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Just my OC Draye going off on his first adventure to take care of a troublesome boar.
Let me know what you think. I'm happy to receive any constructive criticism to help improve my writing. Hopefully you enjoy!
Draye, a twenty-something-year-old man, had just wandered into town come midday and stopped at its edge. He wore a simple set of light, tan traveling garb with a traveling pack on his back. A simple-looking broadsword was strapped and sheathed to his side. He stood at nearly six feet tall with brilliant blue eyes that scanned the town briefly before he continued forward. Keeping his brown-haired head down, he hurried towards the center of town and occasionally glanced up; he was looking for the inn. As he glanced around, he took note of the various homes and buildings. Oddly enough, they all looked similar. Granted, they had their differences, but it was clear he had come in through the poor section of town. Up ahead he could see some better-looking houses and the inn.
Draye hurried up to the inn. As he got close he could hear a group of bards playing inside. However, once he stepped into the inn, the music halted and he watched everybody turn to look at him. He could feel their amalgamated gaze boring into him. He swallowed nervously and stepped further into the inn. Halfway through the room everybody went back to their drinks and music started up once more.
Upon reaching the bar, the large, burly tender walked up to him cleaning a cup with a clearly dirty rag. “What do you need, kid?” His face was set in a hard frown as he stared down at Draye.
Draye felt himself shrink under the man’s powerful gaze, but he managed to stammer out, “J-Just a room for the night. There a job board in here?”
The tender started for a key, but stopped when Draye asked about the job board. “Yeah we got one. Every town does. But there’s no job for you there, kid. You don’t look like you could handle a strong drink let alone anything on that board.” He grabbed the key and pointed over to a job board on the far wall then looked at Draye, “Five gold.”
Draye nodded and fumbled with a money pouch for a moment before pulling out the money and handing it to the tender. “I know how I look, but I have to make a living somehow, right? This is the best I have right now, so I’ll see what I can do.”
The tender’s gaze softened slightly and he sighed “Fine, kid. Just don’t go in over your head. I don’t want to be responsible for letting some young guy run off to his death. Your room is the third on the right upstairs.” He handed the key to Draye.
Draye took the key with a light smile seeming a bit more comfortable with the bartender now. “Thanks for the room and I’ll do my best to not to die,” he said with a semi-reassuring nod. The tender huffs and walks away to tend to another person demanding more drink, though to Draye he sounded like he needed a quite a bit less.
Heading over to the far wall, Draye looked over the job board for anything of interest that could get him some money. There were a few basic jobs here and there, but the one that caught his eye was a bounty. Reading over it, it was about some sort of ‘demon boar’ that was attacking the various caravans and terrorizing farms around town. He nodded and then turned and headed up the stairs going straight to his room.
Later in the evening Draye came back down in much more casual wear. Looking over the floor, it was much more crowded this time. A few people looked over at him once more, but the rest were too busy enjoying their drinks and being rowdy. He shrugged off those that looked and went to the bar once more for some food. A red-headed woman was there this time instead of the man. She scurried back and forth between the various customers doing surprisingly well at handling them despite the crowd.
Spotting an open seat at the bar, Draye slid through the crowd and made it to the seat and noticing the giant of a man that was next to him. Draye glanced up at him as he sat down and scooted his seat a few more inches away from the man which got Draye a few odd looks from the man on his other side.
When Draye finally turned his attention to the bar again, the red-headed woman was standing in front of him, “Whatcha want, hun?”
Draye glanced up the bar quickly to see what others had. Seeing a man eating some sort food from a bowl, he quickly spoke, “A-A stew and drink?” She was gone. He sighed softly and glanced back over his shoulder at the crowd in the bar. They seem pretty friendly now. Better than earlier. When he looked forward again, a bowl of stew and glass of drink were in front of him. He looked around for the woman only to see her at the far end of the bar having a laugh with a group of men. She’s pretty good at this. He turned his focus then to the stew in front of him. He couldn’t quite figure out what was in it, but is smelled something like pork and that was good enough for him; he happily dug in.
Over the course of the next few minutes the stew was gone and Draye was sipping at his drink. Suddenly, a loud crash came from behind him. He quickly spun around to see a man standing over another man with a broken table under him. Though the standing man was suddenly punched from behind by another. Within moments, the bar was in an uproar with fists and people flying this way and that way. Draye looked to the others in the bar that were somehow out of the fight only to find them continuing their conversations and drinks as if nothing were going on. He swallowed and turned back to his drink. Just as he was about to take another sip, somebody was thrown into him. His arm was knocked to the side and his drink went flying from his glass… and directly onto the mountain of a man that was sitting next to him.
