The crunch of plate metal on rust orange stone carried down along the battlement. Before him, a short walk along the wall to the next battlement tower. To his left, a sheer drop. Clouds drifted along far below, and in the distance a line of mountain peaks. To his right, the crags of uneven dirt and stone that provided the base for the outer battlement carried on a few more feet, chunks of brick that had fallen from the wall resting on the overgrown grass. Just beyond this strip of dirt the land sloped down into another sheer drop. Beyond that, across the gorge, sat the inner bailey of undead parish. A castle in its own right, it rose higher on the mountainside and grasped out at the outer battlement with a single stone bridge. From his position he seemed to be on a pier of stone, approaching a far off island in a sea of green.

What a place this must have been, he thought. There was not much left of the western wall. That much he had seen with his own eyes. The foundation built to stomach the greatest sieges sank to the abyss not seeing a single battle, while the east, considered superfluous and build on a ring of peaks already too steep to invade stood proud in the sun.

And from there, on the outer wall of undead parish, the knight could not see much to speak of. The drop drew his eye. The rusted gate across the bridge. The drop again. The width of the wall he walked, such that five men could walk side by side. Enough to form lines of shifting archers, enough to maneuver comfortably if only barely. His eyes turned to the left, sun catching on the mesh of his visor. The wall was broken, there, halfway across the path. The recurring juts of stone made to provide cover from which to fire stuttered off for three paces, overlooking a sheer drop into the open skyline, and the path caved in in aching webs such that he didn't dare tread heavily.

Had the Knight checked behind him, he would have seen a ladder ascending the battlement tower, hidden in shadows and creeping vines, and the tip of a notched arrow poke out over the top. A clattering sounded from behind, an arrow clanged off the thick plate of his shield arm. The Knight drew his shield and sword and turned, peering up at the tower over the lip of his shield. A ringing this time - the sound of a parried slash, and an archer fell backwards off the tower to crumple at the knight's feet.

A small figure in hardened black leather armor peered over the edge of the stone and waved, a cruel knife shining in his hand. Madoc of Thorolund raised a gauntlet in reply, sheathed his sword at his hip, swung his shield over his back, and turned to watch a beast leap down from the other tower with a groan that rattled his armor, a landing that shook loose another chunk of the wall. It stood three men tall, six men wide, barely fitting on the wall. If a bull rose up on hind legs and grew hands it would still only be a fraction the size of this thing. It raised a massive wooden axe and started towards him. Madoc unsheathed his sword at once; drew his shield from his back and tossed it behind, into the relative darkness of the tower.

He hunkered down as it heaved closer; squared his shoulders, sucked in a breath of bitter cold air. The Taurus demon reared back and pounced, one massive arm whipped the axe overhead in a downward slash. A figure leapt down from the tower behind him, bandit's knife in hand. Madoc, he rolled left and prayed.

-(:=:)-

"Me?" Spoke Aurelius of Carim, glancing up, his voice calm and measured over the gentle crackling of the bonfire. "No. I would only be so fortunate." He chuckled to himself then, in a moment of introspection. "You may ask yourself what I am doing here, in these lands, then. Something I ask myself often…" He laughed here, though his heart was not in it. "For this I have no answer. None yet. None I believe… Though I do not regret my position." A moment passed, and he amended, wryly, "often."

"Do you wish you did?" The other asked. A young boy in loosely fitted leather armor, laid on his back on the grass, hands behind his head, looking up at the stars with an air of silent contemplation. Around them, the ruins of a great stone shrine flickered in the firelight. "possess the darksign, I mean."

"…No." Aurelius returned after a moment. "It is not a pleasant thing, the darksign. I have seen its work firsthand. There is no rest for the marked. No thirst, no hunger. No discomfort. They shrivel and crack, and..." His voice turned bitter here, and he lowered his head as he continued, watching the gentle flames of the bonfire curl up in wisps and vanish in the night. "And it turns them mad, the nothing of it all. They pray for death, and it does not find them. They seek it, and it flees from them. The darksign flares on the flesh of the palm…" He raised his gauntlet then, eyeing it in the light of the fire. "And soon, there is this… husk, where a man once stood. Clothed. Armed. Raging at the disparity of it all." Aurelius' voice, here, the Other thought; heavy; but still low, tempered. Aurelius looked up from his melancholy, and the Other returned his gaze to the sky.

"Truly they are a pitiable kind." Said Aurelius. "No, I do not wish the darksign upon myself. I see my mortality for what it is."

"Oh?" The other said, knowing Aurelius would not mistake his tone or posture for disinterest. "What is it, exactly?"

Aurelius of Carim gave a small exhale through his nose. "A gift, of course… The greatest gift. One that too many have been deprived of."

Silence for a few moments. Then the Knight spoke again. "And you, young one? Naruto, was it. Quiet at such an age, though I cannot deny the circumstances. What drove you to leave your sign?"

He must be referring to summoning signs. The ones Naruto had unintentionally written in blood. "There were others before you." Naruto said, trying to match the same level, almost whispering tone of the Knight across from him. "The first was a Knight. Brave. Stubborn. Foolish. His name was Madoc."

"He met his death never knowing how much he annoyed me."

-(:=:)-

Madoc rolled left, and prayed, and emerged from the plume of powdered stone unscathed and pounding and alive. All at once he realized how small he was. The Taurus demon towered over him, hands as big as his torso, axe twice as tall as his body. The figure that leaped from above landed knife-first on the demon's back, driving deep into the thick muscle and bone of its spine, and for a moment Madoc dared to hope that the battle was over, his first victory behind him. He was wrong. The Taurus demon reared, raging but pained, and Naruto flew from its back to land some distance away on his feet, knife at the ready. He left a weeping, twisted wound – a task the bandit knife was forged for.

