"Ouch, ouch, ouch, OUCH!"
Standing in front of a mirror behind the door in my bedroom, I inspected two thirds of my body which looked like it had red magma running deep beneath my skin. The mirror's spirally frame cut off below my waist. It hurt to move but I could still bend over enough to check my legs without help from my reflection. Between my thumb and middle finger, I was peeling dry glue from off my thighs. Except it wasn't glue. It was thicker, stiffer, and peeling off large chunks sent a quick shooting pain into my abdomen. Blisters. My lower back to down past my glutes were covered in cobwebbed designs of dead skin and bright red lines where it peeled just a bit too much. I pouted into the mirror. "Ugh." I wrinkled my nose in aggrivation when it pouted back.
It felt like steam was still rising off my body, I just wanted to rest a bit. Pulling the towel which Tremarch gave me around my armpits, I held the fabric carefully between my right thumb and index finger as I wabbled over to my bed and flopped down. The whites of my eyes expanded as the pressure of the blankets sunk into my flesh.
This sucks! I don't want to go anywhere now!
I rested my arm against my warm forehead and a couple of cold tears leaked from my swollen eyes. I wish I could really cry, then maybe I'd feel a bit better. Unfortunately though, this was not that bad.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaahh!" A large hollar rattled against my door. It was followed by a quick streaking noise as well as what sounded like multiple speedy thumps against wooden planks. I crawled on my palms and the balls of my feet through my door and peered down the banister towards the kitchen. More rhythmic thumping sounded and a golden ripple floated past the kitchen entrance. It was closely followed by Tremarch who was pushing a large cloth across the floor. His legs bounced beneath his robe like dancers in a chinese dragon costume as he pushed around all my spilt dirty water. I felt my forehead soften a bit. I'd completely forgotten about the big mess I made. Plus I doubt that there was anymore clean water in the house. I pushed myself off the floor and walked back to my bedroom. Watching Tremarch clean up my mess made the pain beneath my skin subside, just a little.
...
"Sally...
Sally."
Who the heck is Sally?
My eyelids sludged over my blurry eyes like two overweight snails. I was looking into a deep brown forest with shrubbery that extended down two dark, crumbly caves. A wind blew through the forest and the trees all bowed. Suddenly a gaping whole opened wide right in the middle of the forest and a fowl stentch emerged. It forced me to turn away and burry my nose in the sheets which wrapped around my hands.
"Are you awake Sally?" Tremarch leaned over my bed with his wiskers barely even centimeters away from my cheek.
"Gagh! What?!" I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head from side to side like a child in denile.
"I just wanted to let you know that there is food in the storage room downstairs. If we want to leave for town by tomorrow morning, I need to retrieve something from the forest. I'll be back late this evening."
"Fine." I rolled my pillow over my head and squished my face in as deep as I could. After taking a breath to relax, I turned the pillow down and peaked over its corner. My door was open and I saw Tremarch clomp down the stairs. I pouted and dragged myself out of bed.
I was certain that I had been asleep for hours but the sun was only slightly higher in the sky than when I started my bath. I really doubt that I had slept a whole day and night. A small, neatly folded, bundle of clothes laid by the foot of my bed, it seemed to have been waiting for me to notice it. Tremarch must have brought them upstairs.
"Ouch!"
I was quickly reminded of my sensitive skin as I bent to pick them up. A rush of air blew over the right side of my face and flipped my bangs towards the roof. I pouted once more.
Fully dressed I carefully guided myself, by rail, down the stairs.
Food, eh?
At the bottom, the main entrance of the house was currently diagonal to my right. From its left, my right, there was the living room and beyond that the kitchen. Both which I have become familier with since I arrived last night. It stood to reason that there would be food storage in the kitchen. It was a big kitchen, lots of space, but despite that, I don't recall seeing any kind of entrance to a storage room. Cupboards, shelves, no place for fresh food though. To my left, the main entrance's right, was the stair case which lead to the upstairs bedrooms and underneath the staircase was a couple of rooms I have yet to explore.
With an affirmative nod, I stepped to the left, passed beneath the second story floor, 3 wide steps, and the first room's doorknob was in my hand. There were plenty of bedrooms upstairs, lots of space in the living room and kitchen, what could be kept in these rooms beneath the stairs? I turned my wrist and pushed on the back of the door. It soon cleared my vision and I behelded the whole room.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing. Just an empty room. Not much purpose even for a wall to be there. The room wasn't even half the width of the living room, but it did have one window on the far wall which face the shed behind the house.
Not much of a view.
In the corner of the left wall there was another door so I strutted up to it and turned the knob.
Peering around the opening door, something silver caught my eye. It was another plain room much like the last, no furniture, no window in this one, but this room was much more interesting. The walls were lined with a large array of different kinds of weapons and armors.
Tremarch is a collector?
Nothing in the room looked used. Everything was well kept and extremely well polished. Something though, was really odd about this room. Besides the fact that mass amounts of extravagant soldier gear graced all four of its walls. I stopped looking at the collective shine from these items and starting focusing on one at a time. Sure enough, each piece was just as extrordinary as the last. I really mean extrordinary! These suits and weapons didn't look like typical king's army uniforms. Every one was customized in some way. The majority of the weapons were different styles of axes. Most were giant sized axes. their blades were almost as long as Tremarch's body. Some had heads which were stacked on top of each other, some had special cut edges, some were on chains, and some were long like double sided scythes.
The armor suits were just as strange. With various spikes, odd chainlinks, and overlapping edges, some built to protect upper body, some built to protect lower, some which I couldn't figure out how a person could even move in. They all looked roughly fitted for the same size of man and almost everything was engraved with a crest somewhere on it. The chests of the armors, the joints of the weapons. They were brightly colored crests and each looked different. I didn't grow up near a castle. I've rarely seen anything from the real military, except for pictures in school books. In short, I know nothing about millitary gear. Yet I was in awe over this collection. Or maybe the thing that shocked me most was; what was a hermit like Tremarch doing with all this?
Then while staring at a particulary boney multi-headed axe, I noticed something peculilar...