Draye’s eyes went wide. “I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! Somebody—” Draye was cut off as a large, meaty fist came swinging around from the other side of the mountain-man and collided directly with Draye’s face promptly knocking him out.
When Draye came-to, the first thing he felt was pain coursing and throbbing through his entire head. He let out an audible groan of pain and slowly sat up and held his head in his hand. “Ow…” was all he managed to say. Looking around, he saw the morning sun shining through the window. He was back in the room he rented for the night. He stood and looked over himself; he looked like a stampede had run over him. He huffed and got changed back into his travelling garb, strapped on his sword, slung his pack onto his back, then went downstairs once more to find that entire bar nearly completely empty and surprisingly already cleaned up and put back together. The only soul that was around was the red-head from the previous night. She looked up at him as he came down and waved him over.
“Well, look at you. I didn’t expect you to be up until later this evening. That was a heavy hit you took from Georg.” She said with a cheery grin.
“I admit that I don’t really want to be up right now, but I have stuff to do and I can’t just stay in bed all day.” He muttered, still getting over the throbbing in his head. He sat his pack next to a seat in front of her, then slumped into it. “I don’t think I paid you for last night, did I? How much was the stew and drink?”
“We’ll say it’s on the house, hun. I’m not gonna make anybody pay when they took a hit like you did. But you still gotta pay for breakfast.”
“Thanks. Whatever’s simple will work.” He said, giving the woman a gentle smile.
“Coming right up, hun.” She stepped into the back and came out a few minutes later with a plate of bread and sausage and sets it in front of Draye, then gets him a drink. He thanks her and starts eating. “Georg says he’s sorry, by the way. He’s normally a lot friendlier. He just came back from a bad job.” She points to the job board. “He was our best bet to get rid of that damn boar that’s been bothering the town. But not even Georg could take it down. I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”
Draye looked over at the board and then at the woman as she told her tale. He swallowed the mouthful of food in his mouth before responding, “Really? I figured if anybody in this town could have, it would have been him. I was planning on going after it today.”
“Don’t. I don’t want to be mean, but you’re no match for that thing. You’d get torn apart in seconds. We’ve tried everything we could. Arrows, spears, swords… nothing could even penetrate that hide. It’s like steel. You’d be better off either going to the next town or getting a different job.”
Draye listened and stayed silent for a long moment after she finished before nodding. “I understand your concern. However, I can’t just let a menace like that stay around. With how much damage it seems to be causing, it needs to be stopped. So I’ll stop it.” He said with a simple nod.
The woman stared at Draye for a moment then sighed and nodded. “Fine. I can’t stop you. But please be careful. If things get bad, get out of there. You aren’t the first drifter to come in after this thing. None of them came back. If something should happen, what’s your name? If something would happen, I could hopefully at least give you a good sendoff.”
“My name is Draye. Draye Visson.” He answered kindly with a gentle smile on his face. Despite his timid nature coming into town and the hit from yesterday, he was rather calm now and seemed ready for anything.
“Visson?” The name rang a bell, but she couldn’t quite place, but she shrugged it off for now. “I’m Lorica. Stay safe, Draye. We aren’t the friendliest to outsiders, but we don’t want them dead either. Especially when they try to solve our issues.”
Draye finished his breakfast and drink then nodded. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon. Thank you for your kindness, Lorica. I’ll be back soon.” He stood and threw his pack back on. “Good day to you.” He smiled and set off on his journey.
His first stop was the official petitioner of the bill to get the job. Once he officially accepted the job and got the details of his mark, he set off to take care of ‘demon boar’ menace. He left through the eastern side of town and disappeared into a dense wood. It wasn’t hard for him to find evidence of the boar’s existence and its temper. Trees had been gored and felled, foliage had been trampled, animals were slaughtered, and the ground was stamped down horribly.
Draye gave a quick blessing to the various life that had been trampled down by this beast and continued. He delved further and further into the wood, going several miles before finally stopping for a small water break. He sat back against a damaged tree and looked at the wood around him. Without the destruction, this area of the wood would have been quite beautiful.