-(:=:)-

"This one possessed the darksign. Though he didn't show it, in cosmetics and in manner. He found me when I was alone. Told me what I needed to know. Comforted me when I was afraid. Clothed me when I was cold." Naruto raised his dagger, eyed the glint of the fire in the cold metal. "Armed me when I was weak."

-(:=:)-

For a moment, the attention was on Naruto. Madoc dashed forwards as best he could in his heavy platemail, and sliced through the calf of the nearest massive leg. He ducked, and was rewarded for his caution as a blind swing flew overhead. Naruto dashed in during the confusion, blade flipping to a reverse grip, and leapt onto the Taurus's back once more; this time sinking his blade deep into the flesh of the creature's neck. The Taurus was tensed and prepared despite its pain; he may well have been stabbing at the bark of a tree for the resistance he met. Still he ground the blade in deeper, grasping onto the thick hair on its hide as it shook and grasped over its shoulder, blood welling up in great gluts.

-(:=:)-

"Very rarely did he check his corners. Or above him, as he should. For that, were he alive, he would owe me a great thanks." Naruto snorted to himself, "rather, I suppose we might have been considered even."

"The way you prattle on I might think you in love." Came the impassive reply from Aurelius, though his grin could be felt. Naruto didn't think him the type to lighten the air with humor. Too stoic, too introspective.

"I may well have been." Naruto said. "I have always hated being coddled. He took it upon himself to look after me. Such is my relationship with things I need but do not want. They thrust themselves upon me, and I reject them, and they thrive on my petulance. In the end that was his undoing. That he felt a need to keep an eye on me. To protect me. Had I been someone more capable from the start, as was his intention, as he'd hoped… Perhaps things would be different. And had we known…"

-(:=:)-

Madoc rolled beneath another blind swing, felt chunks of brick pelt his back, and carved still deeper into its wounded calf. This time he struck bone, and the beast fell to one knee, roaring and raging and pounding at the ground around it.

Here, Madoc made a mistake. He grew impatient, and as the Taurus grabbed again at Naruto he moved in close, sword angled horizontally, aiming to finish the battle. A hand closed around his body, and the world slowed. He felt himself drawn up, saw the look in the Taurus Demon's eyes. Blood pouring down its back, over its chest. Naruto on its shoulder, still digging deeper. Finally, the look on the boy's face; determined, and then the dawning comprehension and horror. The Taurus clenched and blood gushed from Madoc's visor.

-(:=:)-

"A Great beast guards those walls. A Taurus demon." Naruto said, gesturing away, over the township, up at the outer battlements that ringed the bridge to undead parish. "He waits on the tower before the bridge. He is not immortal, nor invulnerable. But he is dangerous nonetheless. That is why I placed my sign here. In the hopes that this would not repeat itself."

Aurelius eyed the bonfire for a moment. Eyed the twisted straightsword thrust in the dirt, the soothing flames issuing forth from the blade. "He possessed the darksign." The unspoken question hung in the air.

"Ah. He did." Naruto nodded. Far, far above, in the distance, he could see the silhouette of a great castle on the mountain's peak. "He called me once more, not long ago, after a quiet spell. But he had grown… cold. While my back was turned, he ran me through. Now, I suspect he is still in the township of another world, at the base of the battlement. Waiting…"

Aurelius felt the words clam up in his throat. Not the time. "Have there been others?" He said, after some consideration, "other successes. Failures."

Naruto grew a small, satisfied smile. "Two. A young Pyromancer… and a fellow Knight, like yourself."

"Oh?" The Knight rested back against the grass, looking up at the stars the boy seemed so fascinated with. "… tell me about them."

Naruto could hear the polite indulgence, still he smiled a little further, and took in a breath through his nose. "The Pyromancer, a young woman with burning red hair. We did not talk much. I should say, rather, she did not talk much." Naruto snorted as his mind drifted back. "She had this sort of air about her, as if she was always moments from… punching someone."

Here Aurelius chortled for a moment, and Naruto didn't need to hear him say anything.

"Poor bull charged through a pool of glowing stone. It was a mercy when I ended its life. And as for the knight…"

Naruto chuckled for a moment. "The Knight on the other hand…" he cleared his throat theatrically. "'Royal Knight Lanval of Astoria, slayer of dragons and damsels alike.'"

"A man after my own heart." Said Aurelius.

"Fell to his death from that very staircase." Naruto nodded off to his left, where a stone staircase clung to the mountainside, leading up to Undead Burg. "For no other reason than crippling clumsiness and a poorly harnessed greatshield. Whether he bore the darksign, I am unsure. I have not seen him since."

The air was light again. Quiet still, but a welcome reprieve from the melancholy of their previous discussion. "And of you, Naruto? You are still a child. Will you grow old warning travelers of this demon?"

"No." Said Naruto, with so little pause Aurelius knew it was premeditated. "Not much longer. It is selfish, but I cannot keep doing this. I need… more. There is so much more to see. I feel myself growing stronger with each success. Soon, when I am ready, I will slay my own demon. From then, I will learn what I can of this place. Travel to the highest point in this land, and…" Naruto smiled. "I will see all this world has to offer."

Aurelius turned on his side. Such an interesting companion he had found. If only for the moment. Were he able, and Aurelius careful, perhaps they would see each other in Undead Parish. "We will move in the morning. For now, we are likely the only two for miles able to sleep. I intend to abuse this privilege."

Naruto snored. The next morning, he woke in his bed in Konoha, and he sat up, bandit knife clattering down the pads of his armor.

And he cursed.