Announcement
↓ There are some CWs in this chapter↓
Spoiler
Cannibalism
[collapse]
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--- Icaro, the medicine man ---
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I ran as fast as my weary joints would let me, the snarls of the rat wendigo close behind me as I ran through the ruins of my village. My limbs were no longer suited to this sort of excitement, and I was far too old and worn out for this sort of action.
“come baaack” A croaky and warbly cry echoed out from behind me, and the ratty wendigo that cried it out was still just out of sight, lurking between the buildings as I ran further away from the centre of town.
Little Aylin gripped my hand even tighter as she heard the warped calls of her turned mother. Nay, she was not her mother anymore, nor my son’s subpar wife. She… no it, made sure of that.
As we wordless raced between buildings, or rather I pulled my granddaughter along as she listlessly held on, I took stock what I had left. The only weapon I had was a small sickle from my friend Getafix, a druid in the west and my stock of herbs and medicines effective against these beasts were destroyed by Aylin. Why can wait for later, I don’t doubt that her mo- it had something to do with it. Nothing that is effective against those accursed creatures.
As I rushed backstreets between the ruined buildings, I spotted a hole in one of the damaged walls and I crouched next to it, pulling Aylin down next to me.
“Aylin, listen carefully and closely, you need to hide in this hole and wait until-”
“D-did I-I m-make a m-mis-t-take?” Little Aylin stammered, hear words barely hearable over her confusion and fear from earlier actions. Whilst it hurts my heart to leave her like this, we don’t have the time for it.
“Not now Aylin! Just hide in the building until it comes by, and then go to the centre of town. Those two should still be there.” I said while gripping her shoulders tightly, making sure that she was paying attention. While that little nature spirit is a cheeky little liar, the archer is skilled and disciplined, much better than the youth of my younger generation. They should be able to protect her until I threw this bit- monster off my tail.
“B-but-”
“Shh, do as I say!” I intoned again as I pushed her towards the hole, and with a sad look and some hesitation she did as I told her and she got into the hole, hiding most of her bulk.
And just as she was out of sight, not well hidden enough for a close inspection, but I didn’t think that that ratty monster would care if it had another target.
Me.
“d-don’t hide from me Aylin.” That ratty wendigo scowled, it sounded too familiar on its lips for it to be the first time it’d said it.
“I’m the only one here rat.” I tauntingly drawled, the wendigo’s attention immediately settling on me as I assessed how far gone the wendigo fever had gone. Its face was already warping, bone stretching and skin tightening into a rat-like visage.
The monster scowled at me, forgetting about its previous prey as it focused on me. I unhooked my sickle from my waist and waited for the inevitable confrontation. A sickle wasn’t made for confrontation, the blade was a piece of iron that almost curved around back to the hilt, three-quarters of circle with the sharp edge on the inside. It was made to cut unmoving plants, not slash at flesh.
But it would have to do for now, I raised my sickle awkwardly, I’ve never had to use it as a weapon before, but this old dog will have to learn.
The wendigo began to run at me, the foul things mouth dripping with saliva as it ran a full tilt. Just before it lunged at me with its arms outstretched I swiped with my sickle, trying to get the sharp point into the beast’s side. But I failed to time it right and missed the b!tch, uselessly swinging and missing just before the wendigo leapt at me and grabbed onto my right arm, knocking my sickle out of my hand.
We both fell to the ground as it kept trying to push its snout-y mouth closer to mine, black bile dripping on to me as it fell on top me. With a grunt and allot more effort than I’m willing to admit I pushed the lighter wendigo off myself and unsteadily stood up. My bones were still aching from when that wolf wendigo threw me into a wall.
Just as I recovered that cowardly wendigo got up as well, almost ready to try and attack me again. But luckily I still had one tool left, I grabbed a little paper pouch of special plants and threw it at the wendigo, the weak bag bursting apart on impact and covering the monsters face in an orange powder.
Immediately the rat’s face scrunched up in pain as the powder got in its eyes. That powder was a personal favourite of mine for touchy thieves in cities, very painful, but not permanent and it doesn’t last very long, so it would have to do for a distraction.
“Come and catch me monster.” I taunted again as I ran off, the wendigo already standing up and glaring at me with tears running down its face.
I started to run again, well, it was more of a jog at this point, the bruises and swelling made every muscle scream in pain with every movement. But I had to keep going, for Aylin.
Fortunately, the tight and twisting streets broke its line of sight on me and gave me the opportunity to hide. I ducked through an open back door of a house, hoping that the wendigos search for me would occupy it for long enough that Aylin could join up with those two.
I gently closed the door, making sure it didn’t squeak as it clicked shut. I took a moment to breathe deeply and relax my tense and exhausted muscles and then I looked around the building I found myself in, recognising the place almost immediately.
