(28) The Undead

When Roxane didn't tell her anything on what had occurred, Diana pouted. Otherwise, she stopped pestering Roxane for details. Perhaps she had heard Roxane telling the wizard to leave the room, and surmised what had happened between the two. Whatever thoughts went through her head to make her stop asking, Roxane was grateful.

They went to bed, but Roxane hardly got any sleep as she kept seeing the image of the wizard's shocked face. She didn't think she had a bad figure, actually quite the opposite. She loved showing off her curves at every chance she could get. It stemmed from her need to shock the other priests and priestesses at the temple.

What did the wizard Kian think about her body? He was frozen on the spot as soon as his violet eyes landed on her tanned skin. Did he perhaps think she looked beautiful? Roxane couldn't deny that she wanted him to think that of her. Her initial embarrassment was completely overshadowed by her desire to find out his thoughts.

While Diana slept peacefully on the bed next to her, Roxane stewed in her thoughts. She replayed the scene over and over again inside her head, remembering the way Kian's face seemed to change, if only just briefly. Roxane had managed to bring out an emotion from him. It excited her.

Covered in darkness, Roxane happily smiled to herself.

The next morning, she woke up feeling indescribably tired, but in a good mood. Diana looked perplexed by her wildly changing expressions, but didn't bother asking her any questions.

Diana and Roxane were prepared to leave by the time they heard one quick knock at their door. They grabbed their stuff and exited the room.

Roxane couldn't wait until she saw Kian, but as soon as her eyes saw the figure of the man outside the inn, she felt embarrassed all over again. She found she couldn't look him directly even as she willed herself to speak to him.

She gave up trying to approach him, and let Thatcher help her onto the horse. He hadn't let her strap her packed satchel to the saddle and instead took it from her and did it himself. Then he lifted himself up behind her, straddling the horse between his thighs.

Roxane looked up, her eyes accidentally meeting up with Kian's. Quickly, she turned her head to avoid his gaze.

"Let's go." Thatcher spurred his horse forward, and they set off again. This time, Roxane made an effort to talk to Diana, hoping she could begin making up for the way she acted the previous days. Luckily for her, Diana was hoping to do the same and in no time at all, the two women were back to their usual selves.

Halfway through the day Roxane switched horses and began riding with Diana, holding onto her like Diana had done to Roxane when they first began their trip.

"You're right," Roxane said into Diana's ear, "you are getting the hang of this." Roxane had to admit as the day dragged on, Diana had talent riding horses. The smaller woman held onto the reins lightly but she still was able to steer the horse without any trouble. She felt her friend was better at handling the horse, possibly more than she ever could.

"Really?" Diana said ecstatically over her shoulder, the green of her eyes vibrant as ever. "I'm glad you think so too." Diana kept a ghost of a smile on her lips as they rode, content after receiving a compliment from Roxane.

Roxane smiled too. If Diana was happy after getting such a simple compliment from her, then she was happy too.

She found herself slowly getting sleepy, and she locked her hands together around Diana's figure. Roxane could feel her eyelids drooping and she thought it would be alright if she closed her eyes for a little bit. She rested her forehead on Diana's back.

Her eyes closed for only a second before opening back up when a voice spoke up from behind her.

"Don't fall asleep. You'll fall." Kian's voice immediately made her sleepiness go away. She looked behind to see the wizard watching her warily with his violet eyes. Her heart fluttered as her eyes took him all in, from his silver earring to his ashen hair.

She nodded her thanks, looking at him briefly before she thought she couldn't keep a straight face anymore, and turned her head to face forward again.

Roxane didn't dare turn her head, even when she felt Kian spur his horse, bringing him forward and overtaking their horse. She watched him as he rode next to Thatcher up in the front. It appeared as if he was talking to Thatcher. Whatever he spoke to Thatcher about, it caused the other man to look over his shoulder at the two women. Then he turned back to Kian and nodded his head to the wizard.

They rode on for a few minutes more before stopping for a short rest, during which Thatcher took out his map and studied it.

"We're heading to a small village so the possibility of it not having an inn is high, but we'll take the risk. It's only a couple of minutes away if we take the path to the east of the road."

Kian nodded, "Good. Let's do that."

They got back on their horses and took the eastern small dirt path that stemmed from the main road. Before long, they found themselves deep into the forest. Just as Thatcher had said, it didn't take much longer before they reached the village.

As they approached the village, Roxane felt Diana shiver. The village seemed completely devoid of people, with no one in sight even though the houses looked relatively new. All the gardens of the locals looked like they hadn't been tended to for a couple of weeks, many plants looked already dead.

"What happened here?" Roxane wondered aloud, her voice breaking the silence of the surrounding area. Diana shivered again.

