Wasteland Survivor – From ashes - ch20
#21 of Wasteland Survivor
Ok, Back to your regularly scheduled-
HOLY SHIT IS THAT A DEMONIC DUCK!
*points and runs the other way*
Apologies Dan, but your duck is just too distracting.
"I hate it here." I muttered under my breath.
"What was that dear?" My grandmother asked.
"Nothin" I snarled, turning my back and walking off. "Its just not fair how they can push us around, they brought us here because they wanted our magic and now its us who have to live in these stupid buildings..." I continued my muttering, head down, marching away from the remains of my village.
"Hey watch it." Someone said very very quietly in front of me, I lifted my head to see what had attracted my ire now and my jaw hit the ground, standing before me was what looked like a really tall spider person.
I started stammering when a female cat came running up, "Hey, he says he's sorry he almost bumped into you." she said with a smile. The spider nudged her in the ribs, "Oh yeah, my name is Lylianna, Lyl for short, and this is Kevin." She gestured to the spider, err, Kevin. "Want to join us? We were about to go to stores to find some gear for your people." I was still bereft of anything to say, but was about to mutter something when she turned her head on the side. "Kevin can't talk very loud, so I help him by relaying, we are... um..."
The skin visible in her ears coloured red and at that point the spider leaned over, I thought he was going to bite her but he leant in close and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek. My eyes nearly popped out of their head.
"You, and he?" I managed.
"Yeah, we are." Kevins very quiet voice injected into the sudden lull in the conversation.
"Oh." I replied, they seemed to take this as my agreeing to go with them on their errand.
"Sergeant O'Brian!" Lyl suddenly yelled to an armoured warrior. Their battle gear was amazing, it was patterned to make them hard to see in the open, had places all over it to store things and was both warm when needed and cool when not, or so one of their warriors had explained when they caught me eyeing theirs in the truck on the way here.
"Hey Lylianna, Kevin! What has you two out today? And who's your new friend?" The female soldier asked, this one was different from the others, pale hairless skin covered its face, their ears were on the side of their head and they had no muzzle at all.
"Oh shit." The girl said and spun to look at me with a horrified look on her face.
"Ryst, my names Ryst." I said, unable in the face of her enthusiasm to disappoint her. I am not sure why I really cared, she was just a female.
She beamed, "Ryst, Kevin and me are trying to gather up some clothes and gear for the new kids, try and help them fit in.". I was suddenly struck by something, I could understand them perfectly, not two days ago it had taken their warrior, Fox, a mental effort to speak our language. I probed myself with my magic, very lightly, and felt a tangle of something in my mind, it wasn't magic, it felt dark and... serpentine... the dragon must have done something.
"... need to go down to stores for the basics, but for the other stuff, well, you are going to need to do a scavenging run." The warrior replied. She had been talking and I had missed some of it while I did the scan. After some puzzling we I had found out the first name of their warriors was replaced with their rank in their army.
"You think we need an escort or are we safe enough now?" Lyl asked the warrior.
"Take at least one more, word is no less than three trained warriors per run." Her eyes roamed to me, looked up and down then back to the others, "I think Brianna is bored over in L block, see if she wants to go for a run." At the words I was left wondering, 'Brianna' sounded like a feminine name, surely when they said 'three warriors' they meant Kevin, me and another male?
"Will do, see ya latter." The perky cat replied to the warrior.
"Same!" The furless female answered.
We travelled for a while, eventually coming to another large building. Out the front yet another of the pale skinned females was lounging on an angled, padded bed, on her chest, with absolutely nothing covering her back or tail-less rear. I gasped in shock.
"Hey Brianna, what's doin?" Lyl called out.
The shameless female turned her head to the side, looking in our direction, "Not much babe. Who's your friend?" It was then I noticed the ears, long and pointed. This female was an elf! But they would never let themselves be seen in this way, especially their females.
"This" And now Lyl grabbed my paw and pulled me over to her, "is Ryst. He is a Kitsune from the village where Fox... uh, yeah, where Fox was..." She realised her gaff, and trailed off uncertain of how to finish the introduction.
The elf raised herself to a sitting position and tied up the garment covering her crotch, well, that is what I assume she was doing, but I was a little distracted by her chest, now fully exposed. "Oh shit!" She yelled when she saw my face, spinning around and grabbing a matching cloth piece for her modesty.
"Brianna, still getting used to things I see?" Lyl managed between laughs. Kevin had merely covered his eyes with a limb, I could hear him faintly chuckling.
"Shit shit shit. Uh, so. Lets start again. Hi Ryst, I'm Brianna." The striking elf managed. The two pieces of cloth were only just holding to her body, but suddenly I could look no where but her eyes, they were soft, light green, light flecks of blue in them, surrounded by the most pure white.
"Whoa, hey you two, get a room why don't cha?" Lyl said, breaking the silence that had grown between us. In that moment, I knew she had stared back into my eyes just as much as I had hers. My heart was beating so fast, what was wrong with me.
"Oh shut it Lyl, just because you have a guy doesn't mean a I can't do some shopping." Brianna replied, "You might as well call me Bri, Ryst, everyone else does. So Lyl, just showing him, the sights, or is this a business trip?"