The building was still mostly intact, the working place of Shawnee the cook bringing back some stark memories of the man, mostly bittersweet nights of alcohol and mistakes. But it was here he carried out his many jobs, as a cook and mortician, where he prepared deer carcasses for the fire and lost ones for the ground.
But what surprise me most of all was how intact this place was, how untouched it was compared to the rest of this derelict town. With wendigo fever infecting people, the kitchen should’ve been torn apart by now, why is it so whole?
I carefully began to inspect further, finding Shawnee’s stash of spices by a counter, unlabelled and stored haphazardly, of course. A few of the clay pots had been broken into and their contents spilt all over the floor, but a handful of them remained whole and untouched.
I picked one up and popped off the lid to sniff the contents, the sweet vanilla smell indicating that the long, dried grasses were sweetgrasses. And another jar smelt like… paprika.
And the final jar was painfully familiar, cypress. It was just like Shawnee to keep all his burial and cooking materials on the same shelf.
But without something to light the cypress, I couldn’t use it. But the sweetgrasses will prove useful against the wendigos in some capacity, not as much as cypress could be but it will have to do.
I grabbed a bundle or two of the sweetgrass and pushed it into the top of the cypress jar and hauled it under my arm. And before I set off I grabbed a handful of the sweet grass and put it into my mouth, tasting the strong vanilla flavour as I started to chew it up.
“FOOUND youuu” the rat wendigo gutturally snarled, bashing its way through the door, newly grown claws on its hands outstretched and ready to slice into me. I started to flee through the house, but not before shoving a chair into the wendigos path, tripping it up as fled.
I rushed through the room or two it took to get to the front door, and rushed out onto the cramped street, it took a second to orientate myself as I figured out the way back to main street. I hesitated as I wondered if bringing this thing to Aylin and the other two would be a good idea. On the one hand they should’ve been able to kill that wounded wolf wendigo easily, no matter how massive it was, the herbs had worked, and it was weakened, and it shouldn’t wear off that fast.
They also would be able to kill my ex-daughter-in-law easily, it wasn’t as developed as the wolf.
But before I could run, my hesitation let the rat catch up and it flew out the front door with a ferocity I didn’t know it was capable of. I was forced to step back to dodge its outstretched maw, but the moment I did, I realised I’d stepped the wrong way and placed the rat between me and main street.
The monster gave me a grin, showing off its blackened and pointed teeth. Before I gave it another chance to attack me I spat the contents of my mouth at it, coating its face with the wet sweetgrass paste.
I gave it a grin of my own as I started to run again, the monster screeching out in pain as the herbal paste ‘purified’ its blackened flesh. It tried to scrape it off, getting some of it off while rubbing the rest of it in even further.
I had no sympathy for it as my momentary distraction gave me some time get a bit of distance between us. As I sprinted I started chewing up more sweetgrass, creating more paste as the buildings I was running past turned in trees and foliage.
I created more and more of the paste by spitting out whatever I had into the pot and grabbing more to chew. I wasn’t sure what I’d use it for but I’m sure I’ll find out soon.
But my body was starting to fail as I felt my lungs burn and body ache, while I was fit, I had aged far too many years for that to matter, and I’d run like this before, but I’d been injured too much to keep this up.
I started to feel desperate, my heart pounding with much more than exhaustion. A screech behind me told me that it was right on my tail. I looked around at my surroundings for something to use or fight with, but I only spotted an outcropping of rocks, with a little cramped tunnel inside, barely enough room to fit while I crouched down.
It will have to do. I spat out the sweetgrass I was currently chewing on into my hands and started smearing it on the boundaries of the cave. I covered the floor, walls and roof of the cave in a line of sweetgrass paste, creating a boundary that a wendigo hopefully wouldn’t be able to cross.
A moment later the rat wendigo burst through the undergrowth and spotted me instantly, the still painfully red stripe across its face made me want to laugh at it. It rushed at me while I hid a bit further down the tunnel, scrunching up to wedge myself a bit further from the boundary line.
But as soon as the rat got close, its skin started reddening as it violently lurched backwards. It snarled at me as we glared at each other, me with no way out, and it with no way in.
I let out the most vitriolic laugh I’d ever had in years before I flipped my middle finger at it. I’d been waiting years to do that.
But it just let out a low grumble and lay down on the floor, its anatomy already changed enough that it could lay on its front comfortably. It looked like it was going to stake me out until I got desperate enough to leave.
Fortunately, I plan ahead, I grabbed the pot of cypress bark and pulled some out, placed it on the ground and reached backwards to my belt to pull out my fire-starting equipment.
But it wasn’t there.
I must’ve clipped it on the other side, I realised as I reached around to where it could be.
But it wasn’t there either.
I cast my mind back to the last time I used it, the red-tinged memory of lighting my censor before marching into the town with only the thought of slaughtering of a slaughterer on my mind. It seems that I forgot to put it back on my belt.
