Ves climbed atop Lance, the moon now peaking over the horizon like a tyrannical king looking over at all he owns as the night sky took hold of the mountains above it. She made haste, going along the Copper Stream and towards the birthing place of it.
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The leaves of the trees along the stream were finally starting to turn and fall, there was an under touch of cold in the air to accompany the oranges and browns but the fading summer warmth hadn't disappeared completely yet. The moon was full and so not much was left to the imagination in the forest, besides the darkest bits far out of sight. Ves clinched the reins of Lance and rode. There was a calmness to the ride, the crickets playing an ode to a fresh adrenaline filled warrior going to battle for the first time, but the breeze and soft touch of the moon kept Ves grounded. She appreciated the quiet, the alone time from everything, especially if it was the last time she would feel this way. It hadn't fully hit her yet, that she might not come home but she did know if she didn't succeed there wouldn't be a home to come back to.
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She was happy she decided not to say any last goodbyes. She was more afraid of feeling vulnerable than dying and she knew all it took was for Mossly or Rose to tear up and she couldn't have gone through with it. She wished her mother would have shown any reaction at all. Her blankness hasn't been easy to deal with these past few years. If only her father were still around or her mothers mind hadn't started failing her. Ves shut out those thoughts, knowing it's not the time to think of tragedy or what ifs. It also wasn't the time to focus too hard on the upcoming battle, for if fear sets in too deep it acts like an infection, killing you slowly from the inside and she might turn around or worse. She instead focused on the sounds of the forest around her in a trance as she rode along the dry river bed.
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The journey wasn't a long one. As the mountain grew ever more foreboding and Ambra a distant memory. The dry bed narrowing closer to the mountain, with it a fog slowly thickened until Ves reached the foot of the mountain. She was in a small clearing where the Copper Stream met the mountain and that's when she saw what was blocking its flow. A giant dead moose, along with a few stags laid in front of the 4 foot-ish cave in the mountain where the waters came from. She climbed down off Lance and pulled the pitchfork strap over her head and took her weapon in her hands.
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She walked forward towards the blockage but the fog thickened still until she could barely see her hand in front of her face. She stopped and stood still, and even the breeze followed suit. She heard a twig crack behind her and she spun around to meet her attacker but only met a blank grayscale canvas.
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The fear, the reality, began to set in as she spun and swung her pitchfork in the fog to nothing. She started to question if a monster even existed at all but before the thought could even fully form her question was answered in real time.
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Like a lightning flash, a skinny grey arm with razor claws swiped through the air, cutting Ves on the arm! Her reaction an afterimage. And then, again, the claw swiped. This time grazing her cheek, she repealed with a winch. A few inches closer and half of her face would have been gone. A fierce panic took hold of her legs and she began to run. She could hear the monster pursing her on the rocks behind her.
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She nearly ran into a tree, brushing the side of it and spinning to keep momentum. She trampled through bushes and saplings, the beast hot on her heels and the unrelenting fog painting the world in an unforeseeable horror. Each step of both echoing through the forest and just then, Ves stopped dead in her tracks and so did the sounds of the monster. The fear remained but a spark of clarity gave Ves an idea. She couldn't use her eyes but maybe she didn't need them. She closed her eyes and listened to the forest like she did before except this time the crickets and owls were voiceless and the whispering winds silent, making the branches and leaves quiet, too.
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She could only hear her own breathing until she heard another twig break and then some leaves rustling. She stayed still. It grew closer. She felt the air around her shift slightly colder, like a coming snow storm and one more noise, the weight of a foot on rocks. Without opening her eyes she gripped her pitchfork tight and spun around, thrusting as hard as she could, making contact with something!
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A high pitched sound of pure pain rang out, Ves tightened her eyes in response. There was a hard tug on her pitchfork followed by a gushing sound. Ves opened her eyes. The fog had lightened some, she could see some of her surroundings now. Including a pool of blood with most of her pitchfork spikes covered in it too. She had impaled the creature and impaled it deep!
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She didn't have any time to celebrate before the fog began acting strange in front of her. Swirling around and darkening before the very fog morphed into the monster, the supposed Foglet! Its skinny grayish body hunched over like a skinless witch, with its pointed ears and bat-like face. It had several holes in its abdomen, Ves could see clearly through to the other side of the monster through the holes. It touched its hands to the ground like a primate and started stampeding toward Ves!
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She only had time to raise her pitchfork in an attempt to block before the beast had trampled her, knocking her to the ground. She used every ounce of strength and then some to hold up the colorless monster as it squirmed and flailed. It thrust and slashed its claws, leaving marks in the pitchforks handle and ripping through parts of Ves' dress and flesh. Her chest and abdomen getting the most of it before it reared its head back and flung forward with such force, it's gullet wide open revealing rows of yellow tinted fangs and it sunk them into Ves' shoulder. She let out a cry of pain and finally managed to get her feet positioned into the Foglet's stomach and she kicked like an angry mule, pushing the monster back just enough for some breathing room.
