A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 195: Counter Measures - Part 1

Even with that wariness about him, no more monsters came for the rest of the night, which offered Beam some level of relief, knowing that there was at least some kind of limit on their numbers.

Just before the light of dawn breached the horizon, the last of the meat burned away to bone inside Beam's raging fire.

With that, he began to dampen the flames, in preparation for leaving. He removed some of the logs that he could from the fire, dispersing the heat little by little, until finally, he could smother the rest of it beneath a pile of rocks, which happened to be in abundant supply.

And then, using the last of his energy, he quickly washed himself in the mountain stream, and then went home to change his clothes.

"Mm?" Beam awoke with a start. His dreams had been violent ones, in-keeping with the day that he'd had. In them, he'd been fighting the Titan again, only this time the ground was so muddy that he couldn't move his feet. With every step that he took, his body sank deeper and deeper, until that muddy ground gave way to quicksand, and he was trapped up to his neck as the Titan loomed over him.

He wasn't sure when he'd fallen asleep. Nor was he even sure what day he was. He could feel a sheen of cold sweat on his skin from his dreams, but also there was a heat in the room. A heat that he would normally not feel until summer.

He glanced up in alarm. The light underside of a thatched roof, with wooden beams placed like a net to support it.

Then he glanced to the side, and noticed a roaring fire. The fire brought back images of the night before, of all the monsters he had to burn. In his sleepy state, he struggled to regain his bearings. He stumbled out of bed in a panic. His hand went to his sword. What time was it?

He must have fallen asleep whilst guarding the pile of monsters. The whole thing with a Titan must have been a dream. He had to get up, he had to fight.

His shoulder hit the ground hard as he tumbled from the low bed, but he quickly righted himself and scrambled up to his feet, his hand still searching for a sword that wasn't there.

"Ah, you're up," Mrs Felder said, a gentle smile on her face, as she tended to a pot on the fire.

"Mrs Felder?" Beam said, his confusion only mounting. Was he still dreaming?

"Mhm. Good morning. It's not even midday yet. We were planning to let you sleep much longer," she said.

Still disoriented, and still highly confused, Beam frowned, looking around the hut. Sure enough, it was the same hut that he remembered. But he had no clue how he got here. "Why am I…?"

"You tell me, sweetie," Mrs Felder said, gently shrugging. "You've been pushing yourself, haven't you? When was the last time you slept? Nila found you just before dawn, collapsed on the road between our house and the forest. She'd said you'd gone in there yesterday, is that right?"

"I collapsed?" Beam repeated with a frown. Sure, he was tired, he'd known that – but he was planning on getting a couple of hours of sleep anyway. He wasn't sure that he'd really pushed himself to the point of collapsing.

"When was the last time you ate?" She asked, stirring her pot.

Beam's stomach answered for him with a growl. He grimaced. He couldn't remember when he'd last eaten. All he knew was that it wasn't yesterday.

"Come, sit," she said, gesturing towards a stool next to the fire. "You've hardly slept, and your body is battered. It's still only early in the day yet – collect yourself before you go rushing around like Nila."

"It's midday, you say?" Beam asked, begrudgingly sitting on the stool near the fire, as he tried to puzzle through just how much time he had left in the day.

"Not quite yet, but we're nearly there. But don't you worry about that. You need to keep yourself strong. You're taking on a lot, aren't you? Nila told me what you've been up to," Mrs Felder said.

"Mm… There isn't a lot of time though. There's a lot I have to tell everyone," Beam murmured, half to himself, as he tried to recall the events of the previous night. The encounter with the shadow people. Their blood on his hands. Their spawning of the monsters and their crystals. The Titan's overwhelming bloodlust.

"Eat first," Mrs Felder said, handing up a bowl of stew and a wooden spoon.

Beam's mouth was watering even as his mind raced. His body moved on its own for the first mouthful. It was so hot that it burned his tongue, but he still couldn't stop shovelling it in. Once he was past that first mouthful, the control was lost, and he shovelled it all down like a starving dog.

Mrs Felder giggled to herself as she watched him. "Better?" She asked with a kind smile, holding out her hand for the bowl. Beam nodded, feeling a little bit more awake after it. It was only then that he properly noticed Mrs Felder. She seemed better than she had the previous day, despite the weight of her daughter's disappearance.

She took his bowl off him and filled it up again. He was about to protest, but his stomach was still feeling rather empty, so he ploughed through that lot again. Only when she gave him a third bowl did she finally look satisfied, and only then did Beam start to feel something approaching full.

"Good, you're getting some colour back in your cheeks," Mrs Felder said warmly as she tended to him. "I'll make you a drink. Don't even think about rushing off before then."

"Thank you," Beam said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. He was more than embarrassed to have been found passed out as he was. It was a weakness he couldn't afford to show, especially not now, when the village was in turmoil.