A Motley Crew - Doppelgänger

Kieran and Mathis slowly snuck through the darkened cave passage, aware that even the slightest of sounds could rouse the monsters within.  Mathis was confident that they could slay any orcs they came across, but Kieran wasn’t so sure.

“Let me so scout up a head,” Kieran said softly as he put a hand on Mathis’s shoulder, and Mathis simply nodded.

Kieran snuck ahead until he was sure he was out of Mathis’s sight, and he willed his body to change shape into that of an orc they had seen earlier.  Once the transformation had taken place, he stood and walked through the corridors with little regard for stealth as camouflage would work much better.

Rounding a corner, he nearly bumped into a much larger orc leading several others.  Both jumped back and looked at each other warily, “What are you doing here?” the big one snarled in guttural orcish, “Why aren’t you on watch with Bill?”

Kieran looked around and realized that he was badly outnumbered, “Because Bill is a dumbass,” he responded in orcish, “He’s too stupid to understand when to bring in help.”

The large orc before him laughed loudly before further scrutinizing Kieran, “And why would you need help?”

“Because we spotted a large group of adventurers preparing an assault,” he said quickly, “And Bill said that he could take them by himself.”

“And being the coward you are,” the large orc said jabbing a big meaty finder into Kieran’s chest, “You ran with your tail between your legs.”

Kieran panicked for a moment, “No!” he yelled back, “I came to get you because I wanted you to have the glory of repelling the adventures and not that shit for brains Bill!”

The big orc paused for a moment, seemingly confused, “Why?” he asked slowly.

“Because I hate Bill,” he spat back at the orc.

The orc nodded seemingly satisfied with his answer, “Fair enough!” he turned to the other orcs in his party, “Let’s go kill us some adventurers boys!” and the other orcs let out a cheer.

“I’ll meet you there,” Kieran said to the orc, “We don’t want Bill to think this was a set up do we?”

The big orc nodded and clapped Kieran on the back, “We wouldn’t want that!” he said as he led the other orcs away from him down the cave right towards Mathis.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath as he took off after the retreating orcs, “Hey, on second thought, I want to go with you!”

The big orc turned around and simply shrugged as yet another orc joined up with his war party, “The more the merrier,” he simply said as he turned back and continued walking.

“Hey, boss,” Kieran said, “What if we went another way?”

The big orc seemed confused and turned to look at him, “What other way?” he asked.

“You don’t know about the other way?” he asked the orc and realized immediately that it was a mistake to challenge him before his war party.

The big orc suddenly lashed out with a savage punch to Kieran’s face, knocking him back, “Of course I know about the other way!” he yelled, spittle flying all over Kieran as a trickle of blood dripped from his nose, “We go the way I want to go!” He punched Kieran again in the face for good measure.

Kieran fell into line behind them, trying to figure out how to get them to go a different way, but soon, time ran out.  He spotted the place where he had left Mathis and he knew that he was out of time.

With little effort, Kieran shifted his appearance back to what he had looked like before, a lithe, blonde elf.  With the same voice he had used before, he bellowed out, “Die you filthy orc!” as his long elven blade slipped between the plates of his armor and sunk deep into the large orc’s abdomen.

The orc cried out in pain and swung around to see what had happened and his eye grew wide upon seeing the elf standing before him holding a silvery blade coated with his blood. The Elf stepped back and slashed at one of the smaller orcs, easily severing his head from his body which landed with a loud thud on the ground. 

The big orc growled in rage and gripped his large axe in both hands and charged forward to attack the elf, “I’ll fucking kill you!” he yelled as the massive axe head swung down and narrowly missed him.

“Gotta hit me first,” Kieran quipped back as he ducked under another orc’s clumsy attack, and the axe swung over Kieran’s head only to be embedded into the head of one of his fellow orcs.

Everyone stopped for a moment and looked at the dead orc, a shocked expression still on his face, as he slid to the ground and off the orc’s axe.
“Whoops?” Kieran said sarcastically to the big orc which enraged him further.

“Die!” a loud voice yelled as Mathis leapt from hiding with his axe held tightly in his hands and he rushed the three remaining orcs.