“Oh bother.” I muttered to myself as I took out the piece of twine holding my hair in a ponytail and smoothed back my messy hair, tying up my neatened hair as I got ready for something I hoped I’d never had to do again.
I searched around in the cramped hidey-hole for a special bit of rock and was pleased to find a piece of quartz in the pile of pebbles lying in the short cave. I took it and slammed it against the floor.
When it failed to shatter, I raised it up in my arms again threw them down with all my remaining might, striking the stone against the wall of the cave and shattering. As soon as one side of the stone was turned to dust and chips, my left shoulder screamed out in pain.
I grunted in agony as I let arm go limp, relieving most of the pain instantly as I realised I somehow managed to injured myself breaking a rock. With a bit of shame I pulled of my shirt with my right arm, taking care to not bother my shoulder as I turned my shirt into makeshift sling, securing the injured limb to my body.
“Ha” the rat coughed and laughed, as I gave the miserable beast a withering glare. It will not have a reason to gloat for long. But before then I must do something I swore I’d never do again.
Start a fire with nothing but rocks.
One time is enough for that kind of experience. But I picked up a smaller fragment of the quartz, the hard and sharp sliver would be perfect. I laid it down on my lap as I picked up a piece of bark, placing it inbetween my knees as a stand-in for my injured arm.
With my makeshift blade, I began to shave little strips off the bark, creating little curled shavings that I pushed into a pile, and as the night slowly got darker, the pile grew.
With only the stars to light my hole, I very carefully put all of the shavings onto another piece of bark and placed it on the larger piece of quartz. I awkwardly got onto my knees, hunched over as my head pressed against the roof, as I prepared to strike at the stone with a smaller piece.
With a grunt I threw my hand down, a few sparse sparks flying at the violent contact, but they just bounced around for a moment before disappearing.
I let out a sigh, knowing that this was going to be a long, long night.
…
…
Eventually the stone slipped from my cold and aching hands, tumbling to the floor as I gasped with effort it took clench and unclench my fist. With grunt I leant against the tunnels wall, sliding down the cold wall as I let my body relax for the first time in hours.
For the first time in hours, I glanced outside, spotting the rat still lurking and the faint rays of dawn lightening the horizon.
I realized that I wouldn’t be able to continue, that this old body ached more terribly than anything else it has been through. So I decided to rest, not that I’d be able to sleep with that thing watching me, but I should let my muscles rest and bruises fade before pushing myself again.
I still had a weapon against them, and the means to get it working, I just needed time, and effort.
But before I could find a comfortable position to relax in, a guttural howl of a sickly beast echoed through the forest, and the rat quickly hid itself away in the green foliage as the sounds of something pushing its way to me.
From between the bushes a sickly monster carefully came into view, it looked like a twisted and starved street mutt, ribs showing as it slinked towards me on all fours.
There it is! An actual, normal, wendigo!
Not massive, intelligent, sly or cruel. Just a starved animal. The only sort of thing that should be stalking these woods, not that giant mutant.
But my thoughts were interrupted when the rat emerged from the bushes, a stone clasped in one hand as it quietly crept on its disgusting kin.
For a moment I wondered what the rat was planning, before noticing a piece of a copper hanging from the beast’s ear, the symbol searing itself into my mind as I recognised it. I-it was…
Koko, the seamstress she… she always wore those. But she would never fall for wendigo fever, she was too kind to eat… that.
But how-
*CRACK*
The rat brought down its rock on its kin’s head, shattering the side of the smaller wendigos face in a single strike, killing it instantly. The rat dropped its weapon and pounced on the newly made corpse, ripping into it with its sharp teeth and sending blackish blood flying everywhere. I watched on in abject horror as bits of flesh went flying everywhere, the earing flying off, landing just on the line of sweetgrass paste.
I reached for and picked it up, watching the sickly blood boil off from being so close to the sweetgrass and leave the copper mostly untarnished. A twang of fear plucked at my heart as I watched the remnant of some I knew eat a corpse with unbridled enthusiasm.
“Why? Why… our town?” I murmured to myself, feeling defeated as I realised that everyone was gone. Most of the people I’d known in my life, my child, my child’s children. All gone.
“Wh-Y? uN-Luck-y th-at Fate No-tic-Ed You” a voice whispered, the unnatural whispers frightening me out of my wits.
“AH- *thunk* hghh” I grunted in pain as my head slammed into the roof of the cave as I reared back in surprise.
“TH-a-T Mus-T’Ve Hu-rt.” The strange and twisted voice laughed, the ethereal being was beyond my mortal sight, and was taunting me.
“Reveal yourself creature!” I grunted through gritted teeth, my mood was not stable enough for one of the little people to be messing with it.
“A-h, FoR-GeT M-E Al-REady? I Pro-Cla-imed mY Exis-TenCe Onl-y a fe-w Mont-hs A-GO” The voice reminded me, a flashback to that silver disk, like the sun but a hollow reflection of its radiance.
