Floating in the darkness once more in my sleep, I see a light source ahead of me. A pinpoint that I race towards. With a crash, my eyes bolt open, full of sleep film and so blurry that I can’t hardly see anything!

Once my ability to feel the world around me returns, slowly trickling back into me as though I was an empty container, there are hands on my shoulders, shaking me excitedly.

O… ohhhhh… wow…

“K-Kairi, my love?” All I can tell for the moment is that there’s light shining down onto me, making my vision worse. I lick my lips, mumbling. Am I in a hospital room? Did I finally wake up from my awful dream?

It feels like I’m laying on something soft and the ambient warmth reminds me of a comfortable bed. Something faintly squeals, making my head pound.

Eeeeeeee… Eeeeeeeeeeee… Eeeeeeeeeee…

….

Is that a pulse monitoring machine beeping? What?!

Suddenly, something buzzes in front of my face, unmistakably a bug. Abruptly my ability to hear resumes and as my ears start working, I hear wind blowing around me in a soft roar. Soon I feel its caress on my face and hands, its playful tugging on my clothes.

“K-Kairi?” I ask with a sinking feeling.

I recoil when a hand slaps across my face. “Hey, girl! Rouse yerself! It’s dangerous to sleep in the open. You’re fuckin’ lucky to be in one piece. You shoulda stayed awake and waited. My bleedin’ farting horse wandered far downstream! Hah… Did you really think you were safe sleeping so close to your freshly burned-out village? Idiot.”

Blinking, I rub my eyes, determined to clear my stupid blurry eyes, my head pounding and eyes burning like hot coals. As my vision finally starts working, I look with dismay and consternation upon Vayne’s pissed off and ruddy-looking face, before closing my eyes tightly again in denial. 

“B-bu-but--but! NO!!!” I scream at finding myself sucked right back into my nightmare, leaping up to my feet, or at least I try to spring up, but my body, still weary and sore, plagued by body aches, I can’t hardly budge, not quickly at least. I feel stiff like a cadaver recovering from a form of rigor mortis.

Not to mention, my pauldrons, breastplate and faulds, the armoring at my hips weigh me down. I feel as though I haven’t managed to get a decent night’s worth of sleep. Assuming this is all a dream as I think possible, taking that into consideration, I must be getting far too much quality sleep in real life, lying unconscious in some hospital bed. Wasn’t that beeping a machine? Did I hear the real world around me for a moment before my senses returned to me here?

Eeeeeeeeee… Eeeeeeeeee ………… Eeeeeeeeeeee.

Ugh… My head aches worse as I realize the source of these noises with a blush. It’s a couple of horses seemingly having a conversation, neighing back and forth.

It’s strange to dream of being sleep-deprived and exhausted, or is it? I wouldn’t know.

Exhausted and beyond sore, I can’t adequately express how shitty I feel using words

“Girl!” Vayne barks harshly, giving me another firm shaking. “You completely out of your wits?”

To my side, a horse suddenly snorts loudly, scaring me. That noise is echoed almost right away by the other horse. Yawning, I slump and continue rubbing at my eyes. I’m almost glad that I don’t have gauntlets like Vayne’s with little spikes to spear my eyeballs, thanks to an accident rubbing the sleep out from my eyes.

“We can’t set camp and let you get more sleep, Hana,” Vayne says. “Get movin’.”

“Why? The grass is nice here.” I lay flat again, smelling the fresh scent of the grass and a couple of blades tickle at my nose. “Achoooo!” I sneeze and rub my nose. A horse snorts almost in agreement.

Vayne smacks my forehead with a flick of his gauntleted hand. “Why?! Because some dirty fucking goblins still hide in this valley and up in the near mountains. Do you remember nothing, you fartin’ idiot? They could be wanderin’ around in the search for any surviving dumbshits like yourself. Do you forget about the mortal danger those freshly turned monsters pose to us?”

