Diablo RoT: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Just Plain Cold

"Hell is cold."
--Tessa Gray, Clockwork Angel

       As soon as Garrodin and Leona left the encampment, it started raining. While it did nothing in terms of even phasing Garrodin, Leona was getting soaked and chilled to the bone. After what seemed like hours, he could sense that they were nearing the area Akara had told him about. There was abundant, but not powerful darkness, and nothing a good blade couldn't fix.
      
Garrodin heard something drop behind him, and Leona's breath was becoming more ragged, inhaling and exhaling in rapid, interrupted gasps as her bottom jaw shivered. She had fallen to her knees, her hair and clothes were sopping wet and stuck her body, and she folded her arms around her chest as she shivered. He could keep walking as far as the Monastery if he wanted to, but Leona didn't look like she could take two more steps.
       
Garrodin finally turned around and helped her up, holding her close to himself for body heat. He continued supporting her as he looked for shelter. Though the rain was coming down heavily, his sharp eyes finally spotted a small hut, not 25 yards away. "Hold on, Leona. Almost there." He would tell her comforting words such as that about every ten paces or so. When the finally did reach it, Garrodin kicked open the door and hurried inside.

        He got a fire going and laid her down close to it. He didn't need the warmth, he was best suited for the cold, and he had been around hot fires for a long time in his past battles. Leona continued to shiver, but Garrodin felt differently, some of his own frigidness was melting away.

        Leona felt her body was lifted and strong, warm arms wrapped around her. She was no longer cold. Instead she felt cozy and warm; like being wrapped up in a toasty quilt on a mid-winter's night. She felt her head and torso hugged close to the chest of someone, but she was too tired and cold to know who. The strong, steady heartbeat and the rising and falling of that person's chest lulled her to sleep.

        Garrodin picked Leona up and sat down with her next to the fire. He held Leona close to him, and he felt her shivering stop soon after. "Lucky, you have it easy." Garrodin gave her a rare smile, not the cruel sneer he had given Kel earlier, but a kind, gentle smile. He couldn't help himself as he brushed his fingers against her cheek gently. It only made Leona nestle closer to him. They would just have to wait out the storm.

        Why did I do this? She's just one girl. Why should I care? Garrodin was contemplating many things during the storm, and he was beginning to think it would not let up. I feel nothing for this girl. I am merely doing this because I was entrusted with her protection. Garrodin placed a barrier aura around the hut as he felt his eyelids grow heavy. He just hoped he didn't have any dreams.

*****

It didn't have to be like this, you know. I didn't have to die. This is your fault.
You wanted power more than you wanted…
Now you have lost… and gained power. Does this make you happy?
You're a monster. You should die like one.

*****

        "Nooooo!!!" Garrodin screamed as he suddenly woke. It was the first sleep he had in a while, but he was still exhausted. His sorrows and regret gnawed at him ever greater with time. He looked up, and talked as if someone else could hear him. "I'm so sorry. You're right. It didn't…" He fought back his emotions as best he could. But he was still miserable.

        When he tried to stand, he felt arms around him, holding him down. In his remorse, he had forgotten Leona, who apparently put her arms around him while they both slept. Garrodin just rolled his eyes at this. He was no cushion, no cuddly thing. He was a fierce warrior, he was a powerful master of magic, he was a peerless swordsman, he was… a monster. He knew it all to be too true.
        "Leona. Leona, get up. Leona? Come on, girl, wake up. Oh, for crying out loud, Leona!" That last "Leona" did the trick, she awoke with a jump when she heard it.  
       
"Garrodin? Oh, hi." She smiled and inhaled deeply as she looked up at him. When Garrodin held her close to keep her warm, he was sitting next to her with his right arm around her waist and his left across her shoulders. but now both her arms were wrapped around his mid-torso.
       
Leona wasn't letting go even about a minute after she woke up. Garrodin tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow when he began to lose his patience. "Do you miss your boyfriend, or am I just fun to hug?"

"What? Oh, um… I just- sorry." She let go and stood up, dusting herself off from being on the floor, and Garrodin did likewise.
"The rain has subsided, let's go."