“The moon god…” I realised, an ethereal laugh echoing through my little cave at my verbal admittance.
“You shouldn’t be able to travel so freely, doesn’t the sun god-”
“HE HaS-n’t been Pay-Ing En-ough atte-ntion To mY Prison. I ma-y Sl-ip A-way for a sho-rt whi-Le.”
“La-zY As AlWays” They scoffed, surprising me, surely that tyrannical being was more careful than that.
“Tho-Ugh I’Ve BeEn Ke-Ep-ing My EyE On Th-Is Town F-or A Wh-ilE Now.
A chi-Ld W-as Hun-gE-ry, H-is Gr-and-Father did-n’t hav-e en-oguh, F-Or l-unch.
B-ut he r-embe-red m-Y Word-s, a-nD Wi-shed f-Or F-ates Gift.
f-Ate is Cru-el, A-nd All he w-ant-Ed was s-Ome-Thing to Eat.”
“No… the elder wasn’t…”
“YESSS, A sst-upid Chi-ld and a g-Ift beyon-d him, I-s a B-ad Com-bin-a-tion. He Esp-eci-ally Li-KeD Th-em FAT!” The moon god cruelly laughed, the dots between the abnormally smart Wendigo’s words and the elder muttered grievances connected by the moon god’s hints.
“Why would you impart such a cruel thing upon the world?” I viscously said, perhaps the moon god’s long imprisonment had sent him insane.
“N-oT E-vil, Cha-otic. In t-Imes, When o-rdEr Stif-lEs the w-orld, R-OT BLOOMS. Cha-nge is F-low, not E-vil, Nor go-Od, it Is Na-tu-re Incar-nate. Ev-il Hap-pen-ed He-re, b-Ut G-ood, Slay-Ed the Be-ast.”
“What?”
“A lit-Tle dra-gon and ra-nger W-ith F-ates gi-ft, kill-ed the po-or mon-ster.”
“Dragon? Sally, but he called it the system? And Sally and Orion, they weren’t corrupted like the child.” I muttered, wondering what this dangerous god’s point was.
“Fa-teS gIft is a tOol, A Dang-erou-s one in the wr-ong Han-ds.”
“You want me to use it, don’t you? Why? There’s always a cost with you.” I spat, I knew better than to trust this maniac.
“Y-ou kn-ow M-e T-oo we-LL Ch-ild. The Pr-Ice, iS yo-Ur Kn-owledge, to Be Sh-ared am-Ongst The Oth-ers on the p-Ath.”
“I’ve Be-En Wa-iting f-Or Your her-Itage, MedI-cIne man.”
“What could you possibly offer me!” I raged, my demeanour disintegrating before the moon god’s words. It was THEIR fault the elder’s child became demented, THEIR FAULT my village is in ruins, THEIR FAULT I’M STUCK HERE WHILE MY LAST LIVING RELITIVE IS IN DANGER!
“A p-Ath ou-T.” They whispered, their insidious words summoning a blue screen, words in a language I didn’t recognise, before they twisted and rearranged themselves in words I could read.
[Martial Artist Novice:
The people of the Zhōngguó, have many skills, the most famous of which were the martial artists. They wielded energy belonging to no one else but themselves, they trained and meditated until their energies solidified into cores of power.
Then they used that power to make their bodies stronger, faster. Summon fire and ice and the powers of nature to defeat their opponents. But before challenging the heavens, you must master yourself.]
“I-I, I…”
“Y-ou Ca-n f-Ind you-r Gr-and-Daug-ter…”
“COME, FOOOOD” The Rat wendigo called, the howls of those lesser beasts responding to its call.
“W-well, I might n-not n-need your damned p-power” I stammered, and the god just laughed.
“I’l-L jus-T le-ave it He-re” the god laughed, the voice fading as a bit of light faded from the small tunnel, but that screen of blue light never faded, it remained.
I stared at it, wondering if giving in to the moon god’s temptations would be worth it, if it was ever worth it.
…
The light of dawn fully rose, and I blearily watched as masses of lesser wendigos joined the rat, ignoring the remains of their former companion to eye me with hunger in their gazes. They hid from the riding sun in the shadows, red eyes glaring at me from the safety of the shade.
How far had things gone that all these infernal creatures needed to survive in the day was a bit of shade.
I didn’t know how long my barrier would hold, and I didn’t have any more sweetgrass to use to reinforce it, so I had to make the choice.
“I… don’t have a choice… for Aylin.” I reassured myself, as I uncurled an aching finger and pressed it against the ethereal screen.
‘yo-ur path ha-s be-en op-ened, find yo-ur fate’ the moon god whispered inside my head.
Cherrys_chapters
Hi again! There's probably going to be a couple of weeks without any chapters as i catch up on writing them.
I drained my stockpile over the Uni semester :( , so I'm going to be hoarding for winter over the next month or so!
See you when I see ya!
