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Being in a relationship while also training to be the one to kill a god wasn’t as hard as it sounds. Sure, Odiris was training more than he had time to spend with his girlfriend, but he still had plenty of free time to spend with her. Today was one of the rare days they got the whole time to themselves though. People were getting ready for a celebration of the new year, which meant anyone under 18 was practically kicked out of the small mountain village while the adults worked on setting up.
This is how Odiris and Elandorr found themselves walking down their path through the woods. Not many people went any further than a mile away from the village, but the two had been in the works of making a five mile trail just for them since they were little.
“Odiris I’m tired, can’t we sit here for a little?” Elandorr whined, a sign that she didn’t mean her words. It took a minute for Odiris to recognize where along their trail they were, but looking around he could see why his love wanted to rest.
The view was incredible. The early morning sun hit the cliffs perfectly, making the whole land look like gold. There was also a light mist refracting light into rainbows everywhere. How could he say no to that?
They spent an hour talking, Odiris showing off the new skills he’s been working on and Elandorr talking of her family and friends. It didn’t make Oridir feel lonely exactly, not anymore. There was a time when it was hard for him to hear of other people, but now it made him feel more proud. He had a purpose greater than anyone else he knew, and they were all proud of him as well. And Elandorr knew everyone, so they were able to have friends for both of them.
“What if we left?” Elandorr asked after a comfortable moment of silence.
“I’m sorry?” Odiris was startled out of his gazing at the mountains around them.
“You know, just the two of us. We could make our way to the Capital and pretend like there wasn’t this big prophecy,” she held a look in her eyes that intimidated Odiris, but he couldn’t tell if she was being serious. There were times that he talked about wishing there wasn’t a prophecy, but to just ignore it?
“That’s not right though. Everyone is relying on me to kill Thutris, I can’t live with knowing that I could have prevented something.”
“We don’t even know what that is though! It could be made up for all we know and-”
“Elandorr! Really?” Odiris stood up, and watched as his girlfriend did the same to meet his eyes.
“Yes! Seriously, this stone woman comes along one day saying that there’s going to be a child able to kill a god, refuses to say why, and we’re all supposed to just trust that because she says she’s Idona’s child? How can you say that doesn’t sound suspicious as Hell?” There were tears threatening to break through her eyes, and Odiris decided to look out at the view again. He was mad, but not at her, of course not. He was mad that she was right.
“I have been training my whole life for this. I’m not going to just give it up, I’m sorry.”
“You’ve also known me your whole life, how can you just choose that over me?” There was sniffling now, and a glance was stolen to look at her. Elandorr too was looking out, but turned to face Odiris. “I’m sorry, I know it’s selfish, but sometimes I also wish things were different.”
“After everything? After I kill whoever I need to so we can be happy together? We can run away to the capital and we’ll never have to listen to another prophecy again, I’ll make sure of it.” Odiris reached to pull Elendorr into a hug, which she melted into as always. Odiris wiped her tears and then his own. “I swear on my life, we can be happy together.”
They had made their trail to stay in the open on purpose. There were a few reasons other than to take in the view. The first was that their parents hated them coming home dirty and needing to wash before events. The second was that it was generally safer. While Odiris was a fighter, Elendorr wasn’t, and she never had to learn the skills needed to keep herself safe in the event of an attack from a wild animal.
The trails being safer meant that Odiris kept his guard down a little more than he should have.
Something had felt off for a while now, but they both brushed it off as anxiety from being so far away from the village. There was only the occasional boar or wild cat, but they were hardly a threat. Odiris never left his sword more than arm's reach from him, and he had fought plenty of both to know the fastest way to end the encounter.
This felt more though, which was why it was put off. There wasn’t anything in sight that wasn’t a plant, and the only sound was the wind brushing through leaves.
They made it to the next rest point, which was perfect for having lunch at. There were rocks for them to sit on, and shade to keep the sun out of their eyes. There was more talk about what they would want to do once they got to the capital, and talk of going outside of the Golden Kingdom all together on a grand adventure.
Then came the snap of a loose branch. Odiris immediately shot up and grabbed his sword. “Get behind me, something’s been following us.”
Elendorr did as he said, keeping close enough to stay safe but still giving him the room needed to counter any surprise attack that could be coming.
At first, nothing happened. Odiris almost laughed at himself for overreacting, but the giant monster that appeared out of the brush confirmed the fears that had been brewing for the past few hours.
Such a creature had been sneaking next to them for so long shouldn’t have been possible. It was 8 feet tall, standing on only two legs, and wider than even the largest trees. There was moss and other foliage growing all over its body, which oh, Odiris thought, that’s how it was hiding so well.