“Ughhhhhh…” I sit up, nodding and sighing. Forcing my eyes open, I gaze at Vayne’s face and suggest. “Considering how fierce you are with your sword, why don’t you kill them and make this whole valley safe again?”

“I thought about doing that. Extra goblin heads MIGHT make me a mite extra, assuming the adventurer’s guild was inclined to pay. Oh sure, I’m getting pissed off enough to do something like that, but my instincts are screaming at me right now. For some pissin’ reason, I’m eager to get you out of here and line my pockets with gold and be done with this job.” He rubs at his chin and grumbles, glaring at me. “If you weren’t here, I’d do that, but you’re a liability right now. To do that, I’d have to leave you alone. I don’t believe that your unbelievable luck will hold out forever. It’s your own damned fault that that’s not an option.”

….

“Alright.” I nod my head in acceptance. He’s right. This valley isn’t safe, nice as it seems at the moment. 

“Therefore,” says in an angrier tone, despite my agreement, “You’re gonna put your ass on a horse and follow me south. We’ll get you dropped off in Haldor’s Stand and then I’m finished with you.” Looking into his eyes, I see that he’s pissed off enough to tie me to a horse if he thinks it’s warranted.

I give him a nod, saying nothing. What can I say except yes? He’s right that I need to be taken somewhere safer. If he left me here, there wouldn’t be hardly anything I could do.

“Good,” he says with self-satisfaction, still glaring at me, seizing my hand, he hauls me up onto my unsteady feet. I wobble for a moment and straighten with determination. “The town we’re headin’ to is a fair distance south from here through the mountains. Get ready to hurt. We’ll be riding through this day and overnight.”

I shake my head, dismayed. I don’t doubt that I’ll discover that how my body feels right now is just the tip of a hidden iceberg. But, no matter my discomfort, I’ll overcome anything that either he or this world throws at me.

Suppressing my upset, I follow Vayne over to his horse. If it was still night, I’d hardly be able to see him with clouds filling the skies. His black coat and white socks are plainly visible and I turn to look at Daisy and I see its spackled gray and white coat more clearly. I chuckle as it trots to me and nuzzles at me, butting its head against mine. I wobble, almost tipped over with somewhat unsteady legs. 

Patting my back, Vayne pulls me away from Daisy and guides me to the side of his saddled horse. “You’ll be riding my horse. I’ll help you up.”

“Why yours and not mine?” I ask, blinking my burning eyes, looking at Daisy with a frown. It’d be fine to ride that one. I yawn again. “I don’t see why…”

“Don’t be stupid,” Vayne interrupts me by firmly flicking my forehead again. “Have you ever ridden a horse bareback all day long? You don’t have the muscles and reflexes for it, unless you’ve been riding them your whole life and want to tell me all about how skilled you happen to be. I suppose you’re good enough with them on the ground.” He frowns at me. “But beyond havin’ said that, from the looks of your sorry state, you’ll be out cold inside the hour once we’ve set out. There’s no way you wouldn’t fall and break your fool neck. As such, I’ll tie you to my saddle so you won’t fall off like a tupka sack.”

He helps me up onto his horse and with a short length of a strong, twine-like rope, he loops it around my waist and secures my thighs to the rings on either side of his saddle. I wrap my arms around the horse’s neck to steady myself. My thigh muscles stretch uncomfortably. 

Maybe getting more sleep will make me wake up and leave this strange dream behind.

“I’ll look after you just until we reach Haldor’s Stand.” Vayne says, seemingly less annoyed with me tied to his saddle. “There’s a shitspot adventurer’s guild there, but they have some resources. If you ain’t full of shit about your desire to become some kinda hero, you’re gonna want to head in there with me. I’ll collect my bounty there, give you a mite of an introduction, not that it’d help you all that much.” Vayne laughs out loud. “People there hate my guts. It’s your problem if they end up wantin’ to lynch you just because you know me.”

