Chapter Text
Neia sprinted through the dense forest as fast as she could, trampling over exposed roots, rock, and undergrowth as she dodged and weaved through the trees. She could still hear them right behind her, a band of Gnolls were right on her heels, and their laugh was all that she could make out.
She had been running for over an hour now, and her body was at its limit. She had taken time to fire some arrows behind her, every now and then hitting their mark but most of the time they had simply missed, hit a tree, or hit their mark but had not caused a fatal blow. She cursed under her breath.
She heard it before she saw it, a shrill laugh to her right. She instinctively dodged but she was too late. A wooden club smacked her straight in the leg, and an audible snapping sound rang out through her ears. Neia tumbled to the forest floor and began to scream in pain, her leg was bending the wrong way entirely, and her bone was piercing through her flesh.
She looked around, the Gnolls were surrounding her now, their laughter echoing throughout the forest. But to their surprise, she began to laugh too, “S-So… this is how you finally kill me, eh? Thought there’d be a little more fanfare at least.” She sighed and clenched her teeth, feigning disappointment.
A white haired Gnoll stepped forward, brandishing a silver blade, it had an eyepatch around its head and multiple scars around its body. Its gums raised as it began to chuckle, something Neia assumed to most likely be some form of a smile. “Seems so, Mad Eyed Huntress, I personally would’ve liked to kill you in one on one combat, but as we’ve learned over the past few weeks-” The Gnoll tapped the eyepatch with his blade, “-you don’t exactly like playin’ that way.”
Neia spat out some blood onto the ground, she had been hunting this band of Gnolls for the better part of two weeks now, hoping desperately for some sort of back up, resupply, or anything that could help her. But now, here she sat: A broken leg and sword, three arrows, and her bow. She bit her lip to hide her fear, she didn’t want to die, but she was going to. She gripped an arrowhead, she would at least go out fighting
She stared down the Gnoll, “Well? Go ahead, the fuck are you waiting for?” She spat out. A few more Gnolls began to laugh as the white one, which she presumed to be their leader, stepped closer. He lowered his paw down and grabbed her by the hair before hoisting her up.
“We’re gettin’ to that, but I wanna get a little bit o’ payback first. And let me tell you, an arrow through the eye fuckin’ hurts.” He hoisted her up and began to hold up his blade. Neia acted quickly, jamming the arrowhead she sneaked into his good eye. The Gnoll dropped her and began to scream in pain. “Fuck! Kill that bitch!” He barked.
Neia smirked, she couldn’t help it, she was going to die, why not feel some satisfaction that she maimed her would be killer and deprived him of killing her. A brown Gnoll grabbed her arm, and punched her in the face, she felt a tooth fall out and her skull crack. Another Gnoll stomped her stomach, she coughed up blood.
Another punch, another kick, a stab from a jagged stone sword, she felt it all, and her screams overlapped with the laughter of the Gnolls, surpassing it even. Pain shot through every inch of her body, she couldn’t even speak, she only thought a silent prayer. ‘Please… I don’t want to die… please… oh gods… save me…’
She prayed, hoping for something, any sign that the gods were listening. If they were, they offered no response.
She began to cry, Neia hadn’t cried since she was a little girl, her memories began to flood back. Her telling the first boy she liked that she had a crush on him, him running away and calling her a monster, her telling her mother that she hated her eyes, her mothers fury, her enrollment in the paladin academy, her isolation, her deployment in the forests beyond the wall, the supposed supply runs that never came, all of it.
She hated it, she hated seeing how miserable her entire life had been, and there was nothing she could do about it. A Gnoll, noticing her tears, began to mockingly lick her face, as if to lap up her sadness and savor it. ‘Just let me die.’
“Such filthy creatures.” A booming voice called out, the Gnolls stopped their assault and looked into the forest behind her. Neia tried to crane her neck to see what they were staring at, but couldn’t. The pain was too immense.
“A lizardman? You’re a long way from home big guy!” One of the Gnolls called out.
“And yet, here I am, dog.” Neia heard the voice boom out again, mocking the gnoll. A lizardman? Why the hell would one be here?
