“Hey. Get up.” Viper tries to gently wake his leader up.

  “Mgahh… Just a minute.” Landyn moans, half-sleeping.

  “Dude, you came in drunk last night and said we have a job.”

  “OH FUCK!” Landyn jumps up and immediately starts dressing up, pulling a clean gambeson over his dirty shirt from last night. “Get up boys! We’ve got a lot of work today!”

  “For the love of all that is holy, please, shut up. Not even if the Godly Mother Herself came up from the heavens below and kissed away all my scars, I still wouldn’t get up to thank her.” Kale groans as he shifts in the sheets.

  They had all slept in the same room in two bunk beds, each with room for one man on top and two on the bottom. Since it was a hazard for the others to even attempt to get in those top bunks, Viper and Jack had slept in those. Perhaps that is why no one had noticed the stillness in Jack’s bed.

  “Jack! Time to get up! We’ve got work to do!” Landyn says, ignoring Kale entirely and keeping his voice as loud as before. Still, Jack did not move.

  “Jack! Come on, man! We gotta go!” Viper almost shouts, shaking the man a little, just enough for the smell of death to rattle and start finally spreading in the room.

  All the men stretching and yawning go silent. Viper had frozen in place, his hand still on Jack’s back, when Landyn gently pushed him aside. He then put a hand over Jack’s mouth and nose and counted to ten in silence. He lets out a deep sigh and pulls out a dagger. Before anyone can stop him, he stabs Jack in the gut but blood does not spurt or flow, it simply trickles. His heart hadn’t beat for hours.

  “He died in battle…” His tone then turns stern and bold. “Yes?”

  “Yes.” All his men answer, begrudgingly.

  The bottle of poison in Jack’s bed finds its way into Landyn’s pocket, about a quarter of it still filled. “Help me get him into the sled, we’re going back into the ravine anyway.” Landyn says, gesturing to Thorvald for help.

  Landyn grabs by the ankles and Thorvald by the armpits, the stiff body letting the joints slowly turn in ways that in life were impossible as they carry him out of the room. After they are out the door silence settles in.

  Rabbit shrugs and says curtly: “Welp; gotta take a piss.” He turns to the corner where the piss bucket is and unleashes a torrent of stale piss from the dozen beers he had last night. The others all moan and curse and leave the room in a hurry.

  —A few hours after noon, the same day—

  The Knight Flayers have left the town. Before leaving, they stopped in the market and bought a couple barrels of flammable oil, the low grade stuff that is more like tar than cooking oil. The sled which had just been unloaded of the extra armors and weapons sold to the blacksmith now left even deeper tracks than before, weighed down by both the two barrels and by Jack’s stiffened corpse.

  Rabbit has other concerns though: “So, you alright with that?” He asks Landyn, cocking his head at Viper and his girlfriend ‘Rose’.

  “Well, she’s pulling her weight, which is more than I can say about that merchant… though at least he is paying us.” Landyn responds apathetically.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Landyn, I know we’ve had camp followers before, but that was back when our camp was large enough to not feel any burden from bringing them along.”

  “And we ain’t feeling any burden now either. She’s gonna eat from Viper’s paycheck and she’s helping us carry supplies. What more could I ask? She’s like a mule but free.”

  Rabbit has no reply to that. It makes sense and it’s practical, so what could he have to say about it? The girl isn’t his responsibility anyway… he just hopes she doesn’t catch a stray arrow or something.

  Suddenly, Landyn stops, his men stagger to a stop behind him. “Tracks… goblin tracks.”

  “What? You double booked us again or somethin’?” Eagle Eye asks.

  “Yep. Since it was on the way.”

  “Oh! That’s why we got the barrels of oil, right? You want to pull a Gunther on their scrawny goblin asses!” Thorvald chimes in with glee, already lifting one barrel onto his shoulder.

  “Alright, we’re splitting up. Rabbit, Eagle Eye: you two stay here and keep the merchant safe… Oh! And keep Viper’s girlfriend safe too.”

  “Aye aye sir!” Rabbit says, already having sat down on a root by the side of the road, flask in hand.

  “Viper, help me carry the other barrel.”

  —Rabbit, Eagle Eye, Anna and the merchant—

  Eagle Eye, bored and awkward, eyes the ground, the road, the trees, and finally the merchant they had picked up in town, escorting him and his little metal box over to Duke Iselbaum’s territory, across the frontlines of the war in which their company had been reduced to a mere gang.

  “So… What’s up with the box?”

  “Ain’t you mercs s’posed t’a keep your mouth shut about shit like this?” The merchant snarls back, more like a sailor than a white collar man. Vulgarity truly does not suit him and his baby-like body.

  “Oh! Sorry. I wasn’t asking about the contents; my lips are sealed when it comes to that.” He mimes locking his mouth and throwing away the key. “I just thought it looked neat, like some great craftsman had made the box.”

  “Still none of your business, killer.” The merchant spits the words like venom, like a pigeon voiding its bowels to run faster from the questions.

  “Ey now, watch your mouth! You don’t talk to my friend like that unless you want trouble, y’hear?” Rabbit cuts in, activating the merchant’s fight or flight response.

  “A-Alright then…” Flight has won. It is a good thing the merchant’s instincts told him to back off, taking this any further, in the middle of nowhere, with seasoned killers… It would not have gone well for him.

  Eagle Eye shoots Rabbit a nod, like brothers from different mothers, a nod of respect and thankfulness. But still the boredom returns. The young old man’s eyes land on Viper’s girlfriend, Rose. After a while, he speaks up:

  “Was your name Rose?” Eagle Eye asks, expecting a swift ‘Yes’ in return, but those are not the words that come from her lips.

  “Oh? No, actually my name is Anna. Rose is just the pet name Viper and I use… Come to think of it, what is his real name?”

  “...”

  “...”

  The two mercenaries look utterly flabbergasted. The sight of their jaws reaching for the floor tells Anna that she may have said something weird, but she doesn’t know what exactly.

  “Umm, you know Viper is his actual name, right?” Rabbit asks, his eyebrow raised so high it threatens to take off into the sky.

  “?”

  “He told me he was born to slaves and bought by a pitmaster as soon as he could walk. He said he only got the name Viper after his first few fights in the arena…”

  “Oh my gosh… And I thought he was joshing me! Oh my gosh! I lied to him and gave him a fake name when I thought he did the same and we were just playing but he was for real he didn’t just call himself Viper because of the helmet he got the helmet because of the name oh my gosh oh fuck oh no;” Her voice grew gradually quieter but her lips never stopped moving. It seems like this will haunt her for some time.

  Eagle Eye, now feeling guilty after messing up two different people’s day, asks Rabbit: “Hey man, should I have just shut up?”

  Rabbit has no words of comfort to offer. He just lays a hand on his friend’s shoulder and sighs deep.