The bonfire crackled as the crowd fell silent, the two sisters facing off as Christoph struggled uselessly in the dirt. Craning his neck, he looked up to where the flames licked alarmingly close to the top of his head. When Emilia said sacrifice, she didn’t mean he was going to be burned, right? Right?
“Shame? Don’t speak too soon,” Emilia said, staring over at her elder sister. “This man killed and ate the Guardian of the Lesser Paw! The church has declared him a demon, and chased him into our lands.”
“Contact with the demons is forbidden!” Leila said, turning towards Christoph before looking back towards her sister. “If that is true, we should burn him immediately.”
Christoph stopped his wriggling, eyes darting back and forth between the two beast-girls. He opened his mouth to speak, but held himself back.
“The humans do not govern our lands,” Emilia replied. “Even if their church says something, that does not mean it is true. From what I have seen, he is closer to being some sort of human monster than a demon.”
“It is not your place to make that decision.” Leila stepped forwards, towering over her shorter sibling. “You may be fond of declaring yourself the future lord, but don’t think you can stand against me just yet.”
“There’s another thing,” Emilia said with a wicked grin, raising her voice to better be heard by the crowd. “This man fought and defeated Gideon the Slayer, the man who wields Stellar of the Light!”
A burst of gasps ran through the crowd, but Emilia’s words had a unique effect on Leila. “Gideon?” Whirling around, she stared down at Christoph, who returned her gaze in confusion. “Did he survive?” Leila’s voice barely rose above a whisper, and Christoph’s frown deepened. Was she asking about the knight?
Emilia laughed, her ears bouncing in amusement. “Are you concerned about our enemies, dear sister?”
“Is he alive?” Leila hissed her question this time, her glare enough to silence Emilia’s laughter.
“He is,” she replied. “Alive and well. It’s even possible that he’ll come back to finish what he started.”
Leila’s face split into a grin, ears rising as her smile grew. It was her turn to laugh now, manic notes of glee ringing out over the clearing as the crowd looked on. “He’s coming back!” she said, looking up at the trees as her arms spread in joy. Turning around, she looked over at Christoph and Emilia with a satisfied smile. “Very well. Take this man as your prize and sacrifice if you so wish.”
Emilia began to bow her head down to her sister, but Leila held out a hand to stop her, a serious expression settling onto her face once more. “Of course, there is still the ceremony,” she said with a smile. “If lord Bastias recognizes your claim, you’ll survive.”
With that, Leila returned to her throne, the many members of the crowd watching over her actions. Finally, they rushed forwards as if a dam had broken, a sea of laughing and smiling faces surrounding Emilia as she greeted them. From where he lay on the ground, Christoph twisted around until he was sitting upright, still glancing back at the fire every now and then. Just as he was about to try and stand, a heavy hand clapped down on his shoulder.
“Get up,” Oliver said, “and follow me.”
…
“I don’t understand any of this,” Christoph said. “Can I ask you some questions?”
Oliver ignored him for a moment, leading the still-bound man over the roots and towards a nearby walkway that spiraled up into one of the shorter trees. “Ask your questions if you want but keep in mind that I don’t make those decisions. A sacrifice and a prize?” He glanced back at Christoph with a frown. “It’s true that you seem to be something of a monster.”
“A monster? Do you mean like the forest beast-?” Christoph keeled over as the butt of Oliver’s spear appeared from nowhere to slam into his stomach. Gasping for breath, he looked up at his captor with an expression of confusion.
“Watch your mouth.” Oliver said, a unimpressed look on his face. “Do not compare us to those monsters.”
Christoph nodded rapidly in reply. Of course, the beast clans referred to themselves as such. Calling the magical creatures ‘beasts’ would be an insult in that case. Either way, his question had been answered. Rather than a demon, they saw him as something between a human and a ‘monster’?
“So a human is taken as the prize, and a monster is the sacrifice?” Christoph asked. When Leila had questioned Emilia at the bonfire, she’d only said that she didn’t see any sign of her sacrifice.