“You’ll regret saying that bastard!” Neia watched as the speaking Gnoll lunged out of view and she closed her eyes. She heard three things, a sharp passing of wind, a metal thunk, and a wet cracking noise followed by the sound of flesh hitting the forest floor.
“Good lord! Boys, stop pickin’ on the bitch, we got a lizard to kill too!”
Neia watched as they began to brandish their weapons and ran out of her sight, towards the supposed lizardman, she heard metal meet flesh, armor chink, and bones crack.
“Fuck, we can’t do shit to this thing!”
“M-My arm! Where’s my arm!?”
“R-Retreat! We can’t take that thing on!”
More flesh was churned, Neia could see bits of intestine and bits of eyes fly into her view. But none of it mattered. She was going to die here, if not to the Gnolls, to the blood loss, if not to the blood loss, to the broken leg and exposure. She began to sob.
The sounds of battle slowly came to an end, the only sound that remained was whimpering and babbling, Neia saw the white Gnoll come back into view, on the ground, kicking away. “P-Please, spare me! I-I can’t see! The bitch blinded me! I-I’m not a thre-”
She watched as a golden axe, caked in blood, smashed into the Gnoll’s head, killing it instantly. She snorted, a brief feeling of satisfaction made its way throughout her mind before quickly being replaced once more with seething pain.
She closed her eyes, ready to accept death. Whatever or whoever this lizardman was, it seemed to at least grant quick deaths. And so she waited.
And waited.
Her pain began to fade as she waited. It felt like her bones started to put themselves back together as she waited. Like her teeth had been fixed as she waited. ‘Gods, I must truly be insane if I think I’m getting better.’
“Are you alright?” The voice asked, and Neia opened her eyes. Above her stood the most terrifying creature she had ever seen. A snow white lizardman, standing well over nine feet tall. Its eyes were a shining yellow, and gold trinkets wrapped around its neck and lined some of its scales. It’s snout was elongated, and razor sharp teeth jutted up and down it seemingly at random, each tooth was stained blood red at the tips.
Neia scrambled backwards, as fast as she could away from the beast and lifted her arms to her face, as if to shield herself from any attack it could throw at her. “P-Please! Just let me… go?”
She looked at her wounds, or lack thereof, she was fine. Her eyes darted to her leg, and it had been mended, she didn’t even feel any residual pain, ‘The hell?!’
“A-Ah, sorry for startling you, I know my appearance isn’t exactly handsome.” The lizardman brought a hand up and scratched the back of its head, chuckling at its own joke.
Neia looked herself up and down one last time, patting her body as if to check if she was truly well. She looked back towards the lizardman, extremely confused. ‘What the fuck is happening?’
“Ah! Where are my manners? I’m Sobek, Champion of the Sun.” The lizardman bowed his head slightly, it was respecting her, ‘Ok, it’s official, I’ve died. I’ve died and I’m using this as a way to make death seem less grim. Fantastic.’ Neia clicked her tongue, at least she couldn’t feel the Gnolls anymore.
Sobek extended an arm down to her, Neia eyed it quizzically and glanced back up at the towering lizardman, it sighed. “Look, I don’t know what’s goin’ through your head right now, but I ain't gonna hurt you. Alright?”
Neia stared at his hand for a while, she slowly raised her own and grasped it. Sobek slowly pulled her upwards, she just stared at him dumbfounded. They simply looked at each other for a while before he brought a hand up to his head again, “Ok well uh… you must be hungry… ever uh… ever try Gnoll before?”
Neia turned her attention to the pile of blood and gore behind Sobek, and then back at him, back at the pile, back at him.
She began to laugh, uproariously. After a while she calmed down and wiped a single tear away from her eye. “Sorry this is just… wow.” She chuckled to herself again.
Sobek turned away and began to approach the pile before she spoke up again, “Neia.”
“Hmm? What was that?”
“Neia, my name is Neia Baraja.”
The corners of the lizardman's mouth raised slightly, in what she assumed was an attempt at a smile. It was utterly horrifying.
…
Sobek tore into another Gnoll-kebab, or so he called them. He wasn’t sure how he felt about eating intelligent creatures yet, ‘It’s not like we’re the same species or anything.’ He lied to himself. He had made a small campfire and had set some of the less completely destroyed parts of Gnoll to cook above it.
