Chapter 8 - Bloody fishing

Roi's wet hair was pulled back, exposing a short forehead slightly covered in dirt. Chilling water drops travelled through his vertebrae and disappeared on his dark brown pants. 

Behind him, irregular dark footsteps marked his way on the huge tiles. He fell three times before his legs decided to have some coordination. 

He was constantly mocked by Derlom, who refused to help him except the first time, when he just went face to ground.

Apparently, his nose loved dirt. 

He was walking slowly, watching a crystal clear sea stretched endlessly to his left, disappearing beyond a dense, grey mist in the distance. 

His eyes were glued to the reflection of the water. It was wrong in some way. It reflected the faint dark mist of the sky, its ever-changing orange pattern, and also the bright yellow of the whirlpool, but it was reflected in a way that didn't make sense, completely illogical. 

There were no waves, but the reflected picture was like a puzzle with all the pieces placed at random angles. Sometimes, some parts of the sea were much brighter, oranger, and darker than they should be. 

"The bucket's reflections weren't so strange." 

<> He waved his left arm to the sea and the mist. <> 

<> He laughed.

Derlom was walking slowly to match Roi's pace. From time to time, he gazed to his right, where there was a wide and long space of nothing until the gate and the wooden watchtower.

Roi also noticed that his shoulders were arched forward. 

Roi didn't even glance at him, instead he looked back. The sea washed the tiles' edge as far as the eye could see, until ruined walled houses in the distance covered it. 

His little new house was in the middle between the forest and a ploughed field. 

<> He continued. <> Derlom's large and callous hand grabbed Roi's arm.

They have arrived at the entrance to the forest.

The distance between his small house and the forest, and also the temple, since it was near it, wasn't that far, maybe a hundred meters. But Roi walked so slowly that it took them an eternity to get there. 

The tiles ended where he was standing, a sharp, precise cut until the sea, then only naked earth.

The ground was irregular with roots sticking out. Faint light beams managed to penetrate through the leaves, illuminating the dark and extremely quiet forest. 

Roi felt very uncomfortable just being so close.

<> He pointed towards the tile's edge a few dozen meters away from them.

The forest wasn't that large. It stopped near the sea, leaving a quite wide portion of naked ground for them to walk through. 

Derlom raised his head slightly to look at him. 

<> He got closer to his face. <> He whispered. Then, he dragged him into the forest. 

<> Roi was looking down, avoiding roots and clods of earth. Derlom was crushing and stretching his poor arm, making his walk much more difficult and painful. 

<> He replied nonchalantly.

The Sun God Savior's blood ran cold. 

"This shit head wants my death?!" 

Roi's heartbeat made his rib cage tremble. Drops of water mixed with sweat drops. 

<> He tried to free his arm from the iron grip of that crazy man. Even though he was too weak to do it, Derlom decided to open his hand on his own. 

<> He turned his head to Roi with a smile. His crooked nose pointed to the Savior's left shoulder

<> He turned around, dodging a low branch at the last second, passing through the leaves.

 They walked in silence diagonally towards the strange sea. 

Apparently, there was no vegetation except the trees. 

<> Derlom broke the silence. <> 

He lingered for a moment, opening his mouth, murmuring a few words. After a few tries, he gave up.

<> Roi replied. 

Derlom lingered for a moment, then he spoke.

<> Derlom smiled at Roi for a second. 

His tone was joyful, his smile as usual, his teeth as yellow as always. Yet, the Savior felt a hint of something darker in all of that. Something that dragged him down. 

<> Roi hesitantly replied, unsure of what to do.

"This guy is really allergic to telling me things straightforwardly."

<> His tone deepened. His words got lost between the trees, and a strange, uncomfortable silence enveloped them. 

 ***

<> A deep voice thundered beyond the trees. 

<> Whispered Derlom, speeding up his pace. 

Roi had no choice but to follow him from a distance. There was no way for him to match his pace. 

After passing a few trees, the Savior could see the strange reflection of the water. Derlom was hiding behind a tree wider than him, pointing at Roi to get behind the tree next to his. 

There were a few more trees between them and many armoured men. Roi couldn't see properly with all those trees in the way. 

Every one of them was wearing the classic white armour. Some had helmets, like the one who was gesturing and commanding others. Hidden behind their wooden shields, they pointed their white swords at a man kneeling on the edge, shaking something in the water. 

About twenty warriors were waiting anxiously. Sometimes, the man who yelled orders threw glances behind him. Roi shifted his gaze in that direction, and between various trunks, he saw a familiar black cuirass. 

"The Bastard! He's everywhere." 

Roi saw that his sword was still sheathed. 

<> the same deep voice thundered once again. It belonged to a man next to the kneeling one, who was watching the depths of the sea. 

He gave him a loud slap on the shoulder before stepping away from the edge. He drew his sword and hid himself behind the squared shield.

At the same time, the kneeling man withdrew his hand, revealing for a fraction of a second a red comb before being devoured by a long snout with sharp teeth. 

The man screamed in pain as his hand was forced to return to the water. He was holding on with all his strength to the edge, with more than half his body beyond it.

One of the warriors let go of his sword and ran to his help. He grabbed his torso and tried to pull him away. But as soon as he pulled, they flew on their back.

The man was screaming in agony, holding his torn apart hand above him, perfectly visible to Roi. 

The hand was missing three fingers, with the index finger gravely wounded. The hand was being quickly covered by bright red blood coming out of the three holes. Irregular straight lines tore the palm. 

Without giving them much rest, from the water came out a long fish with reflecting fur. its snout was long and narrow. Its eyes were transparent as the water, placed on the side of its head, looking at the armoured men. 

It was standing on two large striated fins in the front and a large fin at the end of its body. 

It was towering over the two men on the ground, but it was an exaggeration to say that it reached the hips of the others. 

Roi watched in horror that scene, expecting a bloody fight. 

The scream of the man grew louder as he was dragged away. In that moment, both sides of the guards ran towards the fish, which tried clumsily but unexpectedly fast to run back into the water. 

Roi watched as it was taken by the fin tail, dragged away from the sea, then crushed on the ground as multiple men were upon it. 

Its scream mixed with the man's, and with the dozens of words said by each man, creating a senseless cacophony. 

In the end, its scream died down as dozens of swords pierced its neck and body. 

Roi was watching the scene breathlessly. That same scene could happen to him at any time, crushing the tree bark.

Suddenly, hard claws crushed the Savior's waist, sinking into it, touching his guts.