Marieya’s Friends

Jump over that log. Roll into the landing. Keep moving.

“Fuck!” Izumi said, grunting in pain as she tried to put pressure on the bleeding wound on her torso, a series of red puncture marks indicating a vicious bite, “No good bullshit bastarding bears…”

Having embarked on an assassination mission that went wildly wrong; the shadow fey now desperately tried to flee her pursuers whilst in grave amounts of pain. Darting between twisted trees and through canopy clearings, she only briefly looked behind her to see if she was still being followed, roars and heavy stomps confirming her fears.

Eventually she broke out of the forest into a large open plain, initially cursing the lack of hiding spots before noticing that someone had set up a camp on the forest outskirts. As she stumbled over she tried to assess if it was going to be friendly or not. The tent was large, and made of deep purple canvas fabric, similar to tents used by shadow fey ranging parties.

Though this was no temporary encampment, for a makeshift fence had been built around the entrance to the tent, forming a cozy yard where a cooking pot, improvised washing line, and woodcutting station had been set up. As Izumi approached; no one came out of the tent to meet her, but at this point, the pain had become too great and she collapsed against the woodcutting log.

The two bearfolk who had chased her all this way caught sight of her in this vulnerable position and began approaching slowly with weapons drawn, bearing their teeth in excitement of the kill. Closing her eyes, Izumi braced herself, waiting for the killing blow to come…

…it then came as a surprise then when she heard the whoosh of an arrow, and a roar of pain coming from one of the two bears, who shortly fell to the ground, dead.

“Excuse me,” a feminine voice said, sounding rather annoyed upon seeing the uninvited guests at her tent, “I’m sure you have a good reason for wanting that poor girl dead, but two things.” She nocked another arrow into her longbow and drew the bowstring back, “first, I’m not letting you kill a fellow shadow fey. Secondly, and more importantly, you’re trespassing on my house.”

Letting out a snarl, the remaining bear turned to face the mysterious interloper and brandished their greatsword in a threatening manner. “You don’t need to die today girl,” he said, “but if you keep that bow pointed at me, this is getting ugly.”

There was a brief pause as both sides stood ready to engage. “It’s already pretty ugly, considering I’m looking at you right now.”

With that snarky comment pushing their rage to a breaking point; the bearfolk let out an intimidating war cry before charging his opponent. She let loose her arrow at him but quick reflexes allowed him to slash it to the side as he continued his advance, slowing slightly just a small distance from his target to raise the massive blade above his head to deliver a devastating downward slash.

Fury soon became shock as the weapon bounced back off an intense red-hued magical shield that seemed to materialise instantly against the angle of attack. The girl smirked, “Shouldn’t have gone for the head.” Whilst the bearfolk was disoriented from the failure of their attack; she manifested crackling energy around her right hand and landed a perfect right hook, enhanced through the power of lightning.

Bloodied and bruised, the aggressor collapsed to the ground, barely maintaining consciousness as they grunted in pain. Wasting no time the girl walked around the back of the bear whilst unsheathing a rapier, driving it through the base of the bear’s skull, killing them instantly.

Ambling back towards her camp the girl cast two bolts of fire, setting the dead bearfolk alight and making sure they would not be coming back. She leaned down to inspect the semi-conscious Izumi, closely examining her wound, “Can you hear me?”

The rogue groaned as she opened her eyes. “Yeah…” she said, her voice strained as she looked at her saviour, “who… who are you?” The girl smiled as she quickly dipped into her tent and grabbed medical supplies, “My name’s Marieya Ebontide, yours?”

“It’s Izumi… first name basis only please.”

“Sure, no worries,” Marieya said as she sliced off Izumi’s clothes and started patching up the wound, “how the hell did you get a bite like this?”

“Gah… sent to assassinate a bearfolk commander, got into the encampment fine, and then as I prepared to slash the fucker open I kicked a stool over and they saw me, with the bastard you nailed with an arrow biting down hard.”

“Ouch, that really must’ve hurt. Surprised you made it all the way to my camp.”

“What can I say? I’m a stubborn bitch who can surviv-oh shit that stuff burns!”

“Oh quit complaining, it’s just to clean the bite of any dirt that might’ve got in there.”

Izumi rolled her eyes back as Marieya continued to tend to the wound, cleaning it out completely before wrapping her torso in bandages. “There we go,” she said, making sure everything was secure, “you’re all patched up, but you’re welcome to stay the night to rest up properly.”

“Thanks, I guess” Izumi said, following Marieya into her tent, “these are some pretty swanky digs you got here, who you sharing with?”