He breathed deeply and stood up again and breathed deeply the fresh air of the wood and began walking again when he heard a distant rumble. He stopped in his tracks and looked around attempting to pinpoint the direction the sound was coming from, but it appeared to come from all around him. Glancing back at the damaged tree he got a running start towards it, leapt up, and grabbed onto one of the lower hanging branches. He pulled himself up then and quickly climbed up the tree. He stopped near the top and looked over the forest floor from above. He saw trees in the distance tilting and falling to the ground. He found his target.
Draye climbed down the tree quickly and took off in the direction of the newly created destruction. He could see the various wildlife scattering off in every direction in absolute terror. The boar had slowed down and was rampaging in a small area as it sporadically charged in various directions to chase after animals and plow down trees. Draye reached the area and let loose a high-pitched whistle that stopped the boar in its tracks. Now that Draye saw it, he was rather disgusted. It stood over fifteen feet tall and was pure muscle and hide. Four long, bloody tusks protruded from its sharp-toothed maw. Its tail lashed back and forth violently like a whip as it glared at Draye with bloodshot eyes and pawed at the ground. Then the beast charged.
Draye bolted from his spot going straight for a tree. The beast changed its trajectory to follow the human that dared intrude on its territory. Reaching the tree, Draye leapt at then kicked off the tree, launching above the charging boar which proceeded to ram directly into the same tree and knock it over. Draye landed on the boar and grunted as he made impact suddenly realizing that Lorica wasn’t exaggerating when she said this beast’s hide was tough. He gripped onto boar’s fur and sides with his arms and legs just in time as it started to buck to fling the human off. It growled and roared ferociously as each buck got harder and stronger than the last until it finally stopped and began to roll to its side.
Draye quickly let go and half-jumped, half-fell off the boar opposite the way it chose to roll. He landed with a thud on the stamped ground, but quickly got up to face the boar again as it started to roll back onto its feet. Without a second thought, Draye ran up and pressed against the boar’s belly. He pushed and heaved with all his might, planting his feet against the ground. Almost immediately he noticed how much softer the belly of this creature was in comparison to the rest of it, but he had little time to focus on it.
The boar kicked its feet and pushed against Draye with all its might to overpower him. It snarled and squealed at him. Draye could feel himself getting pushed backed through the dirt from the boar’s strength. He didn’t have a chance at beating it in brute strength. Draye thought quickly and then let go, stepping quickly away from the boar and letting it roll onto its feet once more. He backed away about ten yards by the time the boar turned to face him. Without a moment’s hesitation, it charged at Draye with tusks forward. Draye planted his feet and waited until it was about ten feet in front of him before jumping once more at the charging animal. He planted his foot firmly on the animal’s head and jumped back up onto the animal’s back and clung to it once more.
The boar skidded to a stop and immediately went to roll again, but Draye was ready this time. He waited for the boar to get a bit farther than last time before leaping off the beast only to land on his feet this time. He drew his sword and lunged forward, stabbing into the gut of the beast while it laid prone and sending the blade up into the boar’s heart. The beast screeched in pain making Draye wince from the sound, but he stood resolute as it started to writhe and squirm. Channeling magical power from himself, he sent it forward into the blade of the sword and cried out, “Ignis!” The blade lit up inside of the boar, burning its insides with an intense flame. The boar’s writhing became worse as did its screeching before finally it went completely limp and quiet.
Draye took a deep breath and cut off the magic, then slowly pulled the sword from the beast. He sat down next to the beast on the ground and looked at it. An odd sadness fell over him, but he was content with what he had done. He made it as quick a death as he could. After resting a few minutes, he stood once more and approached the creature’s head. With a quick and solid strike of his blade, he cut off one of the tusks of the boar and put it into his pack. Afterwards, he found a stream not too far off from where the boar was and properly tended to his sword and cleaned it and himself while he had the time.
With his business done, he heads off back to town. By the time he returned, it was nearly dark. He went up to the petitioner’s door and knocked on it roughly. He couldn’t deny that weariness was getting the best of him. A few thuds sounded from the other side of the door followed by some footsteps and the door unlocking. The petitioner opened the door and stared in silent shock at Draye who now held the tusk of the beast. “I believe this should be evidence enough that the thing is dead, yes?”
The next day, Draye woke in the inn once more and crawled out of bed. He stretched out and groaned as his body ached from the previous day’s travel and battle. He went downstairs only to be greeted by Lorica. “Oh, good you’re up! I wanted to thank you for taking care of that boar problem yesterday. What would you like? You can have anything on the house.”