“What IS that?!” Elendorr yelled from behind him, the fear in her voice making Odiris’s heart ache.
“I don’t know, but I think I can see a weak point,” he gestured towards the creature’s neck where there was softer flesh looking material he was hoping would take it out without too much force.
The plant monster lunged, huge arms swiping through the air with claws bigger than anything Odiris had seen before. It was slow though, and Odiris easily stepped out of the way. He took a quick look back at Elendorr to make sure she was okay, and smiled at her. They had done this with other forest creatures enough to know how to move together to stay out of each other's way and out of danger at the same time. This was just another one of those times.
The next time the monster attacked, Odiris ran towards it. The hope was to be able to get close enough so he could test his theory about the neck being weaker, but Elendorr’s scream from behind him effectively changed plans.
“Odiris, there’s two of them!” She yelled. Odiris let out a curse.
“Get out of here, I’ll take care of them,” he was now behind the first creature, able to take in the situation more. There was in fact a second one, and it was focused on Elendorr. It wouldn’t be possible to get to her before it attacked, but she should have been fast enough to dodge and run for safety.
“I’m not going to just leave you!” There was a short yelp as a clawed hand grabbed at her, but she managed to get out of the way in time.
“Elendorr we don’t have time for this! Just get back far enough so that they hopefully won’t go after you,” Odiris made an attack of his own at the thing he was behind, but was too distracted on making sure Elendorr was safe for it to cause any damage.
She looked into his eyes for the last time and nodded. She ran back down the way they came, hidden behind trees now. As expected, all of the attention was on Odiris now. But he was able to put his own on them just as easily, and landed his first strike. Just as he predicted, a cut across the creature’s neck was enough to completely sever its head.
The one that was left however, took that time as an opportunity to take a hit on Odiris, knocking him prone and his sword out of reach.
There wasn’t a moment of hesitation before Odiris was back up, but still without his sword. He climbed on top of the fallen monster and tore off a branch from the foliage that had now started rotting at an alarmingly fast rate. He jumped again, able to lodge the branch into the monster’s neck. It took a few stabs and awkward maneuvering around as it started to fall, however Odiris was able to defeat both of the enemies.
He half expected Elendorr to come out from where she was hiding after the fight was over, but instead he was met with the quiet sounds of forest. So, Odiris started his way back to their home alone, slightly sore from being hit to the ground.
He only made it fifteen minutes before he saw her.
Elendorr was lying to the side of the path, blood not dry yet around her. Odiris ran towards her, pulling her into his arms. Her eyes were open, but unfocused. She was breathing, but it was so shallow he could barely feel it. There was a horrid cut along her chest oozing blood, covering Odiris’s shirt and hands.
“No, no, this can’t be happening-” Odiris put Elendorr flat on her back and ripped off his shirt. He pressed it against the wound and tried not to think about the tears falling onto her as well.
“Odiris…” short breaths grew harder as she tried to speak. “I’m sorry I can’t go with you.”
“No, don’t say that. I’ll get you home and you’ll be fine.” Anger rose through his chest and made its way into his words, and Odiris pressed harder. It was only seconds before his shirt was soaked with blood and he ran out of anything else to try to stop the bleeding.
“Please… I can’t-”
“Stop it, stop it, stop it. I’m not losing you, I can’t. I love you, I need you dammit!” Odiris’s sobs were filling his throat and making it more difficult to breathe himself. He could feel as Elendorr’s life started draining faster now, and all he could do was pull her to him again and wail.
He never knew the exact moment she died. It could have been seconds after he hugged her, it could have been seconds before he finally put her still body back on the ground. He didn’t care about that. All he wanted was to know what killed her, or to bring her back. But there wasn’t any sign that they weren’t alone, that he wasn’t alone now he supposed.
Odiris picked up Elendorr’s body once more and started carrying her back to the first place where they stopped that day. It was always the first spot they stopped at whenever they had a day together, because it was her favourite spot. She went there alone sometimes, she had told him once that it reminded her of him and when she felt really lonely it brought her comfort.
So that’s where he buried her. He put her body somewhere safer so any animals wouldn’t try to pick at her, and went back to his village for a shovel. Odiris talked to only his mom, anyone else and it would have been too hard to get words out, but she was able to tell Elendorr’s family so they could come to her sudden and unplanned funeral.
“It’s too late now, Love. You should come home,” His mother came back to Elendorr’s grave hours after, and despite the worry she must have felt, there wasn’t any anger. Only understanding and empathy as she too got on the forest ground and hugged her son. “It’s going to be okay. I know it’s not right now, and it won’t ever be fully okay, but you’re strong. You know how to get past anything, and that includes this. So come home, we’ll get you some dinner and we’ll get you through this.”