Chapter 34
Vorrak's constant yapping after everything we had just gone through made me desperate to return to the village. I needed to figure out what I was going to do with Vorrak as soon as possible.
When we arrived at the village, natives were celebrating the end of the beast plague. It was like a festival, with more people around than I had ever seen before in the makeshift marketplace.
As people danced around me, I stood there wondering how they even knew about our triumph before we'd arrived. Me and I elbowed past some of the revelers and returned to the house of the priest. He told us that the villagers had noticed the animals returning to normal as the blue glow grew fainter in their eyes. Some of the village pets had also reverted back to their loving selves, now clinging to their owners instead of trying to rip them apart.
I don't want to be the mushy type, but it made me happy to know that I had helped restore order in the lives of these villagers. I decided to sit for a while at the top of the priest's hall, overlooking the celebrating villagers, to be a part of their happiness from afar.
I didn't really feel like joining in because, one, they had a very strange way of celebrating, and two, I was afraid some of them might try to choose me as their mate at some point. As I recalled, there was a very real possibility of that happening. On the other hand, Laine, Maxian, and Scaly had no such reservations; they were enjoying themselves down there among the villagers. For god knows what reason, Laine was particularly excited as he drank more than he could handle and partied harder than anyone else. I knew that was somehow going to become a problem for me.
I was indulging in alcohol, too, from a special bottle of liquor that the natives had gifted me out of gratitude. I couldn't blame them for the irony of giving me a gift that had no real use to me since I couldn't even get drunk, but I still took the occasional sip.
For once, everything was peaceful, which meant that it wasn't going to last. Of course, I had to be right because, apparently, wanting a few moments of calm was asking too much of the gods.
I heard footsteps approaching behind me, and I instinctively knew that God was about to piss in my drink once again.
I smiled because, well, what else could I do but turn back to face what awaited me?
"I was wondering when you'd show up. Thank you for taking your sweet, sweet time," I said, trying to sound smug and confident for the sole purpose of getting under his skin.
It was the same bearded man who had started this mess in the first place and made me get locked up by General Ravon's men. The God of Spilled Drinks was back to mess with me again.
He had a very angry expression, which was new, considering he was, well, God.
"You... you have ruined everything!" he yelled, with a considerable amount of frustration, and boy, did I enjoy that.
"Oh…thank you for noticing. Happy to be of service." I bowed mockingly, knowing it would only push his buttons even more.
"Oh…this is not the end, I have more tools at my disposal than you could ever imagine!" His threatening skills were humiliating, but I played along.
I pretended to act all scared to mock him.
"Ohhh I'm so scared, what you gonna do? Make me spill my liquor?" I laughed.
That got to him because the amount of rage on his face was perfect. "Jest all you want, but I will be the one who laughs in the end, I will win! I always win! Mark my words human, I will have my revenge against you. You will suffer the pain of mocking a god!" He was practically foaming at the mouth, and if you haven't seen a god mad…well, it's not a pretty sight.
He turned away with a growl, most likely to hide his face, which was red with rage by now. A hole materialized in the space in front of him. It was a transportation portal of some kind, and he stepped inside it without ceremony.
But just before the portal closed behind him, he turned to me with morphed expressions and fixed his eyes directly into mine. "I shall see you soon, Sam." His voice seemed otherworldly as if it were someone else speaking through him.
Rather than letting him get in the last word and going off right after creeping me out, I just threw the bottle at him. Immature, I know, but he was practically asking for it. It hit him squarely in the face with a loud popping sound, but my hopes of seeing him drenched weren't met because, strangely enough, no liquid poured out.
I realized it was probably because he had used some kind of magic to keep the liquor from spilling, and in response, I clapped sarcastically, mocking his circus act magic.
"Bravo, what a fear-inspiring display of magic. You prevented yourself from getting we;, you truly are a powerful god." I made sure my words were sharp enough to stab through his gargantuan egos.
His expression grew darker, but he said nothing as the portal slowly closed up, and he disappeared from sight.
"Well, that was fun," I said, sitting back down. Though I wish I had said something funnier, like, hey, you really are the god of alcohol! Or something."
"You're a real crazy person you know that? Angering a god, an actual deity who has power over the fabric of reality. You realize he can bend the universe to his will, do you not?" Vorrak chimed. I realized I had brought that stupid head of his up here with me and had completely forgotten about it.
I turned to him- well, to his head, that I had put on a rock a little further away. The skull was all that remained of him after the rest of his body was eaten by the shadow beast that he had summoned himself. In turn, the beast had been burned to a crisp by the dragon, so there was absolutely no way of recovering it. As it sat next to me on the roof of the priest's hall, I almost felt like laughing but refrained in the spirit of empathy.
"That's him, right? The guy who told you about the void? He pointed you in the right direction, told you what to do, and sought power or whatever." I rambled on accusingly,
Vorrak just sat there for a while, unmoving. Mostly because it's like he had any other choice, but it was still amusing to see him stagnant like that.
Then he spoke.
