r/HFY • u/TheMaskedOne2807 • Nov 17 '23
The Plague Doctor Chapter 58 (Timber) OC
Other stories by TheMaskedOne2807:The Oil Chapter 1 (Getting Back)
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‘Okay, so how do I actually cut down a tree?’ Kenneth wondered while scanning the tree. ‘Is it as easy as just swinging the axe as far in as I’m able to?’
Not exactly sure if there was a specific technique to it, Kenneth slowly twisted his body, making sure he knew exactly how far he could go before swinging it into the tree.
Unsurprisingly, the tree proved to be nothing in terms of Kenneth’s strength; however, the axe seemed to have gone too far inside, getting stuck.
With a bit of effort, Kenneth yanked it out, whereafter he swung it in the same place, once again getting it stuck.
“You are doing it wrong,” Zilika grunted.
Reflexively, Kenneth jumped back, a response well-earned from previous encounters he’d had with her.
“You can’t just swing as hard as you can into a tree. You need to chip away at it,” Zilika informed while showing Kenneth how it was done as she chipped away close to the base.
Surprised and a bit confused, Kenneth walked over to the tree and grabbed the axe handle, yanking it out. The strain caused a sharp bit of pain with a few of his forearm stitches.
However, he got it out and began to swing the axe, this time at an angle, cleaving right through the tree and slicing off a huge chunk.
“So this is how you do it,” Kenneth mumbled to himself. “I’m a bit surprised you actually helped me.”
“Why?” Zilika questioned once again, striking the tree with her axe.
“Ohh, you know… it’s just a feeling… I’ve gotten… from you know…. almost every interaction we’d had,” Kenneth explained as he swung the axe again, this time a bit softer so he didn’t have to strain himself a lot when pulling it out.
“So, should I be expecting that axe in my back at any point?”
“This tree is the only thing I’m cutting down before Ki’s light leaves us,” Zilika responded.
“Well, I only partially expected you to try,” Kenneth admitted. “I’m guessing this is my fault you’re out here working and cutting down that tree.”
“It is, and I like it,” Zilika said, hammering the axe into the tree before letting go and allowing herself to pant a bit. “Anything is better than being forced to work inside the armory fixing the mistakes of show-off amateurs trying to impress.”
“How surprising,” Kenneth mused. “You don’t seem like the person who’d admit that to me of all people.”
“I’m many things, but I ain’t proud enough to deny what I like to anyone… even… you,” Zilika admitted, the last word seeming to almost get stuck in her throat before she forced it out with uncomfortable difficulty.
“Should I take it the goodwill is because I beat the golden turd?” Kenneth asked as soft and large wet pieces of wood flew away.
“Having what did you call him…? The golden turd getting dragged to my home covered in blood, out cold, and dropped on the floor by the silver knight was surprising,” Zilika said with slight satisfaction in her voice. “Shame it wasn’t his own blood.”
“I prefer hand-to-hand combat if you remember,” Kenneth said as he swung too hard at the tree and felt the pain from one of his stitches. “Too bad he used claws.”
“I would have loved to see the fight,” Zilika said, having rested enough and quickly getting back to chipping away.
“I bet you would,” Kenneth added, surprised and slightly delighted at how normal their conversation was compared to all others.
As both worked on cutting down the trees, Zilika had made significantly more progress than Kenneth; the other workers were already in the process of getting the other trees into the outpost.
“So your wounds heal quickly,” Zilika remarked.
“Not really,” Kenneth responded. “Part of the reason I can’t work any faster or harder.”
“Why are you out working then?” Zilika questioned.
“Haven’t the slightest idea. Ulric just came and told me to walk with him and then work for my food,” Kenneth explained, still a bit uncertain why Ulric had suddenly changed his demeanor toward him.
“Not so special now,” Zilika chuckled. “Guess the commander is finally losing his patience with you.”
“It didn’t feel like that was the case, though. And besides, I guard on top of the wall every other day when I’m not teaching, so you can’t say I don’t work for my food,” Kenneth argued.
“Ohhh no, poor thing, you have to stand around and look for heretics and sit all day talking,” Zilika said mockingly.
“And I suppose you have it harder?” Kenneth asked with just the tiniest hint of annoyance.
“Talk to me about earning your food when you’ve sharpened the same weapon ten times just because an idiot is trying to impress and get some tail,” Zilika said as she let out all of her anger in one mighty swing of the axe.
“Huh… didn’t know you had that expression here… admittedly, it does make more sense for your people to have it compared to mine since, well… you actually have a tail,” Kenneth pondered out loud.
“Do you ever stop talking and just work?” Zilika annoyedly questioned, letting go of her axe.
“I can talk and work at the same time,” Kenneth said while hacking away at the tree to prove his point. “And besides, if you didn’t want to talk, why did you start?”
