Gearing up

The voices kept coming closer until they eventually stopped somewhere nearby the river. He couldn't hear them clearly, but after a bit of arguing they seemed to have split up. Soon, they were gone and silence descended on the forest again. It was too dangerous to move just yet, as he still wasn't fully healed and the area upstream was devoid of any hiding spots. He felt some discomfort and his stomach growled. Waiting for nightfall and searching for food seemed to be the best thing he could do. He filled a little flask that he took from the dead soldier with water from the river and made himself comfortable in the middle of a bush where he couldn't be seen so easily.

When night came, he quietly got up and started hiking upstream next to the river. Unlike the area below him, there was only tall grass with few trees here and there. The large clearing was easy to traverse but at the same time posed a significant risk of him being spotted. Fortunately, in the pitch dark nobody without a torch could ever hope to see any further than their hands. After arriving on top of the grassy slope, he laid down into the vegetation and kept crawling forward. Two campfires were burning a few dozen meters in front of him, one to his right and left respectively. By his estimate, atleast twenty to thirty figures huddled around each one. Going anywhere near the light was a guaranteed suicide, but he needed food.

In a small valley between the fires stood a makeshift statue of man holding a trident with a humble altar next to his feet. Believers of Water God usually doused their offerings with water and left them alone, so there was a decent chance of finding something to eat.

Raph spent the next hour slowly creeping into the valley without being noticed by any of the enemy groups. Desecrating a god's altar in any way, including stealing the offerings, was considered the highest offense and meant slow and terrible death if caught.

Raph didn't care and quickly grabbed a piece of meat from the altar. It was cold, but after not eating for days it seemed like the best delicacy he ever had. He quickly finished a few pieces of fruit and stuck the remaining bread into his pockets. After emptying the altar, he quietly passed behind the statue and kept moving downhill, until he couldn't see the fires anymore.

"Who goes there?!"

A menacing sillouute suddenly appeared in front of him.

"I said, who are you?"

The man quickly got closer and pointed at him.

"I was just trying to take piss. I'll leave now. Good luck with your patrol."

Retorted Raph and nonchalantly turned around as if to return to the camp.

"Wait! Show me your mark."

'..crap.'

Raph slowly walked towards the man while pulling Up the sleeve on his left arm to show the soldier who had lit a torch in the meantime his mark.

"Here it is.."

He kept blocking the mark with his body for as long as possible, and when the soldier leaned in to inspect it, he quickly grabbed the dagger and stabbed forward. The man made a surprised yelp and flapped his arms while staggering backwards.

'..that wasn't fatal..'

The soldier pointed his finger at him while mumbling a something. Raph quickly ducked and swung the blade just as a water spell formed on the man's fingertips and flew off behind them. He severed the fingers clean and finally stabbed the soldiers a few times, but not before he gave out a few gut wrenching screams.

'They're on me now..'

He took of running away from the fires without caring how much noise he was making. He didn't even make it to the first tree line when little projectiles started flying all around. First ability granted to the blessed of Water God, "Ray". It allowed apprentices to shoot pockets of water from their bodies at high speeds. The trees and grass around him kept exploding and he felt a few hot cuts opening on his back. When flying faster than sound, even simple water turned into the sharpest weapon. The ground beneath his feet quickly turned steep and he found himself speeding up even more.

"I got him!"

Something heavy jumped on his back, and he completely lost control of his feet. Entangled with one of his attackers they kept rolling down into the dark. Flashes of torches being lit up behind him tore the darkness apart but he still couldn't see anything.

"Stooop! Its a ravine!"

'..cra..'

Raph stopped feeling the ground alltogether and now felt like he was being dragged down very fast. He wrestled with the figure that was still on him and managed to get on top just before they hit the ground. With a loud crack, every bone in the body beneath him must have cracked. The impact revebrated through his body and hit his ribs so hard he couldn't breathe for a moment. The voices up on the cliff were now inaudible, but when he turned around he saw a red dot quickly falling towards him.

'I need to... hide..'

He rolled sideways under a stone rim, just as the plummeting torch crashed right next to him. He had no idea how deep was the ravine, and whether or not the apprentices could see him so he waited until the torch light got considerably weaker. When there was just a dying flame, he carefully rolled out and inspected the body next to him. What used to be a presumably man, was now crushed paste of red with pieces of bone and brain poking out.

'that could have been me..'

He shook himself off, and with the help of his knife, he quickly stripped the blob of its tattered robe, put it on and started walking in the direction that the ravine allowed while holding his sore ribs.