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Chapter 17
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 03:18:49 +0000 UTCLilly’s Tale
Lilly had grown up working in a happy little shop owned by her father. Her father was a good man, but also a fool blinded by his goodness. He gave too freely, letting debts go unpaid. Lilly didn’t like it, but she knew her father still made more than enough to support the 2 of them. She was happy with the way things were. At least, until her father married an evil woman with bitchy daughters that made her do all their work.
She hated her stepsisters with a passion. They made her father work twice as hard as he ever did to try to earn back a quarter of what they spent. They always had to have the latest dress or the newest shoes. They condemned Lilly for wearing simple clothes or for looking like a boy. Despite the complaints, Lilly still received way more attention from the boys in the city, which they hated.
Lilly did her best to ignore them all, but the worst of them was her new stepmother. She was a vile bitch who only encouraged her daughters to torment Lilly more and more. They always made sure to act like sweethearts in front of her father though. They didn’t want to be cut off from his financial support.
Lilly spent most of her time working in her father’s store. She had started many years ago as a simple janitor, as per her father’s instructions. She started sweeping, then became a product stocker, then moved up to more managerial duties. She had worked her whole life to get to this point, and she wanted to make her father proud.
She lasted 2 months in that position before she was replaced by her stepsisters. After that, she completely gave up. She started going through the motions of everyday life, just waiting for the right chance to leave. Her time finally came when her stepmother came to her with a demand.
“Lilly, your sisters need you to run a caravan to Ostlan. You know what you're doing, so show your worth to the family. Teach them what to do, and don’t make trouble, okay? If you’re a good girl, we might even give you a raise.”
She had been dangling the raise in Lilly’s face ever since she got there. It had been over 3 years at this point since Lilly had gotten a raise. In fact, they had cut her pay last year, stating ‘financial needs of the family’. Lilly knew the books though. The family was bringing in well over 200 gold coins a month, and that was after taxes and payroll. They were just full of shit.
Lilly agreed to show her sisters everything she knew. The 3 of them all packed their bags like they were moving to the new city, not just going on a 10-day business trip. Lilly didn’t care though. They were bringing their own carriage, so they could deal with that themselves.
Lilly prepared everything they needed for the trip, making sure to save the good food for herself and the other employee they were bringing, Harold. He was a reliable guy that Lilly had worked with for many years. She was happy to have at least one reliable person with her. She hated when her sisters called him Hank or Henry or any other name. They were just too damn disrespectful. The main reason most of the staff hadn’t quit yet was due to Lilly taking the brunt of the bullshit from the new leadership. She made sure the store was still running smoothly.
Lilly had requested an escort from the local adventurer’s guild the day she had learned of the trip. When they met up with her and the rest of the group heading to Ostlan, Lilly felt unimpressed. Usually, she liked talking to the adventurers who escorted her on the bimonthly caravan, but she just wasn’t feeling it this time. Not when she had to deal with her horrible family.
“Sarah, come over and greet our escorts!” She barked out to her oldest stepsister. Sarah was the worst of the sisters, always tattling to her mother about any little thing Lilly might have done. Lilly hated her the most.
“What do I need to do that for?” Came the bratty, entitled voice of Sarah. Lilly heard her start to get up, but Suzie, the middle sister, told her to sit down and let Lilly take care of it. So that’s what Lilly did. She took care of everything, making sure she yelled out exactly what she was doing to her sisters. Her job here on this trip was to teach them, after all. How would they learn if she didn’t at least try to communicate. At least this way, she couldn’t be blamed for them failing to learn when they got back.
After Lilly was done getting everything ready, she called up to Harold and had him start going. Harold was running the first wagon, Lilly running the second, and the sisters from hell had hired someone to drive their own private carriage. It was ridiculously decadent and would stand out like a sore thumb when they got to Ostlan. She’d be surprised if there wasn’t at least one attempted robbery while they were there.
The group traveled along the northern road for 2 days. It had been the longest 2 days of Lilly’s life. It was non-stop nagging from her sisters and she was getting sick of it. She almost wished for a bunch of Orcs to come over and destroy their fancy ride. Maybe they needed a chance to enjoy the open air for once, then they could actually get some levels and stop complaining about their butts being sore from the cushions being too rough.
Boo freaking Hoo. I could just strangle the lot of you. You all suck to heaven and back, I don’t get why Dad keeps putting up with you. You’ll all run the business into the ground at this rate.
Lilly kept her complaints to herself, knowing that if she said even the slightest remark about them, she would be in bad trouble with her stepmother, and her father wouldn’t do anything to help her.
I swear that woman has some sort of temptress skill or something. There’s no way Dad actually likes that old hag. What kind of name is ‘Bertha’ anyways?
