The crow yes, it would take them to Firelink Shirne, but would there be enough of them, to take them all. The women his saviour he would from now on just call her Electa, meaning chosen out of respect for the falsely chosen undead, and the similarities she shared and most likely will come to share with it.
She was almost at the edge and he could hear it the beating of wings, feathers that cut through the air, but only one no swarm or any number, a single individual was getting closer to them.
"Run faster!", he shouted at Oskara, and she ran faster than him almost catching up to the forerunner, even if she had to wander why.
Electa his saviour was grabbed, by a single mighty talon, doing her best to fix her grip on her equipment less she would drop anything, Oskara didn't have the problem same problem, but Noel had the problem if he would even leave this desolate rock.
Running for might as well have been his live, as a single giant crow grabbed hold of his companions, he was almost destined to be left behind, if the brave bodyguard not give him a hand so that he may be taken with them, his saviour did the same after taking the hammer into the other hand.
Now he was between them, hanging down from their arms, he was certain that if it was up to him alone he would fall. All parties held an iron grip on each other, and with a single dive of the Clive the crow started accelerating, its wings beating in a rhythm, and still it was just barely enough to keep them in the air.
Noel prayed in his heart that the adventure in the air wouldn't be a long one, oh how wrong he was.
The first half an hour no one spoke. Even as he looked up he could have sworn he saw breast hanging down the crows cheats in between her feathery suit, the withdrawals of sanity were hitting hard, but before long it would get worse.
"So since this is going to take a bit more time. I have decided to call our groups mute Electa, I came up with the name from the story you told Oskara, do you have any objections to that being your name now, or are you ready to tell it to us?", he had to start gossiping and bringing a bit of a swing into the conversations otherwise the only semi sane individual in the group would join the insane.
Sanity was determined in the most discriminatory and racist way possible, if you look ugly you are insane, if you are looking undead you are on the brink of insanity or past it and just barely holding on, one women was there, and holding him, even while both were almost naked, the other a knightess refusing to show him any skin, meaning she was most likely also there.
"So what do you say, Electa!", he had to shout considering how strong the wind was at the speed they were traveling, he felt her reaction, all personal turned to look at each other, besides the crow.
Something loosened and it wasn't her improvised panties, no her grip holding Noel was consciously loosening from her side, he gripped harder and harder clinging on for dear live.
He knew undead barely had a concept of stamina, they wouldn't tire would collapse from exhaustion, those words no longer exist in their dictionary, he knew her grip loosening wasn't because of sweat as dry as her beef jerky of flesh was she was tiring of get rid of him.
Or maybe joking around with it he wasn't sure as she, didn't speak, hell for all he knew she might not even remember her name or most associations with her past name, and he was now intruding on her fogy past and overwriting it.
Well he tried to be nice, time for extreme actions born out of dismissal and boredom, the most stupid ones. Slowly he too started loosening his grip on her, with a smirk on his face he looked at her, she looked back through her visor, he couldn't see what expression she was wearing but he didn't have too.
Just before both started to lose traction of the other she redoubled the strength of her grip, with an even wider smirk on his face looked up at her, Oskara who was watching attentively stayed silent.
"So Elekta it is?", he told her certain he could get away with the consequences, as she wasn#t ready to drop him even if maybe Oskara could carry him on her own, no she could definitely, but his entire weight at once with one arm while he started swinging like a pendulum, before both lose their grip on the other., maybe maybe not she wasn't betting on it.
"Haha.", a snicker of a victory lough, at his companion now having an official name, he should have done that sooner, when he wasn't flieing over literal valleys, and vast stretches of land, the view was gorgeous.
Breath-taking even, land untouched by civilisation, filled with the strangeness of the supernatural and he a normie of the 21 Century got to watch it from a birds view in at a time not even the wyvern riders were around anymore. This was his view the world he got dropped into without rhyme or reason, to do maybe something, maybe it was a cosmic joke or something else, it would be foolish to give himself a purpose besides experiencing tomorrow.
