Chapter 12 : Home Sweet Home

Fire shot up and down Lisa’s arms and legs. Each step was misery, she hated herself even more and the sounds of chewing from behind pissed her off more and more. She was a boiling pot, almost in a literal sense. Her clothes were drenched in sweat, the taste of salt litered her mouth, and worst of all, she felt the her tighes and arm pits were rubbed raw. 

From the cart, she heard Theo yawn and say, “Holy Rok am I tired.”

“Your tired?” Resting her hip against the push carts lever, she spun around. Her face red as a torch fire, “Your tired?!” She spread out her arms and trying to take in as much air as she could. Her breathes were heavy, “You did do anything. Nothing at all but bitch and moan for the past twenty blocks!”

Theo flicked his wrist to his chest, with the look like someone has slapped him in the face. “Nothing? I have been evaluating you this whole time.” He sat up, propping himself up with his off hand, “Surviving a siege requires a strong mind and a strong set of lungs.”

“Lies!” Lisa held up her quivering hands to him. “You are just lazy and using me!”

Theo pulled out a piece of bread from his satchel, “Believe what you want. When your able to outrun a horde of the undead, you will be thanking me. Cause only an idiot would believe undead walk or shabble toward them.”

Wait…undead can run? “Theo, have you ever encountered an undead?” Lisa wiped the stinging sweat from her eyes.

Theo took a bite of the bread and spoke with his mouth full, “Of course. Remember how Ren called me a rogue. She wasn’t wrong. Undead love to hide away in dungeons, cripts, and the like. Well maybe love is too strong of a word, more like happen to guard them without filing complaints to their summoner.”

“What are they like?” 

“Undead? That is a bit vague.” Theo chased the bread with water from his leather canteen.

“What do you mean?” Lisa raised a brow.

Theo returned the gesture and looked at her as if she was stupid. “Do you not know anything about undead?” Lisa shook her head and Theo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look girl, there are more types of undead than humanoid races. Some are dumb as dirt, while others are smarter than any living men. You got the basic of basic undead, like skeletons and zombies, but even those vary based on who raised them from the dead. Then you got like the grand daddy of undead, lichs, casters who gave up their souls for eternal life.”

“How?” Lisa stepped forward off the cart handle toward him, facinated. She had heard stories of undead, but it was always about the great heroes that killed them, and they all sounded like the same, except some had flesh and others didn’t.

“How what?” Theo’s eyes darted around, as if searching for an unseen treasure.

“You know are, there so many?” Lisa felt the cart push against her lower back as it rolled down the slight slope they were on. She stumbled forward several steps to get her footing then grabbed on the railing with the last bit of her strength. “Sorry…” She let out an embarressing chuckle.

“Do I look like a mage?”

“You did you magic earlier.”

“Your not wrong, but no I am not that kind of mage at all. It’s really up to the mage who makes them. It’s like cooking, more of an art than an exact science. But, I do have great news though.” He said with a smile. She let the question hang there, half expecting him to cut her off anyway. A minute passed before he shook his head and continued. “A necromancer is the mage you need to talk to about that kind of stuff, and in a few days the city will be full of them. Well if nothing else, eight of them.”

“Eight?”

“The Dread Necromancers? Ring a bell.” Theo’s lips drew a tight line. Lisa remained silent, better to let him make an assumption than open her mouth and be proven stupid. “All you need to know is they are Necromancers that are Generals to the Spirit of Death.”

Lisa smiled, “That makes sense. So—”

“Nope, just push. I can’t right now. I don’t want to know how deep your ignorance goes.” He laid back down on the cart.

Well it isn’t like I had any reason to really know anything about this stuff. I was a nobody in my old life, and then I was a slave, which I only needed to know about things that would keep me alive. Lisa let out an exhausted breathe, before she went back to pushing the cart.

***

It took another ten minutes, and boy was it a contender to be the hardest ten minutes of her life. Hand pushing the cart across two districts, of the sloped city, Lisa found herself feeling horrible for the horses that had to cart luggage across the city. They were just one verticle street away from home, just one upward slope left. She looked back at Theo, and couldn’t see his eyes under his hood. 

