Part 2 : Rescue and Recovery
"Fontane! Watch the volley!"
What a fool I've been. I'd turned my back to the horde. Seizing their opportunity, they quickly knocked their arrows.
"Damn them," I muttered, as I pulled Tammick to his feet, an arrow jutting from his left heel.
I heard the harpy twang of their loose, and shafts lodged themselves in the surrounding mud with a sizzling collection of hisses.
Two grazed me as we ran back toward the convoy, one on the shoulder and the other on the tip of my left ear. I didn't feel this at the time. I had been too focused on getting Tammick into cover.
"Orcin men on the ridge!" Bodin shouted. I turned in time to see his neck split by an obsidian blade.
"How did they know we would come this way?" Tammick asked through his pain.
Just then the slighted sensation gripped me, like a small wind on the hairs of your neck.
I threw Tammick down as a green hand wielding an axe passed between us. It narrowly missed My forearm as I spun around it, ramming Derw Cardan into the half-naked beast's chest. Its purple blood ran down my hands as I ripped my Master's blade free and sent Tammick off running. Satisfied with his cover, I turned to face the remainder of the force. There were twenty in all. We had been a party of 8 but now only Tammick and I stood.
I clasped Derw Cardan, feeling its leather wrappings take in the orc's blood. As it did, Cold washed over me, and all seemed slow. I raised the blade and charged the horde.
The world faded as I fell in between them.
"Freeman!"
The clashes fade, only the vibration on steel in my hand remains.
"Freeman! Wake up!"
My eyes shot open.
Pain. Immense throughout my body. It felt as if molten metal were coursing through my veins, boiling me from the inside.
Beside me sat a woman dressed in white, leafing through a tome, frantically. She was gorgeous. Blonde hair worn up in a braid that tied a ring around her head, her eyes were emerald green, and her body--well it left nothing to be desired, save for being overdressed.
I lifted my hand.
Not good. It was pale, and my veins were a bright orange.
The woman jumped in surprise.
"You are awake!" She said, coming to my side.
I nodded.
"That's good, Freeman." She placed a hand on my cheek. "What is your name?"
A wave of agony took over my body. My body writhed, throwing off any strength I might have had to answer.
"You have been bitten by a vampire. Do you remember? You must stay awake or the venom will take hold."
She really was beautiful. Through the pain, I watched her lips move. Soft lips. The lips of a...
"Wake up, Freeman!"
What did she say?
"I found it! Hang on a little longer."
She began chanting in another language. I watched the rise and fall of her breasts as she did so.
Gorgeous.
I was so tired.
Black.
Cold.
Warm.
Floating.
So this is death.
"Can you hear me?"
I woke again. Next to me was the same woman, but she seemed to sway in an odd way.
My pain was lesser. I tried to probe my body but I couldn't move. I seemed to be floating in some sort of healing fluid.
"Please relax." The woman said, "I summoned a slime to suck out the venom."
A... Slime? Was I?
I attempted to break free, but my fears were confirmed. If a slime engulfed me. I was already dead.
"Relax. The slime will help you breathe."
I felt a prodding at my lips. I tried with all my might to keep my lips shut, but the slime, now wholly in control, forced my mouth open and slid inside. The girth of the thing was incredible, filling up all the space in my throat. Then, with a pop, I was breathing clean air that tasted like oak bark.
"Hello, Fontane." A voice said. It seemed to come from my head.
"Who the hell said that?"
"Me silly. I am Demman, a slime familiar cast by your friend there." The slime said.
"You can hear my thoughts?"
"Not exactly. You see, the nature of vampire venom is that it reaches even the mind, altering it to be more predatory, more one tracked. To remove it from your body, I must go everywhere, even your mind. I don't so much hear them, as much as I feel them."
"Will you devour me?"
"Oh silly. Only if you want me too, but if you mean that I digest your whole body until you are nothing, I'll leave that for wild slimes. Rest assured, I am here to help."
"How can I trust you?"
"If I may be frank, if you do or do not, it makes no difference to me. If I wanted to eat you. I would. Easy as that." Her laughter echoed in my head. "Now. Will you sit still and let me take care of you?"
"What choice do I have?"
"That or become a vampire." She said, "Oh was that rhetorical?"
"Do what you must."
"I will."
I felt a sudden sensation of my blood being pushed down, being replaced by the warm body of the slime. I began to feel lighter, and the pain was replaced with a dull tingle and pressure, all of which seemed to be pooling around my...