A World Without a Sun

Marius nearly gagged on the stench. He thought the shock of combat was supposed to reduce your senses, to keep you going longer, but it clearly had no effect on whatever Dargus carried around. The moment his feet were on the ground again, away from that monstrous, bone-crushing 'hug' of affection, Marius promptly spat in the mud, wondering if any of that disgusting beard hair had made it into his mouth. If he swallowed something like that, he'd spend the next three nights making himself throw up for certain. Dargus' heart didn't seem dark, but Marius found him as disturbing as even some of the foulest creatures he had ever encountered. The man certainly had a strength of a monster though, that was for certain. At least he knew he had at least one talent.

But they were in a bit of a problem spot, now. The cart was ruined, and Marius didn't care enough about the package to try hauling it all the way to Kova on his own. Likely it would just sit in the mud. Ironic, given that it was probably what the thieves had been after. Marius doubted either Dargus or himself had anything worth robbing on their persons. They got what was coming to them though; Marius resisted the urge to kick one of the corpses out of spite.

The two Dargus had dealt with, though. The man shuddered, not really wanting to look at the blunt trauma the massive amount of force had created. Disturbing indeed. Now, though, Marius didn't really want to just... return back home, especially empty-handed. It might get rid of Dargus, but the man was worse than the nastiest of all parasites. Perhaps he would just go to Kova and re-do the work. That had been the reason for sending a blacksmith in the first place--Kova didn't have one.

He felt a small amount of pity for Dargus, though. The man seemed like such a child, despite the amount of alcohol he consumed. What would he be like sober? You couldn't really blame... Something tickled the side of Marius's tongue and he all but gagged and threw-up on the spot. Sticking a grubby finger into his mouth, he pulled out a long, dark beard-hair. No, the man could certainly be blamed for a number of things. He couldn't just ignore him, though.

"Just... try and keep out of trouble. We're going to Kova anyway, even with this thing lying in the mud. I'd be interested in finding a good cave before night-time settles in, though."

"Ah, right," Dargus replied. "I'll do my best, Marius, I won't get in any sort of trouble at all, promise." Dargus shifted his feet a little, wondering what to do. Marius had said they were going to move on to Kova despite their situation, which made Dargus happy; he would much rather spend the next several days adventuring with Marius than sitting in his home, alone.

"Well, uh.." Dargus grunted, as he bent over to pick up some of the goods they were taking to Kova. "A cave sounds nice, where do you 'spose we could find one of them?" He was now standing upright again, holding over his right shoulder several bundles effortlessly. In his left hand was his walking stick. "Hmm..." he mumbled. He had noticed that he still had his whiskey bottle resting on the ground. "Could you hold these for a sec?" he asked Marius, while dumping his heavy load towards Marius rather carelessly. He then bent over, picked up his whiskey bottle, then tied it to the top of his staff where a small branch was protruding.

"There," Dargus said, smiling as he admired his handy work.

Watching Dargus pick up the large bundles with such ease was impressive in its own account, but it didn't make Marius want to travel with the weapons anymore than he did already. He didn't really care about whether Kova got all these weapons, and he had an easily explainable reason why he couldn't deliver. They would likely just lie here until someone picked them up or they got covered by the mud entirely. Not that they were worth much anyway.

As Marius tried to receive the package, mostly just out of instinct, he felt the weight suddenly pressing down on his arms, and a moment later all the bundles escaped his grasp and tumbled into the mud. Marius released a sigh at what had happened, kicking one of the bundles open and glancing at Dargus, who had just finished fastening that never-ending whiskey bottle to his staff. How much did the man drink?

"Just leave the packages, Dargus, they're not worth the effort. Pick a weapon, if it makes you feel comfortable, otherwise they stay here." They were cheap anyway, not much more than just crudely shaped and pointed hunks of metal. Metal they had plenty of, that was for certain. No, it wasn't worth the trouble, even if Dargus could probably put it all on his back. Stooping down, Marius picked a blade that didn't look quite as poor as the rest, though not by much, and he wrapped a cloth around it, fastening the blade to his waist in a one-time sheath of sorts.

He glanced to the sky, the overcast weather seeming perhaps more thick than usual. Another storm maybe? Not surprising, given the time and place, he supposed. Traveling to Kova on foot would be miserable as it was, but add weather to that... "Let's get a move on. If we stay around for too long we might have a storm on top of us."

When Dargus had finished admiring his handy work, he turned back toward Marius, who had dropped the goods Dargus had handed him. Confused, Dargus asked, "Oh, uh, so we are just gonna leave them here? But the mayor told us we got to get those to Kova, Marius. We can't fail him, it wouldn't be right." Dargus was rather intent about this, being loyal to a fault.

