Two weeks of suffering

[Daelin]

The night was cold and the freezing mountain wind was biting into Ryan’s skin like it had done in the past few days.
As Ryan tried sitting up and wrapped the worn out bedroll tighter around himself a familiar burning pain started coming from the open wound in his side.
Clenching his teeth together Ryan tried his hardest not to scream because of the pain that was coming from his wound but he failed to stop some sad whimpers coming from his throat.
 
‘’Why in the Avatars name did this ‘ere ‘ave to ‘appen to meh!? What did I do wron’ eh?!’’

As Ryan cursed at no one in particular the soft moans and howls from the cave entrance a few feet away from him started to grow louder.
As the sounds of footsteps neared the cave entrance Ryan placed a hand in front of him mouth to muffle out any sounds he was making , he didn’t want those things finding out they failed to finish their job on him while he was still in that cave.

After a few minutes of silence the shuffling of feet and sounds of crawls scraping against the cave walls slowly started dying down again and Ryan was once again left in peace.
Ryan stared down at the dry blood that coated the side of his shirt and sighed softly while closing his eyes again and trying to get some sleep.

How could he have been that stupid..? It was a simple routine patrol through Covetous and he knew the place like the back of his hand but still he managed to mess up.

---- Two weeks earlier ----

Ryan chuckled to himself as the blade of his cutlass made its way through another neck of a harpy spraying its blood over the cavern wall and Ryan’s chest.

‘’Ahhh… now this ‘ere be the life I tell ye.. whackin’ birdy women to forget about all yer problems!’’

As Ryan was chuckling to himself and hacking away on another harpy near him he didn’t notice what was moving behind him in the shadows.
Breathing heavily after slaughtering the harpies around him Ryan sheathed his sword but before he could turn around a strong skeleton like arm made its way around his throat and pressed against it tightly to keep Ryan from running.

The second the skeletons arm was holding him Ryan started to struggle like a madman trying to free himself from the deadly embrace of the creature but all his actions were rewarded with was the sound of mad cackling.
As the undead creature held Ryan in place it slowly moved its skull next to Ryan face and grinned wickedly towards him.

‘’Well well well… What do we have heressss? A sssilly little flessshbag ssslaughtering my petssss Hrm?!’’

The only answer the skeleton got was wheezing and coughing as its arm was cutting off Ryan’s air supply causing him to lose the strength to stand on his own feet.
At the sign of weakness the skeleton only started cackling louder and whispered quietly in Ryan’s ear.

‘’Nysss worry flessshbag! I sssshall take the pain away…’’

As the skeleton finished its threat towards Ryan a sharp burning sensation came from his lower abdomen and a sickening squishy sound filled his ears.
Looking down to see what was causing the excruciating pain his eyes were set on the dark metal of a kryss piercing his body and dripping blood on the cavern floor.. ‘’His’’ blood.

After a short while of twisting and playing with its blade in Ryan’s wound and cackling madly the undead creature pulled out the blade with a violent jerk causing Ryan to scream in pain again.
As Ryan hit the ground harshly the skeleton cackled and slowly walked towards the shadows again.

‘’Good ssssoulsss little flessshbag! Remember to ssscream when the harpiesss come to feed what isss left of you!’’

After the creature disappeared back into the shadows and Ryan’s ears were once again met with the deadly silence of the caves he tried to get back to his feet , there was no way he was going to set around there and end up as a harpies lunch!

As Ryan slowly walked his way towards the dim sunlight in the distance he could feel the blood from his wound move downwards across his leg and pile up in his boot.
Breathing was becoming more and more of a challenge and legs were becoming heavier at every step as Ryan made his way towards the sunlight pouring through the mouth of the cave.

Ryan felt the blood spurt out of the wound and run across his fingers as he reached the entrance of the cave and hissed quietly to himself as his vision was beginning to blur.

‘’Yer nay goin’ to die today ye pansy… N…nay today.. J..just keep it up.. I..its just a flesh wound..’’

The moment Ryan stepped out of the cave he was greeted by the bright rays of the sun but also by the stinging sensation of the cold mountain winds.
It took Ryan a few minutes to register that he was on the wrong side of the mountain and that the only thing that lay in front of him was death but if he would go back the harpies would surely rip him to peaces in the state he was in.

Taking a deep breath Ryan made his way further into the mountains to find a nice quiet spot out of the wind to set up camp that was the only way he would neither freeze to death or get eaten.

‘’T…There’s patrols around ‘ere all the time Ryan.. D..don’t worry.. Y..ye’ll be fine.. just wait a few hours and em will ‘ave ye save and sound back in em barracks..’’

Through his pain Ryan was able to force a slight smile on his face expecting a quick rescue but little did he know things would run different this time.