《sticks and stones》


 prologue- a pile is formed

    Dashing fleet footed through the darkened tunnels, the man in the black robes fled without rest. Every so often a hand would shoot out of a large cloak, releasing a black fog or a magical veil, intended to slow, halt, or lose his pursuers. These pursuers seeming unphased by the spells, wafting the mist with fans of their weapons, and casually side stepping spells as they ran after the man in the black robes.


    The man reached a wide space, but to his dismay, also a dead end. He reached the wall across from the only entrance, turning and panics, releasing a large burst of black and purple energy that seeped into the ground. A hoard of basic skeletons shift and break the surface of the earth, looking at the black robed man for purpose. His gaze affirming them, they turned to the entrance that their summoner dared not look away from.


    The skeletons had barely taken their stance when the pursuers came crashing in, their weapons easily breaking bones like chalk, and slicing through them like butter. In no time at all every undead had been eliminated, splintered bones and fragments of marrow consumed the floor. The pursuers continued towards the black robed man, not obstructed by the bones, and swiftly swung a blade at his neck. His head tumbled from his body, not even able to utter a plea for his life.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Remind me why we were after this small fry?¡±


    One of the pursuers had knelt down to retrieve the head of their enemy, while the other slung the body of his shoulder.


    ¡°Hey, a quest¡¯s a quest, we¡¯re getting payed for this and that¡¯s all that matters¡±


    ¡°Yeah well it better pay better than our last bounty¡±


    The one with the body over his shoulder turned to face his accomplice.


    ¡°You¡¯re still not over that?¡±


    The accomplice holding the head stood up, his face showing clear distaste for the memory


    ¡°You used me as bait for a were-creature! Did you expect me to be fine with your ¡®I¡¯ve got this under control¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Well obv- never mind that, we need to get these remains back to the town¡±


    ¡°Fine. But next time we have to do a hunting bounty you¡¯re being the bait¡±


    And with that the adventurers departed for the surface.


    ¡°Oh wait, I forgot to put a flame crystal on the remains, go sort it out¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you do it!?¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m carrying the body, now go sort it out¡±


    Grumbling, the adventurer carrying the head tossed a red crystal through the entrance of the opening, setting the bones within its radius ablaze. Jogging back to catch up with his partner.


    But what they didn¡¯t check was wither or not all the bones had been covered. Misty clouds of black and purple energy drifted from the ceiling down to the remains of the small skeleton horde.


    And the bones in a shadowy corner started to shift about.

 chapter one- the makings of mediocrity

    Gaining sentience is a strange feeling. Even stranger when you gain sentience only to find that you¡¯re a pile of broken bones.


    From the positioning I¡¯d guess that I was against a wall. I may have only just gained a mind, but I¡¯m fairly sure broken bones can¡¯t defy gravity.


    The reason it seems this way is because half of my me pile is raised at a slant, higher than the other half. But even against a wall I feel spread pretty thin, so I do what any self-respecting pile of bones would do (I assume. As I¡¯ve said I just got here so I don¡¯t have any comparison).


    I clench as hard as I can and hope for the best.


    To my surprise (to be dead honest I acted on a whim), something actually happens. Little splinters and shards of bone and marrow start budging and shuffling inwards to the middle of me.


    Felling much more solid (in the loosest sense of the term), I try whatever senses I might have had at some point. Sight: nope. Hearing: either it¡¯s dead silent or it¡¯s not here either. Touch: other than myself I can barely feel what I¡¯m on. Could be a floor, could be quick sand. Hell, I could be floating for all the difference it made.


    And just as I resign myself to an unlife of me time, a compulsion grips me. And I don¡¯t just mean the need to get up and get something done. I mean a really dark impulse telling me that there¡¯s something other than me, and it has the audacity to be more alive than me.


    So with some dark force essentially whispering in my ear, I try another sense.


    But not a normal sense (or at least I think it¡¯s not normal), this gives me a hyper awareness of the universe.


    Fooled you didn¡¯t I.


    No, this sense filled the dark with swirling pockets of colour, similar to how I see the many pieces of me.


    What¡¯s that dark compulsiveness? Lick sense? Latch sense?


    Anyway, with a bunch of unidentified swirling patterns around me. I focus in to see if I can make out any shapes.


    Well how about that, another pile!


    Hellooo there Fellow scrap heap!


    Well that did nothing. I guess being in the same boat doesn¡¯t give us some kind of telepathic bond.


    But now that I¡¯m getting used to this whole ditch sense- yes compulsion that¡¯s what I called it- I notice that all four of the other colours are dull and small.


    I guess we just aren¡¯t that definable. I mean, how impressive is a pile of broken bones?


    So I just figure until a brighter shape happens across us all, we¡¯re not gonna know for sure how badly we need a boost.


    ***


    Okay, well I don¡¯t have much sense of time, but I guess you could say it¡¯s been a while. And I¡¯m absolutely bored to death.


    I started shuffling towards the nearest pile and was given a hand. Literally. I stumbled over something and before I knew it there were digits, an ulna and about half a radius.


    So with a new set of movements to get used to I started trying to see what this bad boy could do.


    It wasn¡¯t much.


    I could open and close my hand and move all two fingers and a thumb. But that got tiresome fairly quickly. But hey, silver lining; I can get new bones from other places.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Oh, speak of the devil and he shall appear.


    After making us wait for ages.


    Three bright shapes are approaching.


    One is yellow, and the other two are brown. In contrast to our faded grey, they were very distinctive. And bright. Annoyingly bright.


    The compulsion gets stronger. These must be those selfish live people. Keeping all that life for themselves. I mean, would it kill them to share some with the less lively? I don¡¯t know why, but I get the feeling I should try to do something. Like hurt them, knock them down a bit, make them a little less alive.


    But as they walk past my outstretched hand, one of the long parts of their shapes sinking into one of the other piles.


    Nooooo! My favourite bone heap (after myself of course) just faded out. All that happened was it got stepped on and poof, gone. And the brown shape that did it kept walking like he didn¡¯t even know we were there.


    And to make matters worse they¡¯ve stopped and one of them has started throwing what I can only describe as a fit.


    Its long appendages that went through my counterpart swung wildly, smashing through the others like a hurricane. A very erratic, mardy hurricane.


    I guess I should count myself lucky I was the farthest away because the two other life-forces calmed it down before it found me, and I can feel I little more pressure on top of me so I think I may have a few more whole bones to work with.


    But now the big bright things are leaving, which leaves me with just me myself and I. well I best start on making some voices in my head, because I¡¯m not gonna stay sane forever. How does aether sound for a name? Maybe I¡¯ll make a female voice up to flirt with.


    Ooh wait. This is interesting. In the new bones I think I finally found a skull. Here I am about to lose my head, then I get given a new one. So poetic.


    And it seems it adds some more awareness to my lip sense- no compulsion you went away when everyone re-died, you don¡¯t get to correct me- so now there are a load of white squiggles in the blackness.


    They all overlap and make very little sense, it¡¯s kind of giving me a headache (yeah I can say that now). Although it could just be the big hole in my new skull.


    There also seems to be something else going on with me that I hadn¡¯t noticed until now. I had less bits and pieces of bone and marrow, but they were bigger than before, and when I respectfully clenched again, they twisted in and tried to fit together.


    So I guess my bones regenerate. Sweet.


    No wait, I can¡¯t think it¡¯s sweet, sweetness is for living things. I¡¯ll start over.


    So I guess my bones regenerate. Sour.


    Eh, good enough.


    Anyway, back to the matter at hand, I am going to see how this whole reassembly pans out and take it from there.


    ***


    Okay so another long time later and everything is in pieces. Bigger pieces than before to be exact.


    Instead of your standard pile, I¡¯m now collection of a collar bone, three spine pieces, a still caved skull, a snapped arm, a three digit hand, and what I think may be a kneecap. All those new additions probably helped.


    So my next plan of action? Simple. Crawl around until I roll over enough bones to get to a bigger bunch of bones. And the effort is gonna be murder since my arm is the only thing that¡¯s attached other bones to complete it.


    Well, no use waiting to not die, let¡¯s get to work.


    Ooh a set of femurs, I¡¯m gonna see if the kneecap reacts later.


    This might come in handy, I always wanted a hip bone. I don¡¯t know why but now that compulsion has gone quiet I¡¯m feeling like pelvic thrusting would be fun.


    Speaking of compulsion, after it quietened down and the live things left, I had an epiphany.


    There¡¯s no way I can stand up to one of those things. It took the random killing of my people, but until my bones are more than weakly glued fragments making a structure, I can¡¯t feel like hunting things more alive than me. Come to think of it, I never thought of it until compulsion appeared.


    Oh hey there are les squiggles in my vision, I must have made it around something. That or it was my own bones in the way.


    And now that I can understand the shapes, I see a Satan send. It is either a cage that¡¯s really far away, or it¡¯s a set of ribs. Only one way to find out. Onwards me!


    I¡¯m finding it difficult to keep myself together. With the new bones I¡¯m having to stop to pull the femurs forward every so often. And then there¡¯s the fracturing.


    That¡¯s right. The more I exert myself the weaker my bones feel, and that¡¯s taking its sour time to sort out. But hey, I wasn¡¯t born yesterday (or was I?), so I know patience is needed.


    After I big cycle of repeating those two problems, I finally make it to what I was hoping. It¡¯s a brand old ribcage! Hooray for me!