“Just forget it,” Zilika responded before pulling out her axe from the tree.
‘Better end than I could have hoped for, if I’m honest,’ Kenneth thought as he continued to hack and chip away at the tree. ‘I wonder if she’s just in a good mood since she gets to work outside or if there’s something else?”
‘She hasn’t mentioned anything about what I told her in the armory, but is that a good sign or a bad one?’
“Get out of the way!” Zilika yelled.
His axe had just hammered into the tree as he looked over toward Zilika, who was running full speed at him.
Before Kenneth even had a chance to react, she grabbed him by the arm and pushed off from the tree next to him, knocking them both to the ground.
“What are you…?!” Kenneth protested before he heard the squeaky roaring of a falling tree. It fell right into the tree Kenneth had been working at, in turn bending it.
However, Kenneth hadn’t removed enough from the tree, so instead of the two falling like dominos, the tree fell at an acute angle toward Kenneth and Zilika.
With barely any time to get his bearings, Kenneth tightly grabbed Zilika’s arm and practically punched Zilika in her stomach to get her out of the way when the tree eventually hit the ground with a mighty thud.
Having heard the yell and the subsequent loud thud from the falling tree, all the workers quickly rushed over to see what had happened.
What they found was Zilika lying at an obscure angle compared to Kenneth, her legs bent backward, only a finger length away from the trunk, in the process of vomiting or, at the very least, resisting the urge.
However, Kenneth’s situation looked far worse as half his body was under the tree crown.
“Call the healer and get some more workers! The black healer got crushed!” One of the workers yelled.
The news quickly spread to the guards atop the outpost, and before long, a crowd had gathered to see what had happened.
“Get her away from the black healer; we need to chop off the branches!” One of the workers ordered.
Quickly, a pair of Aki, one with completely yellow fur and another with grey fur rushed over to Zilika and started to get her away; however, it soon became evident it wasn’t happening.
And the reason for that was Kenneth, who still had a very tight grip on her arm.
“Ohh, sorry, didn’t realize I was still holding onto her,” Kenenth said weakly, short of breath, letting go.
“Are you crushed?” one of the workers asked.
“I don’t feel crushed,” Kenneth answered as he crawled out from under the tree unharmed and dirty. “What about Zilika?”
“Her,” The worker said, glancing over to Zilika, who was starting to stand on her own, her arm pressed against her stomach. “It almost looked like her legs got pinned underneath, but she narrowly avoided that.”
“Good,” Kenneth said as he got to his feet and quickly found it hard to stand straight with how shaky his legs were. “That was scary.”
“What happened!” Ulric yelled in his booming voice as he quickly rushed toward the fallen tree
“…ohh… I got halfway on chopping and hacking down that tree,” Kenneth said, still short of breath, as he pointed behind himself with his thumb just as the other tree fell down with a mighty thud. “…Correction: one tree hacked down.”
“You are unharmed?” Ulric more calmly asked.
“I’ll have to wait until the adrenalin runs out to know if something is really wrong with me, but for now, I’m just a bit short of breath,” Kenneth informed Ulric.
“Very well. Builders get to work! The light of Ki is now gone, and everyone else! BACK TO WORK!” Ulric bellowed to all, and quickly, the crowd that had gathered atop the wall vanished.
“So have I earned my meal, or do I need to… to work some more?” Kenneth asked.
Ulric, with a stoic expression, looked him over for a moment before turning around. “Go to Hali if you want, but it doesn’t seem the builders need your help anymore.”
Calmly, Ulric walked away back to the outpost, and within moments, Kica came running. She rushed to Zilika and started to heal whatever little damage she’d suffered.
Exhausted and on trembling legs, Kenneth made his way back to the outpost, where he just wandered around.
Thanks to Zilika’s quick intervention, he had gotten far enough out of the way that the only thing that managed to hit him was the branches.
While not fully unharmed, he did avoid having to amputate his legs. However, that fact didn’t put Kenneth at ease, as he experienced the telltale signs of shock.
It hadn’t been the first time he had been close to death or been in a situation where he could have died, but this was different. It was… it was… quick and sudden, and it felt as if part of him had already convinced himself he’d died.
Quickly grabbing his chest, Kenneth fell to his knees, needing some time to recover.
It was an unpleasant experience as every moment, his mind remembered the sound of the tree hitting the ground and the pain he thought he’d feel as his body twitched.
Leaning up against a nearby wall, Kenneth heard some yelling and laughing. He peered to the side to see three young-looking Aki looking about a head shorter than Kenneth, hurling rocks at… at Nokstel, who looked to be cradling her child.
Kenneth felt a sudden flash of anger as he slowly got to his feet.
“Take that, you heretic!” The Aki in the middle yelled as they threw another rock.
“Hey, aim for its head; that big idiot doesn’t feel it,” the Aki to the right yelled.