Lilly kept thinking her vile thoughts about her stepsiblings for the remainder of the day. When they made camp for the second night, the adventurers set up their rotation for who was going to take watch. Food was made, eaten, then cleaned, tents were set up, sleeping bags were arranged, and everyone went to sleep.
Nobody could have guessed that a group of Orcs would attack them, especially so soon after sundown. The road they were on was a well-traveled one, with very few monsters stronger than a Goblin roaming around here.
A group of 5 Orcs came crashing into their camp. Lilly wasn’t sure how the adventurers had missed 5 giant monsters such as these, but they were all taken by surprise. Lilly pulled out the dagger she kept under her pillow every night and prepared herself for an inevitable death. It would take a party of C rank adventurers to take this many Orcs on. Lilly had only been given funds for a party of 5 D ranks. They were pretty much screwed.
When Lilly was smacked aside with a single blow to the stomach, she started to run for her life. There was no way they were all going to make it, so she should do her best to survive, right?
Lilly ran for the edge of the road and was going to try to escape in the forest. She might not be an adventurer, but she had a few survival skills up her sleeves. As she started to run, she was attacked again. An Orc had swiped at her torso. Thankfully she jumped back enough for it to avoid splitting her in half, as she was sure it could have if she wanted to. It still left a pretty nasty gash in her stomach though.
Lilly wrapped her cloak around her and ran into the forest. She pulled her hood down and sprinted as fast as she could. She only made it about 80 feet before she had to slow down drastically. The forest was thick around here, and her wound was bleeding badly.
She pressed her arm against her stomach and put as much pressure as she could into it. She wanted to stem the flow of blood as best as she could, but she needed to get out of here first. Orcs had horrible eyesight and middling ears, but their sense of smell was incredible.
She kept her pace up, leaning heavily on trees as she did her best to create distance between her and the monsters who killed her best friend. They weren’t really close, as Harold kept a good bit of distance from her, being the boss’s daughter and all, but Lilly didn’t mind. Most of the rest of the workers only ever talked work with her. Harold at least let her vent occasionally about her stepsisters.
Oh. They’re probably dead too, huh? I should be sad about that, right? Sad about the death of a fellow human. I can’t be sad about the death a family member, given the way they treated me, but they definitely didn’t deserve to die.
Lilly knew she was becoming delirious at that point. She hated her sisters, and she never wanted to see them again.
Lilly stumbled as she entered a clearing. She lost her last hand hold, but saw a giant tree in the middle of the little field of grass. She stumbled her way over, thinking it would be a beautiful place to die.
She made her way over to the tree, and when she reached it, she collapsed, leaning against the gray trunk. She gazed up at the stars, and felt happy to be able to enjoy nature one last time. She could hear the chirping of some birds, but they sounded miles away to her in her weakened state. She still enjoyed them though.
The creaking of the tree above her made her think the wind was blowing pretty harshly, but she didn’t feel the wind on her skin. It must be because of the cloak.
Suddenly, and vine from the tree was in her face, holding something. It freaked her out, thinking she had stumbled upon one of the tree spirits her father used to tell her about for bedtime stories.
Lilly stumbled to her feet and took 2 steps away from the trunk, trying to get as much distance from the spirit as possible. She had heard a variety of rumors about them, not all good, though not all were bad either. She didn’t want to risk it though.
As she took the second step, she stumbled and fell flat on her face.
That can’t be good for me. Now I’ll get all infected and crap. Why does dying have to take so long? Just let me sleep already.
All of a sudden, she felt a bunch of ropes or snakes or something grab on to her and flip her over. Doing so hurt her quite a lot, but she didn’t bother to resist. She was nearing death’s door, and she welcomed it.
Lilly then saw the tree holding 3 small berries in its branches. She opened her mouth as wide as she could, but she didn't have the strength to chew. She had lost too much blood, and her wound kept bleeding more and more. She was surprised at how long she had lived already.
The tree removed the berry from her mouth. She was glad it was a good tree spirit, but was sad she didn’t have long to interact with it.
The tree brought two more berries above her mouth and squeezed the juice out of them.
Why is this tree so insistent I live? Let me die in peace, damn it.
The juices dripped into her mouth, and she swallowed in surprise. It was surprisingly sweet. She felt the strength run back into her body. She then realized she wanted to live. A smile crept across her face, and she whispered, “Thank you.” She knew it was silly, as most tree spirits refused to talk, but she felt a connection to this one.
The tree gave her 4 more berries, and she was suddenly back to normal. She checked her status and saw her health was up to 95%. Her stamina was running low, but that was to be expected. She got up and approached the tree. She placed a hand on its trunk and leaned forward. She had a long night behind her, and it was only going to get longer.