“That’s generally correct,” Oliver said as they began to ascend the ramp around the tree trunk. “There is a ceremony for each, and you will be a part of both.”
“Are they dangerous?” Christoph asked. Oliver paused briefly, and Christoph wondered if he had pushed his questioning too far.
“Rather than dangerous, you will be sacrificed,” Oliver said, glancing back at him again. “It isn’t something that a human could survive.”
Christoph stopped his questions for the moment. Would he simply be killed, then? Emilia had promised to keep him alive, but if not, then-
“That is what I don’t understand,” Oliver said, coming to a halt. “The ceremony of sacrifice is held before the prize is marked. Emilia must think you can survive if she wants to keep you as the prize as well.”
Did it have something to do with the bonfire? Christoph shuddered at the thought of being burned alive. He might even survive something like that. Shuddering again, he looked around at where Oliver was taking him. They were high upon the tree by now and walkways surrounded them, the lowest layer of cabins barely below them in the surrounding trees. Oliver led him through a seemingly arbitrary pathway of rope bridges and wooden platforms before they began to descend through several trees again. Finally, they reached what seemed to be the lowest branch in the area, and Oliver cut Christoph’s bonds and directed him to walk out along its length.
The branch jutted out from the tree trunk as almost a ninety degree angle, raising slightly as he walked along the three-meter wide surface. It tapered down towards a tip before abruptly ending in a large wooden platform, and a barricade blocked Christoph from descending back along the path. It was… a prison? Sitting down in the middle of the platform, Christoph looked down through the slats in the wooden boards, seeing nothing but empty air beneath him. As far as prisons went, this was certainly secure – it gave the impression of being held in an outstretched palm. Unless you could walk back down to the tree trunk there was no way to escape.
“Thanks,” Christoph said. Although he doubted any of the beast-men would treat him better than Emilia, it couldn’t hurt to be friendly. “I have one more question, though.”
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Oliver looked over at him from where he had assumed his post as guard – a higher branch which allowed him to look down on Christoph and also move to block the entrance to his ‘cell’ if need be.
“Do you have any food?” Christoph asked.
…
The monster dropped down onto the platform with a thump, feathers shaking as the carcass was thrown. Oliver thanked the pair of hunters, but instead of leaving they stayed on the platform staring over at Christoph as he picked up his meal. A decent-sized beast- no, a decent-sized monster, it was a quadruped feline of some sort, brown mottled feathers covering its slim body. Christoph lifted it to his mouth before stopping, looking up at Oliver and the other two beast-men.
Of the two hunters, the man seemed like he wanted to leave, but the woman stopped him. Oliver, too, seemed interested in the display. Sighing, Christoph raised his food once more, biting down on the neck and chewing through the feathers as they dissolved in his mouth. A gasp sounded out from the woman, the man turning away slightly as Christoph ate.
Christoph himself couldn’t care less about his audience. In the first place, it had been an ordeal simply getting Oliver to agree to fetch him a monster to eat. Even after he had convinced the beast-man that he needed something like that just to survive, they still had to wait until there had been someone nearby he could flag down without causing a fuss.
“Come on, Diana, let’s go.” The male hunter tugged at the woman’s arm, but she didn’t move.
“What does it taste like?” Diana continued to ignore her companion as she watched Christoph eat.
He shrugged his shoulders as he swallowed his mouthful. “It tastes like meat.” Truthfully, all of the beasts he remembered eating had a different flavor, but the mana in each one was delicious no matter how the actual creature tasted. He wasn’t sure if it was because this particular monster was sourced from a different part of the forest, but the taste was not as he remembered. Even so, he wasn’t about to enter a culinary debate with one of his captors.
The beast-girl seemed somewhat disappointed, but quickly brightened again, ears perking up once more. “Did you really eat the Guardian? What did that taste like?”
