A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 145: Moving

Chapter 145: Moving

(Traytora POV)

I was taken to go and eat something, but I still felt hungry. I wasn’t craving to devour someone, I just needed more food. I did ask but was denied as rations needed to be saved so they could last as long as possible.

I felt weak, not just physically, but spiritually as well. I didn’t know what happened but I could feel that my soul was now broken somehow. I hadn’t taken a look as I wasn’t in the mood, and... I was also scared.

There was also something else about me that had changed, though I’m not quite sure what it was, nor did I care right now.

With nothing else to do I just kind of sat in one spot, not doing anything. I could see people passing by, carrying things to places and generally preparing to move the population to somewhere else, or so I heard.

I could hear them whispering about me but I didn’t pay any attention to what they were saying at all. Eventually a Harpy girl came over to me and asked me to come with her, and with nothing better to do, I did.

She soon brought me to an infirmary, where several people lay in beds, either ill or dying. Witnessing this did not improve my mood. She brought me over to a private ’room’ which was just a curtain surrounding a bed, and in that bed was Dorrak.

"Ah, you’re here." He said with a tired and wizened voice.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

He began coughing and the harpy rushed to his side and cast her magic on her to heal him. He stopped soon after and signalled me to come over.

I did so and held the hand he stretched out to me.

He spoke up but had trouble breathing so he had to stop so he could breathe properly "I’m... I’m sorry that I... I couldn’t... Fulfil my... Duties to you..."

His eyes seemed faded and unfocused, and I could tell that he was just looking in my general direction rather than straight at me. I lowered my head in guilt at my own failure.

I failed to protect my future wife and child, my home and now him. Just how much more would I lose in my life? Who else would leave me in the future? What other horrors would I be subjected to?

"Ah... Don’t cry, Traytora... You need to be... Be strong... Be brave... Be... Be... Ha... aa... aa-aap..." Before he could finish what he wanted to say, he fell asleep, never to wake up again.

Tears immediately began running down my face as I continued to hold his hand until I passed out.

When I woke up it the next day, and I was inside a very familiar room. It was her room, which quickly became my room as well. It was rather dusty and only seemed to have been brushed recently but not cleaned, leaving the dust to settle once again.

I looked outside at the rays of the sun, ray of light shining through the thick clouds in the sky. There was also no snow, signalling the end of winter.

’That explains why I woke up so early...’ I remarked to myself. Then I heard a growl coming from my stomach, so I got out of bed and went over to the wardrobe to get a set of clothes to wear, leaving a trail behind me as I shifted over the dust.

I went and got my serving of breakfast, but again, it wasn’t enough. I knew that I should make some sort of effort to sustain my body, but... I just couldn’t. I couldn’t muster the will to do so.

And not only that, but I also hadn’t bathed in months apparently. I don’t know how long I had been out for after... Then... But apparently, it was a very long time, and I was well overdue for a bath. But just like my desire to consume, I had no desire to be clean. I didn’t care that I was dirty, or hungry, or in pain, I just wanted peace and happiness. Something I’d never been able to find.

’I just want to be happy... Why can’t I be happy?’

I was interrupted from my sobbing session when someone came up to me and told me to pack my stuff, as we were leaving in two days. I just nodded in response and mindlessly went back to the manor, which I only just noticed had been partially destroyed on one side.

I didn’t bother brooding over that fact as I searched my room for some of my things when Ayuri suddenly came into my room, wearing a full maid outfit, and not a provocative attire. Said outfit was covered in stains and dirt. She also seemed a bit tired.

"I’m here to help you pack mistress." She said with a tired dullness in her voice.

I just nodded and we spent the rest of the day packing most of my things, along with some of... hers... Not big things, just a few items that were important to her...

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Those couple of days passed by rather quick for me, and during those days, Ayuri had managed to get me to take a bath, but I still felt horrible.

Regardless, today was the day that we would be saying goodbye to Athenela, and moving to a new location. We would be bringing all of the dead along with us to bury in the new sanctified grounds on several wagons. We would also be carrying everything else that was of practical use besides any small personal possessions which we would carry on our own person.

Before we left though, a small ceremony was held, where the city would be lit ablaze in a glorious fire that would symbolise the end of an era. We parted for our unknown destination soon after.

The mood was bleak throughout the whole trip. We were attacked by the occasional wild beast-kin, but only the smaller, more stupid ones, which helped out our food situation, but not by much. We had to assign some hunters that would go ahead of us and hunt the creatures in the forest to help with that issue.

I chuckled inaudibly as this reminded me of when I first travelled to Athenela. It brought back memories of a happier time. A time I wish I could go back to.

But... That time has passed... And here we are... Trodding along, onwards to our new destination.

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It took us well over a month of gruelling and tiring travel, through rain and thickets aplenty, but eventually, the hunters found a decent clearing off of the path we were headed and we all turned to head towards it, reaching it within a couple of days.

When we arrived, everyone was quickly assigned to certain tasks to help out. Most people were assigned to cutting down the trees on the outskirts of the forest to make more room for the temporary shelters.

I was sent to go and get firewood, and while I was out looking, I found a wild Boar-kin. It tried to charge at me so I killed it. It took me a moment to realise what I had just done, but when I did, I realised that this would help fill me up and appease my hunger to a certain extent. That, and I didn’t feel like lugging it back to camp. So, I made sure nobody was looking and ate it, sending it down into my second stomach immediately.

After eating, I continued to pick up some sticks that would be useful as firewood. I’m not sure why I was doing this because we could just use the sticks from the trees being cut down instead, but I continued collecting anyways, I had nothing better to do anyways.

When I returned, I was proven right when there was a large pile of sticks off to the side. I just threw what I collected into the pile.

With nothing else to do, I went over to the wagons that were carrying the dead. And upon seeing me, the people who were offloading them asked me to help. I then asked where we were taking them and they just said to follow them.

Some of the bodies were wrapped up in an enchanted cloth and some weren’t. Either way, it didn’t matter much to me as I just helped them move everything near the middle of the encampment that we were making, and I also saw people digging a giant pit, which I assumed was where we would be burying the bodies.

I continued helping out with moving said bodies and found that there weren’t as many as I would’ve thought, as they burned some of the bodies into ashes in a mourning ritual and then placed said ashes into pots. These pots would then be buried alongside the remaining bodies in a funeral ritual, to purify them before returning them to nature.