Chapter 435: Attacked
Laz had to admit he was curious. After all, something a little stronger was something he already had, but even that wasn’t exactly good.
"What did you have in mind?" Laz said, looking at the glass container Shelby was walking over with.
"A little something I brewed myself. Normally I wouldn’t bring it out, but since we are meeting a celebrity like you, how could I not?" Dave laughed while Ruth rolled her eyes. Shelby set down the contained and opened it while Dave pulled a ladle out from his jacket and spooned some into four cups.
"Here you go. Drink up." Dave said and drank his whole glass down while Ruth and Shelby followed suit.
Seeing them drink it and not sensing any ill intent, Laz drank his own glass that ended up going down like fire in his throat.
"DAMN... That’s strong," Laz said both in surprise and praise.
"HA HA HA... That’s the first time that anyone has simply referred to old Dave’s brew as strong. Want another?" Dave said, holding out the ladle for Laz, in which he happily accepted. Dave then poured another drink for both Ruth, himself and Shelby.
"Cheers!" Dave said, downing another.
They ended up drinking almost half the container that Dave had brought out.
"I hab ot ta say... ou an relly put it aaaaway...." Dave said, his words slurred and hard to understand. Between him and Laz, they had drank the lion’s share while Ruth and Shelby just have several glasses each. They ended up asking Laz quite a few questions about the videos they had seen and Laz had happily told them about them without giving away too much, as repayment for the drink
Even with Laz’s massive tolerance, he had to admit he felt a bit buzzed himself.
"Well, it’s quite good after all. Sorry that I drank so much," Laz apologized, seeing how the huge container was half empty.
"At’s okkkkaaayyyy.... I aven’t ad is uch fun ttoooossssssing em ack in a lllooooooonnnnnnnggggggggg immmmmm," Dave responded, finishing off his cup.
"How about some music baby?" Ruth said with a smile which Dave returned.
"SIURE!!!’ Dave spat out.
Ruth looked over at Shelby who pulled out a rather unique stringed instrument. It sat on her lap but obviously wasn’t a guitar although it looked like one. The biggest difference was that it had four strings and the body of the instrument was rounded while the end was flat.
"What’s that?" Laz asked, pointing to the not guitar.
"It’s a bouzouki," Shelby replied with a grin and started to strum on it.
It didn’t sound deep like a bass, but it sounded deeper than a fiddle or a regular guitar. As Laz leaned back, his back on the grass, Laz heard Ruth join in with Shelby’s playing.
Laz couldn’t make out the words as they weren’t in English, but Laz felt something come over him as he listened. The melody was slow and somber, and in his mind, he felt the music telling a story of a snow covered village in the deep winter. Those who lived there stayed inside during this time of the day, all the chores done now that night had fallen. While the men folk had gathered in the local pub, the woman were at home tending the children. As it got late, a sudden roar echoed over the village as screams started sounding out by the edge of town.
Despite their drunken states and the loud music they all sang along with, they heard the screams clear as day and grabbing what weapons they could, which wasn’t much considering they had mostly left them at home, the men charged out into the cold night to find the source of the screams.
Much to their horror, even before arriving on the edge of town, large men dressed in black cloaks came swarming them from every direction, obviously laying in wait for the men to come.
Without their weapons and swaying on their feet after a hard night of drinking, the men of the village were quickly dispatched one at a time. A woman, having heard the commotion and seeing the slaughter of the over seventy men of the village at once including her own husband, let out an anguished cry of anger and pain that echoed in the night sky.
While the reason for the cry couldn’t be understood by others, the mean of it was clear. From house to house, women donned the armor of their husbands or what little fit them and took up their weapons. They then woke their children and told them to hide before heading out to the village center.
Once their, the oldest and wisest of the village had each woman hide in every one of the houses while she alone stood stone steady in the middle of town, waiting for the invaders to come. In the houses surrounding the center, the women had been joined by those too old to want to party or too young to be invited but old enough to hold a sword. They waited with baited breath but not a sound nor a tear between them.
Once the invaders entered the center and saw the old woman by herself, they laughed at her as she was already half covered with snow. Without a second thought, they surrounded the old woman and made the slay her on the spot before spreading out the enjoy the fruits of their labor.
The woman didn’t even blink as she was being surrounded but instead let out a mournful yet encouraging shirk, one that was echoed all around her.
As windows and roof access hatches opened up all around them, the invaders were riddled with arrows and thrown knives. Then the doors burst open as women charged the center, killing all those still moaning on the ground in agony from being hit.
Like the blood bath before, there was no suspense in this one either. While several of the women died in the fighting, they all made sure to take at least one of the attackers with them, even when they had to latch on to their flesh with their teeth and rip it away.
When the screams finally came to an end, the town center was awash in the blood of both ally and enemy alike, the women still lucky enough to be on their feet hunched over panting and tired.
The old woman then raised her fist in the air and shouted, followed by the other women, both those on their feet and those on the ground.
As the song ended, Shelby put down her Bouzouki and along with Ruth, crawled over to where Laz laid back with his eyes closed. Neither of them even bothered with Dave as they huddled over Laz, touching his face with their hands as though making sure he was real.
"Excellent. With him, we will be even more safe in the future," Ruth said with a grin.
"But what will you do? Dave was already made your ’husband’ so it’s not like you can have another." Shelby replied, her voice just as strong and firm as her sisters.
"Of course not. He’s going to be your husband silly. You will just have to let me borrow him every now and then, understand?" Ruth said back with a grin.
"Don’t I get a say in it? And wonderful piece I might add. It truly made one’s heart race," Laz said, his eyes opening.
"You... you...." Ruth said, unable to speak properly.
"How are you still awake? Why aren’t you sleeping in a trance?" Shelby asked, clearly confused.
"Well. Fun story that. Uh, a little space please?" Laz said, sitting up when the women finally moved.
"So have you ever tried this on someone much, much stronger than you?" Laz asked with a grin.
"Much, much stronger?" Ruth asked back, feeling a bit nervous for some reason.
"Oh yeah. While you’re around mid way through the foundation realm and your sister is almost at the foundation realm, I’m really quite a ways ahead of you."
"But... your aura...?" Ruth asked, clearly surprised.
"Yeah. I hide that on purpose as so not to scare others," Laz shot back easily. He then pulled a bottle of water out of nowhere and drank it down, the cool feeling of the liquid helping wash the extreme taste of the moonshine out of his mouth.
"Oh my god... You’re already in the void palace realm? But that... I thought that was just a theory?" Shelby said, misunderstanding.
Laz didn’t correct her.
"So then... you knew what we were doing?" Asked Ruth.
"Of course. How could I not? From the moment the first note played, I could feel it’s draw and what it meant to do."
"And you just let us do it?" Shelby shot back, surprised.
"Of course. As I said, it was a wonderful piece of music and I wanted to listen to it all the way through."
"But we... You seem... ok with this?" Shelby asked, swallowing a lump in her throat.
"Why not? Had you had evil intentions, I would have known. And had you tried to kill me right away, you would both be dead right now," Laz answered back with a grin, but this one came acrossed as a little more devilish than before.
"So then, assuming you don’t want to try to fight me, how’s about you tell me what exactly is going on, hmm?"