Eelkta certainly seemed to be concerned with his safety as her grip once more doubled in strength shaking him out of his sightseeing. And then it did it again, feeling her fingers dig into his flesh he had to wonder whether it was better to drop into the valleys below of get slowly tortured in the air.
"Au", he couldn't hold it in anymore "Au, au aua AA aua au…..", her grip wasn't lessening and squirming in her grasp further was a terrible idea as his, reflection on his initial leverage to get her to accept wasn't something he would bet on when she was angry at him as slow as her mind might be.
It were only a few syllable he spoke but for the moment seeing him vulnerable was enough for Elekta, to be fair she was tearing into his flesh and he was afraid she might not stop till bone splintered or broke, which should be fair since undead heal anyway, what does a bit violence between them mean besides an acceleration to mental degeneration.
His skin burning read, couldn't be tenderly held for his on safety, he had to accept the piercing pain for the rest of the flight.
Oskara wanted to intervene but wasn't all that sure about how to do so, so she remained silent and held her lord.
Hours marched by where just a bit of bickering between the parties, even if it was hard two girls that couldn't really communicate because on was a mute and the other still wished to disappear from this world, so one guy literally not from this world had to act as the glue holding this companionship together as bad as he was at it. But thankfully the way to keep an undead sane was by directly committing unscrupulous acts towards them from attacking injuring or almost killing them it would give them drive and obsessions, something to think about on how to achieve and a goal to pursue, that was fucked up in ways Noel could barely sate but a world filled with just immortals does that to one.
"I see something with my little eye and its white-"
"A cloud.", was all a tired Oskara answered, Elekta still mute.
"Correct, your turn!", Noel said with glee
Minutes would pass without words spoken, so Noel just took another turn, eagerly awaiting answers, sometimes even Elekta would play along and point with her foot at something he would just give her the victory then, and then edge her on to speak her riddle, which she didn't then take her turn when she failed.
And so the hours continued with meaningless fun bickering of Noel trying to annoy an Elekta, whose stoic nature said nothing all he had to go by where wheatear her grip lessened to a dangerous degree or strengthened to the pint that it almost hurt, as smart as he would claim to be social maneuverer were never his.
If the undead by nature wouldn't be stoic near infinitely patient creatures of insanity by virtue of being inherently near immortal and long lived they would be done with his antics, but to them he was a child to be taught and lectured not through into the valleys below form the height of clouds. Their isolate behaviour made it fun, for Noel at least to annoy them as they sought contact even near immortal and trapped in a world without night and devoid of such things like waste or need for sleep and rest of all kinds even mental ones, made it so easy to toy with them, they were pretty calculable and on how to manipulate them he would figure it out. After all the poor little herd animals without flocks sought to group together, just a matter of how damaged they are.
So they endured Noel trying to make small talk, while it was draining their sanity, it also didn't .The human connection much as it was weird and unused to them after god knows how long was but a repressed part of their until now mostly solitary journeys, and it would still be without the annoyance, that somehow brought a bit of colour into their washed out muted and mostly grey lives since their undeath.
"Hahaha!", she didn't know but the antics of the young man actually brought her laughter, after who knows how long he told horrible jokes trying to get reactions out of them.
One finally landed, weird how all sexist jokes are taken when the main population is made up out of women, did the men all die in wars or battles, a plague a conceptual entity with a hatred for men or the wish to monopolize the few all baseless speculations that wouldn't uphold anywhere, well not without immediately giving away he had no idea of this world, maybe he would he thought of as a sheltered young master meaning lord.
Time passed, the suns overbearing position didn't finally after oh so long civilisation was to be seen.
Tiny buildings, it would seem if the giant rifts in between didn't make their size oh so clear even from a distance, this was Lordran the home of the Lords.
Giant monumental walls towering over just about the entire valley, from the bottom to the top of the valley they stood and even then they were taller than the churches erected on the opposites valleys cathedrals it was a massive understatement to call anything build just big or tall. These were things enslaved giants were for, even with their giant fingers they still displayed more dexterity than any normal human artisan could.