"Look, I-.. I could carry them all, it wouldn't be a problem," he retorted. Little dark spots started to appear on Dargus' leather jacket as raindrops danced across his muddy clothing. Dargus bent over and picked up a large mace, not intent on choosing a weapon but rather attempting to convince Marius to let him take them all. "Really, Marius. I could."

Marius looked at Dargus remorsefully. Why had he even bothered saving this oaf? Part of him wanted to pity the poor sop, but as the rain began to fall, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He resigned, like he did with most things in life now, it seemed. Already that thrill of the fight, that slight snippet of his old self, was vanishing quickly, and he could feel himself slouching back into his recliner of apathy. He didn't give two chicken's worth about Kova getting these shoddy weapons, or letting down the mayor that had sent him on this damnable quest. But he had no energy to try educating an idiot, so he resigned, "If you want to bring, them, then fine, but if you lose a couple, don't bother for it."

He glanced at the sky, the rain coming down much harder now already. He did his best to steel himself over it, as many had gotten to practice over the last several years. In case Dargus wasn't convinced that they could spare to lose a few pieces, though, Marius added, "There's a reason the mayor sent me to Kova. I'm more valuable there alive, so we can't afford to waste any time, all right?"

The rain began to fall heavier; Dargus' beard was becoming heavy with water. He bent over, slipping in the forming mud, to pick up the several bundles of metal weapons as Marius was talking. The task was becoming harder and harder as the ground and bundles soaked up more water, if they didn't find shelter soon they may as well bury themselves in the mud. Finally, Dargus was able to hoist the weapons up onto his shoulder, tying them all together and latching them to his back. "Oh, wow Marius. I never imagined you'd be so important!" Dargus said, smiling despite the situation. "I am really a lucky guy, Marius, to know someone like you!"

Dargus looked around, surveying their surroundings. It wasn't long before he could see a trail leading off of the road they were standing on, he couldn't see where it lead, but Dargus thought they should follow it anyway. "Marius, look, there is a path," Dargus said, wiping his soaked hair out of his eyes. "Lets follow it, you never know, maybe we could find a cave... or sumtin."

Marius groaned, partly because of the rain, and partly because he knew Dargus was being completely sincere about thinking him important. No one was important in this world anymore; all he had was a profession, and he wasn't that great anyway. Maybe someday if they weren't all going to die at any moment, but he didn't know anymore. The rain battered his face, and he glanced to the sky, catching a streak of lightning in the corner of his eye that looked much too close. Looking at Dargus to see if the man was ready to go, Marius was impressed to find the man had, indeed, gotten almost all the weapons and seemed to be carrying them with relative ease. At least the man had one useful talent.

What would be important now was getting to cover as quickly as possible. That lightning could prove deadly, so the trip was officially stalled for the time being. They would have to find shelter and wait it out; a pity, given that they were still quite close to where they had left from. It couldn't be helped though. Putting his best foot forward, so to speak, the man began to follow the trail up the path, making sure to count the seconds between lightning and thunder so he knew about how much time they had left. Not much, in truth.

Another loud boom rocked the sky as lightning stroked the air nearby their location. "Whoa..," Dargus gasped in surprise. It seemed that no matter how many times he heard lightning, it always made him jump as if he'd never heard it before. "Isn't that sumtin amazing Marius? What do you think it is? Its so bright and the boom so loud... Lightning."

Dargus looked back ahead and adjusted the pack on his back. The tie was getting slippery and he had to work extra hard to assure that the weapons did not fall of down the hill. He couldn't risk letting down the mayor after all. For a moment he let the feelings of tiredness and gloominess creep into his mind like a plague, yet he had always trained himself to chase those away. His faced wrinkled with concentration, he had to get rid of them. He then touched his pocket and felt his book.

Marius scrubbed a hand through his thinning hair, wiping some of the water off his forehead so it wouldn't drip into his eyes. How foolish had he been not to bring a hat? Grumbling under his breath, he all but ignored Dargus' inane questions on lightning. It didn't matter what caused the stuff, what mattered was how close it was. Besides, if the lightning didn't kill them, they'd probably drown to death at the rate the water and wind were picking up. It seemed heaven was fond of sucking up half the ocean and dumping it on their heads. Marius felt like climbing up one of those trees and waiting for a lightning bolt to rend the life from his miserable little body.

As if the creator's ashes--or whoever was up there now--had read his mind, a lightning bolt came hurtling out of the sky a moment later, hitting a tree and shattering it with a tremendous explosion. So great was the effect, Marius squinted and turned his head, wondering if the debris would reach him even from a few hundred feet away. Still, the sound was deafening, and his vision was bleached by the effect now causing the man to blink in trying to make it go away.

