As my eyes flutter open in response to the daylight streaming through the curtains, I stretch, all three feet of me spreadeagled across the bed, one might say spread-owled. I roll over onto my side and yawn widely, smiling as I see the small pile of gold and jewellery I ‘borrowed’ from the good townspeople last night. Sitting up and stretching, I collect the valuables into a small bag and hop off of the bed. It only takes a short while to dress myself and I make my way towards the door. I can smell breakfast cooking, and I’m hungry.
Hopping my way down the stairs I see Valefor and Havsen speaking, laughing together. I walk over to them and sit down, looking at the table and noticing a remarkably low amount of food. “So… when’s the rest of it coming?” I ask, taking a sausage and stuffing it into my mouth whole.
“This is all they have, Hoolio,” Havsen answers, smiling down at me, “The kind innkeeper gave us all the food that was left.”
Said innkeeper looks over as I glance in his direction and shrugs, “Sorry, mate!” He calls out, “New guild in town, been takin’ all the food for ‘emselves, some hunters or somethin’, I don’t bother to ask.”
“See, Hoolio, that’s all there is to it, we’re not being slighted or anything! Just enjoy what you have!” Havsen smiles as he takes another piece of toast from the table and practically shreds it with his razor sharp teeth. I snatch an egg and chew it thoughtfully, realising that the amount of food available isn’t nearly enough to feed all of us.
“Hunters, hm?” I muse aloud, Valefor looking down at me as I do, “Say… if they’re taking all the food, why don’t we beat them at their own game? Hunting for food doesn’t sound too bad right about now!” I shift my gaze up to Valefor, proud of my idea, although he doesn’t seem to share in my pride.
“You’re… joking, right?” Valefor asks, “I saw what you did to the man we fought yesterday, but you look like you’ve never hunted a thing in your life.” I pout at him, prompting him to keep speaking, “Well, you’re just a kid, there’s no reason you would’ve gone hunting before, and besides, you’re just too loud!”
“Not to mention it’s too dangerous.” Glue chimes in, walking down the stairs, already covered from head to toe in fabric, with his weird machine-thing on his back. “I was apprehensive about taking a kid into battle, but that was an emergency, I won’t let you go out into the woods just for the fun of it!”
“Since when do you get to dictate what I can and can’t do?” I ask, “Last time I checked, you weren’t my dad. Whether or not you like it, I'm hungry and I’m going.” I hop up out of my seat and smile with mischievous glee as I hear the chaos unfold behind me.
“Ok, I’m coming then,” Valefor says as he stands up, “I can’t let you go alone in good conscience.”
“What?!” Glue exclaims in shock, “You’re just going to let him go? Not try to stop him?”
“What’s the use in trying to stop him?” Valefor asks, “He can handle himself… I think. Besides, he knows what he wants!”
“You’re hopeless…” Glue groans, “And you?” He asks Havsen pointedly, “The good holy man isn’t going to do anything to protect a poor defenceless child?”
“I don’t see a reason to.” Havsen answers as I stop myself from cackling maniacally, “He seems like he’s capable. I’ll stay behind to check on everyone after they wake up, you go with them if you really think they need to be protected.”
At this, Glue lets out a sound of exasperation and stomps towards the door. “You’re all hopeless!” He shouts as he slams the door behind him and follows after me and Valefor. We steadily make our way out of town and towards the surrounding woods, a vast thicket of trees enclosing the city. I ride on Valefor’s shoulders and Glue follows behind us grumpily, muttering as we go. “So… Glue?” I turn my head around to face him, “Where’re you from? Why are you always covered up? What’s that on your back? Why are you so angry and mean and awful all the time?” I throw that last one in just to antagonise him, although my face only shows innocence.
“Ok, rude.” He snaps before sighing as though disappointed in himself, “Sorry, sorry, I haven’t been the nicest so far, that’s true. I’m from the north, Fulgyddia, but one of the grounded towns, I’ve never been up to the capital, heights were never really my thing.” I nod my head, I didn’t ask for such specifics but I’m not complaining, all information is good information. “It’s my tradition to never show any skin, I’m a spellslinger.” My face obviously betrays my confusion since he starts to elaborate “We are… we were an order of spellcasters who use these as our focuses for casting,” he gestures to the mechanism on his back, “It’s called a gun, this one specifically is a rifle, It’s basically a kind of gun that operates in between close and long ranges, a jack-of-all-trades master of none kinda deal.” I nod, taking a mental note of this so I can research it later.
