The Weapon

Chapter 6 - Guards (Unfinished)

"So when exactly do I get to sleep anyway?" The annoying one asked.

"I don't know. Now shut up and follow me." I told him. Why did he have to keep talking? The other one didn't talk at all. She… I think? I remembered thinking of her as a girl when I heard the name, which I forgot, so she's a she. Anyway this guy is like an annoying dog that won't shut up.

"That's your name! You're Dog because you won't quit barking." I told Dog. I actually heard a faint laugh from the quiet one. I didn't know wights had senses of humor. Maybe I was hearing things.

"Dog did you hear her faintly laugh?" I pointed to the quiet one.

"Uh… no." He looked at me confused. I guess that was another thing I heard.

"I did." She stated quietly. Okay maybe I didn't imagine it, or I imagined that too… I didn't normally think this hard about it when I hear things so that means it's real right?

"This is too confusing. No talking. I'm going to see my last guard die like all the rest." I told them as I tried navigating this labyrinth of a castle. This is so much harder when I had a destination in mind.

"All the rest?" Dog asked.

I turned to get in his face. "What did I just fucking say about talking? Don't!"

"But if everyone who guards you dies, I'd like to know considering I'm guarding you right now."

I lunged for his sword. I got it half-way out of the sheath before the lightning fast wight grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"No sharp objects." She enunciated clearly.

"Then how do I stab him?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Use a hammer." She told me dryly.

Dog freaked out, "Don't encourage her!"

Looking at the wight as I let go of the sword. "I like you, you're my new favorite. I can't believe I never thought about using a hammer." I wondered if general Ghost will give me his.

"Gods, I'll shut up."

I looked at the wight. "He's really bad at being quiet." She nodded like a champ. Champ was not a good name for her.

The thing about picking names for people is it has to be something that I'd think of just by interacting with them. Like I could look at Hunter and know she's a hunter so I never struggled to remember that I call her Hunter. If the name was less immediate then I'd be less likely to remember and at that point my nickname would be as memorable as their normal name. AKA I wouldn't remember it.

The wight was quiet, still, and a wight. Quiet and still were bad names because they didn't sound right. Wight didn't work because there were too many wights around. I only knew one hunter, and one healer so those worked. Warrior was a bit iffy of a name but it's what I thought of when I pictured him.

Visual names worked best, but these two looked almost identical which meant I had to do personality ones and those were always worse.

I finally made my way down to the courtyard after a lot of trial and error. I was early but I knew the execution would be public. Her majesty really liked to show off what happens when someone royally fucks up. Brute royally fucked up. Of course she'd probably be brought right back as a revenant.

Waiting was boring. I plopped down underneath the dead tree in the courtyard and grabbed a fallen branch and started breaking it into splinters. The force of the branch being suddenly taken from me actually drove a few splinters into my hands.

"What the hells?" I glared at… I couldn't even tell which.

"No sharp objects." Said the wight.

I sneered at her before picking the splinters out of my hand. Most were small and lodged under but there was also a bigger one and pulling it out got my hand bloody.

Dog sounded nervous. "Shit she's already injured. What do we do?"

"Go get the healer." The wight replied. "I will watch her."

He ran off.

"He's so whiny it's just a bit of blood." I told the walking corpse. She didn't talk back.

Eventually Dog succeeded in fetching Healer. He gave me a look over and injected me with healing magic that forced the remaining splinters out and closed the larger hole.

The bleary eyed healer spoke to me. "Kallista, could you please try and avoid hurting yourself at least until I get some proper sleep."

Why was everything always my fault? "It wasn't my fault! The wight ripped the stick from my hands because it was 'sharp'. I'm allowed to play with sticks."

He groaned and turned to the wight. "Please try and avoid injuring her. The last guard caught frequently injuring her was executed."

Dog started barking. "There was a guard who would injure her?"

I heard Snake's voice. "You look lovely today Kallista. Perhaps we can play together later."

"You're dead. You're dead. You're dead. You're dead. You're dead. You're dead."

A familiar hand ruffled my hair. "I'm going back to bed, talk to you later." Healer walked off leaving me alone with Dog and the wight.

I sat in silence grumbling and awaiting the execution. Soldiers began filling into the courtyard