Light was fading fast, and more and more the lightning proved the best means to really get a good look at anything. They'd have no hope finding any of those stray horses now that the lightning storm had begun, and the paint of the world seemed to be running away in misery from the storm. Desperately, Marius waited for the next flash, looking around quickly to see if there was at least an overhang in the rock wall they were walking by now.

Perhaps his rotten luck had earned him a stroke of good fortune; perhaps a hundred feet in front of them, Marius saw what he thought must have been a cave entrance. It was probably infested with monsters or something, but better that than getting soaked to death. Beckoning Dargus, he picked up the pace a bit and aimed for the entrance.

The darkness was creeping upon them as they walked up the path. Doing his best to keep a cheerful mood, Dargus hummed an unrecognizable tune to himself as he rung out his beard and his jacket. The bright side of this was that Dargus was now the cleanest he had been for weeks.

Still humming, Dargus tried his best to to clear his mind of the great weight on his back, the rain compounded with the metal and his heavy coat was getting to be more than he was used to carrying. Lightning kept striking as if to a melodious chorus, the light emanating from them seemed to provide Dargus with a beat and he kept humming. Still unintelligable.

Suddenly Dargus could see Marius motioning for him to hurry up and follow him. Then Dargus could see it too, a cave entrance. Elated, Dargus went from humming to belting his song as loud as he could in the most horrendous tone imaginable to man. "AND DALOVAN SLEW THE BEAST, AND EVERYONE HAD A FEEEAAAAASSST!" Then suddenly, having not watched his footing, Dargus slipped in the mud. With a loud crash Dargus and all of the metal weapons in his pack hit the ground, spilling everywhere. The water was becoming more torrential, moving the mud quickly down the hill carrying Dargus with it. It was merely seconds before he had slid a couple hundred feet down the road.

As Dargus broke out in song, Marius turned around in fright at the sound, wondering for a moment if some sort of terrible banshee had descended on them. No, it was only that huge oaf actually trying to sing. It was to his immense horror that Marius saw what happened next. Dargus' feet hit the ground and slipped out from under him in the mud--the fool!--and down, down, down the huge, hairy man went, tumbling through the mud. The storm beat at his head so hard that Marius could hardly see the man descend down the road again, but every few moments a lightning flash would illuminate the scene.

Perhaps if he had no idea what had happened to Dargus, Marius would have been all right leaving the man for dead. Still unfortunately, the man appeared to be moving down there, hundreds of feet away from where Marius stood. Cursing under his breath, he tore away from the cave entrance, hurrying back down the road to save that idiot. He wanted him dead, at this point, but something restrained him from just... leaving him. Silently, he prayed to a dead creator that a lightning bolt would hit him as he ran.

Every attempt Dargus gave toward getting back onto his feet was a failure. Each foot and hand he planted into the mud slipped, which caused his giant body to splash around in the mud like a fat reckless carp flailing on the end of a hook, hoping to survive.

Lying on his back, Dargus was nearly covered with mud and water that had pooled at the end of the road. Water and dirt filled Dargus' mouth each time he tried to breathe, causing him to choke and make horrid noises. During this turmoil, Dargus sounded like a drowning cow who was simultaneously giving birth. "MAAAOOOORI... SSSSSS"

Marius wanted to cry. Why did he care? He owed this man nothing. Out here you were responsible for your own sin, now, no exceptions. And yet he felt like, somehow, if he left that man to drown in the rain and mud, he wouldn't be able to sleep that night. Maybe he was just horrified at the possibility that, somehow, he might not actually die and would just show up in the middle of the night. The lightning was getting more frequent--it was getting closer--and Marius knew every moment he spent lingering out here was a moment closer to drowning or getting fried. That didn't sound terrible, really, but that god-forsaken part of him still didn't want to die today. He knew he couldn't let another man die either like that, not even Dargus.

Grunting, the man pushed off into the darkness, keeping to the side of the road where the dirt was the highest and least torn up. Any misstep and he would fall as well, tumbling down the road, just like Dargus, until he blessedly broke his neck. The floodgates of heaven had truly opened up, the sons of the creator mourning their father's death until the world below would be blotted out. They wanted him to fail, to roll over and die, to give up on his fellow man. That was the most motivating thing he had thought in a very, very long time. His boot sunk into the ground again for another step and then another after that, until he finally arrived.

The large disgusting creature writhed in the ground, looking not particularly far from home down there in the mud. With a firm hand, Marius stooped down, grasping at Dargus and pulling up with all his might. The man was incredibly heavy--far more than he looked--but the retired soldier pulled with all his might until the earth squealed. The suction seal made by the mud gurgled, as if it were vomiting the man it had tried to consume back up. Marius wouldn't blame it; not even the darkest creature of shadow would want to eat Dargus.