"Little of both, need to get some things for the new arrivals and Maggie O'Brian said we would need to scavenge, but wouldn't let us go unless we had three trained fighters, so... Want to bring your bow?"
"And get away from this hole? Hells yes. Wait here I go get some kit." And she ran off to the building behind her. It was at this point I found that there was something almost as amazing as looking at Bri's front, and that was watching her run away from you. I shook my head. An elf? I was being attracted to an elf?
I was just starting to wonder if the Sergeant we had met earlier might be an elf too when Bri returned, wearing similar gear to the warrior from before, but without a gun. Instead she carried a very deadly looking black bow with a matching quiver strapped to her leg. "Ok, I am good."
"She is isn't she?" I heard Kevin say, very quietly behind me, obviously out of range of Lyl and somehow hidden from her obvious psi-ability.
We began at a slow jog, making good time, the path was what they called a 'road', it was hard and hot to run on. I just commented on this when Lyl burst out, "Shit, we forgot to get you some boots. Maybe we should go back..."
"No, I am fine, its just a little hot is all." I said amicably, and we kept on.
We reached the 'Mall' just as the sun was reaching the middle of the sky. It was a huge building, huge colourful flat pictures all over it, something about a 'mid-year madness'.
Inside was amazing, clothing in all shapes, sizes and patterns, but strangely enough, none made for tails, nor any footwear for paws. In a flash of insight I said, "This is all elf clothing isn't it? This is your races work?" I asked Bri.
"Uh, yeah, about that. Kevin, Lyl, you keep going, I will explain some things to Ryst." She said, the others moved off.
"If you get in trouble, yell. I will hear." Lyl called over her shoulder.
"Ok, Ryst, I am going to tell you the history of the world." The young elf said, "About eight months ago..." She paused at my look of confusion. "Uh... two hundred and forty days, the whole world changed, it started out filled with 'humans', you saw Sergeant O'Brian right?" at my nod she continued, "Well, imagine ten thousand thousand thousand of those."
I looked at her astonished, "That's, uh, a lot!"
"Yeah, well all of a sudden, it was reduced by a lot, one in every hundred thousand or so stayed, the rest just disappeared. Some of those who stayed, were changed, Fox, Crystal and a few others were like this. They have some amazing powers. Others changed after a few, uh, tens of days afterward, usually when they were in a tough fight. Then there is Kevin. Kevin can make humans, ones still looking human that is, become something new. He changed me. My name before this was Brian-"
My mind spun, "Brian? That's a masculine name?" I stammered?
"Yeah, I was a guy before that, well he changed me into this." She gestured at herself, "That was a few months back now, I am getting used to it, even enjoy it some times, but..."
"You still remember what its like to have power?" I asked.
"What? Uh, I have more p-" She suddenly cut off and yelled, "Lyl!"
I turned around, a golem was behind me, bracketed by the exit. In a blind panic I started casting at it, all the offensive spells I knew, nothing was effective of course and I tired myself quickly, suddenly two arrows in quick succession whizzed over my shoulder right at the monsters head, only to ricochet off.
"Shit, Bri, doesn't look like your arrows can cut it." Lyl had arrived, two daggers in her paws. Kevin was nowhere to be seen.
The creature started to advance on us, taking its time, it knew we had nothing to harm it.
All of a sudden Kevin was on its back, trying to bite it. His fangs faired no better than Brianna's arrows, and he narrowly avoided being grabbed by the thing and skittered away.
The beast returned its glare to us.
"Its not looking at us Lyl, its staring at Ryst, isn't this one of the things Fox fought at their camp?" Bri said.
"Your right." I answered, "They its one of the monsters who attacked our village, seems they can track us..." I finished, if this was the case, it meant the men and elders of our people had been killed already.
"Yeah, well fuck this, I am not going to let this one succeed in its work." The elf maiden suddenly said with steel in her voice, "Ryst, can you do something to this bow, something that will make it shoot harder?" She asked.
"I... yeah, I think I can, it will make it harder to draw though." I answered, wasting no time and began the spell of strength.
"Its a bow, I am an elf, I will be fine, just make this thing fire like a missile." She replied.
I finished my cast, and poured all the rest of my power into it, I watched the lines of power flow our from the runes I had formed, flowing around the bow and the string, binding to them, becoming a part of the bow.
Suddenly I was weak as a new born kit and fell to the ground, only to have Lyl catch me in lightning reflexes and displaying a strength I had not noticed with casual observation.
Then Bri stood, bracing the bow in her left hand and drew a new arrow from her quiver with her right. Fitting it to the string she began to draw, and I saw the muscles in her arms strain to draw the thing. One look at the bow revealed why. My spell had not only stuck, it had become amplified by something, there was no way in the world she could draw that bow to its full potential.
Her right arm drew back further and further, eventually reaching back, string just clear of her breasts. She breathed out a sigh, and released.
There was a sound like ripping, I turned to see the head of the beast bouncing along the ground behind it, eventually clanging to the ground many many lengths away.
"Holy shit." Was all the elf could say, staring not at the bow that had allowed her so much power, but right into my eyes.
I was suddenly lost in a place I never thought my kind would venture. "Wow." was all I could say, staring back into her beautiful eyes.