’t do the trick.
It was my first time sharpening anything beyond a pencil. My technique was more made-up than clumsy. I sort of just hacked and scraped away at whichever rocks showed the most potential.
My super strength covered for my idiocy.
After a lot of tedious work, I had one pointy makeshift spearhead. Next was creating the shaft. At least I didn’t need to make that from near scratch. All it required was me to saw an indent into the end that my stone could snuggly settle into. Anything else wouldn’t offer enough stability. A rock and wood sandwich was my only option.
A couple of long green tendrils tied everything together, trapping the stone in place.
I held the spear up and admired my work. It wouldn’t have looked out of place in a history museum.
“Whatever is that?” Casella asked. Her near bare body dripped with sweat, flooding the cave with a scent that could enchant even the most chaste of men.
“This is a spear,” I said as I focused on my own achievement rather than her glistening cleavage. “The finest monster-killing tool money can buy.”
“That’s supposed to protect us?” Faris said. She showed no sign of exertion despite never stopping all day.
That’s a soldier for you.
“It can’t do any worse than your pistol,” I teased.
Her hand hovered over the useless thigh-ornament. “All it needs is a charge.”
“Let me see if I could build a battery out of twigs.”
She huffed. “This isn’t a joke.”
“I know, which is why I’m not stopping here. We were complacent for too long. It’s time to set things right.”
Days passed in a blink of the eye. My injuries faded but the threat over our heads did not. We busied ourselves making countermeasures, training under Faris-sensei, and taking care of those basic survival needs which could never be overlooked.
We would never not need food or water.
I returned to my duties once I was back on my feet. The remarkable speed in which that happened had to be a result of being Casella’s mate.
Her power heightened my every action. It turned the toss of a javelin into a superpowered assault.
My poor prey didn’t stand a chance.
Once its companions had fled, I approached and retrieved my prize. The act of hunting no longer repulsed me. Necessity had toughened me up.
Not to mention how my throwing is come along.
I’ll be in the Super Bowl next year.
I filled up both water bowls which now sat attached to a sturdy carrying pole. My reliable shoulders handled that weight while I carried breakfast.
Ten minutes later, I was back at the new and improved camp.
Whittled wood spikes bared their fangs at anybody who dared intrude on our domain. Green tendril tripwires bridged between the openings, hidden from view thanks to a sprinkling of snow.
It wasn’t much but it was better than inviting the whole forest to come in for a free bite.
“I’m back,” I called out.
There was a clattering rattle as Casella burst through the defensive screen covering the cave mouth.
It was a makeshift bead curtain made from stones wrapped in leaves. When they were shifted, they clattered together. You couldn’t go in or out without making a racket. A wonderful counter against those who loved stealth.
Conversely, it made the whole place look more homey if I do say so myself. There was also the added benefit of it trapping in warmth and keeping out cold air, to a degree.
Basically, if you’re trapped in woeful conditions such as these, make yourself a stylish doorway.
Looks like Keith could learn a thing or two from me.
“My Brandon,” Casella said once she was done tiptoeing around the traps. Her exquisite body was wrapped in a thick coating of fur she’d sewn herself. She’d fashioned makeshift boots, a stylish coat, and some fluffy pants.
The cold no longer had a hold over her.
I dropped the supplies and caught her oncoming bulldozer of a hug. “I’m back, and I bring gifts.”
“So I saw,” she said. “I’ll be able to make some gloves at last. My mate is such a wonderful provider.”
“That’s because I’ve got such an amazing girl to provide for.” I stole a long kiss that left her giggling and blushing.
“Cut the flirting,” Faris complained as she lumbered out to join us.
“Doesn’t a guy deserve a reward after a successful hunt?” I said.
She ignored me and drew her knife. It slipped from her fingers and into the snow.
“Are you quite alright, Miss Faris?” Casella asked.
“Fine,” she grunted, retrieving the blade.
“You sure? You’ve seemed tired lately,” I said.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, squatting down next to the kill. “Stop worrying and go train.”
“You heard her,” Casella said, tugging on my arm. “Come. Let’s practice together.”
“Sure,” I said, allowing Casella to drag me away. However, I couldn’t help thinking about Faris.
She’s been working hard these last few days. She needs a break.