    And it comes with its very own spine. Sour bonus. Now let¡¯s get this show on the road. Time to assimilate this and hope there¡¯s enough for it to link like my arm has.


    Okay so the skull goes here, pelvis down at the bottom. Collar bone here, femurs and kneecap with the pelvis.


    And there¡­ you¡­ have it! My colour is spreading into the ribcage and everything seems okay for now. But the ribcage does feel kind of Smokey. And brittle. Well as long as it doesn¡¯t crumble while I get up I¡¯ll be fine.


    And now that I have some form of structure, it is time to get up and go.


    And as soon as I stand on my femur stubs, I promptly tip over back to the ground.

 chapter 2- for those who cant walk. crawl

    Okay, walking may be a problem.


    It would seem that feet are pretty important for mobility, and since I don¡¯t even have shins, I¡¯m pretty unbalanced.


    But now I have to get out and about. From what I saw happen to my former fellows, it¡¯s only a matter of time before my tantrum life-forms come along.


    So, hugging the walls, I hobble on all threes until I find a tunnel going somewhere I didn¡¯t know. I guess it¡¯s time for an adventure.


    It¡¯s slow going and I¡¯m getting weak quick and often, but it could be worse, I could be getting attacked.


    Suddenly another colour comes into view. It¡¯s not as tall as the other colours, so it must be a different kind of creature.


    It¡¯s wobbling an awful lot. And getting bigger. Oh heaven I think it¡¯s trying to attack me. It¡¯s getting closer and closer and is about to leap at me.


    Whoa where¡¯d this thing come from!? It just jumped the thing that was about to re-kill me. This one has the strangest shape. It has a poisonous violet life force, large bulbs on its front and its tail is curling high over its body.


    It jabs the creature that attacked me and I watch as the life-force fades at a scary rate. That tail is deadly efficient.


    Oh crap, it¡¯s turning on me, I thought we were buddies too.


    Don¡¯t attack me friend, I helped bait your kill


    As what happened with the other bone piles, it either didn¡¯t hear me or didn¡¯t want to talk. I see its tail rearing to attack so I block with my only arm.


    In an unexpected twist the tail slots right between my ulna and broken radius, catching o my bone. And as it pulls back, I go with it. I end up lifted on top of its back, my arm still stuck on this tail, which I now see has a spike of some kind at the tip.


    Understandably, this thing freaked the heaven out. Not only was I not dead (I am but humour me here), but now here I am, on its back and blocking its means of attacking prey.


    It struggles. A lot. It¡¯s only by sheer luck that I don¡¯t get thrown off and smashed against a wall. But by the amount of bouncing I¡¯d guess it was running around, but everything has become a blur. I¡¯m being rag dolled around too much to focus on the lines that make my vision.


    And to boot I can feel myself being shaken apart. All the splinters and fragments that I used to be haven¡¯t fully fused together and it¡¯s only getting looser.


    It doesn¡¯t take me long to figure that I should probably get off this ride before I shatter. Shattering¡¯s no fun when it¡¯s you. So I am now playing puzzle trying to get this thing¡¯s tail spike out of my forearm, and doing a tremendous job considering how much it¡¯s moving beneath me, which doesn¡¯t help coordination I¡¯ll have you know.


    Get out of my arm dammit.


    Seriously just go through the gap in my radius, how hard can that be?


    Whoa okay here we go.


    *thud*


    *rattle*


    Okay well I¡¯m not moving. That¡¯s a good start.


    And apart from my kneecap cracking from the land I think I¡¯m still in one piece.


    Or in as few pieces as I can be.


    Getting up I see the creature¡¯s colour quickly shrinking as it retreats from me. Too bad, it would¡¯ve been dead useful if I¡¯d been able to get it on my side.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Anyway, now I have no idea where I am and even less idea about the threats I might come across


    Well this is just peachy, isn¡¯t it?


    From what the lines are telling me I¡¯m at a fork in the road. Or would it be a skewer? One of those two pronged forks. Because apart from the direction the violet creature left in, there are two open directions.


    What do you think compulsion? Haven¡¯t heard from you in a while.


    You want me to go right? Okay then.


    Left it is.


    So one my way down the left tunnel, slow going but with purpose (my purpose being to find a purpose), I find myself bearing witness to a constant array of colours appearing in two¡¯s and leaving as one. It¡¯s a constant death match around me.


    Take this poor angel over there. It looks about the same shape and a similar size as the thing that re-killed my fellow bone piles, but its life energy is almost as dull as mine. An acid green orb is slowly making its way over the dull life-force, taking all colour away. My guess is it¡¯s having a snack on its latest prey.


    Oh? At the far end of this dull colour, furthest away from the green lifeforce, there was something handing out of the bulbous growth coming from the main mass.


    I should check this out, it looks like it¡¯s an inside that pulled outside, and might be useful. So scraping myself along the ground towards it, I get a finger ready to sever the connection to its original owner. And with a pinch and a tug, whatever it is is mine now.


    I roll it over in my incomplete hand, trying to figure out what it could be. I¡¯d chew it a little but I have no jaw so it¡¯d be a little hard.


    Hmmm. What can you do with something you just took off a dying thing?


    No idea, so let¡¯s put it places until something happens.


    In my pelvis?


    No it¡¯s not that kind of squishy part.


    My hand?


    Seriously I¡¯d need to be an oracle to figure this out.


    Well how about the four holes in my skull?


    Not the Caved part, not the one in the middle of my face. That just leaves the too above it. Here we go, nice and easy.


    Well once I get the positioning right it should stay in place, so let¡¯s wait for it to adjust


    ***


    Okay so it feels like it¡¯s all hooded up in my head, so let¡¯s see what this thing can do.


    Well this is certainly new. I can see a bunch more stuff now. I think it might even be 20 vision.


    Now let¡¯s see, what do I look like?


    I LOOK AWEFUL!!!


    Like I¡¯m at deaths door because I forgot my coat the last time I came round. The ribcage is almost entirely blackened, with the rest flaking ash. Anything that didn¡¯t come from there is more cracks than bones. Did I seriously make it this far like I am now?


    Enough of me and my narcissism, now I can see I should look at where I got this Satan sent gift.


    Oh well they don¡¯t look very impressive. It¡¯s a pink bag of squishy stuff, getting eaten by a blood red slimy blob, with visible sinew inside its jelly body.


    Well if this is sight then I feel overhyped, this isn¡¯t anything spe- wait, the slimy blob is leaving something behind. Something white, and strangely familiar.


    Its leg bones. As happy as I am that I¡¯ll be able to take them after, I can¡¯t help but groan internally that I came from one of these things. The slime is taking its sour time getting done with its meal too.


    It¡¯s still eating at the meat-bags ankles. Well nothing to do but wait for it to do its business.


    So how you doin¡¯?


    No response


    You been here long?


    *blug*


    Ohhh I see (I don¡¯t I just want to feel noticed)


    Well this may take a while, it¡¯s a good thing I¡¯m not dying anytime soon isn¡¯t it?


    *sssss*


    Strong stomach you have there, I¡¯d have thrown it up by now


    It¡¯s bubbling more as it speeds up for a long haul of digestion.


    Chug chug chug chug


    A little encouragement never hurt anyone right? I could wait for It to finish and enjoy the smorgasbord of fresh parts, but I don¡¯t know if I should be staying in the same spot like this for so long.


    So as soon as the shins are at least half revealed I¡¯m gonna start pulling them out.


    ¡­


    ¡­


    ¡­.


    Nope, I¡¯m not strong enough for that I guess.


    Well at least I came up with a proper name for the blob eating it.


    Sir blobsworth the first esquire.


    Or just flesh-slime if you¡¯re a close friend.


    ¡­


    Well it certainly takes it¡¯s time eating, I need legs Satan damn it!


    ¡­ *blub*¡­


    If this is what time feels like then time has no sense of imagination. Spice things up a bit, fiddle with the speed settings, anything that will get me those legs sooner.


    *rattle*


    Huh? What?


    Looking over at flesh-slime, I notice it finally passed the knees, and the glorious sight of shins not encased in slime met my gaze. I reach out for them with my two fingers, only to land them short of the target.


    What? I thought sight was supposed to help coordination. I have an eye, so why am I fumbling over something as simple as depth?


    So I scoot my hand forwards until I reach the bones making up the first shin, with a bonus kneecap to boot. I then get to work piecing them onto myself. Everyone loves additional content!


    When that¡¯s over and done with I watch my colour spread into my new shins, at a much more satisfying rate than flesh-slime, and I began to test how standing up felt.


    Very wobbly. Not like flesh-slime though, more kind of like getting given a new set of limbs, like wings or fins, and told to go from there.


    At any rate, now I can stand up, let¡¯s get to walking.


    I take a step. And promptly fall forward on my face (my very bony face).

 chapter 3- birds of a feather

    Well that wasn¡¯t very fun.


    Now there¡¯s dust in my eye, great, that¡¯s this new thing useless already.


    My vision is mainly a blur of brown. And walking needs some work. I can¡¯t help but feel I¡¯ve forgotten something.


    Now, let¡¯s grab a wall and try this again.


    I place tentative step forward, shifting my weight from one leg to the other.


    I feel like a toddler.


    A very big, skinny toddler.


    With each step I pick up the pace, starting gradual, but very soon I start tipping over.


    Panicking, I throw my legs forward in front of each other to right myself. Which sends me past a point of no return. Now I¡¯m barrelling through the tunnel system with no idea how to stop.


    SOMEONE HEEEEELP!!!


