Children of a Lesser God - Chapter 200: Doctor Tyr

Laz stopped briefly to see how many were chasing him and where they were coming from. He also took a moment to check out his wounds, pulling out some cloth strips from his pouch to bind them up so that they would leave a blood trail. As he was doing so, he noticed, strangely, that no one had followed him in.

‘What the hell?’ It didn’t make sense that they wouldn’t even try to come, despite knowing how fast he could run. It was obvious that based on the blood splatter from where he got shot that he was injured and that would indicate that this was the best time to pursue him. Despite that, he was able to use his sense and tell that all of the cars and various agents and police were just spreading out down the road, as though waiting for him to come back.

Laz couldn’t help but be confused.

Laz also noticed that Tyr, who had been hiding on his back, had rushed to his shoulder, as though sensing the threat was over.

“Have a fun ride?” Laz asked, looking at the little guy who nodded his head yes. It was almost like he wanted to do it again. Laz laughed at the cute, furry little hitchhiker and started to make his way deeper.

It didn’t take long though before Laz noticed that something was wrong, well, felt something was wrong.

He stopped and looked around, even spreading his sense out every way that he could, but he found nothing.

He noticed that the trees were healthy, the wind was gentle and there even seemed to be a sense of extreme calm. Besides the wind, there really was no other noise.

“Am I imagining things?” Laz asked the little spider who was also looking around like he was in thought.

“There isn’t even a sense of hostility…Ergh…” Laz could feel every step he took from his tired and bleeding body. Even if everything around him was the picture of tranquility, Laz wasn’t in good shape to enjoy it.

“Damn it. I just hope that there are no beasts to smell the blood, otherwise…. wait a second…” It was only know that Laz realized what he had missed before. Besides him and the little spider, there was no other creature within range of his senses. In fact, he was no longer able to sense the people waiting for him on the road, something that he should be able to do since he wasn’t really that far away from them.

“What the hell is this?” As Laz took a few more steps forward, he noticed that the woods around him were becoming dark. It was similar to walking from the sun into the shade, but then walking into an even darker shade and then a darker one. It shouldn’t have happened like that.

No matter what was happening, Laz first needed to try to tend to his wounds more. If he had ended up in some place dangerous, having those bullets inside of him would only make things worse if he had to fight. So no matter what, that was now the priority.

As he sat there, he took out a knife from his pouch. Laz had actually thrown a few medical kits in there not knowing when they would be of use, but he figured it was better to have them then to not. After all, injuries were bound to happen, even to him.

On a normal day, he would be fine to let the wound heal itself while circulating his internal energy. But these bullets seemed to be especially hard to take care of. It was almost like they were stuck inside of him and didn’t want to come out. At first, after he had been shot and when he was using his black flames to cover his body, he had kept the flames away from the bullets since he didn’t want them melting inside of him. There was no telling what would happen if he did that. He was sure he could melt them, if it came to that. But it really was the last resort.

Having no other choice, Laz began digging at the wound in his shoulder while trying to find the bullet. Since his body was solid enough that a normal bullet wouldn’t effect him, he couldn’t use normal tweezers since they would just break while he tried using them. As such, he could only dig into himself with a titanium blade. It wouldn’t break his skin, but it wouldn’t break easily either.

After a few moments of of digging, Laz was able to remove the bullet. He then switched hands and did the same for the one in his arm too. The final bullet was the one in his thigh and he knew that it would be the most difficult. After wrapping up the first two wounds Laz tried his best to relax before standing up. The problem with the tight wound was that it had hit from behind and buried itself in there. Due to this, Laz could only try his hardest to dig in while standing up since he wouldn’t have been able to reach it otherwise.

After a good ten minutes without success and a hell of a lot of swearing in his head, Laz couldn’t stand the pain and dropped the knife while sitting back down to rest. Looking around again, it almost looked like it was now nighttime in the forest. And it was giving Laz an even creepier feeling.

“I don’t think we should be in here Tyr…” Laz tried calming himself while talking to the little spider who had been watching him while he worked. The spider turned to look at Laz and then looked down at the knife before jumping down and running to retrieve it. Although it looked a little clumsy at first, Tyr was able to bring the knife back to Laz while holding it in his front two legs. Seeing this, Laz couldn’t help but laugh while leaning over carefully to take it from him. Surprisingly, Tyr moved the knife out of the way as though he was playing a game of keep away.

“Tyr. I don’t think it’s the time to do that…” Laz said with a smile, thinking that Tyr was a like small child that wanted to play. Instead of Tyr handing him back the knife though, Tyr instead used a third leg to point at Laz and then point at the ground.

“What’s this now?”.

*Down,* Tyr responded.

“Down? Like lay down?” Laz asked the little guy who responded with a nod.

“Uh… ok” Laz laid on the ground while Tyr stood next to him with the knife.

*Over.*

“Roll over?” Laz’s question once again got a nod from Tyr.

‘Is he going to try to get the last bullet out?’ Laz couldn’t help but think to himself, even though it seemed crazy.