 I nod and ask with a frown, my head resting in the mane of his horse, waving in the whipping up wind. “Why would they…? Achoooo! ”

“Eh, I’ve pissed off quite a few people pretty much everywhere.” Finishing up tying me, he adds, “You’ll be safe at the stand. It’s the only place in the Goblin Mountains left over from ancient times. There’s a smattering of other pilgrim communities here and there throughout the mountains that I could drop you off in, but none of them are secure. I wouldn’t be foolish enough to spend a night in any of them. I’d leave you off at one of these fuckin’ doomed villages if I wasn’t already headed back to Haldor’s.”

My mind wraps around all that and I think about his comment about there being other pilgrim’s communities around. “Do you not trust pilgrims? They’re not thieves or something like that, are they? The people in Pinesdale were all principled people.” I peer at Vayne’s face questioningly.

Vayne shakes his head. “It’s not that, as if you didn’t already know. They tend to be a good sort as you say, but their kind ain’t the type I prefer to mingle with, not that I bother with much anyone. Hah. Why? They’re hopeless romantic idiots. Adventurers and even Alver’s soldiers now and again have tried to beat some sense into the lot of 'em, but they’ll never change. Unless their philosophies change out of necessity, giving up on their shit desire to heal the mountains by maintaining a human presence here, they’ll die before everyone else. Just as soon as the Demon Baron takes the army he’s been pitting against Lapvia to the south, their healing, peace-loving asses will all end up joining his army.”

Thinking about Jeraldyne’s strange and dark transformation in the bowels of the cave, I turn my face away, chewing a lip. 

“Are you saying that every single human being in this world no matter how good of a person they were, they’ll turn into these monsters when they die like Jeraldyne and the other villagers?”

Walking a distance away and bending to pick up something in the nearby grass, Vayne hauls up a string of bags over to me and fastens them to the girth straps off the saddle. My nose wrinkles as a familiar odor rises up like a cloud of filthiness. My stomach starts aching and I get an urge to vomit. My eyes widen as I realize what’s in the bags. Craning my head, I see a few sporadic drips of thick blood dripping down from the bottom one of these bags. They’re filled with the goblin’s heads. By now, most of the fluid should have drained out.

About to protest violently I compress my lips tightly, feeling nauseous. Looking at Daisy’s similar expression, looking at the bags, I decide to not ask him to take them with him. My horse doesn’t like it any more than I do.

Vayne snorts as he walks over to Daisy to mount and as he gets close, it shies away from him, whickering softly. “Stubborn beast,” he mutters. 

Looking back at me, he says, showing more of his temper, “To answer your question, the damned curse doesn’t care about your beliefs. Praying to Alvera won’t save you. That’s a fact. You can be a saint your whole life and become the worst kind of an abomination in death without being cremated, just as soon as the change triggers.”

Remembering all the tales of zombie pandemics I’ve ever watched or read, I sigh. With my thighs already cramping from being stretched out awkwardly, astride his horse, I start understanding what Vayne meant by new levels of pain. Riding a day and a night will put me in a new world of pain.

To distract myself, I ask, “Is this some kind of a disease everyone has? Is it a sickness? Can it happen while you’re alive? Does something kill you to make it happen faster?”

“Hmph. Nothin’ like that. This isn’t a plague of the body. It’s rooted in our souls, the place where magic quickens. It’s a more dire curse than just having your body change on you at death and having to ride along for the rest of your new pitiful existence. I guess there’s some mercy in that you most likely cease to be who you were, because everyone agrees that your soul undergoes a change, making the body alter. When we’re all dead, there won’t be a single human soul leftover. Euphonia’ll become a world of demons and monsters with no chance of any redemption.”

“Why bother with cremation, then? If this has nothing to do with the body, why?”

Vayne’s brow creases in thought and he turns back to Daisy with a soothing gesture as he stalks over. Daisy continues to eye Vayne with a wary expression.

“Almost like you were one of my horses once,” he mutters at Daisy. “But I don’t recognize that face of yours, and I wouldn’t ever buy a spackled one like you unless it was all there was. Horse, I’ll have you know that I’m not one to treat my horses none too gently, but I don’t kill ‘em.” He raises a finger towards Daisy. “Relax, girl.”