    Weaving my way through the dungeon like a drunkard in a frenzy, there seems to be no end to the madness. All I can do is stop myself from colliding with a wall and it meaning the end of an especially short and unsatisfying story.


    ***


    In another location, a group of young beginning adventurers were clearing the spoils of a long and tiresome battle. But a profitable one, especially with a certain set back.


    There were four in the group, two were picking up as many drops as they could, though they seemed to have a system of what they took. The other two were stood back, in quiet discussion.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know man, are you sure it¡¯s all right to do this?¡±


    This one was in a long cloak, with a wooden stick in one hand, and a fist sized crystal in another; the mage of the group.


    ¡°Of course I am, the priestess granted the blessing to me, are you saying you don¡¯t trust an agent of the temple?¡±


    This adventurer has a feel of leadership and strength, and had the best armour and equipment of the bunch.


    ¡°What? N- No man, it¡¯s just it seems a little harsh to just leave her in here¡±


    ¡°If it weren¡¯t for her, we would have had no problems. We almost died because she couldn¡¯t fight off any of her share of monsters¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you were thinking, bringing her along. You said it would be fine, now you want to go and leave her down here to die?¡±


    The leader sighs and looks like the conversation exhausts him.


    ¡°Look, she said she could keep up and she¡¯s barely hanging on even with us slowing the pace. She has to go¡±


    Right at that moment the rattling of bone resounds through the tunnels. Whatever it is it sounds like a lot of them, and they¡¯re running.


    The leader guy takes charge.


    ¡°Alright guys, we¡¯ll sort the drops later, for now we need to get somewhere quieter¡±


    Everyone stopped their current task and loaded up. The only one that had trouble was the slightly feeble looking girl trying to carry two bags full and keep up with the much faster males in the group. As the leader led himself and the other two capable fighters, he thought to himself.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    No hard feelings kid, it had to be done


    But even as he thought that, a cold smile stretches across his lips


    ***


    Back with me, the unstoppable sprinter, he had been spending the last few hours barrelling through the tunnels, the wind kicked up by my speed blowing off the worst of the dust from my previous fall.


    At present I was still going at full speed, with only my desire to not re-die fuelling my resolve. If it kept going like this, it was likely I¡¯d lose whatever kept me held together, I¡¯d fall to pieces.


    I wonder if that¡¯s what a nervous breakdown feels like.


    I¡¯ve passed a lot of other monsters, turns out the thing with the tail I got stuck on is a lot more crablike than I thought. I don¡¯t know why but scorpion seems appropriate for a name.


    But I guess this will be a tail passed through the ages, the rare tunnel skeleton, sprinting eternally, without thought of stop or break, he shall not be granted any resp-


    *crash*


    *rattle*


    -ite.


    Can¡¯t trust anyone these days, get whimsical for only a moment and someone puts a low ceiling in front of you.


    My head is gone but It seems to be functioning still. I can see my body fumbling around at my command.


    Left, no my left.


    Now come forward. NO NOT THAT FORWARD THIS FORWARD.


    And after much struggling I finally reunite with my body, useless thing, and start to search for any of myself that also dislodged.


    I find the missing finger and a kneecap.


    Oh not any of my kneecaps, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to have spares.


    So know that I¡¯ve learnt my lesson there, I resolve that it is back to crawling. And off we go.


    This is definitely not the area of the tunnels I came from. It¡¯s all winding and uneven terrain. I¡¯m fairly sure that I saw a smaller rodent tunnel entrance too. But I couldn¡¯t fit in there, so there¡¯s little use pondering if there¡¯s an infinite chain of smaller circumstances where something like me is doing the same thing while stumbling across the entrance to a smaller world.


    Rounding a corner, I see something new, a slightly pink brown life energy. It came into view of my partially sighted eye.


    My first thought was; how dare it be more alive than me? But then I realised that was probably just compulsion trying to reassert itself after it made me lose total faith in it. Not to day compulsion, maybe when I¡¯m strong enough to kill something, but not today.


    On the other hand this thing does look awfully pathetic from where I¡¯m kneeling. Maybe I could kill it just a little, what¡¯s the harm in that?


    So here I am, just your average bony thing with an urge that I can talk to, about to kill something I¡¯ve never seen before.


    What could possibly go wrong?


    I wish my bones would stop rattling so much. I-it¡¯s not like I¡¯m nervous or a-anything. I j-just can¡¯t move a-around normal-ly.


    B-but a-anyway, lets g-get down t-t-to business


    ***


    Just a few metres in front of the undead was a meek young girl. One could see that she had a feeble constitution. Her eyes were pale grey, with a slight shadow beneath them, making her looks constantly weary. Her frame was skinnier than the average, but relatively well hidden by the large patched cloak with many improvised pockets and pouches.


    All in all, apart from the new looking armour (although also cheap looking), she gave off the impression of helplessness, poverty and the need for care.


    This impression would have been amplified if there was anyone else in the tunnels to find her.


    ¡°uuuu, I knew that jerk had it out for me¡± the girl whimpers as she curled her legs to her chest.


    ¡°What will big sis think when I don¡¯t comeback? She¡¯ll be sad. But¡­ maybe¡­ she might be relieved she doesn¡¯t have to deal me anymore¡±.


    With thoughts turning into despairing notions, she begins to lower her head, too caught up in her sadness to notice the shakily moving collection of bones suddenly begin to rattle in her general direction.


    ¡°She might be able to sell papa¡¯s land and work at an actual farm instead of keeping me around forever¡± the girl begins musing about the positives that she might bring by being left down here.


    At the same time, the bunch of bones wobbles its way closer, seeming unstable on its legs.


    ¡°a-and m-maybe she¡¯ll even f-find a nice s-stable boy to h-hit it off with¡±. Now crying, her own world was quickly dissolving. But her thoughts were cut short.


    *rattle*


    *clunk*


    *fwump*


    She¡¯s taken by surprise to hear another noise. Fearing what she will find in front of her, she cowers timidly in her cloak, looking through a gap in the fabric.


    She pans around to see what¡¯s there.


    Nothing.


    ¡°Few, for a moment there I thought there was-¡°


    She looks down.


    ¡°Was...¡±


    A skull is laying a foot away from her, stood upside down, balanced on a hole in the crown.


    ¡°ummm¡­¡±


    Her fear building, bubbling inside her like a kettle.


    Then an eye snaps in her direction.


    ¡°IYYAAAAAA!!!¡±

 chapter 4- remembering what was forgotten

    Well this was unexpected.


    So there I was, creeping up on this thing, then the next thing I know I¡¯m falling apart at the seams.


    And I was right next to it as well.


    I guess you could say I just went to pieces over it.


    Now I am here, unable to keep myself up, laying in a scattered pile in front of what could very well have been my ticket to power.


    Once again compulsion, you¡¯ve proven yourself unreliable and useless.


    Feeling the thing look over me (pretty obvious considering it¡¯s a mass of pinkish brown covering my snitch sense- no compulsion until someone else says it I¡¯m not going to say the right word), I switch my eye¡¯s position to get a better look.


    Half expecting a foot to crush my skull a little more than it already is, I continue staring. And to my surprise the creature freaks out. It jumps up, scattering a bunch of items, including the bottle of glowing blue liquid.


    That¡¯s spilled. And is dribbling towards me.


    Well, if this stuff is zombicide then I¡¯m well and truly boned.


    And since I can¡¯t assemble myself I can¡¯t do anything but watch as it dribbles out of the bottle and the puddle expands towards me. Nothing to do now except wait for my impending un-death.


    It¡¯s almost here now.


    The suspense is killing me.


    Oh. it¡¯s here! It¡¯s spilling against me! Ooooowwwwww!


    ¡­


    Wait, this doesn¡¯t hurt. Strange. You woulda¡¯ thought it¡¯d be ripping my energy apart.


    But instead I feel my strength coming back. I can clench in my bones! Praise the devil!


    Everything is regrouping much faster than normal, and if I¡¯m not mistaken, every crack and indent is filled with the blue light from the liquid. And closing together.


    Sour. It¡¯s like I¡¯ve been rejuvenated and then some. But as repaired as I am, I¡¯m still incomplete.


    No new bones that I can see, just whole bones from what used to be a bunch of splinters and shards. I think some of the burns on my ribcage have been touched up too.


    Now there¡¯s a new development. I feel like I could keep going forever and not have to worry about disintegrating by my own overexertion. And I feel a little stronger. My crawling abilities shall be legendary!


    Speaking of crawling, that thing that dropped all the stuff around is on its knees against the tunnel wall. Pathetic really. Reminds me of a great little undead I know of.


    So I start crawling over to this thing to thank it for the pick me up, but then I remember a crucial flaw in my plan.


    I can¡¯t speak.


    No jaw, no tongue, no lips and no vocal cords. It¡¯s a little known fact that these are essential for one to make sounds.


    While pondering this my three fingered hand lands on a piece of something fleshy and triangular. I turn it over, observing the curvature and the blunt point at the tip. Some kind of ear.


    Well an ear is no use to me, I throw it up to get rid of it, only to have it land on my skull.


    I try to brush it off but it refuses to budge. I recognise the faint blue glow. Great, I have an ear of an as yet unidentified creature magically glued to my head. Now what am I supposed to do? I look redicu-


    ¡°p-pl-please, don¡¯t hurt me, M-Mr skeleton¡±


    ¡­


    Well that¡¯s definitely never happened before. I could swear I heard something just now. And it seems like whatever said it is still whimpering like a lost little puppy. I hate puppies. With their life and their having it.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Anyway, enough about hating life. I look around to see if there could be any source of the voice I just heard, my eye settling on the shivering creature in front of me.