Announcement
↓ There are some CWs in this chapter↓
Spoiler
Cannibalism
[collapse]
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--- Icaro, the medicine man ---
-------------------------------------------------
I ran as fast as my weary joints would let me, the snarls of the rat wendigo close behind me as I ran through the ruins of my village. My limbs were no longer suited to this sort of excitement, and I was far too old and worn out for this sort of action.
“come baaack” A croaky and warbly cry echoed out from behind me, and the ratty wendigo that cried it out was still just out of sight, lurking between the buildings as I ran further away from the centre of town.
Little Aylin gripped my hand even tighter as she heard the warped calls of her turned mother. Nay, she was not her mother anymore, nor my son’s subpar wife. She… no it, made sure of that.
As we wordless raced between buildings, or rather I pulled my granddaughter along as she listlessly held on, I took stock what I had left. The only weapon I had was a small sickle from my friend Getafix, a druid in the west and my stock of herbs and medicines effective against these beasts were destroyed by Aylin. Why can wait for later, I don’t doubt that her mo- it had something to do with it. Nothing that is effective against those accursed creatures.
As I rushed backstreets between the ruined buildings, I spotted a hole in one of the damaged walls and I crouched next to it, pulling Aylin down next to me.
“Aylin, listen carefully and closely, you need to hide in this hole and wait until-”
“D-did I-I m-make a m-mis-t-take?” Little Aylin stammered, hear words barely hearable over her confusion and fear from earlier actions. Whilst it hurts my heart to leave her like this, we don’t have the time for it.
“Not now Aylin! Just hide in the building until it comes by, and then go to the centre of town. Those two should still be there.” I said while gripping her shoulders tightly, making sure that she was paying attention. While that little nature spirit is a cheeky little liar, the archer is skilled and disciplined, much better than the youth of my younger generation. They should be able to protect her until I threw this bit- monster off my tail.
“B-but-”
“Shh, do as I say!” I intoned again as I pushed her towards the hole, and with a sad look and some hesitation she did as I told her and she got into the hole, hiding most of her bulk.
And just as she was out of sight, not well hidden enough for a close inspection, but I didn’t think that that ratty monster would care if it had another target.
Me.
“d-don’t hide from me Aylin.” That ratty wendigo scowled, it sounded too familiar on its lips for it to be the first time it’d said it.
“I’m the only one here rat.” I tauntingly drawled, the wendigo’s attention immediately settling on me as I assessed how far gone the wendigo fever had gone. Its face was already warping, bone stretching and skin tightening into a rat-like visage.
The monster scowled at me, forgetting about its previous prey as it focused on me. I unhooked my sickle from my waist and waited for the inevitable confrontation. A sickle wasn’t made for confrontation, the blade was a piece of iron that almost curved around back to the hilt, three-quarters of circle with the sharp edge on the inside. It was made to cut unmoving plants, not slash at flesh.
But it would have to do for now, I raised my sickle awkwardly, I’ve never had to use it as a weapon before, but this old dog will have to learn.
The wendigo began to run at me, the foul things mouth dripping with saliva as it ran a full tilt. Just before it lunged at me with its arms outstretched I swiped with my sickle, trying to get the sharp point into the beast’s side. But I failed to time it right and missed the b!tch, uselessly swinging and missing just before the wendigo leapt at me and grabbed onto my right arm, knocking my sickle out of my hand.
We both fell to the ground as it kept trying to push its snout-y mouth closer to mine, black bile dripping on to me as it fell on top me. With a grunt and allot more effort than I’m willing to admit I pushed the lighter wendigo off myself and unsteadily stood up. My bones were still aching from when that wolf wendigo threw me into a wall.
Just as I recovered that cowardly wendigo got up as well, almost ready to try and attack me again. But luckily I still had one tool left, I grabbed a little paper pouch of special plants and threw it at the wendigo, the weak bag bursting apart on impact and covering the monsters face in an orange powder.
Immediately the rat’s face scrunched up in pain as the powder got in its eyes. That powder was a personal favourite of mine for touchy thieves in cities, very painful, but not permanent and it doesn’t last very long, so it would have to do for a distraction.
“Come and catch me monster.” I taunted again as I ran off, the wendigo already standing up and glaring at me with tears running down its face.
I started to run again, well, it was more of a jog at this point, the bruises and swelling made every muscle scream in pain with every movement. But I had to keep going, for Aylin.
Fortunately, the tight and twisting streets broke its line of sight on me and gave me the opportunity to hide. I ducked through an open back door of a house, hoping that the wendigos search for me would occupy it for long enough that Aylin could join up with those two.
I gently closed the door, making sure it didn’t squeak as it clicked shut. I took a moment to breathe deeply and relax my tense and exhausted muscles and then I looked around the building I found myself in, recognising the place almost immediately.