I feel suddenly annoyed that he’s stalking slowly towards my horse, cornering it. Not that I believe that he means it any harm. “Do you call just any horse you meet, horse and girl?”

Vayne stops and turns a contemptuous eye on me. “Heh… you think I don’t know the tail-end from the face of a horse? Oh, I checked her out while you were out. Clearly you don’t know a thing. From the shape of her and seeing what’s between her legs and not, I know that we have a fine mare here.”

Daisy neighs loudly, suddenly running at Vayne, snorting, more aggressive than I’ve yet seen. With a chuckle, Vayne sidesteps gracefully, the same way he does in battle and springs up onto Daisy’s back. Her mane flows in the stirring wind and her eyes go wide, her nostrils flaring as she neighs like a feral horse.

“Vayne! Stop this!” I yell, reaching down to free my legs, but finding no knots in reach to undo, I scratch uselessly at the strong twine binding me to the saddle of his horse. Shaking its mane, Vayne’s horse watches Vayne calmly as he sits astride Daisy. She dances around on her rear hooves, thrashing with her front hooves, looking at me pleadingly as she kicks and dances, screaming.

Damn it. “Leave her alone!” I kick my knees into Vayne’s horse’s sides. The horse lurches into motion and I grab up the reins to guide it. 

“What are you doin’?!” Vayne exclaims and as his horse dashes near to throw its shoulder into Daisy where his leg is, he swings his legs around and somehow manages to stay on Daisy’s back while she’s still dancing. “You could get hurt and my horse along with you, fool.”

“Leave her alone!” I shout. “You said you’d just ride her! It looks like you’re trying to break her spirit right now!”

“Hmph…” Vayne grunts, holding tightly as he’s spun around. “At this rate, I think I’ll need to leave the both of you behind since neither of you wants to cooperate. Hana, if you want my help, you’d best calm the both of you down right now. You got a way with her, don’t ya?” Vayne wraps an arm around Daisy’s neck while she leaps and shakes. 

“That’s a bit creative of you, but nothing I can’t handle.” Vayne grunts at Daisy, holding on firmly. “Bloody calm down!”

Frowning, seeing Daisy’s wild eyes, I prod my heels into Vayne’s horse’s sides, spurring him into action, reaching out to catch a handful of Daisy’s mane in my fingers. I have to hold on tightly as she tries to keep spinning and Vayne’s horse trots around with her movements. 

“Daisy… please. Please let Vayne ride you.” Why am I even bothering to try to reason with a horse?

Daisy snorts and rears again, yanking herself free from my grasp and spins to look me in the eye, she shakes her head, whinnying. I let go of the torn off horse hair I still hold.

“Please, Daisy. I need his help. I’m on my own without him.”

“Damn right, girl! I still got one reasonable woman on my hands, I see.” Vayne murmurs as Daisy launches herself into a new round of dancing and bucking.

“Daisy! Stop! Please!”

With more loud snorting and panting, Daisy wears a wild-eyed and harried expression, Daisy’s ears perk up and she looks down and she plants her backside in the churned up turf her hooves had flung around.

“That’s a good girl. Tired yourself out, didn’t you?” Vayne snorts, still somehow clinging to Daisy’s back and he pats her neck. After a moment sitting, she surges to her feet and bucks a few more times defiantly, shrilly screaming.

“Daisy! I’ll ride you myself if you’ll just…” I yell loudly. With a snort she manages to pout even though a horse’s face isn’t right for it, coming to a stop. Giving a louder snort, she charges away in a gallop as though she hadn’t just exerted herself in a sincere, but vain effort to shake Vayne off her back. 

With a surprised blink, I clench my knees into Vayne’s horse’s sides and gallop after them, awkwardly handling the reins. Having been shown how it’s done in visions doesn’t seem to impart an intuitive understanding of the nuances of riding that can only be attained from practice and experience.