    ***


    The girl quivers behind her oversized cloak, terrified of the pile of bones that literally just jumped up and reassembled itself. This must be a really strong undead. Lich fledgling at the very least.


    She backs against the nearest wall, watching it creep closer. Her fear gripping her, pulling her stomach down with every inch it got closer.


    The skeletal being found a bat ear, dismissing it and tossing it away. Immediately having it fall back upon its head and magical energy fusing it to its bony skull.


    The girl would have been amused and had to stifle a giggle if she wasn¡¯t frozen to the spot.


    It kept walking closer, she managed to squeeze some words out past the wall of fear blocking her voice.


    ¡°p-pl-please, don¡¯t hurt me, M-Mr skeleton¡±


    The skeleton stopped for a moment, looking confused and pondering this new information. It got of this fairly quick however, and kept on coming.


    ***


    I get close enough to almost touch it, then realise a conundrum. What now?


    I can¡¯t kill it, I don¡¯t have anything to do that with. And it has more life than me, but it accidentally gave that strange blue stuff that helped me out.


    What do I do? Compulsion is nagging me to finish it, but I resolved to ignore this long before now. And it is at this moment I notice its eyes leaking.


    Is it dying? Is this normal for fleshy creatures to leak? And this much too?


    Deciding to not kill this thing just to annoy compulsion, I tap it. It turns slowly to face me, eyes contracted in fear, its shoulders bouncing as it takes sharp breathes in through its nose. Is that what you¡¯d call sniffing?


    Haha, fleshy things are gross.


    Curious about the leak it¡¯s experiencing, I point at the liquid running down its face, then turn my palm upwards. I¡¯m fairly sure that¡¯s the universal sign for; hey, what¡¯s up with that?


    ¡°h-huh?¡±


    It looks shocked. Or maybe confused. It could be hungry, I heard that was a thing.


    ¡°You w-want to know w-what¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Not quite what I was wanting but close enough. I nod slowly.


    Seeming to calm down a little, this creature draws its head out of the big brown mass that it has covering it. And begins to tell me everything.


    From the beginning.


    Of her life.


    When she was born.


    Great, this may take a while.


    ***


    Fear still gripping her gut, she stared at the half formed skeleton. Amazed that it hadn¡¯t attacked, confused that it had asked her (although very crudely) what was troubling her, and a little grateful that she could let out her feelings and pain to something.


    So she began her story right from her childhood.


    ¡°My sister told me that I was born a week too early, and was amazed that I was still alive the next morning. It was a small place to be born into, but the air was clean on the land I lived on.¡±


    Coming out of her shell ever so slightly, she continued to talk, telling a skeleton her entire life story.


    ¡°My parents died before I could remember them, so it has just been me and my sister trying to farm on a little stretch of land outside of a big town. I was always too small and weak to help, but big sis has always been really strong and got picked on, boys saying she used to be a horse¡±.


    On and on she continued explaining how her sister was always the best and she was just too weak to do anything but stand by and admire her.


    ¡°Ever since she turned sixteen she¡¯s been avoiding trips into town, saying that I need taking care of and that¡¯s more important. So I decided that I needed to learn how to take care of myself. I started taking on little jobs around our crops. Spreading manure and water, making bowls of stew for big sis while she worked¡±


    And eventually she got round to the present. She explained how the chosen saint was looking for helpers to collect and carry the usable parts of monsters found in the dungeons. The saint accepted her immediately, saying she needed to be able to keep up.


    But, she had struggled from the very beginning, barely working fast enough to make her effort worth the wait they had to endure every time they stopped. Which was frequent considering her weak build.


    ¡°But then they heard you running down and ran, yelling for me to pick up my things and get going.¡±


    ¡°They¡­ they were gone before I even knew what had happened¡±


    ***


    Okay, not going to lie, I stopped listening about halfway through.


    Not on purpose! I¡¯m not rude. It¡¯s just that my newly acquired ear is just some newly acquired dandruff right now.


    While she was explaining how her sister was a horse, it started to melt. Right over my empty eye socket too.


    Then it dissolved and turned to dust. So I just kind of improvised and tried to read the things lips.


    Well, I say thing, I think it¡¯s a human, and I think the human is a she.


    But enough with the useless information, from the broken pieces of conversation I gathered that she laced stew with manure. And something about a saint? Probably unimportant to someone like me.


    She looks up from her lengthy speech and nods her head and says something to accompany it.


    ¡°An¡­ you¡±


    What did she say? We may never know, but I am choosing to take it as a compliment.


    I turn away to way up my options.


    On one hand she¡¯s really weak, but on the other¡­ well¡­ what do you say if you don¡¯t have another hand for it to be on?


    Anyway, the other fact is she¡¯s still that bit stronger than me. And as such could help me survive until I get enough bones to be a complete skeleton. And I¡¯m not forgetting the fact I could attach an organic piece onto me. So maybe I could get a meat shield too?


    Well, no use waiting for the dead to rise. Better see if this human wants to be my wall of meat and flesh.


    I use my universal language of partially formed hands and converse my intentions. I point to her, then to myself, then up. This translates roughly to;


    We should group up and get out of here


    So that¡¯s that and we¡¯ll probably get out in a few months.


    I start to stand up, forgetting the fatal flaw in that plan. I don¡¯t have any feet


    ¡­


    ¡­


    FEET!!!

 chapter 5- meet the family

    After all that time waiting for Sir blobsworth to get those legs out for me, I forgot to put those two obvious parts on! They¡¯re the icons of walking for Satan¡¯s sake. I knew I¡¯d forgotten something but this is just ridiculous.


    I feel like such a numbskull.


    During my breakdown of shame, I forget completely about the girl standing over me and curse myself on my knees.


    Not like I had to drop to them or anything.


    I let out an internal sigh and get up, becoming conscious of the human standing over me, carrying a bag and looking anxiously at me.


    I point down my frame to draw her attention to the stubby extensions of bone reaching from my femurs.


    Her eyes moved over my body, finally stopping to stare at my lack of feet.


    ¡­


    She laughed at me! I¡¯ve never been more offended (ignoring the fact I¡¯ve never been offended before).


    When I get feet I¡¯m going to kick your butt!


    I really need to complete my skeletal structure. Soon.


    So using her body I climb to my stubs and steady myself with her balance.


    She locks up momentarily, but after a bit of getting used to we hobble our way onwards. I pick up any and all bones I find while walking, checking where I can put them and attaching them if I have the connecting bone on already.


    During a while of walking I have now got an extra finger on my hand, all I¡¯m missing there now is the little finger. I also find a new radius to replace the broken one.


    Heading further in our travels, I find that between us, we seem weak enough for other monsters to think we aren¡¯t work the calories burnt, that could be useful.


    ***


    The girl walked on, determined to help this skeleton when it didn¡¯t have the feet to stand on its own.


    She felt bad after she had barely stifled a laugh on discovering it had run in without feet. But she¡¯d make it right by finding it the best set of feet it could ever have.


    ¡°And now that I think about it, where did your bat ear go?¡± she wondered as she looked at the flecks of dust on the broken skull.


    She kept pushing on, despite being constantly short of breath from carrying the weight of her pack and balancing a skeleton, even if it had a lot of bones missing. She felt even more helpful when she kicked a piece of bone into its field of vision and picked it up.


    It hadn¡¯t taken long for her to notice it doing that.


    But her thoughts on this were cut short when she heard the sound of a massive crowd of glugging and blubbing sounds in a large open space.


    They rounded the corner and she had to put her hand over her mouth to stop from screaming or vomiting. Possibly both.


    ***


    Flesh slime! You never told me you had an extended family!


    As far as my eye can see, it¡¯s a veritable ocean of creatures identical to sir blobsworth, slowly working away at a large mass of bodies.


    My guess is that from the green tinge and mouldy clothes, it was a fight between zombies and slimes.


    And the slimes won. Spectacularly.


    Looking at all the exposed bone, I was positively ecstatic about the current situation. All the parts I could need to rebuild myself a few dozen times over just waiting to be repurposed.


    I scan the room for any sign of those darned elusive feet. Searching the sea of red for patches of white that resembled digits.


    I see it! A good candidate! Come to me my pretties!


    *thump*


    I leapt forward in excitement. But in my rush I lost my balance, falling flat on my skull.


    And what happened to that girl? Wasn¡¯t her purpose in life now to carry me? Well Satan damn I didn¡¯t know it was this hard to come by good meat crutches. I look back briefly to see a pail faced form sinking to her knees and clutching her mouth. Honestly, the youth nowadays.


    But anyway, back to the important things.


    I did not know that from the point being a beggar I would get to choose from any of these samples.


    I assemble myself in the crawling position and navigate through the few small gaps between the flesh slimes, towards my prize.


    This is a really strange experience. All this red that I¡¯m seeing, it¡¯s calming. And yet at the same time I think it may be linked to the nagging feeling that compulsion is getting louder. Not much that can be helped about it I suppose.


    I guess blood just kind of agrees with me.


    And here we are! A preoccupied mind is really convenient. It makes even the boring journeys have some value of interest.


    I greedily snatch at the two collections of bone at the end of the long bones protruding from a large mass of sinewy red.


    Now I can leap behind the girl at a moment¡¯s notice if there comes a big threat.


