Risen

Yore and Morrow were traveling along the river bank, heading downstream. The banks were pretty lush and they once again entered some woods. The sun was beginning to set and they were chatting as they traveled. Yore had spent most of the time explaining concepts to Morrow who was surprisingly curious and fascinated to learn all that it could about Yore and what he knew. Morrow didn’t seem to really have a grasp on any basic concepts, but quickly disseminated what Yore taught him and rapidly began to piece together other concepts as his understanding grew, that being said, his lack of experience on any of the topics showed through in his naivety.

“So if these ‘politicians’ aren’t that smart, why choose them to rule, especially if they have such corrupt tendencies?”

“It is a matter of the choice that people are presented with. If the only options are all bad, then people are just picking between the lesser of evils.”

“In that case why not choose better options for leaders?”

“Because the ones that become options are the ones with money and political power to become an option. It is a real problem with democratic forms of government. That being said, there is an even longer history of more terrible forms of government.”

“So democracy is the lesser evil people have chosen as a form of government?”

“Pretty much. It gives people the illusion of power through choice, but those presenting the choices still hold all of the cards. It at the very least allows for minor wins, which are somewhat better than the totalitarian regimes before it.”

“I think I see. So if we run into more Humans, they will most likely be led by these politicians?”

“Maybe. My hope is that the Wyvern wiped out all of those bastards.”

“Wouldn’t that create one of those ‘power vacuums’ you had mentioned.”

“Yes, but if people are being sucked through those vortexes, then there are already power vacuums for those who come out and survive and those who would have remained behind. You can’t have thousands of people just disappear and have things run normally. The impact to labor alone could ravage the economy unless it was neatly contained pockets of industry.”

“Fascinating!”

“Let’s change the subject. As happy as I am to answer your questions, I don’t know if we will run into any other Humans. That Wyvern did a number on the people that came with me, unless there are more like me. Let’s talk about those magical powers you said that I had.”

“Alright, what about them?”

“You said that ‘I had powers through you, being that you’re my Familiar.’ What powers do I have and how do I use them?”

“I don’t know. They are your powers.”

“That is less than helpful. How about this; how is it that you can resurrect me?”

“That isn’t really your power. That is mine. As long as I’m here, I can anchor your spirit to your body and regenerate it.”

“So you’re a soul anchor, making me haunt and possess my own body for all eternity?”

“I don’t know what most of that means. It has to do with your soul, yes.”

“In other words you shove my soul back into my body like someone who dropped a cookie on the break room floor, before someone else notices?”

“Yes? I make sure that your soul doesn’t leave and I restore your body to a functioning state. I don’t know anything about cookies or breaking rooms. I do try to do it when other creatures won’t notice. It wouldn’t help if things kept killing you as I resurrected you.”

“Ok, that makes sense. But if that is your power, do I really have any power then? If so, how do I figure out how to use it?”

“I’m sure that you do. It will be something that you will intrinsically know how to use when the time is right. Until then I’ll keep you alive… Well, I’ll keep bringing you back at least.”

“Very funny. You know, for an ignorant soul sucking leech-bat thing, you’ve got insults down pretty well.”

“I assume I get that from you.”

“Ouch!”

Yore abruptly stopped, hearing something. It sounded like clattering.

“Shit! Are you sure you don’t know what my powers are or how to use them Morrow?”

“I do not.”

“Alright, get in me then. I’m afraid I may need to be resurrected and don’t need whatever is out there going after you as well.”

Morrow flew over to Yore’s hand and burrowed into his palm.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that.”

The noises were getting louder. It sounded like a battle was happening. Yore could hear roars mixed in with the clattering. It must be getting closer. He took cover behind a tree wide enough to keep him out of sight and peeked around the edge.

He could see what appeared to be two Giant knights, probably three meters tall, both copper in their coloring, fighting what looked like a shirtless man with a long face and horns. He was just as tall as the knights, but much more bulky and muscular. It was hard to see much else through the trees. It appeared that the knights were tag teaming the man-beast, pushing it back in his direction.

One would block the creature using its great kite shield, while the other would attack, and the first would follow up with a counter. The man-beast was parrying the swords with his arms and horns like a kung-fu master. They were now getting close. They were about 12 meters away. The knights clearly had the upper hand and were keeping on the pressure. That was until during one of the knight’s counter attacks, the man-beast deflected his sword with a horn and with the same motion, gored the copper knight through the chest with the other horn. The knight screamed out in agony as the man-beast proceeded to thrash his head about with the knight getting flailed around like a rag doll.

The other knight knew he didn’t have a chance and turned in Yore’s direction and started to flee. The man-beast, enraged now, smashed the gored knight’s corpse against a tree, breaking its own horn off in the process. It roared out in pain and anger. It picked up the corpse of the knight, whipped it around, and flung it at the fleeing knight who was about four meters from Yore’s tree now.

