Cold water

Raph woke up to the sound of thunder. It was already night and heavy rainfall accompanied by bolts of lightning descended on earth.

'crap.. im alive?'

His body felt like a mush of broken bones mixed with bloody paste and smeared inside a cheap armor. Pounding headache constantly assaulted his temples and with each breath he could feel liquid inside his lungs.

'where am i..?'

He lifted his eyes and tried to see something in the pitch black. When another bolt hit, the surrounding area was illuminated and became bright for a few seconds. He was laying on a pile of debris from the destroyed fort that the current collected and flushed on a tiny island.

'damn.. is this reality or is it hell..'

Raph pushed his elbows down and started slowly crawling towards the sand. His body kept screaming at him to stop but he ground his teeth and kept moving. Staying on a piece of rock or wood that could float away at anytime meant sure death. He wasn't sure how he survived falling off the cliff but right now it didn't matter. All he had to was survive. The lightning hit again and he could swear he saw a beautiful human figure. With bright eyes the color of the sea and most beautiful smile he had ever seen, She smiled at him and disappeared.

He bit down on his tongue and kept crawling.

'I can't die here.. I won't let those bastards have you..'

He finally reached the sand and sprawled on his back next to a dead body.

'I trained my ass off for four years, and it was all for nothing..'

Raph lifted his bloodied arm and studied the candidate mark etched into his wrist.

Black ink formed a four leaf lotus crossed with two sabers, symbolizing the empire and his occupation as a soldier. Normally, every candidate was supposed to be chosen by a god at the end of their four year training on a day known as the Ritual. It was the most popular ceremony in the empire, with arenas where it took place attended by thousands of people.

During that day, all the candidates would duel until there was only one victor. After the performance they would take a sacrifice and place it on the altar of the preferred god who could choose to accept it. Generally, even if one god rejected it, another god would accept the sacrifice. It was extremely rare to be rejected twice, and unheard of to be rejected by every god.

'six times.. guess thats a record..'

There was not much a reject like him could hope to do. Those that weren't chosen were frowned upon, because of the resources wasted on them and their displeasure with gods.

The whole reason he came to this god-forsaken fort was just so that he could earn some money and slay some of the water-god bastards.

Everything was supposed to change on the day of the ritual. He should have been chosen by one of the gods and became a blessed. Instead, all of the wretches turned his backs on him and left him for naught. Even the worst of the worst, the wormiest of the candidates found someone to worship. Everyone except him. Before kicking him out, followers of the Water god decided to celebrate their new blessings by taking away a few dozen virgin girls from the palace, among which was the only girl that ever managed to stir something in his heart. His vision slowly started darkening.

'Damn, it was atleast a day or two since i've last had water. Im about to die..'

He turned on his stomach and slowly got on top of the corpse next to him. The sea water was not drinkable and there wasn't any water in near sight that could be drank. He put his lips to the neck of the deceased man and bit down. After a few bites, lukewarm liquid with metallic taste started flowing into his mouth. Raph drank a few mouthfuls and then skid next to the man. He was middle aged with robes depicting the sea and trident of the water god.

'Must have been killed by another blessed at the fort.. rot in hell bastard..'

One advantage of the candidate mark was that it made all of those that received it a lot stronger. It was like being a lesser blessed, with just enough power to dominate ordinary soldiers. Thanks to the mark, his broken body already started mending itself. He took one last look at the night sky and passed out.

***

The sun rising from the horizont woke him Up again. He still felt like shit but now he could atleast sit up and slowly move around. Raph took a few more sips of the disgusting blood and stood Up. He could see the fort in the distance, a small dot on top of a cliff. The sea must have carried him further than he thought. He walked to the center of the island and looked around. Mainland wasn't too far away but he would have to swim for a few minutes. By now, the battle had long ended so the area was most likely already swarming with enemy patrols looking to finish off survivors. He couldn't stay here.

After checking the corpse he plunged into the cold water and gently stroked his arms. The salt seeped into his wounds and started stinging like a swarm of wasps. He ground his teeth and kept kicking his feet to reach the shore. Fortunately the light armor allowed small pockets of air to form underneath it so it wasn't too hard to float. Eventually he arrived on the hard soil and started walking towards a nearby forest. Soon he found a a tiny river and after quenching his thirst he sat down with his back to a tree. He closed his eyes and relaxed.

"..take a piss."

He was jolted awake by the sounds of leaves and branches being crushed under heavy boots. A soldier walked right next to him, untied his pants and with relieved expression started pissing on the plants. The man hadn't noticed him yet, but it was only matter of time. There was no way to hide or run without attracting the soldier's attention either.

'Not like i could outrun him in this condition..'

as he quickly scanned the man's body his eyes stopped on a dagger strapped to his thigh.

'Its do or die..'

Raph exploded ahead as quickly as his body allowed him to. He grabbed the dagger with his right hand and wrapped the left around the surprised man's mouth in one fluid motion. He stabbed into the neck to stop the soldier's muffled screams and when he stopped shaking gently laid him on the ground. He quickly patted the corpse for anything useful when he noticed a Water-God insignia on the man's wrist.

'thats funny..'

Raph quickly cut the piece of skin with the insignia off, put it in his pocket and took off running as quietly as possible. He had at most thirty seconds before the other soldiers got suspicious and discovered the body. Soon enough, he heard a few alarmed screams in the distance. He crossed a trainquil river dividing the forest and hid behind a thick wall of bushes. The soldiers didn't know who killed their comrade, which way did they ran or how many of them were there. With so many unknowns they were bound to remain cautious and not wander too far off. So he was safe. For now.