    So now let see how these bad boys handle.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Whoa, a little unsteady, and very imbalanced. But nothing I can¡¯t get used to.


    Let¡¯s start by trying to shuffle back to the girl through all the flesh slimes. Even if it¡¯s a bad investment, it¡¯s something that sped me up considerably compared to crawling, so I¡¯ll keep it until I can outwalk it.


    Now let¡¯s get to work on getting used to these feet.


    ***


    The girl had been immobilised the entire time the undead companion she¡¯d gained.


    The initial shock of seeing this many carnivorous slime had long since passed, but the stench of rotten flesh filled the cavernous room, and the sight of the rotting flesh disappearing in a fizzling mass of bubbles brought her stomach¡¯s contents to her throat.


    It was all she could handle to keep it down.


    ¡°Ugh¡­¡± *gulp* ¡°ohh¡±


    Her ill demeanour and sickened groans echoed through the entrance of the opening, the threat of attack forgotten.


    While she was desperately trying to hold down the last thing she ate, the half-skeleton stood on its own and began stumbling erratically through the crowded group of blood red blobs.


    It hobbled along in a parting of the red sea, in the awkward manner of a toddler.


    When it finally reached the tunnel that the girl was in, she managed to look up, trying not to focus on the nauseating scene behind the standing skeleton.


    She let out a loud gulp before casting her gaze downwards, searching for what was supporting her companion.


    As she looked on its femurs the skeletons legs buckled. Shock force some of the sickness away, staring at the muddy green veins creeping up the skeletons shin bones.


    The skeleton reached out for her bag, but was too far away to grab it.


    It motioned her, miming the movements for drinking, then pointing towards her bag.


    She tilted her head like a confused puppy.


    What did he mean? How would having a drink help?


    Drink¡­ come on think¡­


    Wait I got it! The potions!


    She scrambled inside her bag, pulling out a blue potion. She fumbled with the cap of the vial and poured the contents over the green creepers seeping up the shins of the skeleton. To her horror she witnessed the green shoot up faster than before.


    Her companion snatched the vial from her angrily and splashed the remaining liquid over the white bone on his legs that was as yet unaffected.


    ***


    What the heaven was this flesh-bag thinking? I knew she didn¡¯t look intelligent but honestly. WHO. FEEDS. AN INFECTION?


    As it turns out zombies are indeed infectious. The infection probably would¡¯ve taken me completely if I hadn¡¯t put the potion over the right section of bone. I mean, the infection is still there but at least it¡¯s retreated a little.


    I flick the girls¡¯ nose to discourage her from making the same mistake.


    Now that¡¯s not what I had expected. All I did was reprimand her with a firm nose flick, and now she seems to be jettisoning a large amount of fluid and half solid mush. Did these things have a spitting attack I was unaware of?


    Using my rich sense- oh nothing to say now compulsion? Realising every time I let you decide that we ended up in more trouble? - I notice the acid green life energies growing duller, becoming a similar shade to the flesh of the zombies they were.


    This is an alarming scene, clouds of green are spreading through the red slime and engulfing the sinews inside.


    It makes sense since a walking collection of broken bones could be infected, but that isn¡¯t stopping me rattling my bones. This could be a problem.


    I turn back to the girl and get ready to try my hand at running again. But to make matters worse she¡¯s still on the floor next to the puddle of whatever it is came out of her.


    I shake her and point towards the zombifying flesh slimes. Her face goes from sickly pale to ¡°I wonder if I could pass my hand through it?¡± in a very little window of time. She leaps up and dashes off, grasping my arm to pull me along.


    But of course un-life wouldn¡¯t be that simple. My arm detached at the shoulder and she ran off the way we came clutching a fractured skeletal arm.


    Not being able to afford losing such an important piece of the puzzle that is my body, I have no choice but to follow as fast as I can. These feet feel really imbalanced.


    Just barely keeping up with the human, that was not this fast before, I stumble and shamble my way along the tunnel, my empty shoulders swinging forward and back very slightly as I move.


    I don¡¯t know how long it will be until she runs out of energy, but my next problem is stopping when she does. I may have things to run on now but I haven¡¯t had time to fiddle with how I change speeds.


    ¡­


    So here I am, I don¡¯t know how long later, and this thing has finally started staggering to a halt.


    I attempted to imitate this to slow down myself, but ended up sliding skull first along the floor. I could really use a hand right about now.


    Aaand my eye is coated in dirt again, well isn¡¯t that just swell?


    I wait to be helped up by the pinkish brown life energy of the girl, and after having some kind of clear liquid pour over my eye (do they bottle what she was leaking?), I gaze at the arm in her hand.


    It takes her a while to follow my gaze but eventually she realises that my arm isn¡¯t attached to my shoulder.


    She holds the joints close together until it reattaches and I can use my three digits again.


    This whole people thing might actually have some benefits, I would¡¯ve been unarmed for a lot longer if not for this thing.


    She leans back and her shoulders drop, I guess all that running tires fleshy things out.


    She gave a quick check of my structure, and covered her hand to try and hide a laugh when she looked at my legs.


    Oh for Satan sake.


    ***


    I thought the balance was off, it could have been the softness of the green infected bone, it could have been different foot sizes.


    But no, I have a green hand on the bottom of my right leg.


    My guess is that the zombie I took my left foot from was curled up and its arm was close to its legs.


    Without a second thought, I rummage around in the girls bag, much to her protest, and pull out another one of those bottles.


    While the little human whimpers over whatever it is she protested against, I let droplets of the liquid fall onto my uninfected areas of shin bone. The green retreats from the hand attached to my leg, and after half a bottle the entire hand is entirely white.


    Next is the swap, because seriously, who would use two fingers and a thumb when there¡¯s a perfectly good hand right there acting as your foot?


    Hum-dee-dum


    Swappin¡¯ and shufflin¡¯


    I should make a game out of this, I could call it scrabble


    And now I have my first full hand, and after a bit of reorganising my original hand so that the fingers face forward and the thumb is backwards where my heel should be, I have a decent amount of balance.


    (Authors note (AN) - think bird¡¯s foot kind of shape)


    And now that that¡¯s sorted the rest goes over to my actual foot, which unfortunately still has green toes.


    But now it¡¯s time to get on the way, labyrinths don¡¯t solve themselves.


    Continuing we come across a few small creatures and a weak little rat or two trying to attack, but it didn¡¯t take much to take care of them.


    A highlighting moment would be right now, I happen to see a bit of a glint in the dirt covered floor. Maybe some currency? Maybe a magical item? Could it be a secret legendary spell?


    A reach down and brush it off.


    A dagger.


    Well, that¡¯s disappointing, but it¡¯s something I guess. I slide the blade carefully in between a gap made by a missing rib.


    Well, now that I have something to fight with, should I get rid of the thing in front of me?


    On the upside I¡¯d be able to begin my journey of making a crusade on the creatures more alive than me. But then how much can I handle? How much of my un-life is still around because of this human?


    This might take some consideration. I¡¯ll have to sleep on it.


    If I needed sleep.


    And if I could sleep.


    Huh, well I guess I¡¯ll just consider my options later. Right now I have to deal with this thing getting so close to me.


    I move to the side, only to be followed. What is it girl? Do you want a treat?


    Continuing this exercise in balance and avoiding her, I try take note of the surroundings, but nothing much is going in.


    Suddenly I hit something elevated and fall forwards at a worrying speed, only to have the land softened by a meek little thing in a large cloak.


    Well this thing really likes making me want to keep it.


    How many times is it gonna jump in to save my metaphorical skin before I can¡¯t toss it aside like I should be doing?


    I use my arm to roll myself off of her, and feel a strange series of breaks in the pressure under me.


    Sitting up I look behind me and I find myself staring at a set of block shapes cut into the stone tunnel, with chains hanging from old wooden posts either side.

 chapter 6- MISTAKES WERE MADE!

    The girl sat up, rubbing the pain from hitting her back on the stairs.


    Wait¡­ stairs! She realised.


    They had found the stairs, they were home free.


    A wave of relief flowed through her and she slumped on the clean-cut stone steps. Her mind trying to catch up with everything that had been pushed back while surviving by the skin of her teeth.


    Just as she was about to shut down and fall into unconsciousness, a thought occurred, forcing her to wake up and address the situation.


    She looked at the assemblage of bones next to her. How would she repay it for her help? How long was it going to stay with her? If it followed her out of the tunnels, it would probably be eradicated by the temple priestesses.


    She dug around in her pockets for the spare drops she kept when her bag had become too full.


    That reminds me, why did the skeleton just search my bag without asking first? One should never peruse a ladies belongings, she thought.


    Pouting, she continued rummaging until she found another bat¡¯s ear and placed it atop the skull of her companion. Once it was fully attached she began.


    ¡°Mr. Skeleton, I-I¡¯m not quite sure how to put this nicely¡± she began, hesitation making her voice quiet as she looked at the floor.


    ¡°Yo-you see, undead like y-yourself aren¡¯t very welcome in the world. Ne-necromancy is an illegal form of magic in most places, and ones that are found wandering run at whatever they see, but are killed and treated with holy water. Undead aren¡¯t very intelligent are they?¡±


    The undead cocked its head to the side.


    ¡°N-not that you¡¯re not intelligent! I¡¯m just saying this because we need to figure out a way to keep everyone from killing you¡± she added hastily.


