CH29

Ben felt himself begin to come to consciousness. The pain was still there, but he decided to take that as a good thing. Pain meant he was still alive after all, and it had at least gotten weaker than when the alseer decided to try and make a meal of him, but he still didn’t want to move much at the moment.

He felt the softness of a bed beneath him and opened his eyes a crack to look up at the ceiling. Something seemed familiar about it but he was still in a daze, it was hard to say for sure.

He turned his head to the side to try to see where he was, when he found himself in a room with an albino gorilla quietly reading a book in a chair beside him. No, not a gorilla, a yeti.

“Falk?” He quietly croaked out. His throat felt dry and it was hard to talk. How long had he been out?

His teacher’s head jerked up when he heard his name and looked at Ben, before running to the door and yelling, “Sonya! Thera! He’s awake!” and rushing back to his bedside.

Ben could hear the sounds of footsteps hurrying down the halls before Sonya burst into the room. He thought it was strange, he was sure he had heard the sound of more than just one person, and apparently she had thought the same. When she found she had come in alone she marched back to the door, reached out, and dragged someone inside.

It took a moment for Ben’s mind to work out what and who he was seeing. At first he thought he was seeing a statue of a member of Sonya’s race. Skin that looked like it was made from genuine marble and solid gold eyes lacking whites or pupils, with hair running just below her shoulders to match, and a thin tail wrapped around their waist like a belt. He wasn’t originally able to put together what he was seeing, why would a statue be moving, or wearing fabric clothes for that matter? It took embarrassingly long for it to click for him before he looked into her eyes and spoke up.

“I’m glad to see you’re safe. Sorry about the cloak.”

She noticeably grimaced and ignored his apology, instead turning to the other two. “I told you he would be under my effects, I’ll go hide on the other side of the house for now.”

“Thera it’s perfectly natural for him to be concerned about you after what happened. Just wait here while we talk. Ben, honey? Do you know where you are?” Sonya asked, kneeling down to look into his eyes.

“Pretty sure this is your house right? I was brought here after my screll incident. Do you have any water?” He felt his throat rubbing against itself during that whole sentence.

She grabbed a glass and filled it from a pitcher that was sitting just outside of his field of view.

“Alright, you seem coherent enough. Can you tell us what happened?” She gently questioned as he sipped on his drink.

He went over the details he remembered in his mind before he started to talk. He explained how his god told them they were being followed while they walked by the river, how they had run through the woods, trying to get to some nearby adventurers but couldn’t make it in time so they had to try to hide. After that trying to enchant Thera’s cloak but messing up somehow and destroying it, and the monster, the alseer seeming to know where Thera was as soon as it happened and charging at them. Finally, he spoke about his desperate attempt to scare it off by working himself into a panic before connecting with the beast.

“And after that I blacked out, but I’m alive which is pretty cool,” He said, trying to give a confident smile, though it probably turned out more like a grimace from his general discomfort.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Thera spoke up to the other two. “See! He knew it was going for me but he still stepped in and almost got himself killed. He’s obviously being influenced by me. I need to go.”

“Thera the boy isn’t being influenced by anything,” Falk told her. “Can you just talk to him?”

“Excuse me,” He spoke up. “What am I supposedly being influenced by?”