"Are you cold?" She asked Diana, who only nodded, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

Thatcher got off his horse, holding up a hand so that the others didn't follow him. He took out his sword and went through the village, going from house to house. Kian did the same. When they come back, they looked at each other, silently having a conversation between the two of them.

"Has the village been abandoned?" Roxane cut through their conversation and the two men peered up at her. Thatcher was the one who responded to her.

"It looks that way. We'll use one of the houses and rest here for the night."

Diana seemed to not like the idea, and she shook her head.

"I don't feel right about this." Diana said, her eyes seemed to be peering out into the forest around the village. Then she shivered again.

Roxane got worried and reached up to feel her friend's forehead.

"You are cold." She recoiled when her hand touched Diana's skin. She had never gotten this cold before. It was like Diana had been dunked into freezing water. Then she noticed blue on Diana's lips and her golden eyes widened.

"Kian," she called out to the only person she thought would be able to help her, "she's so cold. Her lips are blue!" Both of the men hurried to Roxane and Diana and they helped the shivering woman off of the horse. Roxane pushed through her pain and quickly got off of the horse to follow behind as the men helped Diana into one of the houses.

"I'll light a fire." Kian went to the house's fireplace and flames burst out of his fingertips and onto the logs. Before long, the fire began to crackle to life.

Roxane took a blanket and wrapped it around her friend, directing her to sit down on one of the couches. Then she took another blanket and wrapped it around Diana's body when she heard her teeth begin to chatter together. She knelt in front of Diana, her face full of worry when she saw her friend's blue lips deepen in color.

"What is happening to her?" She exclaimed, desperately looking around the immediate vicinity for another blanket.

"It could be related to her Holy Powers." Thatcher knelt beside her, observing the shivering Diana with his stormy eyes. "Or it could be something entirely different. Kian?"

"Her reaction is similar to those of Demeskan descent whenever they sensed dark energy." Kian shook his head. "Unfortunately that's all I know about the people. They are said to be very closed off to the rest of the world."

Roxane stood up and ran out the house, going over to the horses to grab all of their blankets. She stopped in her tracks when she saw a stumbling form of a person just outside the village. The man seemed not at all there as he kept walking towards the village. Just behind him stumbled two more bodies from out of the forest.

Roxane felt her blood run cold as she saw the bodies multiplying, appearing from out of the tree's shadows. Soon, a small horde of these bodies were steadily making their way towards them.

She sniffed the air, a scent of something truly putrid filled her nostrils, but there was also a hint of something else. Magic.

Roxane ran back into the house, her arms dropping the blankets without thinking.

"Kian!" She yelled as she entered. "There's people outside. A lot of them. They are heading this way and they don't look right in their mind."

Kian looked at her face and ran outside. Thatcher followed him and they both stared at the stumbling bodies that have completely surrounded the village. Roxane was startled when she heard Kian shout out a string of profanities.

"Undead." His violet eyes were hard as he looked at living corpses. "There's a necromancer in this area." He curses again.

"Kian," Thatcher interrupted as another string of the wizard's curses was leaving his lips, "what do we need to do?"

"You can forget using your sword, slashing them will only slow them down. The only real way to stop them is fire."

Thatcher's eyes cut to her, his grey eyes looked at her, and she knew what he was going to say before the words left his lips.

"Do you think you can transform?" He was talking about her wounds, but Roxane's heart sank all the same. They did not know her biggest secret.

She licked her lips as dread began to fill her.

"I don't think I can." She whispered. "I still haven't fully healed and moving in my other form will be difficult."

Thatcher shook his head.

"You don't need to move. You just need to breathe fire."

Roxane looked at him, terrified and unable to speak a single word. Kian stepped in and answered for her.

"She probably can't because of the wound on her stomach." She began to say that wasn't the reason, but she clamped her mouth shut. The true reason why she couldn't was much more tragic than that.

"Go inside." Thatcher directed her and before she could protest, he seemed to know exactly what to say to her to convince her to leave. "Diana needs you." She looked into his eyes, but ultimately did as she was told.

Inside, Diana was shivering with much more intensity than before. Her body trembled with such force that Roxane immediately hugged her body close to her, not knowing what else she could do to help.

Then she heard the battle begin. Thatcher's sword could be heard from inside the house, hacking and slashing as it met with human flesh. She heard him shout Kian's name and she turned her head to try to peer out the window to see if she could gain any idea to what was happening outside.

Her eyes looked out the window just in time to see the wizard bringing up his hands, sending out a wall of fire towards a line of stumbling Undead. Behind him, Thatcher sliced off the head of another and flipped his sword to cut down another.

Even while inside, she could tell they would soon be overrun by the horde.

"Sit tight Diana." She kissed her friend's forehead. Diana didn't respond, she only watched sadly as Roxane detached herself from her shivering form. "I have to go help them." Then she turned around and went out the door.