Christoph paused before answering. Judging from her smile, the beast clans didn’t revere the Guardian like the adventurers had, but still… how was he supposed to answer that? “I did,” he said, carefully watching her reaction.
Diana laughed gleefully, and even Oliver let out a chuckle. The only one who didn’t seem happy to hear the news was Diana’s hunting partner, the smaller man sitting down with a dejected look. It was likely he didn’t care about Christoph at all.
“Serves it right, for siding with the humans.” Oliver said. “The monsters, too.”
“So how was it?” Diana asked.
“Out of everything, that unicorn probably tasted the best.” Christoph said, returning to his meal. Eating through the neck, he tossed the head to one side. Eating something with a face still didn’t sit right with him.
Diana’s friend tugged at her arm again, and she sighed as she let him lead her away through the trees. Was that what she came here to ask? Oliver resumed his watch, looking on silently as Christoph finished eating.
“Did you really defeat Gideon the Slayer?” Oliver asked.
Christoph paused again. “I did,” he said.
“How?” Oliver asked, leaning forward on his spear. “Did you sneak up on him and catch him by surprise?”
Christoph shook his head. How had he defeated Gideon? No matter which way he looked at it, the knight would have normally won that fight. Should he explain everything that happened? “Not exactly,” he said, “one of my attacks caught him off guard, but we were fighting normally before that.”
Actually, had Emilia told any of the beast-men about his sword? If he could catch Oliver by surprise… Christoph shook his head as he dismissed the thought. Even if could get past Oliver, he was still in the middle of their city with nowhere to go. For now, his best bet was to choose to rely on the cat-girl.
“What’s the deal with Gideon and Emilia’s sister, anyway?” Christoph asked.
Oliver’s expression hardened, and he straightened his pose. Shit. Was that subject a taboo? “It’s nothing you need to know,” Oliver said. “Finish your food. The ceremony is tomorrow.”
…
“Dan?” Christoph small voice rang out over the dimly lit street, the young boy stepping around a corner and moving towards his guardian. He shivered slightly as he walked, the untied laces of his shoes dragging over the wet road as he crossed the street. It wasn’t raining anymore. Had the mean people left yet?
Feet tapping as he walked, Christoph rushed after his friend. His mom had told him to hide in his room, but Dan was hurt! Dan had been playing with the bad men, and one of them had been bullying him! From behind him, Christoph heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
Running as fast as he could go, he stumbled, scraping his knee on the hard ground. Ignoring the pain he hurried away from the footsteps. Dan would help him! Splashing his way down an alley, he looked back over his shoulder and tripped again, falling onto something large.
“Dan!” Christoph smiled down at the man for a moment before he felt the blood soaking through his shirt. “Dan, you’re bleeding.” Shaking his friend, Christoph wiped his hands on his shorts, but the blood wouldn’t come off. Behind him, the footsteps were growing louder.
“Dan, wake up Dan!” Reaching up, Christoph touched a hand to Daniel’s face, tapping at his cheek with a palm. The skin was cold, and the little boy frowned. Why was Dan cold? Dan wasn’t a doll!
“Dan?” For the first time, Christoph truly saw the state of his friend. A large hole had appeared in the middle of Daniel’s chest, and blood had spread to cover the alley floor. The footsteps were so close now, almost in the alleyway as well.
Shaking Daniel’s corpse with both hands, the young boy began to cry. Was Dan broken? His mom could fix the dolls if they broke, could she fix Dan too? The footsteps were too close, now, and he began to bawl, sobbing breaths breaking his long cries as tears streamed down his face.
“Christoph!” Josephine crashed into her son, wrapping her arms around him as he cried. “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay,” she said. “It’s okay, baby. I’m here now.”
“Daaan!” Christoph’s cry was muffled as Josephine cuddled him into her bosom. She looked down at Daniel’s face before turning away.
“Shhh honey, we can’t be loud right now,” she said, glancing between both ends of the alleyway. “We have to be quiet, okay? Your father is here.”