“You keep giving away free stuff like this, you’re gonna go out of business, Lorica. I’ll just take something basic. Whatever’s easiest for you.” He said with a cheery grin as he sat down at the bar.
Lorica got him his drink and then went to the back to get something cooked. When she returned, she had two plates filled with sausage, bread, eggs, fruits, and other various foods. “You can be humble all you want, but you’re deserving of a good meal after taking that thing down. Georg went out last night to properly confirm it was dead. I can’t believe you managed it, honestly.”
“I’m just glad I could help. That’s all I really came into town for. Got any other problems in this town that I can help with?” He asked with a grin.
“Nah. The town’ll go back to being boring now. But we’ll let you know if ever we need help again. Thank you, truly, for everything.”
Draye smiled and started on his meal. He could taste how fresh it all was and made sure to thank Lorica for the fine meal before leaving the inn. Heading to the shopping district, he took his time restocking his supplies for the next leg of his journey to whatever town he managed to wander to next. Come late morning, he was ready to go and finally set off from the town.
While Draye was leaving, there was a shift change back at the inn. The gruff looking tender Draye had first met at the bar came in to take over for Lorica. “About time you got here, John. I was beginning to think you ran from town.”
John grunted and stepped behind the counter. “I got caught up in town. Dana was going on about how somebody finally killed that damn boar. Was it that kid from the other day?”
“Draye, hun. His name is Draye. And yes, he managed to kill that thing. Came as a bit of a surprise until I figured out who he was.” She smiled softly and poured a drink for herself. “Turns out that kid is a Visson.”
“Visson? What’s a Visson?” Lorica rolled her eyes as John poured himself a drink. He tossed the name around in his mind for a few moments before realization hit. “No… There’s no way. The Vissons died, didn’t they? Nobody’s heard from them in years! Wait, when did they have a kid?” John looked down at floor and furrowed his brow in thought.
“Plenty of questions and any chance for answers just left town. I’m sure that won’t be the last we hear of that man though. He’ll be doing a lot of good, I think.” She sipped at her drink and started towards the door. She half-waved back at John, “Take care of the inn while I’m gone.” With that, she was gone with her drink leaving John alone in the empty building.
Let me know what you think. I'm happy to receive any constructive criticism to help improve my writing. Hopefully you enjoy!
Draye, a twenty-something-year-old man, had just wandered into town come midday and stopped at its edge. He wore a simple set of light, tan traveling garb with a traveling pack on his back. A simple-looking broadsword was strapped and sheathed to his side. He stood at nearly six feet tall with brilliant blue eyes that scanned the town briefly before he continued forward. Keeping his brown-haired head down, he hurried towards the center of town and occasionally glanced up; he was looking for the inn. As he glanced around, he took note of the various homes and buildings. Oddly enough, they all looked similar. Granted, they had their differences, but it was clear he had come in through the poor section of town. Up ahead he could see some better-looking houses and the inn.
Draye hurried up to the inn. As he got close he could hear a group of bards playing inside. However, once he stepped into the inn, the music halted and he watched everybody turn to look at him. He could feel their amalgamated gaze boring into him. He swallowed nervously and stepped further into the inn. Halfway through the room everybody went back to their drinks and music started up once more.
Upon reaching the bar, the large, burly tender walked up to him cleaning a cup with a clearly dirty rag. “What do you need, kid?” His face was set in a hard frown as he stared down at Draye.
Draye felt himself shrink under the man’s powerful gaze, but he managed to stammer out, “J-Just a room for the night. There a job board in here?”
The tender started for a key, but stopped when Draye asked about the job board. “Yeah we got one. Every town does. But there’s no job for you there, kid. You don’t look like you could handle a strong drink let alone anything on that board.” He grabbed the key and pointed over to a job board on the far wall then looked at Draye, “Five gold.”
Draye nodded and fumbled with a money pouch for a moment before pulling out the money and handing it to the tender. “I know how I look, but I have to make a living somehow, right? This is the best I have right now, so I’ll see what I can do.”
The tender’s gaze softened slightly and he sighed “Fine, kid. Just don’t go in over your head. I don’t want to be responsible for letting some young guy run off to his death. Your room is the third on the right upstairs.” He handed the key to Draye.