Her eyes rested on the Lock-Track still operating within the dying city. She didn’t know much about how they worked, but what she did know is these were the life blood of making the city viable in it’s previous growing state. Massive steel tracks that constantly operated on every vert street, allowing people to hook carts and the like to the rail and be pulled up the steep slopes of the city.

Theo had told her not to use them, but screw him, he was asleep and she was tired. Hellia, I deserve a break. This should be about working smarter not harder. She gave a final look back. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. She put on a devilish smile.

She pushed the cart over to the Lock-Track and used the universal latch that almost any cart was created with in the Great Collection. Attaching the head round head, she jumped back behind the cart handle and started pushing. She walked slightly slower than the Lock-Track was pulling as the cart’s rope tightened. 

The rope grew tight and the Lock-Track took over pulling without so much as a jerk. She rested on the cart's handle, as she was pulled to the top. What he doesn't know won’t hurt him or me. She smiled.

Her hair was gently picked up by the screams of wind, billowing from the alleyways. She took this break to think back upon her day, but nothing came to her mind. She knew exactly what happened, but couldn’t picture it, especailly what happened in the frozen exposion house. Trying to imagen that, twisted creature caused her head to throb. 

The burning in her legs faded away and she didn’t feel like she would collapse at any moment. More coherent, she saw the peaks of the corner building of her block and it hit her like a ton of bricks. She looked back at Theo, what is he still doing here? Obviously he wouldn’t be here unless he had something up his sleeve.

Shit, Shit, hundred scenes of what he would do flashed in her mind. Each one worse than the last, does he want to meet them?! Lisa ran her hand across her face, wiping away the forming beads of sweat. 

A clock ticked down to the beat of the clunking of the Lock-Track’s chains. Her heart picked up and she found herself almost at the top of the vert street, and with no answer to the question of her companions intent. I will have to just get rid of him.

She leapt from her makeshift seat as gently as possible and kicked the chain release on the latch, taking control of the cart push bar.  The weight of the cart fell on her in an instant, and Lisa struggled to keep up the Lock-Tracks pace. 

She took in a deep breath and pushed onward. Her muscles were on fire, even though it was only a few dozen feet to the top. Looking back, Lisa saw her companion was still in the same spot he had been, but with the slightest bit of drool sliding across his chin stubble. Gross.

 The small single story home, sat in the part of town where only the old and forgotten lived out their days in comfort. “Theo, we are here.”

“Well I would have ripped at you for taking forever, but, man was that a good nap.” Theo said, looking down at Lisa.

Rolling her eyes, Lisa moved to the back of the cart and pushed in the wheel stops on both sides. “Glad one of us was able to rest.” She gave him a big tight lipped grin, Jerk.

Theo stepped from the cart with an unusual lack of grace, “Me too. Would hate to get into a scuffle and both of us be exhausted. But, look at it this way. The only way you will ever be anything worth while, is to always push yourself. The soul grows under stress.”

Lisa raised a brow, “Okay, sounds like you didn’t come up with that,” and started to unload the cart.

“Your right about that. Heard it during an assassin seminar, from the Black Widow.”

Lisa paused for a moment, pausing at the absurdity of the statement. “Did you...who is the Black Widow.”

Theo looked at her like she had just said something stupid. Well, if nothing else she thought it was a justifiable question. “Black Widow is one of the seven best assassins in the world. Not in the Northern land, the whole world. She holds the classification rank of Shadow.”

Lisa gave him a blank stare, like that was supposed to tell her something.

He ran his hand across his face in disgust, “So, if being a class five means your a master of your  speciality. For rogues, being a Shadow means you have mastered all aspects of being a rogue. There are only three of the them, The Black Widow, Saloman, and The Blade of Sharar.”

Lisa found herself actually interested, not because of hear this information about people who will never mean anything to her. It was the light in his eyes, like he was talking about hero. It made her smile, it reminded her how she would talk about her father to her friends back in school.