By this time, we’re at the forest’s edge and Valefor sets me down. I sling my bow off of my back and turn to the other two. “Well, I’ll get started.” I smile at their confused glances towards each other as I take a few slow steps forward and then dart in between the trees, hiding almost instantly. I can hear their panicked reactions as they run right past me in search of me. I jump out and let out a shout to startle them, “Boo!”.
“Hoolio!” Valefor chides, unfazed from my attempts to frighten him, more worried about me than himself, “That was dangerous! What if we hadn’t found you?!”
I let out a snort of laughter, “Found me?” I reply, “You didn’t find me, I let myself be found. Believe me, you could’ve searched for hours in these woods without catching so much as a glimpse of me.”
“Whatever it was, can you not do it again?!” Glue shouts, clearly rattled “I don’t want to lose you while you’re under my watch. Stay with us from now on.”
Something about the way he says it stops me from running away again, it’s almost like… pity. I shrug and settle into a steady step next to him and Valefor, readying my bow in case I catch sight of anything edible. We meander around in silence, well, as close as they can get to silence. I cringe as each of their footsteps is louder than any attempt at stealth I’ve ever heard, practically echoing through the quiet of the forest. I put a finger to my beak and shush the both of them as I hear something, a sound, a soon-to-be-food sound. Turning into a clearing in the woods I draw my bowstring and see a herd of deer grazing. Since they haven’t heard us yet, I ready my bow until suddenly-
Something pierces the side of one of the deer, a spear, extruding out of it as it falls dead, the rest of the herd running away in a collective panic. A shadowy figure sets itself on the carcass, it looks like a hunting dog as it tears through the body, eating the meat raw and bloody. I step forward, taking action to secure our food, “Oi!” I shout, causing the thing to instantly turn its head towards me before taking off. “Secure the deer!” I shout to Valefor and Glue as I run after it, hoping to catch the little bastard that stole my kill.
I dash through the woods, not caring about the noise I make, desperate to keep the thing in my sights. It runs with an odd agility… and on two legs?! I watch as the beast throws itself through the forest with supernatural ability, overcoming every obstacle in its path as though it knows this place like the back of its own hand. I have to pour on all the speed I have if I hope to catch this thing as I run over dead logs and through tangles of brambles. Eventually, slowly but surely, I catch up to and overtake the creature, now running in ahead of it undetected, staying hidden as I go. I throw myself into its path to stop it, realising that this was probably a bad decision moments before it crashes into me and sends us both tumbling over the forest floor.
I end up on top of it and I thrust my dagger at it, halting as I hear it shout “Don’t hurt me! Please don’t hurt!” I stop my blade inches in front of his face as I find myself looking down at a young boy, no older than 13 or 14. He has this scraggly mop of grey hair laid out beneath him and has a generally unkempt, feral look about him, but he’s definitely human… or close to it. His eyes are bright, almost too bright as he looks up at me in complete horror, breathing heavily as I withdraw my dagger from his face. He looks innocent, other than the layer of blood caked around his mouth.
“What the fuck?” I half-shout half-ask the kid “What’s a kid like you doing in a place like this? It’s dangerous! And our deer, you ate that bare-handed and raw, what’s wrong with you?!” I glare at him angrily before I notice he looks generally distressed, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. I sigh and withdraw my knife, hopping off of him and standing up, helping him to his feet. “C’mon now,” I start, seeing the other two catch up to me, with no deer “I got him, you two! Where in the hells is the deer?!” I call before turning back to the kid, “We can help you, you just have to tell me what’s wrong.”
“The bad people…” He starts “They got Mum… they want me!” He falls to his knees and begins to sob, “Don’t let them take me, please don’t let them!”
I tense up and awkwardly pat the kid on the back before Valefor walks over and attempts to pull the kid into a hug which he jumps out of the way of, clearly frightened of us. “Hey, hey,” Valefor soothes him, raising his hands to placate him, “we’re here now, the bad people can’t get to you, alright? We’re gonna take you back to somewhere safe.”
“Really?” The kid looks up at him and wipes the tears from his eyes, practically jumping up and down in excitement and relief, “Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!” He beams up at Valefor, who turns back to Glue and I.
“We’ll take him back to the inn and figure out where to go from there, alright? You two be on the lookout for these… ‘bad people’.” He looks back at the kid, “Ok, you’re gonna have to follow us now… wait, what’s your name, little guy?”
“I’m Faolan!” He says happily, still sniffling from his crying earlier. “Mum says my full name is ‘Faolan Wolfgang Von Wolferson,’ but I’m just Faolan!” He shifts in his spot awkwardly and looks away from Valefor, “And… I’m sorry about your deer. I was really hungry… But I can give you these!” He procures a small pile of teeth in his palms, parts of the gums and roots still attached and fresh, “They’re from the deer! Your deer!”
