Chain the Bandit Eater 12

Darkness without a speck of light was the type of environment that harbored monsters before all else. That a Hero would find himself beholden to such an environment was rare. It would be a short lived darkness for the hiss of a flare preceded its light and soon cast Roc in an unpleasant red glow. Looking around the Bandit King studied the desolate and monolithic rail tunnel and was rewarded a view as interesting as the darkness that once hid the monolithic designs. The voice of Dandelion from behind him speaking up reminded the giant that he was in this environment at his companion’s suggestion.

“Your control of the earth is most impressive Master Roc. Under these circumstances we could easily drop the entire train or hurry ahead and prepare a more suitable ambush.”

“Dandelion you really don’t get it do you?”

“Ho. Is there some matter of pride that will keep you from finishing what we set out to do? I certainly hope not. I will not suffer the traitors to make it as far the capital.”

“I insist that you do ol’ Dandelion. If not you will have to deal with me and in these circumstances I think even you can see how much chance you would stand against me.”

“All the more reason to exploit our current advantage.”

“Except you’re forgetting that I promised the boy that when next we meet I’d show him how great of leader I can be. Besides, if we let them reach Highroot it’ll serve to start showing the boy just how much power I exert along the southern side of the Stormroots.”

Roc’s toothy grin split his face with an amused expression and the giant allowed himself a laugh. Trusting his sense of direction the lumbering Bandit King lead his fellow Hero into the darkness leaving behind the battlefield above where the young man and his blue uniformed soldiers assessed the damage of the bandit attack.

“It’s unlikely that we’ll find any survivors Lord Elliot but if you insist we shall make a full effort to free any from the wreck.”

“So the Hero from Lumirest goes by the name of Elliot does he?”

His name having been given away by one of the soldiers under his command, Elliot, the young Hero clad in silver plate and blue cloth, turned to face the source of the voice he had but recently become acquainted with. With her hands on her hips and a cocky smile more typical of the maid’s disposition, Chain met Elliot’s gaze with a hint of the gratitude she held for his actions in her eyes. Noting that Chain already seemed to be in better health with little sign left of her wounds Elliot offered her a smile of his own.

“That I do adventurer. Elliot Silverlance, Knight Prince of the Church of Lumirest and humble servant of her Eminence, Lady Cardinal.”

“That seems like a heavy enough title to bear but since you wasted the breath on it I guess I can do the same. The infamous Bandit Eater. The Chainmail Maiden of Lord Soarmont’s Adventuring Company. The Chainmaid. But that’s honestly a lot of pompous nonsense so you can just call me Chain and I’ll stick to Elliot if you don’t mind.”

“It is not a problem at all La–”

“Didn’t I just comment on that being pompous nonsense?”

Elliot was surprised by the brusqueness of Chain’s speech but found himself holding out a hand to silence one of his soldiers who was none too pleased with the disrespect Chain showed the Hero. Seeing the blue uniformed soldier was not going to defy the unspoken order Elliot returned his attention to Chain with a renewed smile.

“That you did… Chain. I hope you’ll forgive me not only for the formalness of my upbringing but also for my failure to assure that you would not have had to do battle with the Bandit King.”

“It doesn’t matter now. I’m alive and since you bought me the time to get a healing spell off I’ll stay that way long enough to finish patching myself up. First though we have work to do.”

“Work?”

Sighing heavily Chain clutched at her left temple. The sight was unsettling to Elliot who grew concerned that he had done something to anger Chain and they way she growled out a question of her own assured him that was the case.

“You don’t really spend a lot of time dealing with Soarmont’s Adventuring Company or the Brass Line do you?”

“Admittedly, this mission is my first beyond the borders of Lumirest.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

Sighing even heavier Chain lowered her hand from her temple and crossed her arms. Leveling Elliot with an impatient glare the maid transitioned from complaining to explaining.

“Alright, pay attention because I doubt we have time to go over this more than once.

