Will rolled out of bed and thumped onto the hardwood floor. Shocked awake, he rubbed his eyes and tried to remember how he had ended up in a bed to begin with.
Before he had time to sort through his jumbled memories, a childish laugh broke the silence in the room. And looking up, he saw a little girl pointing at him while grinning devilishly.
Her brown hair was a strange clash of styles, one side cut into a short bob while the other was longer and tied in a pigtail, it looked as though she couldn’t make up her mind on which style to stick with. Both her front teeth were missing and from the looks of it, she was barely 7 years old.
“Hahaha, silly, why did you fall out of bed?” She laughed, seeming utterly delighted by Will’s misfortune.
Scratching his head awkwardly, Will wasn’t sure how to answer, he had never been very good at dealing with kids. I mean, what was he supposed to say to something like that? It’s not like he fell on purpose.
“What’s going on in there?” A boy’s voice asked from outside the room.
“Daniel, Daniel! The tall man fell out of bed. It was so funny when he kissed the floor,” The girl shouted, apparently trying to spread the good news.
“Huh? He’s awake? One second, I’m coming in,” Daniel replied.
Will heard footsteps coming towards the door, before a short boy with a bookish face pushed it open, wincing as it creaked on rusty hinges.
The other boy was thin, gaunt even. He had a pair of broken glasses perched on his nose, one of the frames missing its lens, the other cracked down the middle. His hair was a similar colour to the little girl's and fell across his forehead messily.
He walked over to Will and held out his hand. Will, looked at the hand awkwardly, not wanting a repeat of his encounter with ‘John’.
Daniel sighed and waved his outstretched hand in front of Will’s face, “I won’t bite, just let me help you up,” he said with a warm smile.
Will’s face went red, and he grabbed the outstretched hand, muttering a word of thanks when the boy pulled him to his feet. He was surprised to notice that Daniel was extremely strong for someone with such a thin frame.
“Nice to meet you, as I’m sure you heard from Ellie’s big mouth, I’m Daniel,” The boy said, brushing some dust off Will’s shoulder.
Will smiled, but only slightly, he didn’t want to reveal his abnormal teeth after all. “Ah yes the famous Daniel, Ellie told me so much about you. My name’s Will by the way,”
Daniel laughed before replying, “Ah, I doubt my reputation is as prolific as yours. You’re the talk of the town these days,”
Stunned, Will couldn’t quite figure out how that had happened overnight, “What do you mean talk of the town? I haven’t even done anything,”
“Done nothing? You walked in covered in blood and then got Sticky to guide you around the place,” Daniel said like it was obvious.
“Sticky… oh, you mean John? What’s so special about him?” Will asked, not understanding why that was of note.
Daniel leant in, whispering to Will conspiratorially, “Do you know why they call him Sticky?”
Will shook his head.
“It’s because his fingers are like glue, anything he touches gets stuck to them. Especially things he doesn’t own, you know?” Daniel said, tapping his nose knowingly.
“He’s a thief, shit! I need to check my…” Will froze realising he had just sworn in front of a young child. Something that should have been trivial but felt wrong.
Ellie looked at him like he had just spoken a magical spell, her eyes so wide he thought they might fall out of her head. “Daniel, Daniel, What’s a shit?” She crowed excitedly, although Will suspected she already knew what it was by the way she grinned when she said it.
Groaning, Daniel shook his head and went over to do damage control. “Your bag is under the bed, I’ll come to explain the situation to you in a minute,” he said while, trying to usher Ellie out of the door to give Will some space.
Just as he was pulling the bag out from under his bed, Will remembered that he didn’t actually have anything worth stealing, and immediately became less worried. Despite that, he still checked if Sticky had taken anything.
He opened the bag and saw that the mittens were still where he stuffed them… right after Sticky had told him he dropped them. ‘Damn it! He took my mittens and then gave them back, didn’t he? But why didn’t Muintir warn me?’ Will looked around for the little fox but couldn’t find it anywhere.
Struck with worry, he stood up and looked around every corner of the room, trying to spot any signs of the fox. He noticed that one of his bedposts had scratch marks, likely from the little fox’s claws and sighed in relief. At least it had been in here at some point.
Standing up, he groaned, his whole body feeling stiff and sore. His legs and feet were especially bad, feeling unsteady and throbbing due to the blisters on his soles.
Eventually, he managed to hobble over to the door and opened it, accompanied by the creak of rusty hinges. Stumbling down the hallway, Will heard muffled talking and laughter coming from a room to his right.
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Somewhat nervous, he hesitated at the door, unsure of whether he should go in. Worries about whether he was welcome, or had embarrassed himself in front of all those people yesterday flooded through his head.
Steeling himself, he gripped the door handle and pushed, the rusty hinge of the door letting at a screech of protest as he walked in. Cursing the door and all its ancestors, Will felt a wave of warmth rush out of the room.
“Quickly, Quicky, come in and close the door before you let the heat out,” said a man with a thick accent very similar to Stella’s.
Will hurried in, getting a better view of the room, he took it all in at once. Most importantly, was his companion the little fox, who was lying on its belly in the middle of a group of fascinated children.
They all crowded around the fox and timidly stroking its fur or playing with its brown cape. As far as Muintir was concerned, it seemed to be loving the attention, purring while preening itself.
After making sure that the fox was ok, Will turned to the rest of the room. Around twenty people were sitting on various things, some chairs, some tables, others just sprawled on the floor, all huddled close together around one solitary fireplace that roared with yellow flames.
