Book 2 Chapter One: Awake

ONE

Roan woke with a gasp, sitting upright in a jerk as the thin sheet that had been covering his torso fell into a pool around his waist. Light streamed into his eyes, bright spears that caused him to blink as he wiped away at tears, trying to remember what the hell had just happened.

“Taoya was fighting that thing and then…” Roan mumbled as disjointed pieces of what happened slowly coalesced. He reached over and touched his face where he remembered the searing pain and felt the ropy texture of a scar under his finger. He looked down across his chest, further down his abdomen, and then his hip which was lost under the beige sheet.

A red line of raised skin ran straight as an arrow down his body. The skin around it was inflamed, burning hot to the touch, sore beneath his probing fingers. His mind finished rebooting and he remembered what had happened.

“Stood in front of a mob stronger than myself and got filleted like a fish,” Roan groused. He tossed his feet to the side of the bed with only a hint of a wince and stood gingerly up. Whoever had continued to heal him had left him with the privacy of his underwear, though with how clean he was he knew someone had washed him.

“Anyone there?” Roan asked, raising his voice and realizing how dry his throat was. The room he was in was small and cozy but he didn’t recognize it as anywhere in the village he’d seen so far. When the only door opened to reveal Hana, the beast-kin mayor; he flushed as the older female’s eyes darted up and down him.

“Still alive I see. I have your gear over here,” she stepped back from the door and he could see into the mayor’s office which he’d already visited once. His ruined clothes were folded in a pile of soiled laundry, while his warhammer, both shaman staffs, canteen, rings, and backpack were piled on her desk.

“Why am I in here?” Roan asked as he forced away his embarrassment and walked to his canteen, prying it open and drinking deeply from it. Hana had glided out of his way and was across from him by the door in a reversal of their positions not even a day ago.

“A mutation I wanted to study. I paid your fellows to observe you,” Hana said. She leaned in and her human nose twitched like a rabbit’s.

“The bloodline thing?” Roan asked, he remembered that well enough. The floating words were some of the last he remembered. Without looking at his many notifications he bought a fresh set of inferior-grade robes and drew them over his bare limbs. He’d never been one to be shy, but her gaze was more piercing than what he was used to and the long scar down his body made him uncomfortable.

“Yes. Normally people achieve bloodlines through powerful rituals and then pass it on the old fashioned way. Progenitor to progeny,” Hana said.

“Not exactly what happened to me,” Roan said as he gingerly finished rearranging the clothes and started to buckle on his gear after checking his backpack. Someone had been kind enough to toss all six of the ogre necklaces into his bag, even if they were a little scorched.

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“It had all the earmarks of a ritual. A poor one, but it was there. Sacrifice, a power source, and direction. It’s just that your bloodline isn’t in our data bases, which confused us,” Hana said as she folded her arms across her chest. One of her ears twitched as she stared him down like he had the answers for her.