IDWTBTHQ Chapter 75 - Girl Talk

It was a chilly and foggy morning when the Vex left Brettholz. 

They marched out of the southern gates quietly, making hardly any sound, and no one, save for the guards on the walls, noticed their departure. About three hundred drones, all those left alive after the siege, moved in a long line that stretched for almost a mile. The Hunters ran at the head of that formation, scouting the territory ahead, followed by the Warriors who marched in a loose formation, while the rest walked slowly in the rear. A few Workers and Heavies were also pulling carts full of supplies, since horses were too spooked by the insectoid-reptilian creatures to get anywhere near them.

Marcus was riding on one of those carts together with Klara, while Hoggs and Felix were on another one. Although the girl would have preferred to ride with her friend, each cart only had enough space to comfortably accommodate two people, and it was better for the boy to ride with the old man, who could actually take care of him in case he had one of his bouts of anger. Still, that didn’t stop her from glancing in the boy’s direction about every minute or so to make sure he was ok, almost as if she feared that he could explode or something —although, given the apprentice sorcerer’s powers, that possibility wasn’t entirely off the table..

Watching her, Marcus couldn’t help but feel some admiration for Klara's dedication to Felix. Ever since the latter's awakening, she had made it her mission to take care of her friend, constantly keeping him company and trying her best to calm him down when he was having a temper tantrum. And when the Vex Queen had told them that he was going to leave Brettholz and bring Hoggs with him, she had been the one to ask for the permission to accompany them, so that Felix could have continued his training. Heck, she had even offered to work as a maid in Marcus's new home to repay this favor, and though he had told her that there was no need for that and that he was happy to have both her and Felix as permanent guests, she had insisted, telling him that she wanted to repay him somehow. 

So, finally, the Vex Queen had budged, and now the two young humans were officially coming with him as part of his retinue.

Truth be told, Marcus was actually very happy that his friends were coming with him. Even though he couldn't stand crowds for now, he still greatly appreciated social interaction, even more so if it was with people he was already used to. He had been with Klara and Felix for so long that their presence didn’t bother him in the slightest anymore, and as for Hoggs he knew how to minimize his own presence, so those three were basically the best company he could currently wish for. 

The only thing that he felt a bit bad about was leaving Golam behind. The taxidermist had been quite distraught when Marcus told him he was leaving Brettholz, but luckily he had cheered up considerably when he also told him that the chimera-drones would be staying with him. With this the taxidermist had been left, if not happy, at least somewhat satisfied, especially after Marcus had promised to try to keep in touch with him.

“Uhm... Marcus?” Klara asked, interrupting his thoughts, “Is everything all right? You’ve been very quiet ever since we left Brettholz.”

“Oh, yes. I’m fine.” the Vex Queen replied, “I was just lost in my thoughts.”

“Don't worry. These are hard times, and we all have much to think about.” The girl sighed, “The fight with the goblins was bad enough already, and now we have an even worse threat looming in the future.” 

“Well, look at the bright side.” Marcus said cheerfully, “At least we're still alive. I think that counts for something, doesn't it?”

“Yeah, you're right. But it’s still hard for me to stay positive with all the things that have happened. Especially when I see Felix during one of his moments of anger...” she sighed once again, “It's as if he becomes another person entirely. He's clearly hurting though, and I don't know what to do to help him.”

“You are helping him already, in my opinion.” the Vex Queen said, “You are always at his side, and I think that is helping him a lot. Besides, he has Hoggs training him now and since he started his lessons he is getting better at controlling his temper. Just give it some time and don't lose hope. I am sure Felix is going to be fine.”

Klara made a little smile, seemingly a little cheered up by Marcus's words.

“You sure are optimistic today.” she said. 

“No reason to worry about things you can't do anything about.” Marcus replied seraphically, “Tomorrow we'll be in a village near thousands of goblins that could attack us at any moment, in a few months we may be facing an army of orcs and who knows what disasters the future is going to bring... but right now we are peacefully riding a cart in the countryside. Let's enjoy this moment.”

“That's a pretty carefree attitude.” Klara observed. “And it could easily lead to carelessness. Some problems can be solved only by actually thinking about them.”

“You are right.” the Vex Queen shrugged. “But that is still no reason to let our worries ruin such a perfectly good day.”

“And you would call this day perfectly good?” the girl asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yes. For starters no one is trying to kill us.” Marcus replied sardonically. “Living in the Caligare forest long enough really makes you appreciate that.”

“Fair enough.” Klara chuckled. “I must say, you sure are pretty… witty today. What happened?”

“Oh, I was always witty.” The Vex Queen replied with a smirk. “In my head, at least. I just lacked the vocabulary to properly express it before.”

“Gods help us.” the girl shook her head in fake desperation. “What horror have we let loose on the world!” 

