#i am once again begging yall to rb and comment if possible

[yourdeepestfathoms]

Beside The Dying Fire (part three)

[DnD AU with the tour!verse]

Part 1 Part 2

Once again, thank you to @spooner7308 for letting me use EB!!

Word count: 4079

TW: Blood, maggots

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  “Katherine! Katherine, wake up!”

Katherine’s eyes snapped open, but she thought she was just imagining that for a moment because it was still so dark. And then she realized that that was smoke.

  “Wake up! We’re being attacked! The forest is on fire!”

Katherine sat up straight, gasping--and then breaking out into a fit of coughing as she inhaled a breath of smoke. Her treehouse was filled with thick, dark grey ash that had seeped in through her shutters and wide open door, but through it she saw Elan standing in front of her, shaking in fear. His ears wouldn’t stop twitching in his obvious panic.

  “What?” Katherine rasped. She scrambled to her feet; the night before, she had fallen asleep in one of her chairs, since Joan had been in the bed.

Speaking of Joan-- Katherine looked around frantically and spotted the little Tiefling pressed against the wall, quaking. Her tail was wound around one of her legs and her claws were clenched tightly in fright. When she noticed Katherine looking over at her, her ears flicked back.

  “Katherine!!!” Elan’s shriek brought Katherine back into full awareness. “We’re all going to die!!!”

  “Calm down!” Katherine shook the young man’s shoulders. “We’re not going to die!” And then she grabbed her bow and quiver, rushed past him, and ran out onto her balcony, gazing out at the burning village before her.

Dark figures were weaving through the trees, casting distorted shadows across the smoldering ground. Roaring flames tore across the huts and tents, swallowing plants and shrubbery, leaping onto fleeing victims with swift brutality. A pair of fauns were seizing on the ground, engulfed in fire. A wood elf that would teach younger kids in the village was screaming in pain from somewhere beyond. A Tabaxi was lying motionless by a pond, his body crisp and black, one arm reaching to the salvation of the water he would never get to. Some villagers were grappling in the fire, throwing flaming javelins and swinging giant broadswords and tossing nets onto anyone who wasn’t burning alive. A few people were wearing thick armor with symbols that bore the mark of a bronze snake eating its own tail. 

With a jolt, Katherine realized that was the mark of King Henry’s forces.

EB was right. King Henry was attacking for their disagreement. 

And he was going to kill them all. 

  “What do we do?!” Elan squawked, scrambling up behind Katherine.

Through the billowing smoke and towering flames, Katherine noticed Catalina fighting off a few enemies, loudly shouting things over the panic. Katherine ran to her and put an arrow in the back of a goblin that would have gotten a slice out of her friend.

  “Catalina!” Katherine said breathlessly. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” Catalina replied, looking around everywhere with her sword out in a defensive position. “What the hell is happening?”

  “It’s Henry,” Katherine told her. “He’s attacking.”

Suddenly, a Hobgoblin lunged out of the smoke with a dagger aimed for Katherine’s heart. Before either Katherine or Catalina could react, Maggie smashed into the Hobgoblin, knocking him off course and sending him sprawling. Maggie raised her spear and jammed it into his skull mercilessly.

  “Thanks,” Katherine gasped. 

  “No problem,” Maggie answered, yanking her spear out with a squelching of blood and flesh. “We can’t let them take us.”

  “I know.”

Katherine knocked an arrow and sent it flying into the head of a human soldier swinging at a satyr. At her side, Catalina swung at any close-ranged opponents, while Maggie galloped back into the fray to get her hands dirty. Through the smoke, Katherine thought she could see Anne bashing in the skull of a goblin with her lute.

Katherine had never had to kill someone before. She was slightly frightened by how she wasn’t fazed by what she was doing, but she assumed that was because of the adrenaline rush pumping through her. She and her people would die if she didn’t fight back. She had to.

As a tidal wave of ash crashed down, a new challenger hulked through the fire. It was a dark grey Goliath with forest green marking weaving up and down his limbs and face. His expression was set in a firm leer, eyes piercing brown, and he was coming right for Katherine.

