Ryle was beyond exhausted. Ever since being separated from the group with Avarice, they had hiked all day and been forced to fight throngs of soldiers they chanced upon along the way. Between the traveling and the brawls he had had next to no time for sleep. He was more or less dead on his feet, and they had once again stumbled upon a small troop of Kailarian troops.
Ryle clumsily jumped away from the sword of the soldier. He gripped his own sword with two hands and did his best to parry the attacks. The soldier skillfully thrust and sliced through the air, and Ryle just barely evaded the blows. The soldier kept up his attack, and Ryle found himself being backed into the bank of a river rushing through the forest.
As he stepped back once more, his foot landed in the frigid water. Momentarily distracted, he didn’t notice the sword swinging full force towards his head, or the figure that came from nowhere and kicked Ryle out of the way.
What the hell!” Ryle yelled as he emerged, dripping wet, from the freezing river. He blushed, realizing what he said. “I mean, uh, what the heck!”
Avarice glared at the soaked figure before surveying the body lying on the rocky bank. “Is that any way to thank me?” he asked condescendingly. “Unless you wanted to be a corpse, you owe me for your life. In fact, even if you did wish to die, you owe me.”
Ryle stared at the body of the soldier he had been battling with moments before and sputtered with embarrassment, “I could have taken care of him!” Avarice simply raised an eyebrow, and Ryle slumped. “All right, I suppose you are right… I thank you,” he mumbled, climbing out of the river, only to slip and fall back in.
Avarice laughed unabashedly. “I honestly don’t see how you’ve survived this long.”
Ryle shrugged, drained of emotion as he wearily pulled himself from the water again. “I suppose I am just lucky. I have never had any training, as it’s not hard to protect the herds from wild animals. As long as you are loud and look big they will stay away. People are a different matter entirely,” he said, stretching out on the embankment and yawning.
“You know, you’re good at fighting. Do you think you could teach me, by any chance?” Ryle asked, blinking sleepily.
Avarice opened his mouth to reply, but Ryle was already dead to the world, sleeping for the first time in what felt like weeks.