Draye took the key with a light smile seeming a bit more comfortable with the bartender now. “Thanks for the room and I’ll do my best to not to die,” he said with a semi-reassuring nod. The tender huffs and walks away to tend to another person demanding more drink, though to Draye he sounded like he needed a quite a bit less.
Heading over to the far wall, Draye looked over the job board for anything of interest that could get him some money. There were a few basic jobs here and there, but the one that caught his eye was a bounty. Reading over it, it was about some sort of ‘demon boar’ that was attacking the various caravans and terrorizing farms around town. He nodded and then turned and headed up the stairs going straight to his room.
Later in the evening Draye came back down in much more casual wear. Looking over the floor, it was much more crowded this time. A few people looked over at him once more, but the rest were too busy enjoying their drinks and being rowdy. He shrugged off those that looked and went to the bar once more for some food. A red-headed woman was there this time instead of the man. She scurried back and forth between the various customers doing surprisingly well at handling them despite the crowd.
Spotting an open seat at the bar, Draye slid through the crowd and made it to the seat and noticing the giant of a man that was next to him. Draye glanced up at him as he sat down and scooted his seat a few more inches away from the man which got Draye a few odd looks from the man on his other side.
When Draye finally turned his attention to the bar again, the red-headed woman was standing in front of him, “Whatcha want, hun?”
Draye glanced up the bar quickly to see what others had. Seeing a man eating some sort food from a bowl, he quickly spoke, “A-A stew and drink?” She was gone. He sighed softly and glanced back over his shoulder at the crowd in the bar. They seem pretty friendly now. Better than earlier. When he looked forward again, a bowl of stew and glass of drink were in front of him. He looked around for the woman only to see her at the far end of the bar having a laugh with a group of men. She’s pretty good at this. He turned his focus then to the stew in front of him. He couldn’t quite figure out what was in it, but is smelled something like pork and that was good enough for him; he happily dug in.
Over the course of the next few minutes the stew was gone and Draye was sipping at his drink. Suddenly, a loud crash came from behind him. He quickly spun around to see a man standing over another man with a broken table under him. Though the standing man was suddenly punched from behind by another. Within moments, the bar was in an uproar with fists and people flying this way and that way. Draye looked to the others in the bar that were somehow out of the fight only to find them continuing their conversations and drinks as if nothing were going on. He swallowed and turned back to his drink. Just as he was about to take another sip, somebody was thrown into him. His arm was knocked to the side and his drink went flying from his glass… and directly onto the mountain of a man that was sitting next to him.
Draye’s eyes went wide. “I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! Somebody—” Draye was cut off as a large, meaty fist came swinging around from the other side of the mountain-man and collided directly with Draye’s face promptly knocking him out.
When Draye came-to, the first thing he felt was pain coursing and throbbing through his entire head. He let out an audible groan of pain and slowly sat up and held his head in his hand. “Ow…” was all he managed to say. Looking around, he saw the morning sun shining through the window. He was back in the room he rented for the night. He stood and looked over himself; he looked like a stampede had run over him. He huffed and got changed back into his travelling garb, strapped on his sword, slung his pack onto his back, then went downstairs once more to find that entire bar nearly completely empty and surprisingly already cleaned up and put back together. The only soul that was around was the red-head from the previous night. She looked up at him as he came down and waved him over.
“Well, look at you. I didn’t expect you to be up until later this evening. That was a heavy hit you took from Georg.” She said with a cheery grin.
“I admit that I don’t really want to be up right now, but I have stuff to do and I can’t just stay in bed all day.” He muttered, still getting over the throbbing in his head. He sat his pack next to a seat in front of her, then slumped into it. “I don’t think I paid you for last night, did I? How much was the stew and drink?”
“We’ll say it’s on the house, hun. I’m not gonna make anybody pay when they took a hit like you did. But you still gotta pay for breakfast.”
“Thanks. Whatever’s simple will work.” He said, giving the woman a gentle smile.
“Coming right up, hun.” She stepped into the back and came out a few minutes later with a plate of bread and sausage and sets it in front of Draye, then gets him a drink. He thanks her and starts eating. “Georg says he’s sorry, by the way. He’s normally a lot friendlier. He just came back from a bad job.” She points to the job board. “He was our best bet to get rid of that damn boar that’s been bothering the town. But not even Georg could take it down. I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”
Draye looked over at the board and then at the woman as she told her tale. He swallowed the mouthful of food in his mouth before responding, “Really? I figured if anybody in this town could have, it would have been him. I was planning on going after it today.”