In a dive under just past the monumental trees branches opposite the wall, the stupid bird accelerated as it no longer had to keep its height. Rapidly closing in on a particularly place filled with ruins they could see it a bonfire. The light got ever faster as all were keenly aware of what was about to transpire.
As it dropped the women they dropped him in turn, both ladies landed just a few steps in front of the burning sword he already behind and under them, fell against the shrines outer edges of what was once a wall in most likely a place of prayers.
The stone tore into him as all the pressure hit him from the terrible angle he fell and the speed, he was losing hi grip the pain almost paralyzing, he dropped his stuff down below, clinging on.
But as abruptly as it happened, he had to little time to brace, could only blame himself as he started losing ground, his bodies lower centre of weight and the incapability to get a good grip on finely grounded ruins without gapes to hold onto, would be his downfall.
One of the women watched in horror as she turned around searching for her liege, the movement of rapidly accelerating and jumping to catch onto him even as he was getting already disappearing on the horizon, made the other jump after her and after him, their arms dropped where they arrived.
Both looked frightened by the sudden intake of mortality, to be recovered from the valley down below and to survive the journey unprepared was an ordeal few could ever accomplish not without losing large parts of oneself if not all.
His was a hellish world unsafe even for immortal and luck might not ever be enough.
Neither looked down or even after Noel after he left their view not wishing to see his face as it would slowly get ever smaller until it would disappear from their for the last time never to ever be seen again. Oskara sat down she needed a minute, was this her destiny to never have something she could care for again, she lost the first battle for her freedom, with it her illusions of her destiny, then her liege by not holding onto him when she should, of what was lost at home she would rather not speak, the wounds should never be reopened yet they were.
Silently she would scream at herself, rip herself apart, the sole thing keeping her from jumping herself was now Elekta the accomplice in her salvation, a woman that wasn't all that happy with her tagging along or saving her but she obliged him just as Oskara did, company for an undead was but a funny thing, had accursed existences like them the right for happiness going by their inevitable end no, if reality was to be questioned.
The little thorn that he was, was but a sunny distraction even if it was obviously just to hide his own ripped nerves, he wouldn't have lasted long, or shouldn't have, if not for them. Still he would be missed and his attempts to bring smiles to their faces or maybe his own to spread happiness with a contagious smile.
A minute or a day in silence time had no matter for them., it would be dedicated to him, Oskara sat down looking at the sole other person present here a lady without helm, not a hollowed shell was either good to trust or trap.
To engage with her after she just lost her liege wasn't like her, she would remain seated, Elekta just stood still no one knew what was going on in her head, no moment, no breathing, twitch of movement just a radiation of ice cold fury directed at herself nothing more. The kid of what 20, he wasn't even a hundred yet, so innocent she wished to scream, but kept herself from it, just ripped into herself as her now last remaining companion did. She now almost regretted not engaging more with him over the few short hours or days that they knew each other, it was a too pleasant change and time for an undead.
From the frightened little thing eager to please less he was abandoned, to the changed mind-set of easing into things, he worked quick and well, he would be longed for.
On the second layer of Firelink Shrine, Noel lay just a few meters away from his companions, in between the bouts of pain he was suffering praying that the bow he landed on wasn't completely broken.
Minutes would pass before he decided he had done nothing for long enough to actually try to get up, this was a relative safe space, the current happenstance taken as an exception shouldn't have happened, shouldn't have more than one left the asylum, but there could have been more than one crow, he wasn't going to wait there for days till the next bus came to pick him up just because this wasn't a video game.
Oh wait no he definitely would have, when he was forced to spend maybe a day hanging from the arms of two people that barely know him, hanging on for dear life and boredom forced him to annoy one of them.
He was just so happy they didn't drop him, should have waited for the next bus, if he could have he would have pissed himself plenty during the entire trip, but if nothing enters nothing can exit either.
