The dead do not sleep, the dead do not tire, and most importantly, the dead do not have much quality time to process the traumas they have suffered. While he had gotten away physically intact from the ambush, the proceeding weeks were just as taxing if not moreso. Previously, Sal had a hierarchy that he fit into and a general boundary that protected him but now he felt naked, and not just because his clothes were becoming more and more ragged.

Sal ran until he was certain that there was no way the hunters had followed him and only then did he allow his body to collapse to the ground. He was hungry, alone, hadn’t taken a bath in weeks, and he had no clue what happened to his family. Oh, and he ate people. He wanted to eat people, and he couldn’t excuse that fact by saying the other’s would eat them anyways.

He saw a mountain pass off in the distance, to his sides lay more of the woods and behind him was only death. He trudged on ahead although his feet felt heavier now that the threat of imminent death was not hanging over his head. It took hours and by the time he reached the foot of the mountain, night had long come, leaving only darkness that barely hindered the ghoul’s sight.

The climb was hard, and were it not for the fact that Sal didn’t tire he would have stopped shortly into it as he had to dig his sharpened fingers into the rockside and climb an almost completely vertical rock wall. About a third of the way up, a tantalizing smell filled his nostrils. He wasn’t sure what it was but it was likely something alive and delicious.

He bounded up the rock wall, throwing himself up the wall and his claws caught him against the stone only to repeat the process. He found his claws had dug into an overhang and he pulled himself up, a toothy grin crossing his face as he saw some goats standing around a shallow chewing bits of grass. It seemed like there wasn’t a lot of room for the goats to run, and Sal assumed that they would be easy prey.

Sal’s body tensed and his mouth salivated in anticipation as it seemed the goats were not in the least bit bothered by his presence. At least not yet. With a burst of energy he leaped at one of the larger goats with his hands extended to grab at it but to his surprise the goats kicked off of the ground and seemed to jump high into the air, causing him to only give a passing scratch on his target.

The hunter waited, figuring that his prey would come back to him at any moment but they just floated there, bleating at him. Sal hissed at them and looked around to find a way to help him catch his prey, as while he could try and jump at them, failing meant he’d throw himself off of the mountain and success may mean the same thing as well. There was also the lingering question in the back of his mind ‘Since when do goats fly?’

After the goats refused to come down after an hour, and with his hunger turning into an even more painful headache, Sal headed to the edge of the clearing and moved to start climbing up the wall next to it once again, stopping only to glare at the goats before he bounded off.

Mercifully, he had found another cave not too long after and this one appeared to go farther into the mountain. Sal leaned over the edge and shook his fist at the goats, vowing that he would come back and taste their tender flesh at one point. Returning his attention to the task at hand he headed deeper into the cave, he heard a trickle of water which meant there at least could be something living here. The cave twisted, turned and split up at points but Sal kept heading towards the sound of water.

When he found a slow moving river he almost leapt in but he contained himself, he would be able to clean himself later. First he looked around taking note that it seemed like the river was in a much larger cavern with tunnels connecting to it, there appeared to be some type of plant, moss from the looks of it that was growing on the banks of the river and small holes in the ceiling that were almost too perfectly circular. There were some particularly smooth rocks that looked like they might be big enough to hide behind if piled together, although they were on the other side of the river.

Sal crouched down and moved to get closer to the river. He took a deep sniff and smelled life, and a few other things that he’d rather not remember so he assumed that his theory was correct. Sal jumped across the river and pressed himself against the wall, he waited for prey and he found that the anticipation of the hunt at least helped to dull the edge of the overbearing hunger.

His waiting however brought him an unexpected surprise. Voices, from the tone at least some of them were upset.

“I’m telling you, there is a way out of here up ahead.” Came a harsh woman's voice, reminding Sal of his former sergeant.

“Is this like when you told us there definitely wasn’t a trap in those gnomish ruins?” Was the reply with a tone that one could practically hear the associated eye roll, an older man if Sal was correct.

A second woman’s voice rang out, upset and commanding. “You two. Stop fighting. Juno, go investigate ahead. Esteval, you get to work renewing the breathing spell. Last thing we need is to suffocate up here.”

Sal was not sure if fate hated him or was blessing him. He realized that his position was good to ambush an animal, but an adventurer might catch him. He could hide near the entrance but with the echoing from the caves it was hard to pinpoint which one they would come from. Still, he could not let this opportunity escape him.

He moved behind the smooth stones, resisting the urge to brush his hand across them to see if he could puzzle out why they were so smooth. Instead, his body went still as stone and he waited, listening to the faint sound of shoes on stone getting closer and closer. Soon the light of a torch started to trickle into the cavern from one of the tunnels.

Excitement washed over Sal and when the light reached the point that it was covering the wall behind him, Sal almost leapt out then and there but he waited. He’d learned from the goats that he couldn’t strike too early lest he miss an opportunity.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“We have water! And it’s clean too! I’ll check if it’s clean.” The voice shouted back to it’s companions

While Sal wanted to peek and see he knew that getting caught would lead to trouble, so he waited just a bit more. When he heard the splash of something hitting the water, only then did he finally move his head to look over the rock, he saw a middle aged woman in damaged leather armor kneeling with a flask in the water, and a bow on her back.

He crept out from behind the rock and tried to get nearer, barely able to hear his own footsteps but something alerted the stranger and she turned to look at Sal, gasping and reaching for her bow which forced him to jump at her, knocking her to the ground.