“Don’t. I don’t want to be mean, but you’re no match for that thing. You’d get torn apart in seconds. We’ve tried everything we could. Arrows, spears, swords… nothing could even penetrate that hide. It’s like steel. You’d be better off either going to the next town or getting a different job.”
Draye listened and stayed silent for a long moment after she finished before nodding. “I understand your concern. However, I can’t just let a menace like that stay around. With how much damage it seems to be causing, it needs to be stopped. So I’ll stop it.” He said with a simple nod.
The woman stared at Draye for a moment then sighed and nodded. “Fine. I can’t stop you. But please be careful. If things get bad, get out of there. You aren’t the first drifter to come in after this thing. None of them came back. If something should happen, what’s your name? If something would happen, I could hopefully at least give you a good sendoff.”
“My name is Draye. Draye Visson.” He answered kindly with a gentle smile on his face. Despite his timid nature coming into town and the hit from yesterday, he was rather calm now and seemed ready for anything.
“Visson?” The name rang a bell, but she couldn’t quite place, but she shrugged it off for now. “I’m Lorica. Stay safe, Draye. We aren’t the friendliest to outsiders, but we don’t want them dead either. Especially when they try to solve our issues.”
Draye finished his breakfast and drink then nodded. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon. Thank you for your kindness, Lorica. I’ll be back soon.” He stood and threw his pack back on. “Good day to you.” He smiled and set off on his journey.
His first stop was the official petitioner of the bill to get the job. Once he officially accepted the job and got the details of his mark, he set off to take care of ‘demon boar’ menace. He left through the eastern side of town and disappeared into a dense wood. It wasn’t hard for him to find evidence of the boar’s existence and its temper. Trees had been gored and felled, foliage had been trampled, animals were slaughtered, and the ground was stamped down horribly.
Draye gave a quick blessing to the various life that had been trampled down by this beast and continued. He delved further and further into the wood, going several miles before finally stopping for a small water break. He sat back against a damaged tree and looked at the wood around him. Without the destruction, this area of the wood would have been quite beautiful.
He breathed deeply and stood up again and breathed deeply the fresh air of the wood and began walking again when he heard a distant rumble. He stopped in his tracks and looked around attempting to pinpoint the direction the sound was coming from, but it appeared to come from all around him. Glancing back at the damaged tree he got a running start towards it, leapt up, and grabbed onto one of the lower hanging branches. He pulled himself up then and quickly climbed up the tree. He stopped near the top and looked over the forest floor from above. He saw trees in the distance tilting and falling to the ground. He found his target.
Draye climbed down the tree quickly and took off in the direction of the newly created destruction. He could see the various wildlife scattering off in every direction in absolute terror. The boar had slowed down and was rampaging in a small area as it sporadically charged in various directions to chase after animals and plow down trees. Draye reached the area and let loose a high-pitched whistle that stopped the boar in its tracks. Now that Draye saw it, he was rather disgusted. It stood over fifteen feet tall and was pure muscle and hide. Four long, bloody tusks protruded from its sharp-toothed maw. Its tail lashed back and forth violently like a whip as it glared at Draye with bloodshot eyes and pawed at the ground. Then the beast charged.
Draye bolted from his spot going straight for a tree. The beast changed its trajectory to follow the human that dared intrude on its territory. Reaching the tree, Draye leapt at then kicked off the tree, launching above the charging boar which proceeded to ram directly into the same tree and knock it over. Draye landed on the boar and grunted as he made impact suddenly realizing that Lorica wasn’t exaggerating when she said this beast’s hide was tough. He gripped onto boar’s fur and sides with his arms and legs just in time as it started to buck to fling the human off. It growled and roared ferociously as each buck got harder and stronger than the last until it finally stopped and began to roll to its side.
Draye quickly let go and half-jumped, half-fell off the boar opposite the way it chose to roll. He landed with a thud on the stamped ground, but quickly got up to face the boar again as it started to roll back onto its feet. Without a second thought, Draye ran up and pressed against the boar’s belly. He pushed and heaved with all his might, planting his feet against the ground. Almost immediately he noticed how much softer the belly of this creature was in comparison to the rest of it, but he had little time to focus on it.