Marieya looked slightly forlorn as she sat on a stool, gathering some food up, “Oh, no one…” she said, her voice lowering and sounding slightly upset, “I’m uh… kind of reviled for my powers by most shadow sorcerers… and people generally… so I just live out my days as a hermit.”

“Shit, sorry for asking,” Izumi said, lying back on a bedroll. “So you got no real friends then?”

“Not quite,” Marieya said, using another bolt of fire to light her cooking pot outside, raising her voice again to be able to converse properly, “I have a handful of friends, I’m on good terms with the ranging parties, the great ranger Vardal usually makes my camp a rest stop.”

Shifting on her stool slightly, Izumi adopted a look of unease, “Vardal huh… may have had a few worrying run-ins with the guy.”

“Good run-ins or bad run-ins?” Marieya said as she dumped some large chunks of onion and quartered mushrooms into the pot, sizzling as they hit the hot cast iron.

“Both really. We’ve worked together on some ranging missions, where I’ve helped clear out guards from an encampment. But also my employer has a bad habit of asking me to kill folks Vardal needs to bring back alive.” 

Izumi hobbled close to the tent entrance and took a long, deep, inhale. “Fuck me,” she said loudly, peering over into the cooking pot, “that smells great already!”

As she added a bit of salt, pepper, and crushed garlic, Marieya giggled as she stirred things round. “Yeah, when you have to become mostly self-sufficient, you learn a few good things about cooking.”

“Mostly?” Izumi said with curiosity, sitting down on the woodcutting stump as Marieya worked.

“Yeah, I gather vegetables and go fishing down by the river for freshwater prawns,” and as if on cue, several peeled prawns were added to the pot, “but more luxurious things like seasonings, bread, cheese, and wine I get whenever Vardal comes by or when Ancil comes to visit.”

“Pardon the fuck?” the rogue said, raising her voice so much a flock of birds flew off, “Ancil? As in, the legendary pit fighter Ancil?”

“The very same, they were training in the forest as I was gathering one day. We got to chatting and despite being a stoic person, I really got to know them. We’ve been friends ever since, definitely my longest-standing friend too.”

Izumi looked at Marieya in complete shock, her mouth agape as the meal was finished with a knob of butter and a sprinkling of fresh parsley. “The Marieya special”, she said, handing a plate full of garlicky prawns and vegetables over, “simple, wholesome comfort food.”

The pair joyfully shared the lovingly prepared food together, Izumi telling more stories of the different jobs she had been sent on and listening intently as Marieya shared as many stories about Ancil as she could recall before they retired back to the tent for a good night’s rest.

A dusky morning shined over the tent as Marieya gave her new friend a final check on her wounds before sending her on her way, with the promise of good food and shelter if she ever needed it.

Marieya thought to her herself, “this… is a pleasant memory.”

*****

Awakening from her trance, Marieya sighed and looked across her current travelling companions, before smiling to herself. “You guys really are some of the best friends I could ask for.”

Inspiration

What’s this? A Marieya story where I end on a positive note? What is this heresy! (Ignore the fact that all other named characters in this story are canonically dead.)

My main goal with this story was developing the character of Izumi primarily, and going through the process of Marieya making a new friend through sheer serendipity.

When writing Marieya pre-incident, I lean heavily into a line from the Sorcerer Tweaked homebrew I acquired her origin from. “Such sorcerers are wanderers by necessity … If a fire breaks out in town, a phoenix sorcerer had best flee, whether guilty or not.”

I’ve tried to strike a balance with Marieya in this makeshift forest camp she makes a home in. From the way she talks about having no one to share with, I wanted to evoke the feeling of being an outcast. When no one comes around to visit; she is truly alone in this world.

However, she is more than an outcast. She laments the scenario her powers create, but she does not allow herself to fall into despair completely (marking a contrast to her post-incident character). Able to survive, care, and nurture her abilities away from the influence of magical colleges, she is thriving as a solitary individual.

This is why she hits it off so well with Izumi, because she does not push further onto a sensitive issue once she realises she has hit a nerve. She instead chooses to get to know her mysterious saviour, sharing a meal with her and finding out more about how someone goes about living in this scenario.

I had initially planned to include meetings with Ancil and Vardal as part of the story, but felt that for showing how someone like Marieya developed a friendship would be more informative to her character. Izumi herself is loosely based off Kainé from NieR:Gestalt/Replicant, specifically taking the brash personality traits and rapid-fire rude mouth.

Once again, I am going to end off with some amazing art from my mate Brett (Bretticus.Llewellyn.art on Instagram – seriously, go follow this beautiful chap. He’s made my stupid ideas come true.)

With a story focused on friends, few things could be more appropriate than the disaster duo of Honesty and Marieya rocking shades, looking away from an explosion like the badass buddies they are.