Katherine loaded an arrow into her bow and sent it flying at the Goliath’s chest, but was shocked to watch it bounce off. Her assailant did not wait for her to regain your wits before striking, and although she leapt away, the spikes of a barbed mace still scored a line of pain down her right thigh.

A hiss escaped Katherine’s clenched teeth, even as she regained her balance and prepared a riposte. She could feel blood seeping through the fur of her pants. She shook off the pain and swung her entire bow at the Goliath, only to have it feel like she just struck a block of marble. The Goliath chuckled deeply in his throat and slammed his mace downwards; Katherine barely had enough time to raise her bow to deflect him.

The two of them were locked together, Katherine’s sinews screaming, her head pounding. She pushed with all her might, but the Goliath was so much stronger than she was and was starting to push her bow down. The deadly spikes of his mace pricked mere inches away from Katherine’s face.

And then, from out of nowhere, Joan came running and plunged a tiny wooden stake into the Goliath’s back.

The Goliath jolted and swung his head around. The stake hadn’t fully impaled him, but it did draw a tiny drop of red blood. He narrowed his eyes at the pinprick, then raised one of his huge, thickly-muscled arms up and slammed it into Joan.

The little Tiefling went flying. She landed in a patch of smoldering grass, which she instantly leapt away from with a howl of pain. Katherine felt a rush of protectiveness burst through her as she watched this, and she grabbed another arrow and stabbed it into the Goliath’s eye when he turned back to her.

That went through.

The Goliath let out a roar of pain as Katherine pushed the arrow in deeper and deeper. He whipped his body back and forth, but even when Katherine was shaken free, the damage had been done. The Goliath staggered away, groaning like a wounded wild animal.

  “Joan,” Katherine called out. Smoke itched in her throat, and her thigh was starting to throb, but she ignored it. “Joan, sweetheart, come here. I’ll protect you.”

Surprisingly, the little Tiefling obeyed and scrambled over to her. Katherine could see that the back of her raggedy white cotton tunic was charred black and she could smell hints of burning flesh, though that may have been from the people burning all around her.

  “Catalina!” Katherine called, feeling a pang of anxiety bolt through her. She hadn’t been keeping an eye on her friend as she was fighting the Goliath.

  “I’m here!” Catalina called back. Katherine spotted her to the left, cutting down a Hobgoblin with her sword. She staggered over, breathing raggedly. “I’m here.” Sweat was running down her face from the heat of the fire and she looked tired. Even if she would never admit it, fighting in her condition was wearing away at her.

  “You need to go somewhere safe,” Katherine told her. “The baby--”

  “The baby is fine, Kat,” Catalina hissed through gritted teeth. She jerked her sword around to someone running by, and Katherine noticed how she was holding it so it would be angled protectively over her stomach. “I have to stay and help.”

  “You’re breathing in too much smoke.”

  “I’m fine.” Catalina said stubbornly. “You need help, Kat. Not everyone in this village can fight.”

As if the universe were proving her right, a wood elf was knocked down and got his neck slashed open a few yards away.

  “Alright,” Katherine gave in. “Fine. But please be safe.”

Catalina flashed her a smile, even in their predicament. “Of course.”

The three of them, Joan included once she got her claws on a fallen shortsword, fought through the fire, pushing Henry’s forces back as much as they could. They cut and shot and stabbed and slashed through the onslaught of soldiers bearing down on them, trying their best to regain control of the forest.

There was a battlecry from behind; Katherine swung around and nearly took out the eyes of Anne, who was standing over a corpse with a dented skull. Dark red blood dripped off of her lute as she hefted it in her hands.

  “You gotta be more aware of your surroundings!” Anne said, still somehow sounding jolly even in this situation. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism to deal with all the death and destruction going on around them. Even so, her deer ears were drooped down, signaling her anguish.

  “Thank you, Anne,” Katherine said in relief, half because she was happy to see that her cousin was still alive.

  “Huh,” Catalina said. “Bards can be useful aside from singing and playing music!”

Anne actually laughed. “Never doubt us!” And then she sprung off her powerful deer haunches and cleaved the sharp edged of her lute into the skull of an unsuspecting goblin. A second goblin came out from a cloud of smoke, ready to stab her, but Maggie thrust her spear through his back before he could even aim for Anne.