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She jumped up as quick as she could before the beast regained its balance and she gave one more swift kick to the center of its chest, sending it several feet back and falling down to the ground with a hard thud. The beast let out another high pitched whine and got back on its feet, ready to charge again. Bloodied and exhausted, but ready herself, Ves braced for impact. But as the Foglet aggressed, Ves acted almost on pure instinct as she raised her pitchfork like a throwing spear and with all her power, launched it at the Foglet. The silver coated pitchfork pierced the fog and the very air around it and finally, the foglets throat. It's prongs cutting though it's flesh so deep it decapitated the beast and as it's body slumped to the ground the head flew still attached to the pitchfork several feet away before sticking into the ground.
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The fog faded as Ves stood, still in her throwing stance. The forest came back to life as Ves tried to catch her breath. Her dress all but tattered and the multitude of gashes and bites leaking blood. The adrenaline started subsiding and Ves came back down to earth. She saw the carnage of the battle, the blood and gore and it made her stomach summersault. She couldn't hold it back, she leaned over with her hands on her knees and puked. The strain on her already tense muscles sent an intense pain through her body. She regathered herself, wiping her mouth with her arm, before walking over to the monster corpse and retrieving her pitchfork and slinging it over her shoulder. She had only ran 20 or so feet into the thicket, turning around she could see the clearing and Lance. She looked down one last time at the monster that nearly destroyed her home without ever stepping foot in it and she felt triumphant.
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With the help of Lance, they slowly pulled the dead animals away. She had to take Lance's reins off and use them as makeshift rope, tying it to his saddle and pulling the carcasses, freeing the blockade and letting the waters run again. At the sight of the water with the moon's rays shining through and lighting up the river bed, making the Copper Stream look more like rushing molten silver, Ves crumbled to the ground and cried. She lived in that moment for a while, letting herself feel the full force of her humanity and the heavy weight it carries. Her emotions not much different than the Copper Stream, flowing freely and wildly.
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She walked beyond the bank and let the waters wash over her dirty legs. She cupped water and rinsed off the blood, the sweat, the guilt, the fear. She didn't have anything to properly bandage herself but she did find a towel in one of Lance's saddlebags and applied pressure to every cut, gash and bite until it stopped, or at least slowed down the bleeding. Besides the deep bite on her shoulder, she tied the towel around it. She hoped the water that so many held in such high regard, with its origin story being one of magic and wonder, would help her wounds more than anything.
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She finally composed herself and climbed atop Lance, riding alongside the flowing water home, a hero. Ves didn't feel like much of a hero, she still just felt like herself. Still as scared, still as lost but a little more in control. The ride home was peaceful with the forest coming back to life and Ves feeling more alive than ever, until Ambra finally came back into view.
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The normal glow of the torches and lanterns scattered around the town seemed more intense, it stood bigger and brighter than normal and concentrated in one spot. The closer Ves got, she finally realized it wasn't the surrounding autumn colors adding to the palette of a town on life support, no, it was a giant flames!
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Riding into town she saw the fire, it was her own home! Set ablaze by a shadowy figure throwing a lit torch into the flames. She jumped off of Lance mid stride but the figure darted into the darkness of the trees upon seeing her. Ves didn't give chase, she set her eyes on her childhood home burning and she was confused by the rushing mix of both numbness and sadness. She didn't have time to process it all before noticing out of the corner of her eye another faint glow of approaching torches down the road. She squinted and saw a hint of blue atop horses. She realized it was the guards of Kirkwall, most likely coming for her, or equally, Lance.
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Ves sat down in the dirt under the weeping willow beside her home that was now a more a vibrant orange than the forest surrounding it, so much so she was sure the leaves were envious. In these last few days she had come to multiple forks in the road of life and she found herself twisted and turned around on an unrecognizable path. She lost and found herself, saved her town but doomed her home, became closer to some and more distant to others. She saved and forsaken herself. This was yet another fork but Ves decided she didn't want to decide anymore. She lowered her head and closed her eyes. She was bloodied and tired. Her home fell and the horsemen swarmed, her earlier feelings of triumphant now replaced by a deep defeat. Her whole journey to save a river was met with swimming against a current that seemed keen to swallow her up and it seems it's finally done it. Vesless sat and waited to see what her fate would be if she didn't protest this time. The rebellion that had propelled her thus far now embers, like her childhood. But until ember is ash, a flame can always catch its breath.
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