Flames of Fate

Brown Bear

'D-did I do it ?!' The sharpness of the sword shocked me.

I turned towards the errant and saw a repulsive scene. I had indeed cut off the bear's head, however, not entirely, in fact, it was still attached to its body, but only for a small break of skin. The bear stood up on two legs, its head swayed during the movement until it stopped leaning against its chest.

From the bear's head, precisely from the cut I had created, now came white threads that looked like alien worms. They seemed to be moving on their own. These stretched out until they reached the other part of the beast's body, lifting it slowly.

I realized the wanderer was trying to reattach his head, so I sprinted at him.

"Oh, no!".

I braced myself to hit it again with a side swipe to the neck, but the beast managed to keep me at a distance with a paw swipe to my right side.

'Can you close a wound like that ?!'

I had to kill it before its head was completely reattached, I knew that if the errant was back up and running at 100% it would certainly defeat me.

I sprinted back at it, but now my intention was no longer its neck, but the lower legs of the beast.

The beast, as before, tried to keep me away from it with imprecise paw blows. I slipped, dodging its blows and holding the blade of my sword straight to my left, and with it, I cut off the right leg of the beast, which lost its balance and fell. Now the bear back was to me.

From the part of the leg still attached to the bear's body, other white worms came out, trying to reattach the two parts of the leg again.

In all this, the bear was now standing on three legs, I did not waste this opportunity, and jumped on top of it.

My weight above it made it lose its balance and the bear fell on its stomach.

I got up, on the errant's back, and finally cut off its head cleanly.

I took a few breaths, I wasn't sure how I managed to do such a thing. Now that I was close to it, the errant was even more repugnant, the worst and most frightening thing I had ever seen in my life.

I was exhausted, both physically and mentally.

I approached the cart, the baby was still crying, I lifted the cloth that covered the food transported by the cart and saw him, small and defenseless, among the slightly colored fruit and greyish vegetables.

I didn't know how to behave, I stood there thinking for a while, then I remembered the injured woman. I put the sheet back where it was before and walked over to where the woman had been thrown.

She was on the ground and she seemed lifeless, her clothes dirty, at times torn or cut, and which allowed a glimpse of intimate parts, 'mmh...' I averted my gaze embarrassed by those "points". Then I saw how she had numerous injuries, the most serious being the one she had on her left calf.

She was a woman of about thirty, short, with a delicate face, but with evident signs of fatigue probably due to a life due to work, her recent son, and also from the recent battle. She had medium-length blonde hair and light eyes.

I put the palm of my hand in front of her mouth, she still seemed to breathe, I tried to feel her pulse too, she was alive.

I tried to see even if for some fortuitous reason the man who was on the ground was still alive, yet he had no heartbeat.

I had to decide what to do as soon as possible, and I decided to take the woman and the child with me to the inn, after all, the road they were following seemed to be headed there, and so I would be able to use the cart they had with them to transport them.

I gently took the woman's body in my arms and placed it next to her son. Then I covered the wound on the woman's leg with a cloth I found among the vegetables they were carrying.

The donkey that previously pulled the cart, unfortunately, was now lifeless on the ground. So I decided to unload most of the food they were carrying on the ground so that I could drag the cart myself.

So I set off along the path to the inn. After a short time of walking, I saw an old wooden sign with the shape of an arrow, it was written "Brown Bear Inn" and then under "500m".

'Fortunately, it is close ...' I was more than fatigued.

Meanwhile, it had become even darker and the cold had begun to get stiff. In the distance, at times, you could hear a stream. I understood that that was why that area was richer in vegetation. While I was transporting the cart, I was almost always terrified, I was afraid that some monster, coming out of the forest, could attack us.

"Oh ... finally ..."I saw a light in the distance, and then a two-story wooden building, not very big, but also not as small as I imagined. Next to the building was a sign as tall as the building with a sign, also made of wood, with the face of a bear drawn.

Certainly, it had had better days. In fact, the closer I got, the more I was able to notice the damage due to time done to the structure. In a corner of the inn, there was, in fact, a climbing plant that reached the roof, moss and lichens infested the wood of most of the building. The bear sign seemed ready to yield at any moment.

All this, however, gave something special to the structure.

The light I saw in the distance came from the various circular windows on both the ground and upper floors.

I followed the path with the wooden cart until I reached the main facade of the inn.

Beside it, on the side I couldn't see before, was a dark wooden horse shelter, under which stood two horses, one brown with a white patch on the muzzle and the other all black. They stood there to eat from time to time the little hay that had been given to them or to sip some water placed on a hollow carved out of a rock.

Next to it, there were then a couple of wooden carts similar to the one I was carrying.

I left the wooden cart in front of the main facade of the inn. I felt more than tired, my arms seemed about to detach from my body, while my legs were asking me to sit down as soon as possible, however, I still could not rest.

The main facade had a porch with a few tables, on which no one was sitting. Beyond the porch, you came to the actual entrance to the inn, made up of two wooden doors that opened by pushing.

I quickly plunged into the room, I had to ask for help for the injured woman quickly.

The interior of the room was strangely very similar to how I imagined it, a room with various wooden tables placed a bit haphazardly, dirty, and decadent, but which still retained a certain charm.

In the center of the room, a huge chandelier with strange light bulbs that descended from the ceiling completely illuminated the room with a "warm" yellow light.

The few people scattered around the room, as soon as I stepped inside, began to stare at me. Their looks left me uneasy.

The counter was right in front of me, I took a few breaths and walked towards it.

'This is not an environment made for me… just no…' I really felt like a fish out of water.

Finally, I got to the counter, where there was a middle-aged woman in an old gray one-piece dress with a ""white"" apron over it. She had white hair pulled up messily in a ponytail and a face full of wrinkles but still showing some charm.

{TO BE CONTINUED ...}