Damien wasn't exactly sure how long he could keep dragging himself through Lyra Pass. His feet felt bruised from overuse while his shirt had molded to his torso, caked and overcome with sweat. His only salvation resided in the occasional breeze that danced through the trees and pushed him further east. He reached into his pouch to retrieve a poorly sketched map.

His finger grazed the small piece of parchment. "How could I have left out any specific landmarks..," Damien muttered to himself.

On his map back home in Dockside, the pass seemed much shorter of a distance, but then again of course it would on paper. Damien kicked up dirt and small rocks to occupy his time and took in all the scenery that mostly consisted of trees that had just began to turn shades of red, orange, and yellow. He watched as leaves broke away one by one from branches and rained down on him. Just before he prepared for an extended sigh, the sounds of hooves accompanied by the screeching of wooden wheels against dirt caught his attention behind him. Damien moved to the side of the road just enough to  get the driver's attention.

     In the distance Damien couldn't make out much more than a single brown horse keeping a steady pace as it dragged a cart behind him, as well as one person whose hat hid his features from the harshness of the sun's rays.

"WHOA!!" A man yelled. The horse fumbled, but eventually came to a halt, kicking up a tornado of dirt into Damien's face. He waved his hand back and forth attempting to clear the air.

     "Ya lost, kid?" The man asked. An actual glimpse beneath the wide brimmed hat revealed an older gentleman covered in wrinkles and rough edges.

     "I'm trying to get to Talion, sir. About how far off do you think I am?" Damien brushed dirt from his shirt.

     "Why would ya wanna go and do that now? Didn't you hear what happened, boy?"

     Damien looked up at the man, confused. He watched the old man's forehead wrinkle out of concern, "What happened?"

     "The whole damn town was hit with the boil! Only been bout two months or so," the man stated, scratching the curling gray hair beneath his hat. He turned towards the cart and plunged his hand into his wares. A bright red apple flew through the air until Damien caught it with one solid grasp.

"Thanks so much, sir."

The man gently tipped the brim of his weathered hat and gave Damien a small grin.

     "I'm heading over to Lethra for the market this afternoon, if ya wanna come with. Sure there's gotta be some room for ya in back."

     "Thank you so much, sir,really. I just need off this pass before I collapse."

     "It's Twill," the man said.

     "What's Twill?" Damien asked, trying to get his footing to hop into the cart.

     "My name, kid. Just call me Twill."

     "Ah, right then. Thank you, Twill."

     The horse huffed loudly as soon as Twill hit the reins. Damien laid his head back, attempting to rest as apples and bolts of common cloth hit him in the face at every bump they came across. He had begin to miss the comforts of home in Dockside, but he could never go back. If Talion had been overcome with the boil then anywhere he could get would suit him just fine. With that final thought, he looked up at the trees and attempted to hide the sunlight, but failed miserably. He unrolled a coarse fabric just enough to place over his eyes and listened to creaking of the cart against solid terrain.

"Just a little further, Damien," he whispered to himself before the exhaustion hit him.

************

     "Grab his feet," Tara whispered.

     Erin looked down at the disheveled man slouched in the closet. She watched him breathe his last breath, as he witnessed his life spill before him. His mouth rounded and his eyes bulged at the sight of it before he finally gave in and collapsed face down onto his knees, just as they had originally found him.

     "Erin, hurry up!"

     She shook her head attempting to clear it of any emotions before finally taking hold of poorly crafted shoes. He reeked of dirt, sweat and piss but she tried her best to ignore it.

"Ok lay him here for a moment."

The soft thud of the man's lifeless body echoed against ancient floorboards. Erin studied him silently, eyeing his brown cloth pants, darkened around his inner thighs, followed by his shirt that had been white at some point in time. Her gaze stopped at the freshly released blood seeping out of his lower stomach, continually pooling until his white shirt became nothing more than history.

Tara placed a pilled brown blanket from the man's bed onto the floor carefully. Her black hair fell from underneath her cape and disappeared against the darkness as she attempted to flatten out any wrinkles or tucked corners.

"We're going to roll him up in that?" Erin asked breaking her attention away from the still body.

     "Yea. We need something to transport him in, unless you'd like to be covered in blood and piss?" Tara smirked at Erin, while rising to ensure she had smoothed out every imperfection.

"How are we even supposed to carry him...he weighs a ton," Erin said, watching as Tara made her way back to the body and took a knee near his head. She reached down and gently closed his lifeless eyes before looking up Erin with a small grin.

"It's nearly impossible for one of us to lift someone this size," Tara stated, keeping her eyes fixed on the mans face. Sweat still sat in patternless drops in the stubble above his lip, "which is why we need to split the weight between us."

"You don't mean that we have to..."

Erin turned to look out a cloudy window to watch the stars slowly vanish behind daylight. Once the sun light peeked over the tip of the shortest mountain she took a deep breath to drown out sounds of flesh against steel.