    The skeleton turned away, its hand reaching under his skull as if to curl its fingers around its chin, but grabbed nothing but empty space. The bony fingers opened and closed repeatedly until it turned its head and fixed its eye on something behind the girl.


    The skeleton stood up and stepped over the girl, much to her discomfort. And started pulling the black metal pegs from the posts holding lengths of chain used for railings.


    The chain hit the stairs with a jangle and slinked to the floor.


    The girl looked curiously at the shifting and rearranging going on in front of her, but tried not to look through the bones, as it brought back her nausea.


    And after a short time the walking collection of bones turned and handed the end of the chain to the girl. Her eyes followed the length of the chain upwards and saw it disappear into its ribcage from the collar bones and weave through breaks in the ribs and around the base of its spine.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Having to look through the skeletal structure of her companion brought a lump to her throat as she struggled to keep from retching, but once the nausea passed she looked directly into the eye of this undead.


    Her eyes filled with surprise and wonder, gazing at the simple stare of the broken skull before her.


    ¡°You- you really...?¡± the girl spluttered, a strong wave of positivity flowing over her. Tears forming in the corners of her eyes.


    The skeleton looked away thoughtfully, and then shrugged its shoulder and held its palm out.


    For the first time since entering the tunnels, a smile broke over her face, stretching from ear to ear as tears began to flow freely.


    The Skelton stood before her, waiting for the girl to calm down.


    The girl sniffed and took a deep breath before speaking again.


    ¡°You know, I always wanted a familiar¡±


    At this moment the ear atop the skeletons head melted and turned to ash. Followed quickly by the chain woven through the skeleton beginning to glow, growing brighter and brighter until it was nothing but pure white.


    The chains shape then morphed and shrank into a small tapered strip, and when the light began to fade, a black and purple ribbon had replaced the chain entirely, and faded from the centre, disappearing in the direction of each of the two beings.


    The undead¡¯s eye, which had dilated greatly, suddenly contracted.


    ¡°Although a skeleton would not have been my first choice, no offence of course!¡± the girl added hastily.¡±


    ***


    THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN!


    MISTAKES WERE MADE!


    I DO NOT CONSENT!


    Who said anything about familiars!? Why is the chain glowing!? Why am I feeling like I fell apart again!?


    When that human was saying ¡°You- you really...?¡± I thought it just meant ¡°are you sure this will work?¡±!


    Whoa, feeling a bit light headed, what¡¯s going on? I feel¡­ calm.


    Y¡¯know, maybe this won¡¯t be so bad, it could be a privileged life.


    Wow, the chain is changing shape, I wonder what it¡¯ll¡­


    ¡­


    A ribbon.


    That¡¯s really all it takes to hold me down? That¡¯s just disappointing, but at least the light¡¯s fading, and I can feel my normal temperament coming back.


    Wait¡­ why was I okay with this!?


    My vision is focusing again, and I think I can move. Now I need to keep calm and act appropriately.


    ***


    The moment the pupil of the undead¡¯s eye contracted, it bolted for the tunnels.


    ¡°W-wait! Come back here!¡± the girl cried, shocked and upset that the moment she had gained a familiar it had abandoned her. Her tears welling up at the returning feeling of abandonment.


    She sat on the steps for a while, her thoughts again turning morbidly to darker outcomes.


    ¡°e-even if I¡¯m ou-out of the tunnels, h-how would I g-get b-back?¡± she whimpered, ¡°I¡¯ll be wolf food or captured by bandits¡­¡±


    She trailed off, shuddering at the memories of the empty eyed girls and women who were rescued from bandit groups.


    At least I might be useful somehow if bandits take me, she mused in her head.


    But a feeling swept over her, one she¡¯d never felt before.


    Drive.


    Drive to escape, drive to complete a purpose, and drive to become complete.


    The feeling swirled in her, but also felt a little out of place. She lifted herself from the step she sat on and resolved to make it back to her big sister one way or another. And as she raised her head, she was met with a shocking sight.


    The skeleton.


    The skeleton had come back. And it looked like it was waiting for more commands.


    ¡°You- you did what I told you¡­¡±


    The skeleton nodded.


    ¡°y-you can hear me!? Without an ear!?¡±


    The skeleton tapped the side of his caved skull, which she took to mean their new bond let the undead listen in his own head.


    ¡°o-okay then, let¡¯s get out of these tunnels and back up to the forest, we¡¯ve got a bit of a walk back to the town¡±


    The skeleton nodded and the two companions (although one may be unwilling) began to scale the steps.

 chapter 7- a new-sance

    I hate this.


    Here, let me carry that bag for you


    This sucks.


    We can take a break if you need


    End me please.


    I¡¯m sure there¡¯s something for you to drink in here somewhere.


    Every step up is filled with agony. I can¡¯t be nice! I¡¯m a fearsome undead! I should be wreaking havoc and slaughtering households!


    Oh, mind your head here ma¡¯am


    Ma¡¯am? Seriously?


    What next? Milady?


    Hmm, not bad actually.


    ¡­


    What did I just say!?


    And what¡¯s this warm feeling in my torso!?


    Although it doesn¡¯t feel too bad¡­


    But that¡¯s beside the point! I can¡¯t just give up and like this! I need to fight and keep my drive.


    So let¡¯s just get to the top of the stairs.


    ***


    How far up do these stairs go?


    We¡¯ve been climbing them for ages, but there¡¯s nothing but more stairs as far as the eye can see (or just my eye can).


    Although it probably isn¡¯t made any faster by the frequent breaks we¡¯re having to make because of a certain human currently sat on the stairs.


    Breathing heavily.


    And the leaks have spread to her entire body, she¡¯s covered in some kind of shiny liquid coating.


    Speaking of coats. I should wear that cloak for her, I won¡¯t be weighed down as much and her skin should be able to dry off.


    Milady, do you mind if I- yes it¡¯s quite alright


    Ew ew ew ew


    I know I¡¯m a bunch of bones but this is disgusting. The liquid coating soaked into the cloak.


    It¡¯s soaking into my bones.


    ¡­


    ¡­


    IT¡¯S SOAKING INTO MY BONES!!!


    NO! I FEEL DIRTY! NOT TODAY!


    ***


    The girl looked on in shock and surprise. It had offered to carry her cloak while she rested on a step to catch her breath, then immediately started freaking out and ran full shamble up the stairs.


    ¡°Oh- but I still- huhhh¡± the girl stuttered breathlessly. And with a big deep breath hopped to her feet and began to follow.


    ***


    Well I¡¯m not running anymore.


    And why would that be? Simple.


    I ran into a door.


    And fell apart.


    My skull is rolling back down the stairs as I speak. It¡¯s quite the dizzying ride.


    Oh, wait. I think my skull just stopped bouncing. Now all that¡¯s left is for my vision to stop spinning.


    Slowing.


    Slower.


    Sloooooow.


    And I¡¯m starting to focus again.


    Shapes, I guess that means I¡¯m alright


    Oh, something¡¯s holding me.


    Hark, who doth saveth my head?


    ¡­


    Oh.


    It¡¯s the girl.


    Well Satan damn it. Now I¡¯m all grateful.


    I guess the question of to be or not to be has been answered.


    And I¡¯m having to accompany her as she picks up all my pieces and puts me back together.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Okay now we¡¯re all caught up with the last piece of my structure.


    I¡¯m just making sure there isn¡¯t any bones out of place, and after switching my ribcage the right way round I should be-


    ¡°We did it! We made it to the entrance of the dungeon! Isn¡¯t this great?¡±


    Well as long as the sun doesn¡¯t make me burst into flames then I guess-


    ¡°It sure is milady!¡±


    ¡­


    ¡­


    Okay what the heaven is going on.


    I¡¯ve been getting impressions even since I became this girls pet, but this just goes too far.


    ¡°Well you better get used to it, because whenever you get too out of line, I take the wheel!¡±


    Oh this is not going to be fun. I thought compulsion was bad with his switch sense nonesen-


    ¡°Oh yeah, compulsion just asked me to clarify that it should be called lich sense. Y¡¯know, like the undead magic lich type things?¡±


    Oh I knew right off the bat, it¡¯s just after compulsion got me into those messes I decided not to give it the time of night.


    ¡°That¡¯s cold mate. Oh yeah, you may wanna keep up with our mistress¡±


    This isn¡¯t over I still have a bone to pick with you impression.


    ¡°*snort*¡±


    Ignoring this, I follow the girl out through the door into the blinding light outside.


    This better not be the end.


    The sunlight hurts my eyes!


    And my bones.


    Somehow I think the sun may not be my friend.


    At least I still have this darned cloak over me. I pull the cape around my ribcage and the hood low over my skull.


    ¡°ahhh, doesn¡¯t the sun feel amazing?¡± the young mistress is saying.


    Well, milady, I think you just want me to-


    ¡°Of course it does milady!¡±


    One of these nights impression. One of these nights.


    Well this is a strange feeling.


    Some kind of dampening field is condensing around me. I can¡¯t see anything through my eye, but my lich sense- no don¡¯t get big headed compulsion I said until I was corrected- I could see an energy condense around me.


    Another thing, there¡¯s a ring of life-force the same as the young mistresses around me.


    *shudder*


    Did I really just refer to her like that voluntarily? Why am I being put through this? Why dark lord!? Why must you forsake me so!?


    ***


    The girl stretched out, basking in the golden rays cascading through the trees.


    The entrance to the tunnels was marked by a small fenced in stable area, a sign post, and the heavy wooden door standing in the tunnels entrance in the middle of a dense forest.