“Yeah, my sarcasm is gonna be the ruin of entire nations! And it is all your fault for teaching me how to speak in your language! Mwahahahah!” Marcus let out a melodramatic evil cackle, causing Klara to burst into laughter. 

“Well, this is a surprise for sure!” She said once she had stopped laughing. “You were so meek and polite before. I didn’t expect that you would turn like this once you had mastered our language!”

“I am full of surprises!” He replied with a proud grin. “Also, it was kind of hard to really be myself back then. Not only my vocabulary was lackluster, but I also had too many things to worry about and, well, living alone in the forest for almost a year made it difficult for me to talk to people at all, regardless of the language used.”

“Fair points.” Klara nodded, “Well, I'm glad you can be yourself now. To be honest, I kinda prefer you like this. You certainly are more lively now!”

“Well, thanks!”

“I mean it.” the girl sighed, staring away into the mists. “Truth be told, I was never that good at socializing either. Especially with other girls of my age.” she smirked, “Too much time spent in the forest, I guess. I always preferred hunting and exploring to talk about girly stuff like dresses, boys and other nonsense like that.” She turned to Marcus with a mischievous smile on her face. “Which is one of the reasons I like how you are right now. This may be the first time I'm genuinely enjoying having some girl talk!”

Marcus frowned at those words, as being called a girl, or any kind of feminine noun really, somehow peeved him a lot lately.

“Yeah. About that...” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I am not really a girl, Klara.”

“What?” the young huntress raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What do you mean to say? That you’re not a human girl? Or that you're not a female of your species?” 

“No. Well... maybe?” he stuttered in response, “I mean, I’m certainly not a human girl right now, but I am pretty sure I am a female Vex.” He sighed, “But I'm digressing. I wasn’t really talking about my body. I was talking about my mind.”

“What?” Klara said, sounding even more confused, “What do you mean?”

“Well...” the Vex Queen hesitated a bit, but then he sighed and decided to tell his friend everything, “I used to be a human male in my past life but I died and then I found myself in this body.”

After hearing this the girl remained silent for a while, just staring at him with wide eyes and an incredulous expression on her face. She didn’t look like she was going to believe him, and to be fair Marcus couldn't really blame her. After all, the claim he had just made did sound completely ridiculous.

“I should have probably kept that for myself.” he thought, “Now she'll probably think that I'm crazy. Well, the damage is already done, so I think it's best to not press the matter and to never mention this again...”

But this time, Klara really subverted his expectations.

“That explains a lot.” she suddenly said, interrupting the Vex Queen's train of thought and catching him completely by surprise. “You always behaved in a very human way, even when we had just met. And you have a clearly male imperial name, which would make sense if it was your name in your previous life when you were a guy!”

Marcus blinked in surprise. 

“So... you believe me?” he asked cautiously. 

“Yes.” The girl nodded slowly. “I can't think of any reason why you should be lying and reincarnation is proved to exist after all.”

“Wait wait wait!” Marcus cried. “So, you mean to say that reincarnation is common here?”

“Well, it's not exactly common... or at least it's not common for people to retain clear memories of their previous lives. Those who do usually lose them  before puberty anyway, and only very few manage to keep them as adults. And I've never heard of someone reincarnating as a different species before.” she made a small pause and then added: “But that doesn't mean it's completely impossible.”

“That is a relief.” The Vex Queen sighed and relaxed a bit. “For a moment, I feared that you would think I’m crazy.”

“Don't worry. I don’t think you’re crazy!” Klara smirked. “However, I keep the right to change my mind should you start running around naked with your panties on your head while singing the national anthem!”

“Fair enough!” Marcus replied with a chuckle. “Though if I did something like that, I could just be completely drunk instead of crazy.”

“That’s true.” the girl conceded, “But didn’t you tell me that alcohol doesn’t affect you?”

“Well, it doesn’t. But…” The Vex Queen started to say, but he stopped as soon as the memories of his caffeinated shenanigans flashed in his mind. 

“But what?” Klara inquired.

“Nevermind.” He replied, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. “I do not want to talk about it. Can we change the subject, please?”

“Oh, yes. It’s fine.” She said. “Soooo… do you remember your previous life clearly? Who were you back then?”

“Yes, I remember it very well.”  Marcus replied, glad that she didn’t investigate further about the caffeine incident.  “I wasn’t anyone of importance though. Just a simple guy in his twenties, working all day to make ends meet. Then, one day, I saw a girl getting robbed, I tried to help her and I got killed for my trouble.”

“That's... rather succinct.”

“Well, it is not like the story of my life is that interesting.”  Marcus shrugged. “My father died a few years ago. I tried my best to work and not weigh on the rest of my family while I was building a future for myself… but that didn’t really work out. I pretty much died without accomplishing anything.

“Well, at least you died doing something good.” Klara said. “You tried to save that woman, didn’t you?”