After ripping another large chunk off, he looked up at Neia, the paladin had her back up to a tree, unblinking eyes trained on him, and a deathgrip on her bow. Despite knowing she was probably much weaker than him, her eyes still pierced into his soul and sent chills up his spine.
He sighed, “Look, you said you were runnin’ for, what, an hour straight? And, you almost got torn to shreds by these Gnolls. The healin' magic I cast on you can only do so much if you don’t get somethin' in your stomach.”
Neia squinted, “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
Sobek cocked his head to one side, “What do you mean?”
“That you’re not going to hurt me, how do I know you’re telling the truth?” Neia had long since abandoned the thought that Sobek was just a figment of her imagination that her brain made to comfort her dying body, and now that she grasped the reality of the situation, she was rightfully terrified.
Sobek sighed and put his kebab down, “Look, if I wanted to kill you don’t you think I would’ve done so by now? And by that same logic, why not just let the Gnolls finish you?”
Neia shivered and looked away. Sobek lifted his kebab back up and clamped his jaws down onto it, “Look, if you wanna to starve then I’m not gonna stop ya, but I seriously doubt you’d want to for some reason.” He grabbed one of the roasting kebabs by the handle and held it up, “Can ya catch?”
Neia nodded
“Then heads up.” Sobek tossed the kebab at her. She caught it but fumbled with it for a bit before it settled in her hands. Neia eyed the meat cautiously before taking a small nibble of it, then a bigger nibble, then a bite. She dug into it like a wolf to a freshly killed deer, and that coupled with her eyes only further confirmed Sobek’s irrational fear of her.
By the time she was done, there was only a bloody stick left. She decided to venture away from her tree and inched closer to the fire, and simply tossed the stick in, before choosing to remain close to the roaring flame, grabbing another kebab to dig in.
Sobek’s throat emitted a low rumbling sound and her head whirled around to face him, for some reason, the lizardman seemed surprised as well, however he quickly raised his hands into the air, “Sorry, sorry, it’s just a thing I do, I wasn’t growling if that’s what you were worried about.”
Neia slowly began to pick at her kebab again, but her eyes were planted on Sobek for a few minutes, something the Kroxigor did not enjoy. ‘Fuck, and just as I was getting on her good side, the fuck do I do now?’
He mulled over it in his head for a bit before coming to an answer, “You know, if you’re keen on not trusting me, you’re at least going to need a weapon that can actually hurt me.” A small, black portal opened up in front of his hand as he reached forward, Neia’s eyes widened as he pulled something from the void she could only describe as legendary.
It was a bow the likes of which she had never seen before, its grip was a pristine marble white, with crystalline, dark blue limbs which seemingly exploded out from said grip. The string was glowing a light blue, and hummed ever so quietly.
“This is the Eidolon Bow, a bow that can produce its own arrows from magic, its arrows travel further and pack more of a punch too!” He held it out towards Neia and she cautiously grabbed it. In simply doing so, she could feel magical power flow through her body, she felt amazing!
Her eyes darted to the tree she was leaning on only a few minutes ago, Sobek piped up from behind her, “Just pull the string back, the arrow will form on its own.” After doing so, a spectral arrow formed, nestled perfectly within the rest. The arrow itself was transparent, and mist seemed to emanate from its fletches.
She released, and watched as the arrow flew with speed she could barely comprehend. Once it made contact with the tree a small burst of jagged ice formed, sending splinters flying in every direction.
Sobek began to clap, and she turned to face him, he chuckled a bit, “Remarkable! You’re a natural, kid!”
Neia blushed at the compliment, before shaking it off and rejoining him at the fire, “T-This is an amazing weapon, Mr. Sobek, but I-I can’t take this! This is something for an adamantite level adventurer, or even an heirloom of a royal family! Not something a standard ranger should have!”
Sobek laughed heartily, “You make a fair point, however I don’t think you should worry too much about it. Besides, look at how small it is compared to me! The most I’d get out of it would be usin' it to floss.” He laughed.
Neia was completely lost on how anyone could ever contemplate flossing with such an item, but for now she kept her thoughts to herself. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea to try to return it anytime soon. She sat back down and stared up at the stars above, ‘What the hell is happening to me?’