"Oh right I don't have a neck, I forgot that. I kept trying to nod, and like do something with my hands, but… yeah.," He agreed.
"That was him. He came to me, and offered me divine power; he showed me the path to the void. It seems you two are acquainted." he said, and his voice was different now.
To be honest, I still didn't understand how he spoke. He didn't even have vocal cords…or skin, for that matter.
"Well, you can say that. I ended up in prison because of him, and he's the reason I was forced into coming to those woods in the first place. The God of Spilled Drinks he calls himself," I said, summarizing the extent of my interaction with the God.
Vorrak laughed at the name, making me feel secure about finding it funny. Originally, I assumed it was a normal name for gods in this world. "Spilled drinks? Ha…that is a sad thing to be the god of. It almost makes you feel ba,." he said mockingly.
"Really, you wanna go there? You're a talking skull who can do nothing but chatter, and you're pretty annoying at that too, honestly."
"Hey…no need to get personal," he remarked, taking offense. "I was just trying to…, you know what, forget it."
There was a pause after that, an awkward silence filled with contemplation on both our parts. At least that's what I was doing; Vorrak kept his thoughts to himself. A little while later, I looked back down at the party and the people again, and as I watched them celebrate their survival, that was when Vorrak chose to break the silence.
"Why'd you keep me alive?" he asked.
"What?" I shrugged as I said it.
"You had every reason to kill me, and I am no use to you without my body and power…then why? Why keep me alive?" he asked again, with a strange sorrow; it was annoying but very real.
I didn't have a real answer for him, so I just brushed his question off with a shrug. "Thought you might come in handy later. While I'd like to ignore the Void, for now, but I can tell that I'm going to have to deal with it again. And judging by our friend's visit just now, it will probably be soon. In which case a talking skull that knows about the void itself, might be useful. Besides, I wasn't sure if the beasts would turn back to normal with you dead. It's better to just threaten you and make you do it."
He smiled at that, or at least I think that was a smile; you can never tell with a skull.
"Well that seems fair. But still, you didn't have to waterboard me to make me undo the brainwashing on the beasts. I would have done it anyway…speaking of which, why did the waterboarding even work? I don't even have lungs."
Honestly, I had the same question- how did it work? But we didn't have the time to figure that part out before I heard footsteps again. This time, they were coming up the stairs.
"Hey!" a voice called from behind me, and as I turned, Maxian was standing there.
"Stop being so gloomy with that skull and come join the party!" he said, and I could tell he was drunk. Very drunk.
"It seems the priest of Emprio has had too much to drink, hasn't he?" I asked, with only a slight amount of concern.
He smiled at that and slurred as he said, "No, he has not. For, he is not here. I am no longer a priest of Emprio. Emporio hasn't done jackshit for me."
Part of me thought that it was because he had too much to drink and it was just the booze talking, but he continued to smile.
"I converted, to religion of the natives. I worship the Dragon now. The dragon saved us after all. Fuck Emprio!" He practically yelled.
I raised an eyebrow, partly amused but also confused. "Won't they call you a heretic when you leave the forest?"
He shrugged. "Yes, they will. But I don't plan on leaving the forest. I'll stay here. I've found something to live for, you know. A purpose."
He looked down at the party, and I followed his gaze. Even though I didn't need to, I already knew he was looking at Ravi. I sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him. I wanted to say he was out of his mind to think he had a shot with her but chose to be kinder.
"Good luck with that man," I said, leaving the part about you're going to need it unsaid.
Maxian left to get more drunk at the party, which would probably lead to him making a move on Ravi and breaking his own heart. Even Vorrak expressed concern for the poor guy.
"Those two are not a good match at all."
We laughed about that, which was uncharacteristic, but I can't say it didn't help.
The next morning, me, Scaly and Laine were getting ready to leave the village, it was time to get moving. Vorrak's skull hung on my hip in a tiny cage.
"Can you not put me somewhere else? This is humiliating beyond measure…" Before he could go on, I put a small cloth over the cage, which he shut him up. The cloth had a noise-removing effect on it, old magic, so I couldn't hear him. The priest gifted it to me after he told me how vocal Vorrak was.
The priest had also given Laine directions towards Lis, the city we had been planning to go to in the first place before Ravon had forced us into the forest.
Once everything we were taking was loaded on Scaly's back, we all swung u, too. Ravi, Sutu and Maxian had also come to see us off. I waved goodbye to them and we left without any word. I didn't have it in me to suffer through melodrama.
"Are you sure you don't want to go back to Ravon, for that reward?" Laine asked hopefully. He had really wanted to get his hands on that reward, but I knew better than to fall back into that trap.
"Ravon will notice it's done once the beasts stop attacking, we don't need to go there."
Besides, I was sure that if I went back to Ravon to claim the reward, he'd just find another excuse to make me work for him again, and I was not going to let that happen. I was done being used. It'd be best to just run away and pretend I'd died; that way, the news of my death would spread, and I would finally get some peace.
This time, I was going to let myself enjoy an easygoing few days at all costs. I deserved a vacation from this show, and I wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of that now.