Theo gives a fake cough, “So you gonna invite me in?”

Turning around, I knew it! She stammers, “um, for what?” Lisa let out a few haggard chuckles.

“I want to see who all is possibly going to be going with us. If we have to drag a bunch of near dead old folks around, then the situation gets a lot harder.”

I don’t think Ma and Pa will like this. They’ll probably throw a fit that I brought him here. Lisa glanced up to the sky, rubbing her thumb and index finger together, pondering on anyway to get him to drop this, “Ma and Pa like their privacy.”

Theo rested a hand on her shoulder, soft enough not to be threatening, but firm enough for her to know this wasn’t a request. “Well think of it as a test then, your task is simple. Get them to invite me in and then paint a lovely picture of me, it's important that they somewhat trust me on this journey.” He leaned in close with a smile creeping on his face.

She lowered her head, partly due to that piss poor excuse she tried and partly because his breath was warm on her cheek. She didn’t like the feel of another's breath on her face, Please Mortal Soul do not make me a fool. Please.  She took a deep breath and turned toward the door. Each step placed her closer to the unknown, Please understand. Know that I do this, for our survival. Just let this go well.

Her head throbbed and she felt the blood rush in her ears. As procedure, she knocked on the door twice, then entered the house after five seconds. This was their signal for her to let them know everything was okay. A subtle but smart plan by Pa.

Pa sat in his favorite chair, looking at the blaze in the fireplace. “Lisa,” he spoke with an uncommon level of firmness. 

“Yes, Pa?” Lisa moved toward him, her steps padded like a maid who had broken something expensive. Walking toward her punishment, her palms were wet. Did I do something wrong?”

She saw the tips of his cheeks, he was gazing into the fire, “What have you been doing today, Lisa?”

She threaded her fingers together, palms mashed against each other, “I, I um. . have been out getting supplies sir.”

Pa moved his hands to the armrests, “Is that so, well do you know what happened while you were gone?”

“No sir,” stopping four paces away from him, Lisa locked her knees and stood perfectly straight. What could have happened? Did something happen to Master Faith? I should have hurried. Yelf! I should have stayed focused. Please let everything be okay, beads of sweat formed on her head. A sheet of silence dropped over the room for what felt like hours. She wanted to scream at him to tell her what happened, but she found herself at a loss for words.

Pa turned to look at her, stone faced. His glossy blue eyes gave nothing away, she turned her look past him at the fire. In an instant his face crumpled up like paper, wrinkles created deep creases, a whine like a child denied his toy, “I ran out of Liss Weed and Ma has been trying to get me to eat this horrific carrot gelatin.” Pa buried his face in his elbow.

Lisa lets out a deep breath, the weight of the world crumbled. A smile illuminated her face against the fire, I should have known it was nothing serious, “It's good for you sir.”

“I don’t want to be healthy! I want to be full with sweetness on my tongue and comfort in my lungs. I’m old, by the Soul!”

Ma pushed open the front door with a wooden spoon in her hand, “Pa, are you troubling the poor girl already?”

Pa leaned to the other side of the chair, and pointed a shaky finger at Ma, ”The only one being troubled is me, my wife is try’n to poison me with her orange jelly of grossness... It’ll be good for you she said, it will be fun to get the anal exam she said, and you know what wasn’t fun? The anal exam!”

Lisa leaned back ever-so-slightly and with a furrowed brow, she looked at Ma “Miss Faith, What is he talking about?”

Ma gave a dismissive spoon wave to Pa, “I don’t even know anymore, he does this to deflect the real issue. Anyway, how was the supply run?”

“Well Miss.Faith---”

Ma cracked the spoon against her palm, causing Lisa to jerk, “Lisa, Ma will work fine.”

Lisa turned her gaze to Ma’s feet, “Yes ma’am, well we were attacked.”

Pa jumped to the other side of his chair glaring at Lisa, “Well I see you’re in one piece, but what about my precious supplies?”

Ma snapped her head to him, “Hush Pa, well?”