  “Catalina,” Katherine turned to her friend. “Can you put out the fire?”

Catalina blinked, then realized what Katherine meant. She nodded and raised her sword to the dark sky, murmured an incantation, and then cracked it into a nearby enemy.

Like before, the resulting clap of thunder was booming. Katherine’s skull throbbed with the noise, and she thought could feel the shockwave reverberate in the cuts along her thigh, the pain pulsing in time with the vibrations. She staggered like last time, but kept her balance as rain began to pelt down, beating against the fire.

  “Thank you,” Katherine said to Catalina, who smiled wryly at her.

  “Damn,” Anne said, letting out a slight laugh. “Having a rain spell is very useful during a forest fire!”

  “Oh, it’s not a rain spell,” Catalina said. “It’s actually Thundering Smite. It’s supposed to just call upon thunder, but I guess the rain came, too, since it was already stormy.”

Anne shrugged. “Still a good spell. Thank you, Catalina!” She smiled, and then a crossbow bolt was put in her eye.

At first, Katherine thought she was screaming, and then she realized that it was Maggie. Anne stared blankly at them, the tip of the bolt protruding out of her right eyeball, half-mumbling and half-slurring on her words as her brain shut down. Then, she fell lifelessly, and revealed the human archer standing a few feet behind her. Maggie took him out in a flying tackle, screeching in anguished fury, and the two of them tumbled through a wall of flames, disappearing from sight.

For the first time that night, Katherine was truly in shock. Suddenly, all her adrenaline was gone and she was left with the horrifying realization of what exactly was happening all around her.

Her home was being burnt to the ground.

  “Kat… Kat… Katherine!”

Catalina’s voice brought Katherine back to awareness. She flinched, blinking her eyes through prickling smoke, and saw her friend in front of her, worry written all of her face.

  “Kat, are you there? Are you with me?” Catalina asked frantically. Joan was at her side, silent but nervous. “Kat?” She reached her hands out, and Katherine took them in her own, squeezing tightly.

  “I’m here,” Katherine whispered. “I’m here.”

  “Oh, god, Kat, I’m so sorry,” Catalina said. “I’m so sorry.”

Katherine opened her mouth to say something, though she didn’t exactly know what, but was charged at and tackled before the words could come out of her mouth.

Katherine and her attacker tumbled across the ground in a heap of tangled limbs, fur clothes and steel armor slapping against each other, but it was the attacker who came out on top. Blinking through a haze of starbursts and smog, Katherine saw EB on top of her, pinning her to the floor, holding an ebony war ax to her throat.

  “I told you,” EB said, and her voice sounded genuinely anguished. “I told you we would attack.”

Katherine growled lowly in her throat. She reached for her fallen bow, but EB kicked it away.

  “I didn’t want to do this,” EB said.

  “Then why did you?” Katherine snapped. 

  “I had to!”

  “You don’t have to do anything!”

The blade of the axe pressed closer to Katherine’s neck, drawing a thin streak of bright red blood.

  “I didn’t want to,” EB said again. “But you gave me no-- OW!!”

EB whirled around, the blade of her axe narrowly missing Katherine’s jugular, and saw Joan and Catalina standing there. Catalina’s sword was pointed forward, while Joan’s hands were empty. Because the arrow that had been occupying them was now stabbed through EB’s side.

  “Heh,” EB actually laughed. “That’s surprising.”

  “Get off of her.” Catalina said, stepping forward. “Now. Or I swear to all the celestial beings that I will put this sword through your fucking skull.”

EB studied her, and then Joan, and then hissed, “Shit.” She clambered off of Katherine and stood up, wincing because of the arrow still in her side. “I can’t kill a kid. Or a pregnant woman.”

  “Bitch--” Catalina growled. 

EB ignored her. “Get up.” She said to Katherine. “Come on. Reinforcements will be here soon.”

Katherine understood what she was doing and grabbed her bow, then stood up as quickly as possible.