‘Well, it’s either that or he’s going to take me out… still…’ Laz couldn’t help but think that someone standing behind him would have a better chance of getting it out than Laz trying to do so without being able to reach to correct angle.

Just as Laz rolled over and braced himself though, he felt a sharp pinch around the wound before all the pain went away.

‘The fuck?’ Laz used his sense and noticed that Tyr had actually bitten him near the wound and injected him with his venom, albeit just a little bit. It was just enough to cause the wound and a bit of his leg to go numb. Tyr then seemed to expand in size , from being about the size of a chicken egg to being the size of a squirrel. Laz was just too surprised to even have a thought about this.

With Tyr’s increased size, he was able to handle the knife with ease. But it still was hard for him to get the angle in there to pry it out without possibly causing damage to Laz’s leg. Laz knew this, but Tyr didn’t. What he did know was that Laz was good and he wanted to help Laz. He had seen Laz using the knife and getting out the thing inside and saw that he couldn’t do it for his leg. So Tyr wanted to do it for him. But as Tyr held the knife, he knew that he still couldn’t do it. So he was going to try something else.

Tyr set down the knife and held up his front legs. With a flick, little talon like protrusions appeared at the end of his feet. With a nod, Tyr plunged them into the hole in Laz’s thigh and feeling around carefully, he was able to quickly grab the bullet and yank it out, much quicker than Laz ever did. When he was done, he noticed there was still a problem as it was still bleeding. So Tyr came up with another idea. He used a bit of web and and his talons to stitch it tightly closed and then used a bit more webbing to cover it completely. Although it wasn’t pretty, it was sown up well enough.

Tyr hopped off Laz and came around to his front where he nodded while patting Laz’s head, as though he was saying ‘All done.’ Laz quickly turned over and got up before examining the wound and finding it completely bound. He couldn’t help but be amazed. On top of that, it still didn’t hurt at all. Flexing and stretching it a few times, Laz felt like it was as good as new.

Laz held out his hand and Tyr, now reduced size again, climbed on and ended up on Laz’s shoulder.

“That’s amazing buddy,” Laz complimented Tyr while rubbing his furry little head. After taking a few steps, Laz trusted that he could use it like normal.

None of this helped the fact that he was still lost in this freaky, silent woods. Still, staying here wouldn’t solve anything and he couldn’t head back, so moving forward was the only option.

Laz had just found a clearing and was walking towards it when he noticed something moving across the clearing in the shadows, shaking some trees. While checking it with his sense, it was like nothing was there.

Laz quickly hunched down and took cover before slowly making his way over. He was almost crawling as he moved, making sure his body was concealed by the brush. Just as Laz thought he would be in range though, the tree’s stopped moving and everything was again calm. At least, everything on the outside. Inside, Laz’s heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. Whatever that thing was, it scared the shit out of him on instinct.

Laz knew it was time to get away from this clearing, but before he could move far, he suddenly felt like something was watching him, several something’s in fact. Looking up, Laz could see several strange lights in the trees on the other side of the clearing.

Hauntingly, every single light he saw was way up high.

And in pairs.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what those light’s were. For the moment, Laz hesitated as to trying to fight or running? Then he ended up seeing one of the pairs of lights start to slowly move up the tree until it popped above the top of the tree and kept going. By the time it stopped, it must have been almost two hundred and fifty feet off the ground and pointed straight at Laz.

This answered his question real quick.

…

In the strangely beautiful natural court yard that lay in front of her residence, A’ruya was sipping on some tea while reading a book. Just as she went to take another sip though, she frowned and put the cup down before closing her eyes. Noticing her strange behavior, one of her personal body guards walked over and asked,

“Is something wrong princess?”

“I’ve got to go out. Please let my mother know.”

“Princess. You should know that after you snuck out the last time, your mother has put us here to watch over you and make sure you don’t do it again.”

“My mother just thinks I am too young to contest and my ideas are too radical for father and the consul. And that’s why she put you here to babysit me. But, as we both know, that is stupid. There is no way you can stop me if I want to go out,” A’ruya had a strange look in her eye as she stared at this watcher of her’s. She was threatening him and not trying to hide it.

“Now, you can either come with me, or go tell my mom. What choice do you think will leave you in a better position?”

“Sigh. Yes princess. Where are we headed.”

“Just follow me and shut up.” She flashed away in but a moment and ended up showing up right where Laz had entered the forest. In fact, she could still smell his warm, energy infused blood on the ground. Just as she appeared, several of the police and guardsmen noticed her and raised their weapons, only to drop them a moment later. They themselves then dropped as well, hitting the ground as though a puppet with it’s strings cut. The guard appeared now as well with a frown on his face. Just as he was going to kill everyone for disrespecting the princess she stopped him.

“Princess, I really feel as though they need to…. be… taught…. a…. what the hell is this?” The guard was looking upward and around, obviously seeing much more than Laz did when he came in here or a human would have.

“Damn it,” A’ruya said, looking seriously pissed off.