Lisa looked up toward Ma’s chin, giving a light bow, “Yes, I picked up an associate along the way and I would like your permission to invite him over. He says if I pass his tests, then he will escort us out of the city.”

Lurking around the side of the chair Pa wagged a finger at Faith with a cheek to cheek grin, “Ma, what she means is she found a boyfriend, it’s the apocalypse fever. Give someone a few days to live and they will settle for anything.”

Faith walked up to Lisa and grabbed one of her hands. Ma’s touch radiated a comforting feeling throughout her, “This sounds suspicious Lisa, how did you meet him?”

Lisa’s shoulders twitched, her mind raced trying to decipher the events of the day and paint it in a decent light, “He is a bounty hunter, who saved me from this orc slaver, and he also saved some adventurers from the STO slavers.”

Faith stumbled back a step, her arm hair stood on end, ”Saved you from an orc!? Are you okay!?” She jolted forward and started to pull up Lisa’s sleeves.

Lisa nodded, “Yes Ma, I’m fine, thanks to him.” Lisa cupped Ma’s hand, “He has been giving me advice on how to survive in the city and take care of myself in those situations.”

Pa put his knees in the chair, and leaned on the backrest, “Girl! What nonsense is this? What is the way he offers out? In a bodybag? Already got me one of those.”

Shit...that is a good question. Lisa shrugged, “I think through a secret tunnel.”

Ma gave Lisa the look, Lisa knew she was looking for something in her eyes. She hated this look, Ma always figured out what was going on. “What tests are these you speak of, and why is he testing you?”

Pa flopped back into his chair normally, “Hellian woman, why don’t you just write out all your questions and have the girl fill them out. Bring him over and I will settle this, but I promise you if I have to get up, I'm gonna kill him. I swear it upon my wife Trixi.”

Both women turned to him, “Who?”

Pa picked up a newsletter from a stack beside his chair, opening the issue, “You know the woman on Great Collection Coverage issue fourty”

Lisa darted between the two elders, “Do you---”

Ma took her hand from Lisa’s grip, making her way toward the kitchen, “Just let him be, when do you want to invite your friend over?”

Lisa pulled her shoulders tight and squeaked, “Now?”

Faith didn’t miss a step in her stride, “Good thing I made extra stew, sure bring him in”.

Lisa walked to the door waved Theo over. She strained her voice, in a low almost pleading voice  “Please be on your best behavior,”

Theo gave a nod and pulled the cloak off of his head. His brown hair hung past his shoulders. Lisa couldn’t help, but to stare, a singular scar ran down the length of the left side of his face, breaking at his Azure eye. Theo smirks at her and whispers, “How about you quit gawking at me like I am a piece of meat.” 

She knew he wasn’t a bad looking man, but he was down right handsome. No! What am I saying, he is a disgusting human being! She tried to picture him as a troll in her mind.

Theo nudged past her and Pa looked over and burst like an over inflated gurlpuff ball, “Holy Mortal Soul Lisa! This is the guy? He looks one bad hair day away from picking up a lute and playing tunes at a tavern. We called them bastards, Bardies. Men who dressed like crooks, and went to the men’s showers with their asses in the air.”

Faith crashed through the door with a thunderous strike, “Good gracious Pa really? Is that all the manners you have?”

Theo smiled, placed his hands up at his chest and said “It is okay, I think me and Pa was star---”

Pa snarled, “That is Mr. Garmul to you sonny, and thought you were gonna walk in my house and plant your rotten cock in my Lisa, did ya?”

Theo gave the old man a once over, like a tiger sizes up prey, “Honestly, survival was my primary goal, but I do not advocate seeing the future. Mr. Garmul, I believe the term Bardie was it? Has been out of style long before your memory started failing. I also believe around that time a man of your age had to start taking certain herbs to get UP in the morning.”

Lisa’s mouth hung slack at the confrontation, before an old habit rampaged through her brain. She jumped in front of Theo and rammed her finger into his chest, “Theo you can’t talk to him like that! I won't allow it!”