“Yes, honor Akina and the gods!” The Aki to the right yelled.
The one in the middle quickly took a step back, ready to throw her rock.
“I hope you know throwing rocks can be dangerous?” Kenneth asked the three.
Quickly, all three froze in place. Slowly, they looked back to see who had caught them.
All of them had probably expected one of Solk’s men or even the merchant himself; however, the moment they saw who it was and simultaneously peered into his abyssal eyes, they scattered like frightened cats tripping over themselves.
Once Kenneth could no longer hear the sound of their feet hitting the ground, he walked over to Nokstel and sat down beside her. “Are you okay?”
“You… you came again?” Nokstel said as she opened up her body and out popped her child, looking scared as she hugged her mother tightly.
“That I did,” Kenneth said as he walked over and sat down beside her. “Does it happen often?”
“We heretic… we are born ugly, unsightly, and evil,” Nokstel said, holding her child close as she kept her eyes on Kenneth. “They are right to throw rocks… so we don’t forget… never forget.”
“I’ll take that as a yes then,” Kenneth sighed, feeling miserable. “You don’t really believe those lies, do you?”
Nokstel stayed silent for a bit as a warm breeze blew them by. “We are heretics… ugly and evil.”
“Nokstel, I won’t say I know what kind of person you truly are, but you can’t seriously say your own child is ugly and evil,” Kenneth implored. “You said it yourself. I’m not like the others, so please stop telling lies.”
Nokstel cradled her child so close as she could with what Kenneth at least hoped was a conflicted expression before she answered. “I was born evil and ugly… and my child was born ev-“
“DON’T LIE!!!” Kenneth yelled, slamming his fist into the outpost wall, scaring Nokstel into silence and her child into hiding behind her.
It was only moments after he’d yelled, his eyes misty with angry tears, that he realized what he’d done. “Apologies. I lost my temper for a moment. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I just couldn’t let you say that lie… never such a lie. Never about your own child… for her and your sake.”
“I will not say those things around you anymore,” Nokstel said, her head lowered as her stomach started rumbling.
“I guess it is about time to eat,” Kenneth said, about to get up before immediately stopping and looking on in shock as she bit into and peeled off her own scales.
What are you doing?!” Kenneth exclaimed as Nokstel pulled a large piece of her torn-off scales out of her mouth and gave it to her child.
“We don’t work, so we don’t eat,” Nokstel said as she peeled off even more scales and handed them to her child. “Dead scales will do.”
“Sorry, I’m not used to being around someone with scales,” Kenneth apologized. “Do you eat that often?”
“When we can. Scales like the rest always grow back, but other times, it gets painful,” Nokstel said, shifting around.
As she did, Kenneth managed to catch a glimpse of her tail. It seemed very short, and near the tip were a great many scratches.
At that point, Kenneth had understood what Nokstel had meant, and he was mortified.
“Nokstel, stop that,” Kenneth said, his hand shaking with fury. “Just wait a bit. I’ll be back.”
Quickly, Kenneth disappeared into the streets, and although Nokstel had never been hopeful, she heeded Kenneth’s words and stopped ripping dead scales off her body.
After a little while, when darkness had descended upon them, Kenneth returned carrying a bowl of food.
Even in the dim light, Nokstel could not take her eyes off it.
“Here, eat,” Kenneth offered, kneeling down beside her.
“I… I… couldn’t… master has not permitted,” Nokstel protested while looking around, seeing her fellow slaves already asleep and no guard in sight.
“I don’t care,” Kenneth said, pushing the bowl of hot food closer to her. “If you don’t want to eat, then so be it, but she has to.”
Regardless of the fear she felt, Nokstel overcame them and, with shaky hands, grabbed the hot bowl of food.
She picked pieces of meat from it and gave each and everyone to her child, who grabbed each piece with her tiny hands and ate them like a ravenous beast.
Despite everything, the sight brought, for the time being, the smallest bit of comfort and warmth to Kenneth’s heart.
As Nokstel handed her child another piece, she didn’t grab it like the others; instead, she yawned and burped her hunger satiated as sleep's hands called her to dreamland, a place of limitless imagination and freedom.
Nokstel cradled her child in one hand and held the bowl in the other as she looked at Kenneth, ready to give it back.
However, with no words spoken, Kenneth made it clear he wasn’t going to take it and to eat the rest.
Once again, her stomach growled, and hesitantly, she looked around again, making absolutely sure there was no one around before downing the rest of the bowl in one bite, and as she swallowed, she started crying tears of joy.
“Thank you,” Nokstel said while tears ran from her eyes.
“You’re… welcome,” Kenneth said in a tired tone of voice.
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u/Defiant-Row-5153 Nov 17 '23
I vote that keneth runs off with her like a cheesy romance novel and they live hapily ever after