Siting up with laboured breath, he wasn't quite sure if he was hearing sobbing but no matter, they shouldn't have dropped him.
Just a few steps to the bonfire there he could recuperate, just going ahead to walk a single flight of stairs, and walk was the shrine maiden. He could address and talk about what it meant to be part of an immortal creating cult made to subjugate all unbelievers over a racist slaver race that sees itself as gods and discriminates against all others.
Hell the reason why all others are either practically slaves or dead is because of the gods. As much as they left their influence is still felt with all other races around being their former slaves, but they had built some dope as fuck walls, damn were they cool as fuck and majestic.
He would ripe the nun a new one when she wasn't mutilated to the point that, seeing hearing and speaking, maybe even general movement wasn't possible for her who knew not like she could talk, so no answers from her.
And there in that moment Noel realized he had another mute on his hand, wondered what future communication between her and Elekta would look like, that scene in his mind already lessened the pain.
One foot in front of the other that would work. Slowly ever so closely he inched over to the stairs. Now to actual lifting his feet in a meaningful capacity, it teared at his midsections, his lungs screamed at him as his by feeling alone collapsed chest cavity threatened to give up and live its own live away from having to endure such blunt force trauma.
A few tears welled up past the point he could supress, he wouldn't break down and cry about it, he would get his foot up and take a step and then the next, and then wipe the tears away before anyone saw him with them, he wasn't in the little cell anymore he had a bit of freedom, even if it could be violently infringed upon by all sides, but those were mostly mindless monsters.
Halfway up the stairs, he saw the crestfallen gal, she just sat there shrugged the shoulders as she saw him, he made a motion a near universal gesture of putting the index finger in front of his lips, that women almost smiled back at him.
A few more steps and he was back at the first layer, neither women, perceiving him in all his insignificance, Elekta had her back turned to him, and Oskara as much as her helmet was turned in his direction she apparently wasn't having her eyes open. Those were all terrible rookie mistakes here in the land of Lordran, even the fucking gods fled this land after it got this bad, or after her goddess of light sacrificed herself to change the nature of this world and failed, well pseudo failed.
Step by step he walked closer, touched upon the bonfire just for safe measure, saw a several new options but not now he had to prank the emotionally horribly unstable immortal women, who could keep grudges after suns blow out. Spelling it out like that his schadenfreude of his own pain and the profit his current emotions would have if he went along with it almost made it seem like a bad idea, almost.
Now he had to be clever should he just sit at the bonfire and wait for them to notice him, and stop them from beating him up then, or let them hurt themselves in ways he could never do to them. They had it bad enough being immortal and ugly he shouldn't make it too bad for them.
"Amen may he rest in pieces, that ass, anyway who are we mourning?", heads turned fast enough he swore he heard something break there. Elekta did a 180 degree almost spinning, Oskara stood before he could even look from one to the other.
How they approached ready to grill him for not giving lip service while they grieved him, it was looking grime for him once more, only one way out put the blame on something or someone else a tried and true political move.
"You girls really just dropped your weapon knowing that in this god forsaken place it could very well mean your end to leave them unattended!", he almost shouted at them, doing his best to keep a straight face throughout, even as he waved with his hands around and wildly articulated and gestured.
It worked both turned their helmets away half in shame of being lectured, half not willing to meet his gaze because it was right and sensible what he said, before the mute turned back because the discussion was over. But with Oskara now no longer ready to speak she lost her voice in this discussion, making the speaker triumph over the mute in things of verbal discussions, once more.
Even meeting his eyes straight on told him nothing as hers were so well hidden behind the visor, she could only grumble to herself that she ever felt something over losing him, only scoffing was left for her.
Once more he grinned, even beamed his smile right at her, he could since Oskara wasn't looking and she would never tell anyone.
Anyway exhausted he plunged himself to the ground and just decided to lie down watching the trees branches sway for a while, till he felt better.
The others plopped themselves on opposites a triangle they formed, everyone had their little corner around the fire, all was calm for now.
He could only pray it would last.