    ¡°ahhh, doesn¡¯t the sun feel amazing?¡± the girl sighed, feeling at last like the worst had passed.


    The skeleton on the other hand had dropped to the floor, the only trace of him was the crumpled cloak on the floor.


    The girl cocked her head to the side, her new familiar had become like a hermit in the sun, but she felt as if it was responding happily whenever she spoke.


    It stayed there for a good fifteen minutes before starting to unsteadily rise from the ground, brownish streaks burned into the white bone, mimicking the rays of light dancing through the leaves.


    But as it stood, the light seemed to hit a barrier coating the bones of the skeletal familiar, blocking the majority of the light, and giving it a darker, shadier appearance, as if dipped in shadows. But as quickly as the shadows had appeared, they faded out of sight, but kept the light from burning it further.


    Protected from the light, it stood ready by the girl¡¯s side, and drew the dagger from its broken ribcage, ready to start on the old dirt track leading away from the tunnels.


    ***


    Well, no point in waiting around, now that the light is bearable and I can see through my eye again.


    I pull out the dagger and get ready to start on the road to wherever young mistress calls home.


    *shudder*


    I really hope I can stop calling her that soon


    But anyway, I guess all I can do is wait for her to start moving, however long that might take.


    Darn it mistress *shudder* would you stop breathing and start ordering me to do something. Preferably killing something.


    ¡°M-mister skeleton, I think we should get moving, we could get ambushed by wolves or something if we just stand here¡±


    I nod in reply, determined not to break to milady again.


    ¡­


    Not a word from either of you. Especially not you impression.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not me pal. Honestly I don¡¯t see the problem.¡±


    Hey! I said not a word!


    ¡°Okay, okay¡±


    Good, now onwards!


    Oh.


    I¡¯ve been walking the along beside her the whole time. Sour.


    I think.


    This forest sure is dense, other than the path we¡¯re, on its either brown or green, with a few shadowy black spots in the gaps.


    I¡¯m surprised that mistress is so calm. It¡¯s almost as dark as the tunnels, but she¡¯s just walking along like an evening stroll.


    Maybe it¡¯s a living thing.


    But Satan damn is this taking forever. How far can this path go?


    Are we there yet?


    ¡­


    Are we there yet?


    ¡°Yes¡±


    Really?


    ¡°No¡±


    The moment I find a way to get rid of you I swear I¡¯ll make you disappear for good.


    Oh, the path is getting a little wider, we might be coming to an opening or some kind of road.


    Well.


    It¡¯s no road but it¡¯ll have to do. It¡¯s more like a grove of trees with lots of weird coloured things hanging from it.


    *thud*


    Ah! Unholy crap man don¡¯t scare me like that!


    Oh wait, you¡¯re dead.


    ¡°Th-th-that¡¯s a thief!¡±


    Milady is shouting about thieves, I suppose it does look like a pretty shady corpse, but I doubt it¡¯ll be picking any pockets in that state.


    Mangled arms, gashed legs, and pinkish-grey stuff coming out the head. Probably brains.


    Brains.


    Now there¡¯s a thought!


    I scoop up the brain mush and slip it as carefully as possible through the big hole in my skull.


    Unfortunately is just slid right back out again, smearing my spinal column with the mushed grey matter.


    That was a word I never thought I¡¯d use.


    Or thought I knew.


    I go back to rooting though the brains of this dead thief, which is very difficult since he¡¯s wearing a hood and cloth mask.


    I find the biggest chunk I can find (which just about a handful, but a little smaller) and drop it in the hole.


    ¡­


    ¡­


    THOTH! ATHENA! MINERVA!


    Woo! what a rush!


    No, wait, it¡¯s gone.


    But the dagger feels more¡­ at home in my hand, and I can call up a few swings.


    *rumble*


    That doesn¡¯t sound good


    *snap*


    That sounds worse


    *crash*


    Wait, how am I hearing this? I don¡¯t have ears yet.


    I quickly check to find another bats ear on top of my head, and turn to mistress, who is looking around me in paralysed fear.


    I turn slowly, getting a really uncomfortable feeling, and face the terrible monster before me.


    Through my eye, I see an ogre. A stony skinned brute, with a round (but bumpy and warty) stomach. And thick arms dragging its short legs behind it.


    But my lich sense- no compulsion I told you not to get a big head- is showing the green that the zombies showed. It¡¯s an infected ogre.


    I take up stance in front of my mistress. I don¡¯t want to or know why, but I do.


    ¡°It¡¯s because she¡¯s the sweet and caring mistress we all love!¡±


    No, that¡¯s not it. And keep quiet if you want us to have a chance at surviving!


    The ogre stares at me.


    Or rather, through me, and squints for a long while before turning and crushing its way through the forest again.


    I drop my arm and slump over with relief.


    I¡¯m alive


    I¡¯M ALIVE!


    ***


    The girl fell back, verging on tears. Her new familiar had just gone picking through the remains of the thief¡¯s head. Then she started hearing the sounds of something big on its way.


    She quickly placed yet another bats ear on its head to get its attention.


    The girl had thought mister skeleton was just going to run, but stood rigid between her and the ogre, and for some reason, it worked.


    The ogre defied its own logic and just left.


    Maybe it was because we¡¯re so weak? She thought.


    And so the girl was there, sat on the floor with tears of horror, fear and gratitude mixing down her dirty cheeks.

 chapter 8- the short road ahead

    The girl stayed paralysed on the ground for a time. Her legs feeling as solid as the slimes back in the tunnels.


    Her mind was overloaded by the events of the day, and no time to rest to collect her thoughts. In the space of a day, she had been cornered and befriended by an undead, chased by a hoard of zombie slimes, pieced back together her newly acquired familiar after it fell apart, and now had come close to being another victim of an ogre attack.


    And that was after I¡¯d been left behind by that group, she sighed inwardly, her mind settling as she put all of the events of this tattered excuse of an adventure in order.


    But with this chance to rest and re-organise her mind, came a wave of dejection and worry.


    What if sis sees me come back and gets angry at me coming back? What if I was meant to die and the priestess orders me dead!? What if they call me a heretic for having an undead familiar and burn us as necromancers!?


    Her mind raced as these thoughts entered her mind, jarring and rattling any order from her mind. The tears flowing in torrents down her face, her sobs coming in great hiccups as the air spilled from her lungs and came back in gasps and gulps.


    Her mind darkened further still and brought her to a brink of despair that she¡¯d not experienced until what had happened had sunk in.


    But then, she felt something on her head. Hard feeling but gentle on her hair. She looked up through her bleary vision at the greyish, pinkish white blur surrounded by the browns and reds of all shades that made up her cloak.


    The skeleton had put away its weapon and was...


    Comforting me?


    She was brought back to the real world by the rhythmic movements of the skeletal hand stroking her hair. For some reason, she began feeling quite contented to be comforted in his way.


    She decided to let this continue for a while before coming up with a plan to get home


    ***


    I¡¯M SCARED!


    I DID NOT CONCENT!


    IMPRESSION! WHAT THE HEAVEN DID YOU DO!?


    Nothing I swear! This ones all you pal


    What do you mean ¡°all me¡±? I¡¯ve made it very clear I hate this! And now I can¡¯t control my movements.


    You did this didn¡¯t you impression? You¡¯re taking over to help mistress


    Firstly, I thought you were fighting the urge to call milady that? And secondly, I don¡¯t take over unless you¡¯re about to violate familiar contract terms!


    What the heaven is a contract!?


    Well under subsec- wait seriously? You don¡¯t know what a contract is?


    Oh of course I do, I just asked for a laugh


    Was that sarcasm? I can¡¯t tell with you sometimes


    Yes impression, it was SATAN DAMNED SARCASM! NOW TELL ME WHATS GOING ON!


    Alright alright, calm down, no need to get rattled. I think it¡¯s just the way familiars work.


    Really helpful, anything more, oh I don¡¯t know¡­ specific!?


    You know for a skeleton you sure do let stuff get under your skin. At any rate, normally creatures become subservient right away, but it seems as if you¡¯re holding onto the mind you had before it and it¡¯s conflicting with your newfound desire to please milady.


    I thought that¡¯s what you were for?


    Me too, I probably showed up to stop your mind from overloading from the struggle.


    Okay, I¡¯m done with the lessons for now, I¡¯ll wait with bated breath for your next interruption.


    Right


    Y¡¯know, if I actually breathed


    I got that


    Okay, now back to the matter at hand.


    Mistress we can¡¯t do this all d-


    Where¡¯d she go?


    How long have I been moving my hand over nothing?


    I turn quickly to find where she¡¯s gone.


    I look at the gap in the trees formed by the ogre.


    Not there.


    Up the way we came?


    I don¡¯t think that she¡¯d be that stupid


    Of course she wouldn¡¯t! She¡¯s our mistress after all!


    Oh back so soon impression? Joy of joys


    Well someone definitely knows how to make someone feel wanted


    Moving on.


    I turn back to the grove of trees. I think those colourful things were called fruit.


    And there she is, plain as day.


    Standing out in the open.


    Right after a zombified ogre passed through.


    What was that you were saying about mistress impression?


    Be quiet, the comforting thing seems to have really perked her up, we¡¯ll be right there milady!


    I guess we will. Onwards and upwards as they say


    As who say?


    I don¡¯t know, it must be the people who say it


    Your wisdom knows no bounds


    Back to what I have to deal with outside of my mind, mistress seems to be waiting for me so we can get going.


