Painful Awakenings

Yeah getting the snot beat out of me definitely not in my plans yet waking up in someone's house when the last thing I remember was a heck a fight in the street is more than a little disconcerting to say the least. I found myself laying on a bed that was maybe a size too small and practically right on the floor though I was certainly not complaining after all I was pretty certain that some time during the fight I'd taken a dagger to the side and that I'd probably stabbed someone else myself but it was a blur and I was in no shape to go looking for a rematch that was for sure. Once my grogginess wore off I realized that I hurt everywhere in a low throbbing ache that sucked so much that breathing was difficult and forget sitting up so I tried to roll myself onto my side and get my feet under me but there simply wasn't enough strength in my abused muscles to stand and when I tried I had a stabbing pain in my side that stopped me breathing and made me near black out so I just lay there focusing on just breathing for now. Pain was my life for the first few days that I was healing and those days were so tiring and boring that I spent hours laying there and eating whenever my hosts brought me food it was mostly porridge with the occasional scrap of meat and a thin slice of bread that I had to choke down because it was so dry it might have made a good impression of a rock. I kept at it for my resting days I'd spend lost in my latest book trying to decipher its hidden meanings and lore and I found what might be a new spell though I had no chance to test it out but supposedly it was a healing spell that would mend minor wounds and slow bleeding.

Learning a new spell when I can't use it but it would be great yeah definitely a plot by some evil god bent on my suffering though it was good to have it for the future at least if nothing else it would be better than healing the normal way somewhat. My body slowly healed and I was soon able to properly thank my hosts who it turned out took me in at the behest of the slimy bastard who had created the situation to begin with I suppose he figured I might reconsider his offer if I was going to be getting the benefits of his coins but he was sadly mistaken because as soon as I was healthy enough to travel I packed my bags and fled to the forest and ran as fast as my feet could carry me and I left my meager money for my hosts as I owed them a little bit for taking care of me even if their time was paid for. My escape proved to be harder than I would have thought as soon after I had escaped into the forest I could hear hounds barking and then I had an idea and so I pushed myself hard while I dug out my pouch of fragrant herbs and spread them liberally on my tracks and then I hurried on hopefully my herbs would slow them down until I could find a river large enough that I could submerge myself and lose most of my scent.

Nothing is as unpleasant as finding out just how far someone is willing to go to own your soul and I'd doubt you could find two people like this man who would dedicate this much effort for someone else honestly I had no idea what I might have done to receive this level of attention from anyone the only thing in recent memory was clearing the goblin cave which I only used one spell and that I'd made certain that no one else was nearby before I'd used it this however wasn't because of that I was certain. After running all day I came to a small river and quickly had a good dunk and keeping in the water I traveled maybe two miles up river before I headed inland and made a trail leading into the forest before I backtracked to the river and swam down stream as fast as I could and managed to get something like six miles down from where I'd started before I crossed back to the side of the river I'd started on making certain to obscure my tracks. It was a week before I felt safe again though it was much longer before I trusted anyone again after all I'd nearly become a enslaved minion for a crime boss who thought I could really fight.

It was a long boring walk back to what might be called civilization though I was heading towards a hopefully more friendly kingdom or more open minded when it came to magic anyway. I had kept up a path across the empire in the hopes that when I entered the kingdom of Arlefy on the other side it would be a much more magic friendly place and here I had been within a week of the border and now completely off track and with no idea if I was moving closer or farther away with every step it kind of makes you feel that there might be some evil deity looking over your shoulder plotting nasty things to happen to you. I knew that in any kind of fair fight that unless it was against a blind pacifist it would probably not end well for me at my current skill level which I resolved to rectify in some way as I knew that I could have used magic to win against those fools it would have cost me my entire capacity to cast spells for several hours and that left me with fewer options should something truly go wrong though to be fair I mostly held back my spells out of fear I'd kill someone. It was during my vapid musings that I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking and I stepped out onto open air windmilled my arms a moment and then proceeded down a probably survivable drop and onto a refuse pile of sand leaves and some scattered dung and dropping's it was not pleasant mostly because I broke my momentum down slope by crashing face first into a rather large and fresh pile of dung I can only say I will never speak of any details of that incident ever.

Finding myself at the bottom of a steep climb up a proverbial mountain of crap yeah not my first choice but if that's the only way out I'd have taken it I probably should have as what came next was worse I found the source of said mountain and I was just in time for a refresher. Yeah my day was pretty much ruined by the smell of my entire body and it wasn't like I could start yelling at the culprit as you just don't do that with dragons not and survive at least though to be honest I was glad I'd left my meager funds at the house to pay for my convalescence as dragons can smell gold from a mile away and they hate the smell of humans so maybe my vomit worthy shower was a blessing in disguise the it was dubious at best. Of the lore I knew of dragons they had excellent eyesight and hearing but would ignore slow moving creatures and so I took the gamble and started crawling away as quickly and quietly as I could though my progress was rather slow it was at least progress. Soon I'd passed out of direct line of sight so I picked up the pace hoping to get some distance between us and it went great right up until I tripped over a unseen helmet and made a hell of a mess and plenty of noise so much so that the dragon came over and went into guard mode practically on top of me and that brought me to a decision point try to sneak away again or do I take matters into my own hands.