EB led them through the burning forest, far away from the area where she saw reinforcements would come. The heavy rainfall was doing its best to combat the fire, but the flames were strong and powerful, and were eating away at the trees rapidly. Waves of smoke and ash and soot battered into them, and Joan had staggered into a coughing fit at one point in the run, but Katherine managed to get her moving again. A flaming tree crashed down in their path, and EB recoiled away. Katherine felt Catalina (or maybe just her belly) bump into her when she skidded to an abrupt halt.

  “This way!” EB yelled, sprinting into the trees to the left.

Pelting rain and flakes of ash fluttered from the sky in a flurry of cruel elements. Katherine had to squint so she wouldn’t be blinded by raindrop or ember. Her lungs were starting to burn, both from running and from the smog that infected every particle of clean air around her. She was worried they would all suffocate before salvation came.

But that didn’t happen. Because they burst through a line of trees and out onto a clearing with a gorge slashed through it. A river raged inside the channel, just six feet down the cliff faces.

There was no way to get across.

  “What do we do?” Catalina gasped.

EB looked up and down the river, and Katherine could see that there was no way over to the other side for several miles. Not something they could reach in time before they were caught.

  “Katherine,” EB said, catching Katherine’s attention. “Listen to me. You need to find a way away from here. My troops are going to catch up soon.”

  “What about your wound?” Katherine asked, eyeing the arrow still lodged through EB’s side.

EB snorted. “I’ve had worse.”

That Katherine could believe.

EB’s expression hardened. “If we ever meet again, I’m going to have to kill you.” 

Those words slithered into Katherine’s brain like venomous snakes, taking her off guard. She saw that EB was being completely serious, even if, deep down, she didn’t want to be. At her sides, Joan and Catalina were tense.”

  “Stop the war.” EB spoke again, this time softer, more pleading. “Please.” And then she stepped forward and shoved Katherine into the river below.

------

After the three of them crawled out of the river, Katherine, Catalina, and Joan ran. 

After floating in a river and struggling to stay above the rapids and being beaten by rocks for what felt like hours, they ran for what felt like even more hours.

They didn’t know where they were going.

They were now miles away from their home. Joan was limping. Catalina, despite herself, looked exhausted. Katherine was so thirsty. They were all very hungry.

Hunting was tradition in an English Aristocrat- or that was what Catalina said the guards and nobles in her city said. Even the lowest of peasants found thrill in wielding a weapon and hunting game. Katherine had never fired her bow with shivering, trembling limbs, and she never thought she would have to, but then she and Catalina and Joan stumbled upon the rotting corpse of a hunter in the grass, with a quiver full of arrows that they would need if they wanted to survive out there.

There was a bear trap clamped tightly on the left ankle. The quiver was strapped around the torso. Maggots festered on the head and chest and groin. Katherine told Catalina and Joan to look away. They do not disobey; Joan went to collect firewood and Catalina sat down to rest.

Katherine muttered apologies as she knelt beside the body. A trail of maggots squished loudly beneath her knees. She did her best to ignore it.

The stench of the corpse was overpowering. The feel of maggots wriggling over her hands was worse.

Katherine had to stick her fingers in the maggot mass to untangle the quiver. They were slimy little creatures and squirmed wildly when touched, clearly angry. A few wiggle up her digits, tickling the soft flesh, and Katherine shook her hand wildly, sending the worms flying. She worked faster, but that just made the squelching noises louder and louder until--

Katherine ripped the quiver off the rotting corpse and vomited.

Joan and Catalina were waiting at a nearby clearing with a pile of sticks. Katherine praised Joan wearily. Catalina caught Katherine’s exhausted expression.

  “Kat?” Catalina spoke up for the first time in hours. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah,” Katherine mumbled. The front of her tunic was drenched in vomit. “Just…tired.”

Catalina pursed her lips in disbelief, but said, “Okay.” 

Katherine knelt beside the sticks and then stared at them, as if she were hoping they would light on fire if she gave them a stern-enough look. Then, she took her bow, a stick, and began a technique she once read about in a book.

It was called the “bow drill” apparently. By using a bow to grind a stick against a piece of wood, enough friction would be created to start a fire. On paper, it sounded like a simple way to help in a survival situation, but actually doing it was a lot more problematic.