The boar kicked its feet and pushed against Draye with all its might to overpower him. It snarled and squealed at him. Draye could feel himself getting pushed backed through the dirt from the boar’s strength. He didn’t have a chance at beating it in brute strength. Draye thought quickly and then let go, stepping quickly away from the boar and letting it roll onto its feet once more. He backed away about ten yards by the time the boar turned to face him. Without a moment’s hesitation, it charged at Draye with tusks forward. Draye planted his feet and waited until it was about ten feet in front of him before jumping once more at the charging animal. He planted his foot firmly on the animal’s head and jumped back up onto the animal’s back and clung to it once more.
The boar skidded to a stop and immediately went to roll again, but Draye was ready this time. He waited for the boar to get a bit farther than last time before leaping off the beast only to land on his feet this time. He drew his sword and lunged forward, stabbing into the gut of the beast while it laid prone and sending the blade up into the boar’s heart. The beast screeched in pain making Draye wince from the sound, but he stood resolute as it started to writhe and squirm. Channeling magical power from himself, he sent it forward into the blade of the sword and cried out, “Ignis!” The blade lit up inside of the boar, burning its insides with an intense flame. The boar’s writhing became worse as did its screeching before finally it went completely limp and quiet.
Draye took a deep breath and cut off the magic, then slowly pulled the sword from the beast. He sat down next to the beast on the ground and looked at it. An odd sadness fell over him, but he was content with what he had done. He made it as quick a death as he could. After resting a few minutes, he stood once more and approached the creature’s head. With a quick and solid strike of his blade, he cut off one of the tusks of the boar and put it into his pack. Afterwards, he found a stream not too far off from where the boar was and properly tended to his sword and cleaned it and himself while he had the time.
With his business done, he heads off back to town. By the time he returned, it was nearly dark. He went up to the petitioner’s door and knocked on it roughly. He couldn’t deny that weariness was getting the best of him. A few thuds sounded from the other side of the door followed by some footsteps and the door unlocking. The petitioner opened the door and stared in silent shock at Draye who now held the tusk of the beast. “I believe this should be evidence enough that the thing is dead, yes?”
The next day, Draye woke in the inn once more and crawled out of bed. He stretched out and groaned as his body ached from the previous day’s travel and battle. He went downstairs only to be greeted by Lorica. “Oh, good you’re up! I wanted to thank you for taking care of that boar problem yesterday. What would you like? You can have anything on the house.”
“You keep giving away free stuff like this, you’re gonna go out of business, Lorica. I’ll just take something basic. Whatever’s easiest for you.” He said with a cheery grin as he sat down at the bar.
Lorica got him his drink and then went to the back to get something cooked. When she returned, she had two plates filled with sausage, bread, eggs, fruits, and other various foods. “You can be humble all you want, but you’re deserving of a good meal after taking that thing down. Georg went out last night to properly confirm it was dead. I can’t believe you managed it, honestly.”
“I’m just glad I could help. That’s all I really came into town for. Got any other problems in this town that I can help with?” He asked with a grin.
“Nah. The town’ll go back to being boring now. But we’ll let you know if ever we need help again. Thank you, truly, for everything.”
Draye smiled and started on his meal. He could taste how fresh it all was and made sure to thank Lorica for the fine meal before leaving the inn. Heading to the shopping district, he took his time restocking his supplies for the next leg of his journey to whatever town he managed to wander to next. Come late morning, he was ready to go and finally set off from the town.
While Draye was leaving, there was a shift change back at the inn. The gruff looking tender Draye had first met at the bar came in to take over for Lorica. “About time you got here, John. I was beginning to think you ran from town.”
John grunted and stepped behind the counter. “I got caught up in town. Dana was going on about how somebody finally killed that damn boar. Was it that kid from the other day?”
“Draye, hun. His name is Draye. And yes, he managed to kill that thing. Came as a bit of a surprise until I figured out who he was.” She smiled softly and poured a drink for herself. “Turns out that kid is a Visson.”
“Visson? What’s a Visson?” Lorica rolled her eyes as John poured himself a drink. He tossed the name around in his mind for a few moments before realization hit. “No… There’s no way. The Vissons died, didn’t they? Nobody’s heard from them in years! Wait, when did they have a kid?” John looked down at floor and furrowed his brow in thought.
“Plenty of questions and any chance for answers just left town. I’m sure that won’t be the last we hear of that man though. He’ll be doing a lot of good, I think.” She sipped at her drink and started towards the door. She half-waved back at John, “Take care of the inn while I’m gone.” With that, she was gone with her drink leaving John alone in the empty building.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Human
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 21.9 kB
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