“No!” Kieran said as his attention was pulled from the big orc to his partner.

Seeing his opening, the big orc swung down hard, and Kieran barely stepped aside to prevent the axe from hitting him in the head and instead the blade severed his left arm just above the elbow.

Kieran cried out in pain as the limb fell to the floor and the big orc grinned broadly at him just as Mathis ran up to the orc and swung his axe down and it bounced harmlessly off the orc’s armor.  

The large orc looked back at the human, “Your turn,” he said as he swung his axe and easily embedded it deep into Mathis’s side.

Blood erupted from Mathis’s mouth and his axe fell from his hand and hit the cave floor with a loud clattering sound.  The orc reached out with his free hand and pushed Mathis off his axe and his body landed a few feet away with a dull wet thud.

He turned back just in time to see Kieran finish off the last of the other orcs, reach down grab his severed arm and much to the surprise of the orc, he put it back in place and the arm reattached itself, “What are you demon?” the orc asked.

“You’ll wish I was only a demon,” he said as he lunged forward and easily dodged a lethal blow from the orc, ending up chest to chest with the orc with his curved sword thrusting up through his chin and out the top of his head. The orc gurgled a response as he dropped dead.

Kieran dropped his sword, still stuck in the orc’s skull, and rushed to Mathis and dropped to his knees, “Mathis,” he said rolling his friend over and looking at the wound, knowing that there was nothing he could do to help him.

“That bad?” Mathis said through blood splattered lips as he looked down at Keiran’s arm, “At least you’re feeling better,” he said with a short laugh that quickly turned into a coughing fit and fresh blood sprayed from his lips.

“I’m sorry,” he told his friend, “I was trying to save you…” Mathis cut him off with a weak wave of his hand.

“Please tell me,” he said softly, “What are you?”
Kieran hung his head a little before he felt Mathis’s hand grip his and he looked up into Mathis’s eyes, “I’m a doppelganger,” he told his friend, expecting him to pull his hand away, but instead, Mathis gripped it a little tighter.

“I thought so,” he said softly, and Kieran looked surprised, “I’m not that dumb, my friend.” He said with a wink and a slight, bloody smile.

“But I,” Kieran was at a loss for words.

“Listen,” Mathis said, his words barely audible, “Please, you are my family, no matter what you are,” Kieran felt Mathis’s grip on his hand loosening, “Look after Peter…” his voice trailed off as his hand slipped from Kieran’s grip.

“I promise,” he said to his lifeless friend as he prepared to do something he had only done once before in his life.  He reached out and touched Mathis on both temples with the tips of his index and middle fingers and, concentrating, he pulled the memories from the dying mind of his best friend.

When he stood up, he looked like Mathis and his clothes had also changed to look like his old friend.  He reached down and grabbed the axe lying on the floor next to Mathis’s body and with a slight effort he lifted his friend and started to take him out of the cave.

As he traversed the cave complex, he started to process the memories he was able to pull from his friend and he realized that Mathis had known for quite a while that he wasn’t an elf, but something different, and it didn’t bother him, he didn’t care.  This caused tears to well up in his eyes, realizing the love that Mathis had had for him.

He wiped the tears from his eyes as they left the cave through the hidden entrance they had discovered earlier in the day.  He brough the body to where they had stashed the horses, placed Mathis over his horse’s saddle, secured him, and led the horse towards home.

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On the trip towards Mathis’s son’s home, Kieran stopped and built a funeral pyre for Mathis and gave him a warrior’s funeral, or as much as he could and wished his soul safe passage to his heaven.  He sat and watched as the ashes of his friend spiraled upwards from the heat and drifted off over the land that he had spent much of his life exploring.

“For you, my friend,” Kieran said as he held up a wineskin filled with Mathis’s favorite cheap wine, “My brother,” he said as tears again welled up in his eyes and he took a long drink from the skin.  Immediately his face twisted in disgust at the taste of the wine, “Gods, Mathis,” he spat out along with a mouthful of wine, “How could you drink this shit, it’s gross,” he said before taking another swig of wine.

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“Dad!” Pete shouted as Kieran walked in the door of his mother’s house.  Pete ran over to Kieran who knelt and opened his arms for the nine-year-old boy as he had seen Mathis do many, many times in the past and he caught Pete in his arms and pulled him in, hugging him tightly.