“Eh, mostly I was just looking for an excuse to punch someone.” He corrected her with a smirk. “I was pretty angry that day. Doing a good deed was just a nice bonus.”

“Yeah, that does sound as something a man in his twenties would do.” The girl noticed with some amusement in her voice. “So... where did this happen? In a city of the Empire? Or maybe in one of the Free Cities? The name of the place you said you come from —Amerrica, was it?— did sound pretty Beccan to me.”

“Nah, I don't come from any of those places.” Marcus replied. “I come from a completely different world.”

“What!?!” Klara cried, her eyes widening with surprise.

“Ehr...” Marcus mumbled, struggling to find the right words. “I don't really know how to explain it correctly, but I do not think that my world was this world. Mine had just one moon, and there was no magic or stuff like that. And the only species that could talk were humans. No goblins, or Thulians, or orcs or anything like that, just humans. Oh, and I do not know how I got here... I just died in my world and woke up in this one!”

This time, after he was done talking, Klara was seriously looking at him as if he was crazy. She didn't say a word and she just kept staring at him as if trying to decide whether or not he was pulling her leg.

“Are you... serious?” She finally asked. “Do you really mean that you come from another world?”

“Yes.” Marcus replied. “I know it is difficult to believe and that it sounds crazy. Even more so than the reincarnation thing probably. But I am telling the truth. I clearly remember my old world, and trust me, it was nothing like this one.”

Another long, awkward silence ensued, as Klara was clearly busy processing what she had been told, and Marcus didn’t want to interrupt her.

After almost a minute, the girl spoke again, in a rather alarmingly neutral tone.

“Well... As I said before, I can't see a reason why you should be lying, and you don't seem insane either.”

“So you believe me?” the Vex Queen asked.

“Well... I believe that you are sincere, at least.” She said cautiously. “The other world stuff is a bit hard to swallow without any substantial proof. But I trust you, so I’ll take what you say at face value. But I wouldn't talk too much about it, if I were you. Especially with strangers. That stuff sounds really weird.” She paused for a second, as if she had suddenly remembered something in that moment. “Though... I think I've read some passages in one of my grandfather's books talking about people and creatures arriving from different worlds.” 

“Really?” Marcus said, in a rather excited voice. “What book is it?”

“I don’t remember the title. I only remember that it was a very big, old and tattered book that my grandfather kept in his library.” She paused once again, trying to recollect her memories. “It was hard to read too. The writing style was archaic and a few pages were missing here and there, but I clearly remember the passage about the other worlds. It theorized that the Great Invasions happen when rifts open in reality and connect our world with another one, allowing armies of alien creatures to invade our lands.” She shook her head. “But all of that was just speculation. It didn’t offer any proof or reliable source.”

“Well, if it is the only hint about different worlds, I would still like to read it.” the Hive Queen replied. “It could help me understand what happened to me.”

“Ok. When I get back in Oakfell, I'll make sure to take it and lend it to you!” 

“Thanks Klara.” 

“You’re welcome, Marcus.” Klara shrugged. “After everything you did for me and Felix, this is nothing.”

“Don’t worry about that.” The Vex Queen replied. “I did not do anything special.”

“You saved our lives.” Klara noticed in an amused voice. “That’s special enough for me.”

“It did not cost me anything to save you, and I gained a lot by doing that.” Marcus shrugged. “It was not that heroic.”

“You could have still left us to rot.” The girl insisted. “And no one forced you to fight for Brettholz. You could have just walked away back then. But you didn’t. You stood with us, despite risking your very life. And I’m not going to forget that.”

“Well…” he mumbled, but he didn’t really know how to reply. He wasn’t really used to being praised, and in fact it made him feel rather awkward.

Noticing his distress, Klara decided to change the subject. 

“Hey, since we were talking about books, look at what I brought with me!”

She rummaged through her bag and she took out a book from it. It was Chronicles of the Zaru Wars, the one he was using to learn how to read.

“Say, want to have a reading lesson?” She offered. “That would help us relax a bit, I think.”

“What?” Right now? While we're riding?”

“Why not? It's your minions that are pulling the cart, not horses, so we don't have to guide them. And it'd be a great way to kill some time while we're travelling.” She paused and smiled. “Also, I think we both need to relax a bit right now! As you said, it’s important that we enjoy this perfectly good day, and I sure need some time to process all the things you’ve told me!”

“Very good!” Marcus grinned, taking the book from Klara’s hand. “Then it’s better if I wait until tomorrow before I tell you the really shocking things, isn’t it?”

Klara gave him a worried look for a moment, and the Vex Queen just laughed.

“Just kidding! I don’t have any more shocking facts for now! Let’s get to reading, shall we?”

“Yeah… maybe that’s better.” The girl said, and her expression of relief made Marcus have one final chuckle before he started focusing on the pages of the book.