The building was still mostly intact, the working place of Shawnee the cook bringing back some stark memories of the man, mostly bittersweet nights of alcohol and mistakes. But it was here he carried out his many jobs, as a cook and mortician, where he prepared deer carcasses for the fire and lost ones for the ground.
But what surprise me most of all was how intact this place was, how untouched it was compared to the rest of this derelict town. With wendigo fever infecting people, the kitchen should’ve been torn apart by now, why is it so whole?
I carefully began to inspect further, finding Shawnee’s stash of spices by a counter, unlabelled and stored haphazardly, of course. A few of the clay pots had been broken into and their contents spilt all over the floor, but a handful of them remained whole and untouched.
I picked one up and popped off the lid to sniff the contents, the sweet vanilla smell indicating that the long, dried grasses were sweetgrasses. And another jar smelt like… paprika.
And the final jar was painfully familiar, cypress. It was just like Shawnee to keep all his burial and cooking materials on the same shelf.
But without something to light the cypress, I couldn’t use it. But the sweetgrasses will prove useful against the wendigos in some capacity, not as much as cypress could be but it will have to do.
I grabbed a bundle or two of the sweetgrass and pushed it into the top of the cypress jar and hauled it under my arm. And before I set off I grabbed a handful of the sweet grass and put it into my mouth, tasting the strong vanilla flavour as I started to chew it up.
“FOOUND youuu” the rat wendigo gutturally snarled, bashing its way through the door, newly grown claws on its hands outstretched and ready to slice into me. I started to flee through the house, but not before shoving a chair into the wendigos path, tripping it up as fled.
I rushed through the room or two it took to get to the front door, and rushed out onto the cramped street, it took a second to orientate myself as I figured out the way back to main street. I hesitated as I wondered if bringing this thing to Aylin and the other two would be a good idea. On the one hand they should’ve been able to kill that wounded wolf wendigo easily, no matter how massive it was, the herbs had worked, and it was weakened, and it shouldn’t wear off that fast.
They also would be able to kill my ex-daughter-in-law easily, it wasn’t as developed as the wolf.
But before I could run, my hesitation let the rat catch up and it flew out the front door with a ferocity I didn’t know it was capable of. I was forced to step back to dodge its outstretched maw, but the moment I did, I realised I’d stepped the wrong way and placed the rat between me and main street.
The monster gave me a grin, showing off its blackened and pointed teeth. Before I gave it another chance to attack me I spat the contents of my mouth at it, coating its face with the wet sweetgrass paste.
I gave it a grin of my own as I started to run again, the monster screeching out in pain as the herbal paste ‘purified’ its blackened flesh. It tried to scrape it off, getting some of it off while rubbing the rest of it in even further.
I had no sympathy for it as my momentary distraction gave me some time get a bit of distance between us. As I sprinted I started chewing up more sweetgrass, creating more paste as the buildings I was running past turned in trees and foliage.
I created more and more of the paste by spitting out whatever I had into the pot and grabbing more to chew. I wasn’t sure what I’d use it for but I’m sure I’ll find out soon.
But my body was starting to fail as I felt my lungs burn and body ache, while I was fit, I had aged far too many years for that to matter, and I’d run like this before, but I’d been injured too much to keep this up.
I started to feel desperate, my heart pounding with much more than exhaustion. A screech behind me told me that it was right on my tail. I looked around at my surroundings for something to use or fight with, but I only spotted an outcropping of rocks, with a little cramped tunnel inside, barely enough room to fit while I crouched down.
It will have to do. I spat out the sweetgrass I was currently chewing on into my hands and started smearing it on the boundaries of the cave. I covered the floor, walls and roof of the cave in a line of sweetgrass paste, creating a boundary that a wendigo hopefully wouldn’t be able to cross.
A moment later the rat wendigo burst through the undergrowth and spotted me instantly, the still painfully red stripe across its face made me want to laugh at it. It rushed at me while I hid a bit further down the tunnel, scrunching up to wedge myself a bit further from the boundary line.
But as soon as the rat got close, its skin started reddening as it violently lurched backwards. It snarled at me as we glared at each other, me with no way out, and it with no way in.
I let out the most vitriolic laugh I’d ever had in years before I flipped my middle finger at it. I’d been waiting years to do that.
But it just let out a low grumble and lay down on the floor, its anatomy already changed enough that it could lay on its front comfortably. It looked like it was going to stake me out until I got desperate enough to leave.
Fortunately, I plan ahead, I grabbed the pot of cypress bark and pulled some out, placed it on the ground and reached backwards to my belt to pull out my fire-starting equipment.
But it wasn’t there.
I must’ve clipped it on the other side, I realised as I reached around to where it could be.
But it wasn’t there either.
I cast my mind back to the last time I used it, the red-tinged memory of lighting my censor before marching into the town with only the thought of slaughtering of a slaughterer on my mind. It seems that I forgot to put it back on my belt.