Between his supernatural strength and the element of surprise, Sal was able to easily go for the throat which slaked his hunger a bit and prevented her from calling for help but some instinct stopped him from going for more and instead he put a hand over her mouth and he started to drag her back to his hiding place.

“How is the water? Did you fall in? I swear to Sunoth, if this is some type of prank.” The commanding woman from before called out to her compatriot, who could only make gurgling noises as she was in the process of bleeding out but however tough she was, it didn’t seem to be saving her from the bloodloss.

Knowing where his prey was coming from, Sal moved to the entrance of the tunnel, making sure to stand on the side farthest from the river, that way they wouldn’t accidentally look his way when they followed the trail of blood.

Soon the light of another torch joined the one that had fallen to the ground during the scuffle, and this one was carried by a stern looking woman in plate mail with bright white hair, a scar going from the side of her right eye down her face across the right side of her lips.

Figuring that it was wiser to not pick a fight with her while she had another companion, Sal waited for her to come up into the cavern, she gasped and hurried over to the blood streaks, looking around for her companion or what did this but by then Sal had already slipped into the tunnel.

A short jaunt later and Sal found himself staring at a man with dark red robes that covered most of his body, and a long pepper and salt colored beard while his head was shaved with strange symbols tattooed onto it. The stranger seemed to be chanting something and if Sal wasn’t sure it was absolutely ludicrous he might have believed it to be a wizard but those sorts needed to work in carefully prepared rooms often far away from the populace in case anything went wrong.

Figuring it was easy prey given the tunnel was completely dark without the torches, Sal approached the stranger, quietly wondering why he was enjoying the anticipation of the hunt so much given that he had never been a sadist before now and yet here he was. But, all good things come to an end as did Sal’s waiting when the stranger’s eyes moved to Sal and stared at him despite the darkness.

As with many of the mysteries of Sal’s life, he did not have time to ponder it as a string of fire erupted from the stranger’s hand and headed his way. Rather than diving at the man as he wanted, Sal had to jerk to the side, slamming himself against the wall with the sound of cracking of bones and searing pain following especially as the limited room in the tunnel meant that half of his face and part of his shoulder had been seared down to the bone.

There was a hiss of pain and then the sound of bodies hitting the ground as Sal rushed at the wizard, grabbing the old man by the neck and bashing his head against the stone floor over and over until the light faded from the strangers eyes.

Much as Sal would have liked to get a reprieve, the sound of a sword being pulled from its scabbard drew his attention. He turned and saw the woman he’d left in the cavern, torch in one hand and sword in the other. She shouted something but he realized he couldn’t understand whatever she said was lost on him.

Sal scurried back, his arm not carrying him as well as it once did after most of it had been burned away. Sal stared at the woman, hissing as she advanced. He could only retreat down the tunnel as if he tried to move past her he’d be hit by the sword, taking him down.

The woman’s sword started to glow with a blue light that burned Sal’s eyes if he stared directly at it, making an already difficult fight even more stressful. She lunged at Sal and swung her sword low to the ground, and when it got near to Sal he felt a burning sensation. Her follow up blows were swift and difficult to avoid, leaving the ghoul on the defensive.

Back and back he went, unaware of the obstacles that were behind him Sal wanted to look and get an understanding of his environment but taking his eyes off of his foe for even a second was a deadly mistake waiting to happen, but unfortunately it seemed another mistake popped up, Sal tripped over a rock tumbling backwards down the incline of the tunnel which meant the strange woman was only going to close the distance and end it.

Sal closed his eyes and prepared for the end, wondering if he was going to be so cursed once again or if he had finally earned his place in the first world but the blow did not come, and when he opened his eyes he saw that grey translucent tendrils had wrapped around the woman’s arms and legs, pulling her back up the tunnel away from Sal.

As much as he knew that he had to run, Sal also did not want to leave these caves empty handed and so he started to follow the woman, keeping her in his peripheral vision to reduce the pain on his eyes from looking at her sword. When they passed the body of the wizard, Sal noted that it had been untouched and so he grabbed it by the leg and started to drag it back up the tunnel as well. After they reached the cavern, Sal noted a large amorphous blob of grey in the middle of the cavern and he almost grimaced when he noticed that the woman had been pulled into it where it appeared she was being dissolved.

Sal tried to hurry around the cavern, not wanting to be this things next meal and he grabbed the other corpse. He headed for the tunnel that he was fairly sure he came from and started to leave, although he made sure to glance back at the strange slime just in case it wanted him for another meal but it seemed to be paying him no mind currently.

Once the bodies had been dragged back to the entrance of the cave, Sal sat each of them up against a wall and stared at them as while he had planned to eat them, something in his gut told him to leave them be for now. So it was that Sal sat across from the two people he killed and watched, a feeling Sal was growing quite used to and oddly he didn’t even notice his hunger while he was doing this although he did feel lessened, as if a part of him was being taken away that he would never get back.

The process seemed to be going a bit quicker as all the hair from the bodies fell off within the first few hours and the color from their skin drained just as quickly. By the time the sun rose and fell, the first of the two stirred, blood red eyes shot open, it’s tongue out of its mouth as the person in the body was long gone, replaced with a mindless hunger for flesh. A few minutes later the second body joined the first. It seemed that Sal would be able to have his revenge after all.