“The Brass Line is the unifying thread that connects the Five Kingdoms of Light and the surrounding kingdoms. As such every one of the trains is designed to carry goods as well as passengers. To assure the trains make it through the wilderness and bandit infested regions adventures from the Company who can’t quite make a living on their own take on contractual guard work. Should something happen en route, say the merchant who owns some of the goods dies, the adventures are responsible for getting those goods to their destination with the Company and nations involved in the endeavor splitting the profits. Since all of the adventurers assigned to this train are dead it would normally be considered lost goods claimed by bandits or monsters, however…”

“As an adventurer of the Soarmont Adventuring Company yourself…”

“Bingo!”

Unfolding her arms enough to point at Elliot as she exclaimed that he had come to the correct conclusion Chain allowed herself a cocky smile. Exuding a bit of pride as she continued Chain took a moment to boast.

“Coincidently that’s where my rather unsavory ‘Bandit Eater’ title comes from. Most of my time with my mentors took me to places frequently used by bandits and instead of avoiding them I would slaughter them and claim their spoils for myself. Not that I could actually keep any of it but the cut I got for my work was enough for people to say that I was fattening myself on bandits.”

“Hence the title Bandit Eater, meaning that I should not be surprised that even this tragedy will become just another meal for you.”

“Don’t blame me for being an opportunist. At least I was trying to find survivors while the bandits set upon the train.”

Elliot’s disdain at the meaning behind Chain’s title irritated the maid and her hands again found their way to their hips as she countered. Her retort hit home however with the young Hero and he hung his head for a moment before looking skyward at where the Great Bird Sol occupied the sky.

“A failure on my part that I cannot possibly hope to redeem myself for with any action less than the defeat of the men responsible for this tragedy.”

“At the very least, you can help me out with the train. If we can get it to Highroot with as much of the cargo salvaged as we can and the bodies of the passengers, guards, and bandits you can at least avoid making yourself look like an incompetent before Raptoria.”

“But the majority of the bandits were slain by your hand were they not? Surely the truth of me being knocked senseless from the initial attack is what I shall be judged by.”

Another sigh escaped Chain as she listened to Elliot berate himself for what she considered a rather human fault. In an uncharacteristic, though still laced with her typical arrogance display, Chain offered a few words of consolation.

“Just because you have a place in the Builders’ Song that makes you inhumanly powerful doesn’t mean you’re not still human. If anything, a Relic Bound like myself can forget that sometimes too, but then there is always someone like that grinning idiot you chased off to remind us how human we are. And that’s the point that you should be holding onto. Even failing to protect the passengers from a surprise attack you still drove off two Heroes at once and kept most of your soldiers alive. That’s an impressive feat even for a Hero and that’s how you should be presented to Raptoria.”

Chain’s words had a profound effect on Elliot and the Hero looked on the maid in awe. Only for a moment however as he soon lowered his head and allowed himself to smile again.

“As you say Chain, it would not do for me to give up on my mission after so many have died because of it. It would be disrespectful to the dead to not see the goals they boarded the Brass Line for to completion.”

Opening his brilliant emerald eyes wide with determination Elliot looked up and looked upon Chain as though he were returned to life.

“My ignorance cannot be an excuse so I ask you Chain, what is it that we need to do?”

Feeling pleased with herself Chain placed her hands on the back of her head and turned towards the train engine cars.

“Not too much yet. Once the train is back on the tracks though we’ll need to gather up all of the bodies and get them on the train. We can worry about separating them after that. For all of that to happen though we’ll need our Rattama engineers to come out of the engine cars. Fortunately I’ve already got my partner working on that.”

“Your partner? You mean the harpy that has been fighting at your side? We best join them quickly then before something undesirable happens.”

Chain rolled her eyes and groaned as Elliot jumped to the presumptuous conclusion involving Melody and hurried to the reach the top of the toppled engine cars.

(I guess I should have expected as much but Melody still doesn’t deserve it. Of course thinking about the Rattama maybe the idiot is right especially since Melody isn’t actually one of the train’s passengers.)

Chain sighed yet again and dropped her arms from behind her head as she hurried to rescue Melody from the common perception of harpies.

Copyright © 2018 Joshua D Tarwater