He could see the street out of the window so this particular room must have survived the falling lamppost without sustaining any damage. Meaning that he was just above Stella's Bar right now.
Aside from an old man with an unkempt grey beard and short white hair, everyone in the room was young, 4 or 5 at the youngest and 20ish at the oldest.
The old man had pronounced crow’s feet around his green eyes that sparkled with humour and wit. He gave off a far younger energy than he looked.
Beside the old man was the oldest kid Will had seen, a young lady that looked around twenty. She was quite tall for a woman and had dark skin that he had never seen before. He had heard from his dad that there were people with very different complexions in the capital, but he had never seen such a person himself.
Her hair was curly and black, tied back in a messy ponytail. Although by far the most noticeable thing about her appearance was the white scar that ran from her mouth to her ear, making it look as though she was smirking at all times.
Aside from her, another short girl with a bob of blonde hair sat beside the old man, looking at Will with a calculating expression behind her blue eyes.
The rest of the room was filled with a collection of ragged-looking children, although they were all fully clothed and looked well-fed, each of them was dishevelled and wild in a very uncivilised way. All of them looked like they had lived on the streets for years.
Will spotted Daniel and Ellie in one corner, Daniel kept gesturing wildly while shaking his finger. The little girl just kept nodding whenever he spoke but the grin on her face told Will she wasn't listening.
“Don’t just stand there, come and sit down!” The old man shouted, his thick accent sounding very commanding, just like Stella's had.
Will hobbled over awkwardly, and sat near the old man in a chair the blonde girl offered him.
“What’s wrong with you lad? Why’re you walking funny?” The old man asked jovially.
Will scratched his head awkwardly, “Sorry, I just had to travel quite far to get here and didn’t have any shoes.”
“Why are you apologising to me? I’m sure it was a tough journey, and you did well to get here,” The man said with a laugh.
“Sorry,” Will muttered weakly, not sure what else to say.
The old man frowned, grabbing Will on the shoulder with a steady hand, “Look, I don’t know you kid, but so far, you’ve apologised twice to me for no reason. If you do that, when you are actually sorry for something, apologising won't mean anything.”
“R-right, I’ll keep that in mind,” Will said softly, feeling like he was being scolded by a village elder. Old people always seemed to inane advice like this.
“You do that. Now tell me, where do you come from?” The man asked, letting go of Will’s shoulder and giving him a comforting pat.
“Uh- I came from Cliabhán, it's a little village to the East,” Will said quietly, looking down at his feet.
“Cliabhán, Cliabhán, where was that again?... Oh yes, you wouldn’t happen to know Tommy, would you?” The old man asked, snapping his fingers when he remembered where it was.
“The blacksmith?” Will asked uncertainly, he was pretty sure that had been the blacksmith’s name.
“Aye, he used to come to me when he needed ale. Great guy and boy could he drink like a thirsty cow.” The old man said, a hint of reminiscence in his bright eyes.
“Really? I had no idea, he was always such a quiet and serious man,” Will said thoughtfully. remembering the stern glare he had gotten from the big burly blacksmith if he ever ran past his house.
“Hahaha, that was just him trying to look intimidating, so nobody tried to rip him off for his wares. The second he left the smithy he was a different person altogether. But anyways, enough about Tommy, how did you manage to walk all the way from Cliabhán, isn’t it about 50 miles?” The old man asked conversationally.
Will shrugged, doing his best to think of a way to answer this question without giving away too much. “I just hunted the odd rabbit and slept in fox dens and caves,” he said simply, leaving out the fact he had killed said foxes and who owned the cave he slept in.
The old man whistled appreciatively, “Damn, Foxes are pretty dangerous these days kid, you’ve got to be careful when you’re out there in the wilderness. I don’t want anyone else getting eaten,”
“People are getting eaten? Does that happen a lot?” Will asked in disbelief.
The old man sighed, “Oh aye, more than you’d think. The temptation of beast meat gets people killed every day. People will die for wealth like birds for food as they say,”
Will shook his head, remembering just how dangerous his encounter with the bear had been. He had only barely managed to kill it using the element of surprise and whole to of luck. And he was on the borderline of how strong a human could be.
“If it’s so dangerous, why do people keep trying to hunt these beasts?” Will asked pointedly.
The old man frowned, looking over his shoulder to check that none of the younger kids were listening. Will could see the conflict on his face, and could tell the man didn’t want to answer this question.
The blonde girl beside the old man sighed, and rolled her eyes, “Look, stop trying to coddle the kid, just tell him.” She said, her voice sharp and commanding.
“Fine, I’m sure you already know that eating the meat of these animals makes people stronger. But that in and of itself wouldn’t be enough for people to risk their lives fighting these creatures. Only… in the last month or so, we have noticed that the animals keep getting bigger and tougher to kill,” The old man said grimly.
Will nodded, he already knew this, “And?” he asked pointedly.
“Well… there are certain types of animals that are becoming more and more aggressive as they grow bigger. Just the other day, a huge crocodile crawled out of the river and killed two people before anyone had time to react,” the old man said with a grimace.
“Soon enough, even the ruined walls of the city won’t be able to keep them out. When that time comes, only those who are strong enough will be able to survive,” the blonde girl added.
“What about the children?” Will asked quietly, the little kids in this room would be utterly helpless to defend themselves if monsters attacked.
“We will protect them,” the older girl who hadn’t spoken yet said quietly.
Both the blonde girl and the old man nodded in agreement. Conviction burning in their eyes. It seemed that Port Vale would be no safer than the wilderness.