Yore, ducked back behind the trunk of the tree as a loud crash rang out like two gongs colliding together. Both knights’ bodies crashed to the ground next to Yore.

“Shit!” Yore quietly cursed to himself.

The still living knight tried scrambling to his feet, but couldn’t keep his balance and ended up crawling towards the river and down the bank. The dead knight was all twisted and mangled from the thrashing this creature gave it and still had the beast’s horn impaled in its chest.

Yore could hear the loud thudding of rushing hooves pounding closer.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

The man-beast leaped over the fleeing knight and with its fists held high in the air, brought them down in a horrific crunch as it pulverized the back of the crawling knight.

Up close, Yore could make out the man-beast’s features. It had the torso of a well built man, and the head of an ox with only one horn now. It wasn’t just shirtless though. What Yore initially mistook for pants was fur that went from its waist down to its hooves and a thin tail whipped from below its spine.

“First a Wyvern and now a Minotaur? You have to be joking!” Yore thought to himself.

The Minotaur stopped whaling on the fresh corpse and turned to Yore.

“Fuck me!” Yore said. Then looking at the front of the beast, now knowing with full certainty that it indeed had no clothes to speak of said, “but not with THAT! Dear god, put that thing away man!”

The Minotaur snorted back at Yore and then roared at him.

“I guess we are doing this. My safe word is gentle!” Yore yelled out.

The Minotaur raised a fist and swung at Yore. Yore did all that he could to dodge the swing by ducking and he felt the wind from the swing pass over his head.

“That would have taken my head clean off if it made contact!” Yore thought. “GENTLE! GENTLE! GENTLE!” He shouted at the beast.

Yore dodged two more swings, doing all that he could to not be deleted with a single blow from this beast.

‘Damn! I wish I had a weapon’ Yore thought as he pictured a knife in his hand.

Then, blood seemed to seep out of his hand and condense into a rough, rusted, and very jagged iron dagger. Yore felt a little light headed. Was this it? Was this his power at work? He didn’t have time to consider the tetanus shiv that he had just created and lunged under and to the side of the Minotaur’s double fisted downward swing. While passing its leg, he twirled the knife around and stabbed it into the Minotaur’s hip.

Something was wrong though. As the knife entered the creature’s hip, Yore felt it hit bone and then snap. The knife was too brittle! He didn’t really know what he was doing when he created it and hadn’t thought of how strong it would be.

The Minotaur roared in pain, and reached down and grabbed Yore who was distracted by the knife breaking. The Minotaur hurled Yore out to the side and he flew about 4 meters before colliding with a tree.

Yore felt ribs crack as he fell to the ground and the air escaped his lungs as he landed with a thud. He gasped for air and a deep pain rang out in his chest as the pain of breathing hit him. Yore held his side in reaction to the pain from his broken ribs as he used his other arm to painfully push himself up.

The Minotaur got him real good with a simple toss, but now he had a plan. He knew what he could use his power for. Which meant he had a chance to live this time.

Yore envisioned a shortsword in his free hand, double edged, sharp, sturdy, solid. Blood seeped out of the gashes on his side, across his body, down his arm, and began to form a shortsword in his free hand.

The Minotaur snarled at him and took a step in his direction and stumbled a bit. It looked down at its hip, realizing that Yore’s stab to its hip had somewhat immobilized it.

“I did say gentle, but you didn’t want to listen.” Yore got out through gritted teeth.

The Minotaur roared at Yore and began to charge on all fours at him as Yore’s shortsword finished forming. Yore took a step forward, beginning his own charge when his head began to spin from dizziness and instead stumbled into the Minotaur’s charge. It gored him through the chest and pinned him to the tree. Every rib in his chest burst from being sandwiched between the Minotaur's skull and the tree.

Yore started to lose consciousness as his body turned cold, his blood running out of the hole in his chest and down the Minotaur’s horn. The Minotaur tore its horn out of the tree, whipped its head around, and threw Yore off of its horn. Yore landed about 5 meters away and was shocked awake briefly from the pain of the impact on his shattered chest.

Yore looked at the beast as a lightning bolt struck it with a thunderous boom. Three copper knights appeared and formed ranks and got into battle positions. Yore focused on the Minotaur, hating that he was going to die again. Hating the Minotaur. Hating that this was his life now. He stared at the wound in the Minotaur’s hip. He wanted it to bleed. He wanted it to get sick and die. He hoped that the injury he had caused would be the cause of its demise.

With the last moments of consciousness before Yore’s death, he noticed that the Minotaur was roaring in pain as its hip began to bleed much more than it should have, especially with the broken knife still in it. It also had black veins spreading out around the wound.

Yore lost consciousness and died as he saw the knights move in to attack the beast.