"So your name was Tarman...."
I had made my way to the other fresh grave. 𝘏𝘶𝘩....𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘶𝘴, 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘛𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥... 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦? 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵.
"Hahhhhhh.....well....I'll just fill in the gaps as I go... somehow."
I ended up leaving another question left unanswered to my future self. That seems like the right choice right? YUP, that seems good! 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘶𝘺! 𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦!
Back to the matter at hand, first I'll test the line of sight requirement again. Gertrude was a skeleton, so that negated the test earlier.
"Arise and serve me."
".....well that's a wash, I guess I do need line of sight. That or he has been dead too long. Well, only one way to find out I guess. Forgive me Tarman."
I started digging with my hands and eventually came up with...𝘰𝘩 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴. I suddenly tasted a bit of acid in my mouth, I think I might of just half vomited. Like a vurp sans the burp (ᴀɴ: ᴠᴜʀᴘ = ᴠᴏᴍɪᴛ + ʙᴜʀᴘ). They had definitely not cleaned up the corpse before putting him in the ground. The memory of Tarman's head almost exploding came back to me. It looked exactly like it did when it happened....except now the flesh was rotting and things were wiggling around in it.
Again, it wasn't the smell that did it to me, but the sight....*𝘷𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴*
I was unable to hold down the urge to vomit, but good news is that I hadn't eaten much so it was mostly liquid. I'm a lucky guy like that.
I really need to get used to this some how, as a 𝙉𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧 I assume I won't be able to escape these kind of scenes............𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘳𝘦-𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘫𝘰𝘣? 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦? 𝘕𝘰? 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬...𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯.
I took a deep breath and looked back at Tarman. I really wanted to look away, but I had made the resolve to face my actions. If I closed my eyes and cast the spell I could delude myself into thinking this was more of a game than reality. This isn't a game, an innocent person died in gruesome way, and I was here to enslave them to do my bidding. I always, ALWAYS need to have the resolve to look them in the face if I want to do this.... well whatever is left of it anyways.
"Arise and serve me."
**********
I was making my way through the forest with Tarman in tow. It seems the corpse was fresh enough to cast [𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞] successfully. I had the zombie Tarman get some dirt from outside the graveyard to fill the hole while I kept a look out. After that I immediately headed to the forest to complete the quest.
I had to be quick, Tarman would only last for half a day as far as I knew, and I couldn't take him anywhere else besides the forest. People look at you funny when a person missing two thirds of their head is following you around ya know?
I followed the general direction that the quest card told me using physical markers, and after a while I saw a cave entrance in a clearing up ahead. There was a white rabbit with a horn on its head lying in the sun in front of the mouth of the cave that looked exactly like the creatures I saw in the illusion.
Well, I guess it is time to get work. 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘸𝘺 𝘷𝘦𝘸𝘺 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵, 𝘐'𝘮 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘴!