The sound and vibrations as the algatha deer continued to strike at the tree were terrifying. Each time would be followed by a bleating roar, one of torment and rage. The creatures lived to be about twenty or thirty years old, and only sired four or five offspring in all that time. After each mating season, the males would follow their fathers, the daughters would follow the mothers. To stand between the two was a gruesome death. To seperate them, a fate worse than that. 

Eventually, as we neared the lowest limbs on the nearly mile-high trees, the thunderous banging stopped. Looking down, something I regretted immediately after. I saw a speck moving away from the trunk and towards what could only have been the dowry bird. More specifically, the fawn still clutched in it's beak. 

The silence of that moment was anything but quiet; the ragged breathing of my brother and I, the light wind that brushed against my clothes, the never-ending rustle of the leaves just above us. However...it was deathly still. Looking at Josef, he returned my gaze with the exact expression I no-doubt wore.

Then, as we both knew was coming, a long, sorrowfull call resonated from that small speck on the ground. It was loss. It was anguish. It was the sound of a creature that had lost what was most precious to it. Human, beast, or fey, there was no mistaking the gripping fear and remorse in such a cry.

As the minutes began to slip by, the call slowly died down, and the quiet noises of the Sea of Giants began once more...I released a long held breath. I would not be remorsefull, as I had not killed the fawn. If anything, it had been I that avenged it. Respect of the natural cycle had been ingrained to my very core, as well as Josef's. The most we could do is hope that the youngling would be reborn into a longer life.

As I pulled myself onto one of the great tree's branches, I could hear Josef falling onto his stomach beside me. "I dropped my bow," he wheezed. Turning my head towards him, I chuckled and fell back myself. "At least you didn't shit yourself like Huld did on the last hunt." Stretching out on the branch that could easily have held a small house, I began to reset my hand guards, and was soon mimicked by my brother.

"Aye, nasty bit that one. I could still smell it on him the next day." He was chuckling while patting himself over, most likely making sure he hadn't lost anything else. Seeming satisfied that everything was were it should be, he took a glance over the edge of our little sanctuary. "I think he's gone."

Coming up beside him. I looked over as well, but with a far more skeptical eye. "Remember when you thought Ol' man Jelks was gone? You hadn't been in the lass's room more than ten seconds before he was chasing you out with that rusty spear of his," I pointed out. In fact, it had been exactly fourteen seconds since he had entered the house, but I'm rather sure he was to busy running like a whipped dog to bother remembering that.

He reacted about like I had expected him to though, going red with a huff before going on about things like "How was I supposed to know he was just in the garden?", and "It was a very pointy spear!"

I would normally reply with something such as "By checking.", or "Thats the point of having a spear," however something far more interesting began to happen in the small clearing at the base of our tree. "Josef, shut the poss up and tell me if that bird just moved."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

His initial response was an expected "Of course it di-" but then changed to a rather amazed "Bloody fuck it did!" I had to grab his belt to keep him from toppling over, even nearly losing balance myself. After dragging him away from the edge and swatting the back of his lead like I would the little tyke he acted like, we slowly crept back to our previous spying position.

However, there was just one thing wrong with our course of action. "Hey...", whispered Josef beside me, the slightest hint of fear in his voice, "...the fuck did that dowry go?"

Fixing a look on him that clearly meant The hell kind of stupid question is that? I said, "How the hells am I supposed to know?" With an expression that could have easily rivaled my own, his even more idiotic reply was, "Because you're older?"

I want to hit him. He would fall. He'd catch himself. Would he really? Probably not, and that'd be a hard save.

Sighing, I decided to put my brother's common sense aside to look over the edge of our little safe haven.

Staring back at me, was the rotting face of the dowry. With a rather pathetic scream, I grabbed Josef by his collar and pulled him across the branch. Let me say now that my brother has only ever seen me in such a state two other times, and neither are memories we ever wish to revisit. Perhaps it was the look of all-consuming fear plastered onto my face. Maybe it was just brotherly instinct, but either way, by the time the dowry had lifted it's beak into our field of vision, Josef had already drawn the daggers kept in his boot.

 Slowly, almost impossibly so, the carnivorous avian clawed it's way onto our perch. The deliberate way it did so made me realize it was toying with us. However, that didn't disturb me half as much as it's appearance.

One eye was bulging out of it's socket, having turned a pale grey either due to pus or rot. The other still held it's strange yellow, and was rigidly fixed on Josef's every move. It's frail feathers seemed to all but be crumbling to dust, many blown away by the light breeze constantly flowing through the forest's canopy. It's flesh was steadily decaying, and rotting organs were beggining to slip through the ever more numerous holes of it's body. The talons had become jagged and far more sinister, while it's blood-covered beak released a foul smelling gurgle as it moved.

One thought permeated my mind as I took in that visage; Undeath.

I had heard the tales of the walking corpses, hells, every man woman and child in the village had. Centuries ago, valiant heros had battled against an army of such creatures, all in the name of good and the protection of man, beast and fey. It was an epic of unity, one told in households and often the argument of interpretation between both child and adult alike.

However, they were but stories. Rather, they should have been. Standing before me however was just such a monster as was described. The stench...the fear...no old wife could hope to convey such an abomination properly.

                      ______

It is in the next moment that my tale truly begins, dearest reader.

Know now that this will not be a story of brothers out to cleanse the world of evil. 

Nor shall it be an epic of a galliant man striving to help those in need and asking for naught but a thank you in return.

No, I'm afraid this is the story of my life. It is dark. It is cruel...and it begins with the very next moment.

I would like to say that Josef and I faught off the foul creature with arrow and blade. That I pelted it with my bow as my twin weaved around it's every attack, and that it soon succumbed to it's many wounds.

That did not happen.

I would give anything to say that I regained my wits and that Josef and I lept from that accursed branch, making a daring and dangerous escape as we had with the algatha.

As you may have guessed, that did not happen either.

Instead...I was frozen. Fear had consumed me, rooted me to that spot, unable to even breathe as the terror had gripped me so.

I hesitated, I was afraid...and it cost me not only my innocence, but something far more valuable than any pleasure or trophy I have yet found in my now centuries old life.

It cost me my brother.

              ____________