    I catch up to her and wait for her to order.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Satan I hope this can stop soon.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go home *mutters*¡±


    What was that milady? I didn¡¯t quite catch that.


    Oh, okay then, I¡¯m sure if it was important you speak clearly about it.


    And awayyyy we go!


    ***


    *muttering* ¡°¡­even if my sister doesn¡¯t like it¡±


    Even with the comfort giving her new energy and determination, she still doubted her place in her sister¡¯s life.


    Yet, despite her thoughts being dark, and entering the towns territory with an undead in tow was near suicide, she kept her head as high as she would allow (which admittedly still left her looking slightly downtrodden).


    The kindness and protection the undead beside her had shown to her was like a sign to her.


    No matter how weak she felt, or how helpless she was, she believed with all her heart that the world wanted her to live, and had sent the skeleton to make sure she did.


    ***


    If only I had taken that left when I was running without feet!


    I could have carried on and found feet another way.


    Maybe.


    Hopefully.


    And now through complete chance I¡¯ve ended up forced into being familiar to milady.


    Even if it can seem like a good life at times.


    Ugh¡­


    If I had a stomach I probably would have thrown up just now.


    But at least we¡¯re travelling. I could come across more bones and complete myself. Or maybe I would have been able to find enough of other skeletons to take parts from in the tunnels.


    Don¡¯t see a point worrying though I suppose.


    Things can only get better, right?


    And I guess even though there¡¯s way too much light, these trees are nice to look at.


    The grove seems like it goes down for miles.


    How far out is this place?


    Can¡¯t you just put a town next to it? I need to cause some kind of misery before milady¡¯s familiar mind-wiping takes me completely.


    Being good can¡¯t be that bad can it?


    I wouldn¡¯t know, never tried it. But I can feel it, I was made to hurt people wasn¡¯t I?


    I wouldn¡¯t know, I only came around when you kept fighting the familiar alterations.


    Point taken.


    No compulsion, I doubt you¡¯d know either.


    Yeah compulsion, prove you¡¯re useful and maybe we¡¯ll listen to what you want.


    ***


    The girl walked along the centre of the long stretch of grass, where the shade of the trees parted, and the sunlight soaked into the skin not covered by armour or clothing.


    This gave her a small respite from the constant stream of dark scenarios that played through her mind about when she would return home.


    The sunlight warmed her through as they pressed on the long stretch of the wild groves, a natural orchard of wild fruits. A mystery as to how it formed in such perfect rows, but it was this mystery that stopped people eating their produce.


    The girl made a side glance at her companion.


    She¡¯d found that apart from its interactions with her, it seemed to be in a constant state of thought.


    Its eye looked vacant while they were walking and she pondered what a docile lich would think about.


    Even if it was just a strangely unfortunate skeleton, this kind of thing happening outside of necromancy was unheard of. There were no cases of undead familiars. Only ones taken control of by dark mages delving into forbidden magics.


    A shiver ran through her.


    Partly at the thought of the minds twisted enough to bring back bodies and trap their souls to walk the earth as forsaken monsters, but also at the fact that is exactly what it looked like she had done.


    She shook her head in disagreement.


    No, she thought, this one is different. It¡¯s saved me more than once, and before it had become my familiar too.


    With this thought beginning to fill her mind, she looked towards the sky with a rigid mask of determination, clenching her fists in front of her.


    And immediately had to flinch back as her eyes had looked directly at the sun.


    She whined quietly to herself as she kept walking with blue patches blocking her vision.


    ***


    In the middle of an argument with impression, I noticed a sudden movement to my side.


    Mistress was covering her eyes and seemed to be in pain.


    Oh my Satan what happened milady!?


    I take my eye off you for one moment and you go and get hurt!


    I reach into the bag of supplies to find a potion for her, before realising she¡¯s completely unharmed, but seems dazed.


    Geez, don¡¯t scare me like that mistress.


    ¡­


    Why Satan? Why have I been forsaken? I don¡¯t even think I¡¯ve been around long enough to do THAT much good.


    Which begs the question: WHY DO I HAVE TO CARE ABOUT THIS HUMAN!?


    So now I¡¯m walking along with a mistress who seems to not be able to see in front of her, and a wolf running up at her with its teeth bared.


    WAIT WHAT!?!?


    I reach for my dagger moving as fast as I can and leap in front of the wolf, catching it as it pounces.


    Nope.


    Once it collides with me I fly back with it, only just knocking it off course and avoiding mistress.


    I drive my dagger across the animal¡¯s side, but to my dismay all it does is shave some fur off and make it angry with me.


    How do I know this? Easy.


    It has my arm.


    The arm currently holding the dagger. Not to mention the only arm I have right now.


    It shakes its head, intent on ravaging the already broken lengths of bone.


    So I¡¯m reduced to aiming kicks at it¡¯s under belly until it lets go of the arm.


    Damn.


    Its let go of the arm but now it¡¯s on top of me trying to snap every bone its jaws can get around.


    But it made one fatal flaw. It left the arm close by.


    Using a leg, I kick the arm over to the empty socket. Waiting for my life-force to spread into it once again.


    Just a little longer- no doggy! - A bit more.


    Satan damn it, the dagger is too far.


    I guess this will have to do


    *squelch* *squish*


    That¡¯s right, who needs weapons when your fingers are thin enough to jab eyes out?


    Huh, that move felt quite enjoyable, got to remember that.


    I take the chance of the wolf pulling back, a bloody hole where one eye used to be, and leap out from under it to grab my dagger.


    I take stance, holding the blade backwards ready to stab down.


    Oh you¡¯re no fun, it¡¯s just an eye! What are you running off for!?


    I relax my stance a little, remembering what it was I was protecting.


    I turn to mistress to check if she¡¯s okay.


    She blinks a few times and rubs her eyes, focussing slowly on the me in front of her, which starts the barrage of apologies and red faces.


    Well, face.


    ***


    I can¡¯t believe how lucky we¡¯ve been! So far there hasn¡¯t been even one wolf!


    The girl thought cheerily as they plodded along.


    They two companions had reached the end of the forest and were now strolling down a wide dusty path, the treeline receding on the left, and open grassland on the right.


    Every step sent a shock of nerves through her. They were getting closer.


    Closer to home.


    But what if I¡¯m not welcome at home anymore? Her thoughts wandered to this question as they crept ever closer to the farmed plains masked by a single line of scraggly trees, most of which had long died.


    Fence posts began to line the path, giving off and enclosed atmosphere. This greatly comforted the girl. Yet as they drew closer to the line of trees and a small shack with a chicken coop and a fenced area meant for larger animals came into view, the nerves threatened to bring the girl to gaging on her own breath.


    Leaning against the fence post, head in hands, was a woman, being comforted by a young noble looking character.


    Although comforting would be an over statement. Every time a hand was gingerly outstretched to her, the hand would be waved away weakly.


    The girl recognised both of them instantly.


    Conflicted as to whether she should yell out or run away. She stood stock still, a good twenty metres apart.


    The skeleton stood beside the girl, giving her the jolt back to reality that she needed.


    She had to do this. She had to face whatever her sister had to say, or do.


    She walked forward slowly, almost silently, as her size meant there was very little crunch of dust and gravel underfoot.


    When she had reached five metres away from them. The noble looking leader that abandoned her stood there stunned in a resplendent display of expensively embroidered clothes.


    The woman he had been attempting to touch spoke to him.


    ¡°Just¡­ just let me be. I d-don¡¯t want you here¡± she sobbed. Her voice was one that sounded strong, but had had all its life and strength drained from it.


    The leader didn¡¯t respond. All he could do was stare in horror at the sight of the girl before them.


    The woman looked up to check if the man had left, but followed his gaze when she saw the expression plastered over his face.


    Her tear streaked visage turned to face the girl, not fully comprehending the sight before her.


    The woman took two shaky steps forward, the shock evidently sinking in.


    ¡°I-I¡¯m back big sis¡± the girl offered, casting a weak and worried smile.


    At this point the woman raced forward and dropped to her knees before the girl. Although this still left her able to press her face into the girls shoulder, as the woman was almost twice the girl¡¯s height. She wrapped her arms around the girl and began to whine out soft sobs.


    The girl stood stunned for a split second before her own arms wound around the back of her older sister¡¯s head, and let her tears flow freely.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know w-what to do when I heard you hadn¡¯t m-made it!¡± the older sister wailed, ¡°I d-didn¡¯t want it t-to be true¡±.


    The older sisters last line petered into a whimper, the girl quickly joined the tear filled exclamations.


    ¡°B-b-big sis! I was so sc-scared! After that j-jerk left me behind, I th-thought you w-wouldn¡¯t want me to c-c-come back!¡± the girl bawled her eyes out to her older sister, seeing how distraught the thought of her not coming back had made her sister.


    But her sister had stopped crying and shaking. She leant away from her little sister, her face growing colder.


    She turned her head slightly and called back.


    ¡°y-you said you did everything¡± the sister began standing up, strength returning to her voice.


    ¡°You said you were overrun and she was taken before you had a chance to react¡±


    The girl¡¯s older sister turned, her farm developed muscles involuntarily tensing, her voice rising from a growl to a roar.


    ¡°YOU TOLD ME MY SISTER WAS DEAD YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!¡±


    The older sister charged at the young man, the only reaction he had managed to express before he was lifted off the ground by the front of his tunic was fear.


    And with a loud animalistic roar, the big sister threw the man through a fence.