“Oh bother.” I muttered to myself as I took out the piece of twine holding my hair in a ponytail and smoothed back my messy hair, tying up my neatened hair as I got ready for something I hoped I’d never had to do again.
I searched around in the cramped hidey-hole for a special bit of rock and was pleased to find a piece of quartz in the pile of pebbles lying in the short cave. I took it and slammed it against the floor.
When it failed to shatter, I raised it up in my arms again threw them down with all my remaining might, striking the stone against the wall of the cave and shattering. As soon as one side of the stone was turned to dust and chips, my left shoulder screamed out in pain.
I grunted in agony as I let arm go limp, relieving most of the pain instantly as I realised I somehow managed to injured myself breaking a rock. With a bit of shame I pulled of my shirt with my right arm, taking care to not bother my shoulder as I turned my shirt into makeshift sling, securing the injured limb to my body.
“Ha” the rat coughed and laughed, as I gave the miserable beast a withering glare. It will not have a reason to gloat for long. But before then I must do something I swore I’d never do again.
Start a fire with nothing but rocks.
One time is enough for that kind of experience. But I picked up a smaller fragment of the quartz, the hard and sharp sliver would be perfect. I laid it down on my lap as I picked up a piece of bark, placing it inbetween my knees as a stand-in for my injured arm.
With my makeshift blade, I began to shave little strips off the bark, creating little curled shavings that I pushed into a pile, and as the night slowly got darker, the pile grew.
With only the stars to light my hole, I very carefully put all of the shavings onto another piece of bark and placed it on the larger piece of quartz. I awkwardly got onto my knees, hunched over as my head pressed against the roof, as I prepared to strike at the stone with a smaller piece.
With a grunt I threw my hand down, a few sparse sparks flying at the violent contact, but they just bounced around for a moment before disappearing.
I let out a sigh, knowing that this was going to be a long, long night.
…
…
Eventually the stone slipped from my cold and aching hands, tumbling to the floor as I gasped with effort it took clench and unclench my fist. With grunt I leant against the tunnels wall, sliding down the cold wall as I let my body relax for the first time in hours.
For the first time in hours, I glanced outside, spotting the rat still lurking and the faint rays of dawn lightening the horizon.
I realized that I wouldn’t be able to continue, that this old body ached more terribly than anything else it has been through. So I decided to rest, not that I’d be able to sleep with that thing watching me, but I should let my muscles rest and bruises fade before pushing myself again.
I still had a weapon against them, and the means to get it working, I just needed time, and effort.
But before I could find a comfortable position to relax in, a guttural howl of a sickly beast echoed through the forest, and the rat quickly hid itself away in the green foliage as the sounds of something pushing its way to me.
From between the bushes a sickly monster carefully came into view, it looked like a twisted and starved street mutt, ribs showing as it slinked towards me on all fours.
There it is! An actual, normal, wendigo!
Not massive, intelligent, sly or cruel. Just a starved animal. The only sort of thing that should be stalking these woods, not that giant mutant.
But my thoughts were interrupted when the rat emerged from the bushes, a stone clasped in one hand as it quietly crept on its disgusting kin.
For a moment I wondered what the rat was planning, before noticing a piece of a copper hanging from the beast’s ear, the symbol searing itself into my mind as I recognised it. I-it was…
Koko, the seamstress she… she always wore those. But she would never fall for wendigo fever, she was too kind to eat… that.
But how-
*CRACK*
The rat brought down its rock on its kin’s head, shattering the side of the smaller wendigos face in a single strike, killing it instantly. The rat dropped its weapon and pounced on the newly made corpse, ripping into it with its sharp teeth and sending blackish blood flying everywhere. I watched on in abject horror as bits of flesh went flying everywhere, the earing flying off, landing just on the line of sweetgrass paste.
I reached for and picked it up, watching the sickly blood boil off from being so close to the sweetgrass and leave the copper mostly untarnished. A twang of fear plucked at my heart as I watched the remnant of some I knew eat a corpse with unbridled enthusiasm.
“Why? Why… our town?” I murmured to myself, feeling defeated as I realised that everyone was gone. Most of the people I’d known in my life, my child, my child’s children. All gone.
“Wh-Y? uN-Luck-y th-at Fate No-tic-Ed You” a voice whispered, the unnatural whispers frightening me out of my wits.
“AH- *thunk* hghh” I grunted in pain as my head slammed into the roof of the cave as I reared back in surprise.
“TH-a-T Mus-T’Ve Hu-rt.” The strange and twisted voice laughed, the ethereal being was beyond my mortal sight, and was taunting me.
“Reveal yourself creature!” I grunted through gritted teeth, my mood was not stable enough for one of the little people to be messing with it.
“A-h, FoR-GeT M-E Al-REady? I Pro-Cla-imed mY Exis-TenCe Onl-y a fe-w Mont-hs A-GO” The voice reminded me, a flashback to that silver disk, like the sun but a hollow reflection of its radiance.
