A/N: Oren and Sophia, both pnning and scheming...

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  Oren was starting to feel like his pn to make Sophia feel nothing but disdain and pt for him had backfired somewhere along the way. Though in all fairness, he’d been stymied at multiple points. First had been the horse. Her not knowing how to ride one had ultimately led to them doubling up on the rgest stallion that the stable master had to offer.

  Now, Oren had at least not gone in on having her sit in front of him. He was well aware that horses weren’t like motorcycles. Despite ing from Twenty-First tury Earth, he did actually have experien horseback. On a motorcycle, Sophia would always be behind him, but on a horse, it was far more on for the passeo sit up front, especially when they had a smaller frame.

  He wasn’t about to let that happen though. The sheer awkwardness of having her pushing bato his crotch for hours each day was something Oren wao avoid at all costs. Plus, f her to sit behind him and g to him for fear of falling off should have engendered further ive feelings towards him… or so he would have thought.

  As, he couldn’t quite bring himself to be a total monster. And besides, sometimes he wao stretch his legs. So on a while, he would get down off of the horse a her ride it alone while he guided the damn thing from the ground via the reins. Given his enharength and stamina, it didn’t even really cut down oravel time at all.

  But then they’d run into that burnt out husk of a town. Oren wasn’t all that surprised by it, truth be told. He’d seen that mud worse. Amberwell had rgely mao stay unscathed because it was mostly secur. The God Hunters had no reason to torch the pce because there were no worshippers of the gods within it. Or at least, none who were stupid enough to worship in public, especially with things being as they currently were.

  As, Amberwell was an exception rather than the norm. Oren had lost t of the number of towns and vilges he’d seen who were tered around worshipping this or that goddess after he fled from the Heavens. Some worshipped those he’d killed in the Heavens. Others worshipped deities that were more… local. The sort that embodied aspects of the world, like Gods of the Forest, oddess of a River.

  Even back just after his sughter of the Heavens, the God Hunters had already been moving and moving quickly. Almost like they were ready for Oren to do what he did. Almost like they were pnning on it all along. But then, it wasn’t ‘almost’ anything. Orehey were tied to the people who had summoned him, didn’t he?

  Regardless, he was only one man. He couldn’t be everywhere at ond… frankly, he hadn’t really tried. Some of the towns he’d passed through had been fine when he passed through them but probably weren’t by now. Others had already been put to the torch, just like they ohey’d stopped in st night.

  It was really just his luck that they would find a burnt out husk of a vilge that worshipped Sophia’s father Law though. Of all the gods, it just had to be the King of the Gods himself, the God of Justid Righteousness. In the face of Sophia’s freshly renewed sorrow and grief, Oren had found it all but impossible to py the callous, indifferent role he’d set for himself. Instead, he’d defaulted t his best to fort her. Luckily he was terrible at that too, but then she’d asked that question about justice versus vengeand Oren STILL wasirely sure about how that versation had gone.

  Now here they were, ba the road again. At least they were making good time towards Sophia’s refuge. Still pretty far away, but Oren inteo push them a bit harder each day so they would actually get there when she’d inally said they would get there, even if she’d been telling a bit of a fib at the time.

  Then, they could hopefully go their separate ways…

  “Oren.”

  Blinking, Oren is pulled from his thoughts, gng up to where Sophia is riding their oallion alht now while he walks alongside it. She’s looking down at him curiously and he quickly turns back to fag ahead again, affeg a certain degree of disi even as he answers her.

  “Yes?”

  “I was just w… what was it like, ba your world? Where did you e from?”

  Ah. He couldn’t really ig anymore, now could he? Sophia retty much doing everything in her power to find on ground with him. She was attempting to develop a rapport with Oren and while he didn’t quite know why, he did know he couldn’t let her. Not with the secrets he was hiding from the Minoddess.

  “… Better than here, that’s for sure. Your universe is a backwards trash heap by parison.”

  There. That lenty rude, wasn’t it? Now to be fair, it wasirely true. Sure, Oren missed plenty of the Twenty-First tury’s creature forts. But living in this world wasn’t so bad. It only sucked because he’d been tricked into murdering all the good guys and the people who tricked him into it were clearly tinuing their crusade of wantoh and violen anything and everything with even a hint of divinity to it.

  Still, he sees Sophia flinch back out of the er of his eye and hopes she’s going to take offense and maybe start an argument defending her home from him. Instead, much to his surprise, she’s quietly ptive for a moment before responding.

  “That great, huh?”

  Oren huffs.

  “Yes. All of this pales in parison to the life of luxury I lived bay world.”

  Another lie, this one even more tha one. Especially since Oren is gesturing out at the untamed natural beauty all around them… and if he’s being pletely ho, what he’s looking at right now is so much more alive and vibrant than anything he remembers from bae oh.

  Now on the one hand, he HAS been gone from Earth for years at this point. When those who took him did so, they made sure to train him up long and hard to prepare him for his role as their on. But oher hand… he still remembers plenty of Earth and its numerous shortings. Having access to all those amenities and taking things like electricity and running water and such franted was ohing, but Earth wasn’t all sunshine and roses. It had it’s fair share of problems.

  Of course, he wasn’t about to tell Sophia that. He was deliberately talking up Earth to make her mad. It just wasn’t w.

  “I see… were you powerful back there as well? Rich? Beloved?”

  Oren’s lips curl up into a sardonic smile at that. How about none of the above? Briefly, he siders what to tell Sophia without it all being lies. After all, the best lies have kernels of truth in them.

  “… I was a schor of sorts. Not a warrior.”

