This is it! The final part of our journey to the 'Dark forest'. I have to do something, I have to do anything! If things go as they have, I will feel like a total waste of space. I have to distinguish myself as someone above the rest!
Let's see, the final quest is writing a detailed report about the 'Wyvern' colony that is living in the 'Dark forest'. Shit… Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!!! I have no idea how to do any of that! infact, I don't even know where to begin! Will I, once again, be left with menial tasks? NO! This time, even if it kills me, even if it kills all the others, I WILL do something awesome! Let's show these scrubs, who took care of me and educated me on the life of an adventurer all this time, just how beneath me they are!!! Yes! This will be glorious!
Now then… How do I do that?
While I was thinking all of this, we approached our target - a cave in the mountains that the 'Wyverns' called home.
"So, once again, what are we doing here?" I asked, trying to climb out of the pit of confusion and frustration that my life has become ever since I joined these, toxically nice bastards. At this point I was torn on whether I kind of liked them or wanted to massacre them.
Diana was the first to answer. "It's simple, all we have to do is write a report on the 'Wyverns'. It has to include the usual - the population size, the area that they inhabit, their effect on the local fauna, whether their population is sustainable or if it's dangerously high, etcetera." She was talking with such passion about the things that I did not understand that I, once again, felt like a child sitting at the grownup's table. I despised this feeling. I despised it more than the initial transformation that I undertook at the beginning of my journey with Alex.
I should probably just massacre them and make it look like an accident. Surely I am at least able to do that, right? No, that won't do, if they die then there is no way for me to finish this quest. Just the thought of that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'll give them one more chance.
"So, Diana… What's my role in all of this?"
She looked at me, thought for a second and replied. "Nothing much, just wait around." She's dead! "But then again, I am the only one that will do anything during this quest, so you won't be the only one benched." Saved by an inch.
I sighed. "I guess there is no helping it…"
The next couple of days were extremely uneventful, I spent most of that time just laying around or doing menial chores around the camp like getting firewood or fetching water. Diana was the star here and that really pissed me off. But I did kinda admire her attention to detail. A few times I was ordered by Sara to go with her sister when she had to go somewhere dangerous.
The girl was meticulous, extremely so. One time I had to watch her examine a 'Wyvern' turd. She first measured its length, then color, consistency, smell and what was in it. I am so glad that the taste test wasn't on the menu.
I was always wearing a mask, but the concern on my face could be felt through it when she turned around, smiled and said that it was all very important in order to check the health of the one that left the turd. "And you can generally tell about the health of the whole 'Wyvern' pack by the health of a single individual." That was all good, but then she had to add. "Although sometimes there are outliers in the pack, so we'll have to check a few more!"
You could clearly see that the girl was very into animals and nature in general by the way she looked while working, so I once again started thinking what she had meant when she said that she would gladly get rid of all her skills that she used for hunting and tracking for a bit more power and a little talent in swordsmanship. What is so important that you are willing to give up what you love to achieve it? Now I'm really curious.
For probably the first time in my life I expressed interest in another person by asking her directly. "Do you remember saying that you'd give all your skills up for more power and a swordsmanship talent? May I know why?"
The mood instantly soured. She looked down and stayed quiet for what felt like an eternity. I immediately started regretting and began backtracking. "Sorry about that, don't mind me."
She looked back at me and with a determined yet somehow sad and melancholic look and spilled the beans. "Do you know what my full name is? Of Course you wouldn't, we tend to keep that a secret. My full name is Diana Bladeheart and my sister is Sara Bladeheart. We are actually from a fairly prestigious noble family. A family that for generations has produced powerful 'swordsmen'."
"As you can see, I am not a 'swordsman', the issue stems from there. As soon as we could walk, me and my sister were subjected to training in the Bladeheart style of swordsmanship. My sister, as expected of the hair of our family, mastered it with relative ease, I on the other hand, had no natural talent for it. No matter how much I trained, I simply wasn't good enough. While my sister was praised for her achievements, I only received ridicule and scorn…"
"Seems like it would put an incredible amount of strain on your relationship." I interjected.
"Normally it would, but my sister was different from the rest of my family. When everyone else had given up on me, she always had my back, she helped me train everyday, sacrificing her own training in return. When the patriarch noticed her slowed improvement, he quickly found the cause and in order to separate us, he banished me from the family. Although that might have simply been an excuse, since those that couldn't master the Bladeheart style were usually deemed useless and thrown out."
"My sister tried to resist the patriarch - our father, but he was firm on his decision. Not wanting to leave me, she decided to cut ties with the Bladeheart family and join me in this big, wide world." Diana went silent.
"One thing doesn't make sense though."
"It's her job, right? Since she left the family, she was prohibited from using the family's swordsmanship technique that she spent so long practicing. We both started a new life, I as a 'ranger' and Sara as a 'thief'.
The silence was heavy. I didn't know what to do, should I give her some space or should I try comforting her? But how would I even go about comforting a person in the first place? There was only one thing that came to mind. The only thing that I could do to break the tension. I knew that it was the wrong answer, but at this point, I just wanted to move on. "Well then, let's go look for more 'Wyvern' poop." If a god exists, please forgive me for this.
_________________________________________________________________________
Finally the time to explore the 'Wyvern' cave came. All the 'Wyverns' left their nest to hunt, leaving the eggs inside. Our job now was to count the eggs and determine the future population and the health of the colony. Pretty exciting stuff. But for some reason, I felt down, maybe it was the chat with Diana or something else entirely, I didn't know, but I was distracted and spaced out.
In my absentmindedness, I accidentally kicked one of the eggs, splashing the insides everywhere. This got the attention of the whole team. Breaking an egg was bad enough, but the 'Wyverns' were just returning as well, so my team looked desperate and panicked.
Instead of shouting at me for my foolish mistake that, in their minds, could cost them their lives, Sara just commanded "Formation!" Everyone took their places. It was too late to run, the 'Wyverns' were upon us. All that we could do was try and survive. Or so they thought.
The 'Wyverns' landed in the cave, saw the broken egg and became furious. One of them shot out a fire breath attack straight at us, but Clive blocked it with a well placed earth wall. It was a temporary solution, one that wouldn't keep them at bay for long.
One of our adversaries slashed the wall a few times and it crumbled leaving us exposed. We tightened our formation, Clive was preparing another spell when suddenly all of the 'Wyverns' attacked simultaneously with their breath attacks. Clive was too late.
As everyone was prepared to take the full brunt of the damage an 'Air barrier' appeared in front of us. I stepped to the front, looked at Diana and asked. "We won't need to finish the report if there are no more 'Wyverns' in the 'Dark forest', right?"
She looked confused.
"Answer the question, Diana."
"W-well, I suppose so, but…"
"Perfect… I can finally release some steam!" In an instant the barrier that protected us was gone, and the jaws of hell opened releasing all of my pent up anger, frustration, malice and any other emotion that I felt at the time. The fire going from the belly of the cave towards the exit left nothing in its wake, burning the flesh and bone until there was nothing that remained.
"Hah… Finally, it's good to let loose once in a while."