Pa waved his hand dismissively at the outburst, “Lisa keep your old lady undercovers on, I think I may like him. He has spunk, much like before Ma just got crabby.” Lisa bit her bottom lip and subtly patted her hips, They aren’t old lady undercovers. They are appropriate for a woman of my class and age, she thought, looking to an empty corner in the room. 

Faith held  open the door to the kitchen, “Please come take a seat, dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

Theo gave a bright white smile, “Thank you for your hospitality.” He walked past her and waited beside the table. Lisa followed suit, giving a light bow to Ma and stood beside her spot at the table. Pa walked past Ma, when she threw a sharp elbow in his side, never losing her smile. Pa and Ma sat at opposite heads of the table, then Theo took his seat beside Lisa. After everyone was seated Lisa took her seat.

Faith looked around the table, cupped her hands, lowered her head, and closed her eyes, everyone at the tabe mimicked her. 

Lisa was thankful that Theo wasn’t showing off now, this was something he couldn’t afford to screw. She felt a tinge in her chest, would she care, if Ma forbade her from going out with him. She would at least get to spend time with her family, but was the price worth it?

Faith started the prayer, “By the graces and guidance of the Mortal Soul that burns within us all. May you connect us all in harmony for the battles ahead. Fill us with courage to steady our hands, humble us so that we may love our comrades and charges, and bless our pride that it never falters. With the heart of the lion, we pray our clan lives and thrives for years to come. Prayers to the Mortal Soul.”

Faith looked around the table, her wrinkles exaggerated with her smile. Settling her eyes on Theo, she picked up her spoon, “So would you like to tell us about this deal you made with Lisa?”

Taking a spoon full of the soup, he closed his eyes for a moment at the blend of smells, “Oh course madam, it's honestly simple. In exchange for her services, I will get you all out of the town. If she can pass my tests of course.”

Faith cocked her head slightly to the left, “Services?”

Theo drank the soup and his eyes grew wide, “This is amazing by the way.” He shifted his gaze to Lisa before focusing back on Ma, “She will be my assistant, once we leave the city.”

Pa slammed his fist on the table, almost spilling the streaming bowl in front of him. “Like hell she will, she is mine! I would rather die than not have fresh Frumpcakes served to me in bed.”

Thanks Pa, Lisa sat there straight faced at her entire worth being boiled down to a simple tasking he was fully capable of doing. Even though he was too lazy to ever do it.

Faith didn’t react to Pa’s outburst, “So you want her as a slave?”

Lisa spilt some of the hot soup on her chin, hearing the words. She tried to keep her composure, but she could tell by the sound of her breath in her ears, she was doing a poor job. She knew what she was signing up for, but it sounded so dirty when Ma said it.

Theo shrugged, “What are apprentices, but slaves in training.”

Lisa put down the spoon in her hand and gave a small smile to Ma, “I will do whatever it takes to see you both safe.”

Faith sat quietly staring at her mean, the steam slowly stopped billowing from the soup, “But is it what you want?”

I lost the ability to do what I wanted a long time again. I live by need. Lisa couldn’t speak without Ma catching onto her lie. So she gave a nod.

Pa stood up “Don’t I get a say in this?”

Ma flicked the spoon’s end at Pa, “You did get a say fifty years ago, at the altar. Remember you said yes to letting me answer on your behalf.” 

Pa lost his smile sitting down and muttered nothings under his breath.

Theo burst into laughter, “By the Mortal Soul, it's just like listening to my grand-parents again. May their souls find rest.”

Ma spooned more soup, “Anyway, how about everyone get some rest. Theo your welcome to sleep---”

Pa leaded over to Theo poking the rogue in the chest , “On the Hellian couch, and if I catch you sneaking off to Lisa’s room, I will show you what my herbs really can do.”

Theo nodded, “I am in your home and I will grant all the respect the Lion Clan requires. If you will excuse me, I will bring the rest of the supplies in so they do not go missing.” He left the room, and on the table sat a completely empty bowl.