“The moon god…” I realised, an ethereal laugh echoing through my little cave at my verbal admittance.
“You shouldn’t be able to travel so freely, doesn’t the sun god-”
“HE HaS-n’t been Pay-Ing En-ough atte-ntion To mY Prison. I ma-y Sl-ip A-way for a sho-rt whi-Le.”
“La-zY As AlWays” They scoffed, surprising me, surely that tyrannical being was more careful than that.
“Tho-Ugh I’Ve BeEn Ke-Ep-ing My EyE On Th-Is Town F-or A Wh-ilE Now.
A chi-Ld W-as Hun-gE-ry, H-is Gr-and-Father did-n’t hav-e en-oguh, F-Or l-unch.
B-ut he r-embe-red m-Y Word-s, a-nD Wi-shed f-Or F-ates Gift.
f-Ate is Cru-el, A-nd All he w-ant-Ed was s-Ome-Thing to Eat.”
“No… the elder wasn’t…”
“YESSS, A sst-upid Chi-ld and a g-Ift beyon-d him, I-s a B-ad Com-bin-a-tion. He Esp-eci-ally Li-KeD Th-em FAT!” The moon god cruelly laughed, the dots between the abnormally smart Wendigo’s words and the elder muttered grievances connected by the moon god’s hints.
“Why would you impart such a cruel thing upon the world?” I viscously said, perhaps the moon god’s long imprisonment had sent him insane.
“N-oT E-vil, Cha-otic. In t-Imes, When o-rdEr Stif-lEs the w-orld, R-OT BLOOMS. Cha-nge is F-low, not E-vil, Nor go-Od, it Is Na-tu-re Incar-nate. Ev-il Hap-pen-ed He-re, b-Ut G-ood, Slay-Ed the Be-ast.”
“What?”
“A lit-Tle dra-gon and ra-nger W-ith F-ates gi-ft, kill-ed the po-or mon-ster.”
“Dragon? Sally, but he called it the system? And Sally and Orion, they weren’t corrupted like the child.” I muttered, wondering what this dangerous god’s point was.
“Fa-teS gIft is a tOol, A Dang-erou-s one in the wr-ong Han-ds.”
“You want me to use it, don’t you? Why? There’s always a cost with you.” I spat, I knew better than to trust this maniac.
“Y-ou kn-ow M-e T-oo we-LL Ch-ild. The Pr-Ice, iS yo-Ur Kn-owledge, to Be Sh-ared am-Ongst The Oth-ers on the p-Ath.”
“I’ve Be-En Wa-iting f-Or Your her-Itage, MedI-cIne man.”
“What could you possibly offer me!” I raged, my demeanour disintegrating before the moon god’s words. It was THEIR fault the elder’s child became demented, THEIR FAULT my village is in ruins, THEIR FAULT I’M STUCK HERE WHILE MY LAST LIVING RELITIVE IS IN DANGER!
“A p-Ath ou-T.” They whispered, their insidious words summoning a blue screen, words in a language I didn’t recognise, before they twisted and rearranged themselves in words I could read.
[Martial Artist Novice:
The people of the Zhōngguó, have many skills, the most famous of which were the martial artists. They wielded energy belonging to no one else but themselves, they trained and meditated until their energies solidified into cores of power.
Then they used that power to make their bodies stronger, faster. Summon fire and ice and the powers of nature to defeat their opponents. But before challenging the heavens, you must master yourself.]
“I-I, I…”
“Y-ou Ca-n f-Ind you-r Gr-and-Daug-ter…”
“COME, FOOOOD” The Rat wendigo called, the howls of those lesser beasts responding to its call.
“W-well, I might n-not n-need your damned p-power” I stammered, and the god just laughed.
“I’l-L jus-T le-ave it He-re” the god laughed, the voice fading as a bit of light faded from the small tunnel, but that screen of blue light never faded, it remained.
I stared at it, wondering if giving in to the moon god’s temptations would be worth it, if it was ever worth it.
…
The light of dawn fully rose, and I blearily watched as masses of lesser wendigos joined the rat, ignoring the remains of their former companion to eye me with hunger in their gazes. They hid from the riding sun in the shadows, red eyes glaring at me from the safety of the shade.
How far had things gone that all these infernal creatures needed to survive in the day was a bit of shade.
I didn’t know how long my barrier would hold, and I didn’t have any more sweetgrass to use to reinforce it, so I had to make the choice.
“I… don’t have a choice… for Aylin.” I reassured myself, as I uncurled an aching finger and pressed it against the ethereal screen.
‘yo-ur path ha-s be-en op-ened, find yo-ur fate’ the moon god whispered inside my head.
Cherrys_chapters
Hi again! There's probably going to be a couple of weeks without any chapters as i catch up on writing them.
I drained my stockpile over the Uni semester :( , so I'm going to be hoarding for winter over the next month or so!
See you when I see ya!