       
Leona constantly looked around her as if she expected to be ambushed at any given moment. "So, um, what are we looking for again?" Garrodin rolled his eyes, but he couldn't blame Leona for not knowing, Akara had told him what needed to be done before she entered.
        
"A cave. It should have an entrance in a hill, or knoll, maybe. We need to watch out for Fallen, though. They should have a camp outside of it. I sense some in the direction we're heading." Leona nodded slowly, trying to take in everything that she just heard.
       
"Fallen are nasty little blighters that would happily chop you up and roast you on a spit." Leona looked horrified, she definitely did not want this happening to her. Garrodin looked back and saw her face, and it was all he could do to just laugh at her. "Don't let that discourage you, though. They're only about two-and-a-half feet in height and you could probably kick 'em in the head once or twice before they keel over. You might have to use your mace, though. They bite." Leona knew that Garrodin meant well, that he was probably trying to comfort her, but all he did was make her more frightened.

        "Here we are… that's the cave, I'm sure of it." It was a small cave entrance, but like he said, it was going down a hill, which meant there was probably a lot more to it. Also like Garrodin said,  there were a lot of ugly little creeps running around outside. They looked like little red imps, with nasty teeth, claws, and crude weapons. Alone, one of them would not have been a problem, but there was at least thirty of them, and they all were looking directly at the two of them.
        
"Uummm… Garrodin?" Leona was really scared at this point, she was always more of a support caster with her talents than an actual fighter. Which was not to say that she could not fight, but against this many at once, she was not entirely confidant.
        
"Just stand back." Garrodin drew his sword as the Fallen began their charge, but he did not take a deep stance, or any stance at all really. He just continued standing straight.  
       
Finally, when the Fallen were only a few yards from him, he spun around and slashed low, slicing half a dozen Fallen in several pieces. One came up from his left flank with a club, but was snatched up and began to spasm as Garrodin did what appeared to be charging lightning magic through his hand.
        Several more approached from his back-right, though they were soon bowled over when Garrodin threw their lightning-charged comrade at them; the electric discharge killed all of them simultaneously. In under 12 seconds, Garrodin had felled more than half their numbers, though now every last one surrounded him. They seemed to be completely ignoring Leona, as the silver-haired fighter was clearly a much larger threat. As the last of them converged on him, he whirl winded his sword, pointed it to the ground, and then thrust it into the earth beneath him.
        This would have seemed foolish, maybe even insane, had any other warrior tried it, but as Garrodin did so, the Fallen were all blown up into the air at the same height. Garrodin quickly pulled his sword out of the ground, and spun in a 360-degree arc, killing all the Fallen around him.
        The whole battle, if one would even call it that, could not have lasted more than 40 seconds. In less than forty seconds, Garrodin had massacred at least thirty Fallen. Leona was dumbfounded. She was still trying to make Garrodin's first attack out.
        
        Oddly enough after the battle, Garrodin was not looking to the cave, but far off to the distance. Leona tried to catch a glimpse at what he was staring at, but she couldn't make it out. There was a lot of shrubbery and stones in the distance, but she doubted he took much interest in that. His eyes narrowed and his head tilted to one side, as if even he couldn't fully make it out. "Garrodin? Are you all right?" Garrodin did not respond. "Garrodin?" Still nothing. She walked up and put her hand on his arm. Her touch caused him to look at her, widening his eyes slightly, but that was all. "Is everything okay?"
       
He looked back to where he was staring earlier, then back at her. "Yes, I'm fine. Let's go, those creeps aren't going to kill themselves." He stopped and thought a bit. "Well, they might, but that would make things too easy." He said with a shrug as he descended into the dark cavern with Leona following closely behind him.

        "It's so dark in here…" Leona followed as closely to Garrodin as she could without bumping into him. She accidentally did, though, when he stopped to pick up a torch that had been dropped. Only, it wasn't a torch. It looked like someone's femur, which he had wrapped something around the other end and lit on fire. "Ummm, is that…?" He looked at it, then back at her.
        "Is this what? A femur?" She nodded. "Yeah. The other person didn't need it anymore." He said this with a straight face and continued walking. Her face, on the other hand, shifted into an even more terrified and disgusted look than when she saw the fallen for her first time. While it did provide a light source, it was a rather macabre option, though it was likely the only one save for lighting something of his on fire, which she doubted would actually hurt him.
       