“Hey kiddo,” he said to Pete, feeling a weird mix of emotions that he had never felt before.  Pete had always been special to him because he was Mathis’s kid, but now, with Mathis’s memories in his head it was so much more, he felt his heart swell and break at the same time knowing the truth about his dad.

“Dad?” Pete asked looking around.

“Yeah. Petey?” he responded as he slowly let go of Pete.

“Where’s Kieran?” he asked.

“He, um,” he stammered, unsure of what to say as panic crossed his face.

“Did he have to return to his people?” his mother asked from across the room where she was preparing the evening meal.

Kieran nodded slowly, “We got a message that he had a family emergency and had to return home,” he said, lying to his new son.

“Why didn’t you go with him?” Pete asked him.
Kieran smiled at him and rubbed the top of his head, slightly mussing up his hair, “I wanted to, but being Kieran, he said that you needed me more than he did.”

“Oh,” Pete said slowly, “Will we ever see him again?”

“I honestly don’t know,” he responded to him truthfully, “But he did give me something, us something,” he said as he opened a lockbox that Kieran had picked up from a hidden cache on the way home.

Looking inside Pete’s eyes opened wide as he saw a small fortune in gold and platinum coins as well as many large gems inside, “I won’t need to go adventuring anymore,” he said to Pete.

“Really?” Pete smiled broadly at his dad, “I hope I get to see him again and thank him.”

“Pete,” his grandmother Andrea said to him as she walked up to the box and pulled out a silver coin and handed it to him, “Why don’t you run down to the baker and see if they have anything sweet left on their shelves.”

Pete nodded, grabbed the silver, and rushed out the door.

“Tell me who you really are,” Andrea said sternly with her arms folded across her chest.

“What do you mean?” he asked, suddenly very worried, “I’m your son.”

She shook her head and pulled out a large kitchen knife she had concealed under her arm, “I know my son, and you are not him,” she said as she approached, the knife held menacingly towards him, “Now tell me.”

Kieran nodded, “You can put the knife down,” he said calmly, “I’ll tell you everything.”

Andrea stopped, but kept the knife pointed at him, “Speak,” she said loudly.

Kieran closed his eyes and concentrated a little and shifted his features back to being Kieran and he heard a clang as the knife fell to the floor.  He opened his eyes, “It’s me, Andrea, Kieran.”
Andrea sat down slowly on a chair at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face, “What happened to my son?”

“He was struck down saving my life,” he said embellishing the truth a little, “I was being attacked and he ran up to help and an orc struck him down,” he said, tears welling in his eyes, “Before he…” grief choked the words in his throat, “Died, he asked me to take care of Pete, and I promised him I would.”

Her next words were said in utter terror that it nearly shattered his heart, “Are you a doppelganger?” she asked slowly, the words trembling on her lips.

“Yes,” he said.

“Are you going to kill us?” she asked softly.

Kieran shook his head, “No,” he responded, “Those are just stories told to scare people,” he said as he slowly reached out towards her hand on the table, “You known me since before Pete was born,” he said, pleading with her, “Why would I suddenly decide to hurt you now?”

She ignored him, “Did Mathis know what you were before he asked you to take care of Pete?” she asked as he slowly took her hand in his.

He nodded, “I am Kieran, but Mathis is also a part of me too,” he said as he shifted back to Mathis’s form, “And I can feel our love of you and especially for Pete.”

She smiled a little, “But,” she started but he cut her off.

He smiled Mathis’s smile at her, “I promised that I would do everything to take care of Pete and protect him and if he doesn’t know what really happened to his dad, can’t we spare him that pain?” he asked, pleading with Andrea, “Please?”
She nodded slowly as the door opened and Pete walked in with some kind of baked goods wrapped in a thin cloth, “What’s wrong, grandma?” he asked, seeing the tears on her face.

Andrea smiled and wiped her eyes, Kieran froze, afraid that she would tell Pete the secret, “I’m just sad that we may not see Kieran again,” she said softly, and Kieran let out the breath that he wasn’t aware that he’d been holding.