Familiar Fiends
Aug. 13th, 2011 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegunicentOkay, so, tiny bit of background here, this is a story I was going to write for Nano, but my comp crashed and I lost over 35k of words. I'm trying to re-write it all from memory. The title is subject to change once I find something better.
Zeke was not one for deep introspection. Considering that had he been one for it he might not have Decimate, and that Decimate had just saved his life by killing twelve bandits, a lack of inner speculation might actually be a survival strategy.
Certainly Decimate was not one to complain about Zeke's flaws.
Zeke complained enough for the both of them about most everything.
"Bandits. Four days out of Aceina and there's bandits on the King's highway. I thought this country had a damned army! What are they doing, pissing in the moat?!"
Decimate cleaned his claws with silent laps of his tongue and listened with one half cocked ear to Zeke's ranting.
"Of all the things to hold us up... You know I should just leave their bodies here on the road for the next person to clean up? I really should. It would probably be the damnable knights of King 'Fuck the Wizards' anyway!"
Decimate snorted softly in reply.
Zeke worked his way through the corpses, taking whatever few coins or personal effects were on them before casting Wytch Fyre over them to destroy and cleanse. It was one of the more effective spells for that sort of business, but Zeke couldn't cast it indefinitely. After setting the twelfth corpse, his coppery-tan was washed out and he sat on the ground next to Decimate hard.
"I mean, is it too much to ask that if it's the King's road that the King take an interest in people being able to travel it?"
Decimate whuffled softly and draped a warm feathery wing over Zeke's shoulders. After a moment the minute trembling in Zeke's body subsided. Decimate bit back a disgruntled grumble at the fact that there was trembling to subside, but Zeke never listened to anyone about pushing himself too hard.
"Alright. Well, that was some excitement but we really do need to get back on the road." Zeke muttered tiredly.
Decimate eyed the sky and estimated they'd been attacked perhaps an hour before full dark, which meant that as far as distance was concerned, they weren't going a long ways. Which was just as well, since Zeke needed to eat something and Decimate would undoubtedly be awake the entire night because the road was patrolled so poorly that anything might attempt to snack on them in the darkness. Provided that 'anything' had no brains, no sense of smell, no survival instincts, and no magical awareness to speak of.
Humans basically.
Decimate whuffled again and shook himself all over, the heavy saddlebags strapped precariously to his back threatened to slide right off.
"You want to camp here. Where we got ambushed by bandits. Right here?" Zeke's tone was dubious at best.
Decimate gave him a long look over one shoulder and licked his muzzle.
"Fine. Anything that happens tonight is on you then, I wanted to keep moving and try to hit Banelk by the eighth day."
Decimate rumbled a soft sigh as clever fingers started undoing the pack straps and massaging rumpled fur back into place. For all Zeke's noise, he was a very doting man, patient and careful, and Decimate wouldn't trade him for the world.
For a nicely grilled goat at the moment...
But not for the world.
Zeke was not one for deep introspection. Considering that had he been one for it he might not have Decimate, and that Decimate had just saved his life by killing twelve bandits, a lack of inner speculation might actually be a survival strategy.
Certainly Decimate was not one to complain about Zeke's flaws.
Zeke complained enough for the both of them about most everything.
"Bandits. Four days out of Aceina and there's bandits on the King's highway. I thought this country had a damned army! What are they doing, pissing in the moat?!"
Decimate cleaned his claws with silent laps of his tongue and listened with one half cocked ear to Zeke's ranting.
"Of all the things to hold us up... You know I should just leave their bodies here on the road for the next person to clean up? I really should. It would probably be the damnable knights of King 'Fuck the Wizards' anyway!"
Decimate snorted softly in reply.
Zeke worked his way through the corpses, taking whatever few coins or personal effects were on them before casting Wytch Fyre over them to destroy and cleanse. It was one of the more effective spells for that sort of business, but Zeke couldn't cast it indefinitely. After setting the twelfth corpse, his coppery-tan was washed out and he sat on the ground next to Decimate hard.
"I mean, is it too much to ask that if it's the King's road that the King take an interest in people being able to travel it?"
Decimate whuffled softly and draped a warm feathery wing over Zeke's shoulders. After a moment the minute trembling in Zeke's body subsided. Decimate bit back a disgruntled grumble at the fact that there was trembling to subside, but Zeke never listened to anyone about pushing himself too hard.
"Alright. Well, that was some excitement but we really do need to get back on the road." Zeke muttered tiredly.
Decimate eyed the sky and estimated they'd been attacked perhaps an hour before full dark, which meant that as far as distance was concerned, they weren't going a long ways. Which was just as well, since Zeke needed to eat something and Decimate would undoubtedly be awake the entire night because the road was patrolled so poorly that anything might attempt to snack on them in the darkness. Provided that 'anything' had no brains, no sense of smell, no survival instincts, and no magical awareness to speak of.
Humans basically.
Decimate whuffled again and shook himself all over, the heavy saddlebags strapped precariously to his back threatened to slide right off.
"You want to camp here. Where we got ambushed by bandits. Right here?" Zeke's tone was dubious at best.
Decimate gave him a long look over one shoulder and licked his muzzle.
"Fine. Anything that happens tonight is on you then, I wanted to keep moving and try to hit Banelk by the eighth day."
Decimate rumbled a soft sigh as clever fingers started undoing the pack straps and massaging rumpled fur back into place. For all Zeke's noise, he was a very doting man, patient and careful, and Decimate wouldn't trade him for the world.
For a nicely grilled goat at the moment...
But not for the world.