The entire time the two of them were walking, Garrodin's hair retained its shape; a lengthy mane with a definite spiky look to it. It never fell out of place, and Leona couldn't help but ask why. "Um, Garrodin?"
        
"Yes, what is it? You can just ask me things without saying 'um' at the start of your questions."
       
"Sorry, I just… How do you keep your hair like that? You know, the same way all the time without any strands falling out of place?" He looked back at her, then back forward.
        "An old trick. Simple enough, really. It just stays that way because of my residual power that my body emanates with on a regular basis."
        "So, if you were really weak, it would be really loose and everything?"
        "I don't know about 'and everything,' and I've rarely ever pushed myself that far, but the answer is: yes, it would hang separate and loose if I were weak enough. It's involuntary, and I kind of like it, so I keep it this way." A loud screech echoed through the cave. "Our first customer." A miniature horde of fallen, skeletons, and corpses with some skin still attached ran, lumbered, skittered, and shuffled towards the two of them at a pace that was far too fast for Leona's liking. "Make that 'customers'."
        For the sake of time, and the fact that Leona needed more training, Garrodin pointed the makeshift torch at the encroaching monsters and let loose an inferno that burned everything except the fallen to a crisp. "Oh, that's right, they're immune to fire." He said to no one in particular. Drawing his sword he shoved the femur at Leona. "Hold this." She squealed when he put it right next to her face and waved her arms trying to swat it away, causing it to fall to the ground. Garrodin rolled his eyes again and charged his remaining foes.

        Dispatching each with a single slash, he finally reached the end of the corridor in a little under 17 seconds. He took another look around then turned and walked back towards Leona. "Let's go, Girl." She nodded, but her eyes widened when she say a fallen, which she could have sworn that Garrodin cut down rise up and charge towards them. She shrieked and pointed towards it, and Garrodin killed it again. Although by then its felled brethren had risen as well. "Damn… a shaman."

        "A what?" He pointed to the end of a separate corridor, where there was another fallen, only this one was a bit different. It had a headdress, it wore tattered cloth instead of makeshift armor, and wielded a staff with a banner hanging from the top.

        "That. Think you can take it?" She gave him a "you've got to be kidding me" look. "Relax, it just shoots weak fireballs at you. Use your shield to deflect them while charging it, then take it out once you get close enough." After looking between the two corridors, she finally nodded.

        Leona drew her mace and shield, and ran at the shaman. It bombarded her with fireball after fireball, which she deflected readily. When she finally made it to the shaman, she raised her weapon to strike it on the head. The moment she swung, though, the shaman turned and ran. And ran fast. "Hey!! Get back here!" Leona gave chase, deflecting more fireballs as the shaman threw them at her.   

        Finally a small, thrown rock hit the shaman's. Or would have just hit its knee had pretty much anyone else threw it. It passed clean through its knee, tearing the lower leg from the rest of the body. Leona took advantage of this fortuitous, albeit a bit disgusting advantage, and smashed the shaman's skull with her mace. Leona smiled. She did it, she had killed a demon! It should have repulsed her, but this was her calling, to fight malefic darkness in any form. She smiled at Garrodin. He nodded in approval, then turned to leave, dropping some small rocks. Leona followed, noting how the other fallen had been killed in a manner of having their bodies squished like a giant had grabbed them at once and squeezed. "Hey, Garrodin?"
        Without looking back, he responded. "Hmm?"

        "What were you holding those rocks for?" Leona would have asked how the fallen got to be that way, but then realized she probably didn't want to know.

        "In case I missed the first time." Leona quickly perceived that he was the one who threw the stone. While a relief that he had helped her, it was a bit frightening to know that he could through something with enough velocity and force behind it to sever a creature's leg at the knee. Especially something that wasn't much bigger than her thumb.