Katherine was crouched on the ground, drilling a stick down on another piece of wood for half an hour, and all she really succeeded in was tearing strips off of her hands. Fresh blisters stung and glowed angry pink in the open air. Splinters poked at the patches of raw flesh, deepening Joan’s agony, but she kept trying. She feared she and Catalina and Joan would freeze during the night if she didn’t.

After nearly an hour, there were enough ashes to dump into a pile of dry moss and grass to blow on, eventually starting a small fire that slowly grew larger and larger. Katherine actually sobbed out of relief. Catalina knelt down next to her and hugged her. Joan sat back on a log and stared blankly at her hooves.

It was sad, really, that they both thought that this was the best thing to ever happen to them.

Katherine told Joan and Catalina to tend to the fire while she went out to get dinner. She regretted it almost immediately, as the darkness of the forest seemed to close around her. For a moment, she swore she thought she saw a writhing black mass of human limbs in one of the shadows…

The buck had heard her coming, and Katherine cursed herself. She already didn’t want to kill an innocent animal, but it fleeing was just making this even worse. She began to fear getting lost if she went any further.

The buck ran out of sight, and Katherine tried to chase after it on her sore, tired legs. She pushed harshly through the brambles and bushes. She knew she wouldn’t find it on the other side; she’d given it so much warning with her clumsy noise it could be anywhere by now.

Katherine turned around and began retracing her steps. She stopped, however, when she saw another deer nearby.

Katherine drew her bow, staring down a trembling arrow, praying that her hands would be steady enough to keep her and her companions from starving to death. Despair set in as she released the arrow. She was clawing for one more hellish day in this nightmare that had become her life in a span of mere hours.

The deer never knew what hit her. And it was a her. Katherine was able to discern that as she crouched down next to the body and brought her next arrow closer. The arrowhead was small but sharp, and she began slicing the fur away, wondering if she could make some gloves, or sleeves, or something to hold back the constant wind and rain that would soon come with fall.

A smaller noise squealed from her left, and she snatched up her bow. The new animal was…young. It was a deer, barely two months old, and Katherine knew instantly that she had just orphaned the little one.

(Just like how the raiders had orphaned her and maybe even Joan and Catalina.)

It was terrified of her, but unable to leave the mother’s body…

The helpless creature squealed again, and Katherine knew it was doomed. More so than she was. She, at least, had learned the protection of silence. The baby’s squealing would call down every carnivore or person in the area.

Katherine notched another arrow into her bow…and put it right between the little creature’s eyes.

Her lack of hesitation scared her.

(Something told her this wasn’t going to be the only innocent blood she would spill.)

She had thrown away more than a few of the promises she had made to herself over her lifetime. She had promised that she wouldn’t participate in hunting baby animals or mothers. She had promised herself she wouldn’t give way to despair. She had promised herself she wouldn’t be cruel to anything or anyone that was helpless. But now she didn’t care. If someone she loved had come by with a piece of bread, she would have caved their head in with a rock to get a bite of it.

Savage. She felt savage.

Katherine dragged the deer’s back to the camp. Catalina and Joan said nothing about the baby.

Gutting was a painful process. Catalina took over after Katherine threw up again.

  “Sit down and rest, love,” That’s what Catalina had said when she slipped the arrow out of her hand and gently nudged her aside. Katherine was too tired to argue with her.

Catalina cooked slabs of deer meat in the fire as best as she could, but Katherine could tell that she burned it. The smell was too fresh and familiar to all of them.

Majority of the food went to Catalina for obvious reasons. She ate a lot more than Katherine had expected, but she must have used a lot of energy after running and fighting. Katherine ate two pieces of meat. Joan nibbled on a strip of charred venison, and then didn’t eat at all again.

The sun was just starting to come up when they all huddled together to rest. Katherine rested her shaking hands on Catalina’s belly because the small flutters of life from within gave her a little more hope. Joan was leaning against her, curled into a small ball. Catalina was on her other side, with her head resting against Katherine’s own. And they stayed like that, shivering.

  “Kat?” Catalina croaked after a while. “What are we going to do?”

Katherine watched their fire start to burn out, swirling soft grey smoke towards the even greyer sky, and said, “We’re going to stop the war.”