Stranger Spirits

Companion [Chapter Two Part Two]

I jolted awake and smacked my head against the tree. "Ow! Damn it!" But hey, I survived the night!

"Vaughn!" I started looking around and then looked down to see Atticus. "What are you doing sleeping in a tree?"

"Umm," Should I tell him? I mean, I'm now an outcast and he's setting off on a trip to save the world or do some other Godly task. "It's a long story." I untied myself and packed my quilt onto my pack and began to climb down the tree.

"Shouldn't you be at home?" I sighed as I dusted myself off.

I let out an exasperated breath and scratched my head. "It's part of the long story." An idea struck me and I looked at him. "I will tell you why I was on this tree on one condition."

He cocked his head a little back and crossed his arms. "What's the condition?"

"You escort me off the mountain." I gave him a grave look. "You have to get off this mountain anyway so it won't be out of your way.

"You know you're not allowed to leave the village without the permission of the Elders." I gave him a look.

"Do we have a deal?" I put out my hand.

He took my hand and shook it. "Fine." He began to walk away. "If you travel with me then you walk at my pace."

My heart skipped a beat for a moment. "Of course!" I rushed to catch up with him.

We walked for a little while when he looked my way for a moment. "Well, are you going to tell me why you're running away?"

"To put it simply," I cleared my throat. "I am possibly being haunted by a demon...or a spirit. I'm actually not really sure at the moment."

"What the fuck?" He looked at me in disbelief. We continued walking but he took a step away from me. I wouldn't blame him.

"Unlike you, and everyone else in the village, my brother and I were born outside of Spindule." I began to tell my tale. I described how the Elders never treated me well and they only told me about the other day. "There is a reason why I asked you to escort me down the mountain." I stopped walking and looked down at the snow-covered grounded. "I can get down just fine...but if this spirit takes control of me I'll need you to terminate me."

"Vaughn." Atticus' voice softened and then there was a slight pause. "I'll do it if I must." I looked up away from the ground at Atticus and saw that he genuinely meant it.

"Thank you." My voice faltered as we began to walk again. "I-I'm trying to deal with everything but I'm only the son of a merchant." I shrugged. "What can I do against something I don't know?"

"I can understand what you mean. I'm going to carry out a task from the Gods."

Again, there was a silent pause between us. I clapped my hands together once and chirped up, "How about we not talk about depressing stuff and just assume that we will both make it out of our situations alive!" I smiled at him.

He nodded. "Sure." We continued to walk for another hour when Atticus suddenly took a turn to his left.

"Hey, that's not the right way." I rushed after him. He walked to a nearby set of bushes and began to pick through it to pull out a small sled.

"We can go down faster using this."

I laughed. "How did you just pull it out of nowhere?"

"When we go hunting on an exceptionally snowy day like this we would go and pull the dead carcasses on it...and sometimes we like to take a small break and go sledding." He pointed at the bushes, "There are more in there but we won't take anymore since they're not mine. This bad boy may be a tight fit but it should be good enough for the two of us." He patted the sled and gave me a wicked grin.

Wow, he can actually smile. I chuckled to myself as we walked towards the hillside.

"Let's start with you climbing onto it and I'll sit behind you to steer us." I moved my pack to cling to my front side and I sat down on it and slowly shifting myself so that my feet were forward. "Alright," He moved in close behind me and pushed his feet to be on either side of me. "Ready?"

"Let's do this!" I excitedly clutched onto the front of the sleigh as he dug his right foot into the ground and kicked us off.

Thankfully the hillside was mostly clear and there was enough of a slope to ride on. I felt a little bad for Atticus. The entire ride down I was screaming and laughing my head off. We were going so fast that I honestly thought we were going to crash into a stray tree or just flip over! Atticus navigated smoothly and about twenty minutes later we began to slow down as we reached a plateau in the mountain.

Once we halted to a stop, Atticus stood up and helped me up. "We're not going to continue sledding any further today." He picked up the sled and we began to walk together towards the outskirts of the woods. Throughout our walk, my ears began to pop due to the change in altitude. "Let's set up camp here."

I took off my pack and sat down on the floor with a sigh of relief not only did my ears stop popping but I could stop moving and take a breath of fresh air! "You sure like to get a move on with your day!"

"It's only the early afternoon; if I were on my own, I would have instead continued for another three hours." He shrugged off his pack. "I'm going to the nearby river to get us some food. Get some firewood so we can be warm tonight." With that, he marched off to get us some grub.

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Hi everyone! I apologize for publishing the new update a little later in the day. I had work and then decided that my entire unit needed a deep cleaning...I'm not even done but I think this is as much as I'll get done for the day. TOT

Make sure to follow my account so you'll know right when I update!

-Ryan