  True. He’d been about to enter Uy when he’d been summoned. Literally on the doorstep outside of the campus. And before that, Oren had throwhing he had into his studies. He hadn’t had time for athletics, let alone learning how to fight. Holy, he’d been kind of a nerd.

  “A schor? Truly? Were your parents o fund such a thing?”

  Oren snorts. Talk about teeing it up for him.

  “My parents are dead.”

  Sophia gasps and to her credit, looks actually dismayed by her mistake.

  “I… I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

  Of course she didn’t. She didn’t know much about him and Oren would prefer to keep it that way. He especially didn’t wao find out that he’d killed her father and sughtered her peers. Not before he could get her to the safety of her refuge, anyways.

  Shrugging, Oren keeps his gaze focused on the road ahead.

  “It’s fine.”

  He keeps his to, to make it seem like it’s not fine.

  “I’ve long since made peace with my parents’ deaths.”

  Agairies to give off a tohat makes it clear he hasn’t. The truth is though… he sort of has. Mostly because they died when he was a baby anyways. Ore even have photos to remember them by. He grew up in an orphanage and then a handful of foster homes, and while the final one he’d wound up in had been a solid enviro for his studies, it wasn’t the kind of pce where he’d gotten particurly close to his foster parents. They’d let him do his own thing and that was good enough for Oren.

  For all that he’d effectively been parentless all his life, he’d done quite well for himself all the same. And he’d had pns to tinue doing well for himself too. He’d had every iion of taking Uy by stetting a degree in business, and then climbing the corporate dder until he reached the top.

  That was the dream, right? To bee CEO of his own pany one day and make the big bucks?

  Heh… it was funny to look back at that now, what with it all so far away. He’d never even had a ce. Instead of being some snazzy businessman, Oren was a warrior and fighter. He was a trained killer and mate murderer. And now, he was a goddess’ bodyguard. Proteg Sophia and esc her to safety robably the best thing Oren had done since finding himself in this universe. But she couldn’t be allowed to know that. She couldn’t be allowed to know any of it.

  “I… I suppose you would want to go back though if you could, right? What with how you talk of things…”

  Oren nearly stops in the middle of the road; Sophia’s wive him such pause. Holy… it might seem strange, but he hasn’t thought about going ba years. It had been a promise made to him early on by those who had summoned him here in the first pce, of course. They’d told him they would do everything in their power to send him home after he’d saved them all.

  Even back then, even when Oren believed all of their other lies, he hadn’t really believed that one. Somehow he’d just known that they weren’t telling him the truth about that… that they had no way of putting him back where they’d pulled him from. And even if they could, they surely couldn’t rewind time when doing it, which meant every day he spent in this universe, every week, month, and year… was another he was gone from Earth, from his life, from the society who had no doubt fotten about him entirely by this point.

  He'd had all of his affairs in order when he’d initially been pulled from Earth. Bank ats, ID, a dorm on campus to stay at while he attended Uy. All of that was likely gone by now. He was almost certainly presumed dead, if anyone even remembered he existed at all. Untangling that mess would be a challenge and a half and frankly, not really worth the bother.

  Sn at Sophia’s words, he finally looks to the Minoddess, giving her a wry look.

  “I suppose this is where you offer me a way to get back, is that it? Careful romises you make, Goddess.”

  Sophia colors at his chastising tone, her face growing red as he takes her to task. Opening her mouth to respond, the goddess might have inteo apologize or protest his insinuations. Oren never really gets the ce to find out though, because before she speak, he has to act. A shadow flickers almost too fast for the humao follow, but not too fast for his eyes to follow.

  In a single moment, rabs Sophia off of the stallion they’d bought ba Amberwell and spins the goddess away, shielding her with his body. A moment ter and the horse’s massive frame strikes Oren in the back as a boulder twice the mount’s size sms into it from the other side. Both horse and boulder strike Oren’s back with the force of a speeding truck… and lose.

  Oren barely even grunts as the stallion is crushed between him and the boulder, letting out a frankly soul-wreng death scream. Meanwhile, the boulder tries to keep going os turhe horse’s body into paste but it too ot help but shatter across his back. It doesn’t even succeed in shifting him a single inch.

  Finally, the entire ordeal is over. Barely a sed has gone by si started, but time has slowed down for Oren even as his perception has sped up. Narrowing his eyes, he turns his head to look back over his shoulder… ahe one who threw the boulder lumbering their way. Hill Giant. Big, thirty foot tall creature with a dumb fad a whole lot of physical strength.

  They were demigods, though nobody called them that. Born of dalliances between gods of the mortal pnes and mortals. The God Hunters huhem as well, but apparently in their haste to put entire vilges to the sword and deface statues… they’d missed this one.

  “ME KILL YOU! ME KILL YOU DEAD!”

  Oren checks to make sure Sophia is okay, finding the Minoddess shaken but unhurt. Slowly, he rises to his feet and turns, interposing himself between the Hill Giant and his charge. His hand drops to the pommel of his sword, even as the massive hulking creature tis steady approach. It’d been hundreds of yards away when it threw that fug boulder with enough force to kill their only horse instantly. But it was closing the gap fast.

  “We don’t have to fight, you know! We have no quarrel with you!”

  Not quite true given the loss of the horse, but Oren was willing to let bygones be bygones if it meant he and Sophia could be on their way. As, the Hill Giant has already spoken all the words he intends to speak it would seem, because the hing he does as he finishes closing the distand loe over them is lift up his massive makeshift club and roar as he swings it down.

  Oren ches his jaw… and draws his sword.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: If it ain't ohing, it's another! 't get any peace...

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