“Oh- I- um…” Valefor stammers, “Thank you very much Faolan but… I think you should have them! And don’t be sorry, we can just find something else to eat.” He gently pushes Faolan’s palms away from him as the kid looks up at him in a mix of disbelief and gratitude.
“Really?” He asks, “Thank you so much!” He pockets most of them and then attaches one to a necklace he has around his neck, bearing a collection of animal teeth in various stages of decay.
“Right… Well, we’d best be going, if we don’t get out of here soon, the bad people might find us, so we’re going to take you back to our friends.” Valefor offers his hand to the child, who gladly takes it, and starts leading him back onto the path into town.
We walk in relative silence, the groups’ footsteps still far too loud for my liking, but they’re at least making an effort to shut up. Soon enough, the path brings us back to the clearing where the deer was killed, and the corpse is surrounded by what appears to be a small group of people in hunter’s gear. Despite my attempts to silently warn the group, I’m completely ignored as they walk into the clearing and I hide behind a tree to further assess the situation.
“Well hello there,” one of the hunters says, a man who both looks and sounds far too wealthy to be hunting for survival, “what business do you have in our woods?”
“Your woods?” Glue asks, “As far as I know this place belongs to the public, you can’t just claim the entire border of Panatura as yours.”
“Oh quite the contrary!” The Hunter contradicts, “Don’t you know who I am? Who my mother is? Of course I can call this place mine- Hold on a minute.” He interrupts himself, spotting Faolan hiding behind Valefor’s leg, clutching it tightly, “I believe you have something that belongs to us. Mind handing it over?”
Valefor looks from the hunter, to Faolan, and back to the hunter, “Belongs to you? Unless you’re the kid’s mother, I don’t think you have any claim over him.” He turns back to Faolan, speaking to him in a comforting tone, “Now, Faolan, do you know this man?”
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“Bad people!” Faolan cries, “The bad people who got Mum!” I nock an arrow to my bow, sensing the incoming conflict.
“So you’re the ones who took this little kid’s mother, huh?” Valefor asks, “I’m sure this is all one big misunderstanding, why do you want the kid anyway? I’m sure you can just give his mother back and everything will be fine, right?” He says, barely holding in his anger towards the man.
“I’m a collector,” the Hunter answers, a smirk appearing on his face, “let’s just say that I love being able to collect a complete set~”
Valefor’s hand moves to his scimitar, readying to strike before an arrow lodges itself in the ground between his feet. I see the source, another hunter hidden in the trees. I then spot several pairs of eyes and realise that this group is far larger than it seemed. “Now look here, plebeian, hand over the child and nobody has to get hurt, understand?”
“Plebeian?!” Valefor shouts, clearly offended, “I am Valefor, of the family Ralokas, and you will not hurt an innocent child under my protection! Surrender now or feel my blade!”
With that, I fire my arrow from the trees directly between the hidden hunter’s eyes before he can make his shot, I shout into the clearing “Now!” Prompting Glue to unsling his rifle and launch a burst of fire into a nearby hunter while Valefor unsheathes his blades and clashes with their leader.
I make a move into the clearing but I’m blocked as a wall of thorny vines suddenly erupts in my path, forcing me to dash around the clearing and find an opening. I hear the sounds of metal striking metal and various magic spells before I can make my way back into the fight. I sneak around the trees and find a lone hunter firing into the battle and I remove him with a swift dagger between the shoulders.
By now, the black smoke from Glue’s magic is so thick that you can taste it in the air, making it easier for me to sneak around in the partial cover. I sink my blade into as many hunters as I can find before one catches me off guard, sending me crashing to the ground with a swift kick. He positions his knife above my face, ready to finish me off before he’s blasted clear off of me by another burst of flame from Glue. “Careful there, kid!” he shouts over to me, “One wrong move and that’s it! You’re done!”
“I know that perfectly well, thank you very much!” I shout back, sidestepping a blow from another hunter and felling them too, “Unless you’re totally blind, you can see that I’m handling myself just fine!” I toss one of my knives towards Glue, hitting a hunter behind him who was preparing to stab him in the back, “You should watch your blindspots!” I call to him sarcastically, “One wrong move and that’s it! You’re done!”
I turn my attention to Faolan to make sure the kid’s ok, but he seems to be holding up perfectly fine on his own, too well, in fact. Even I’m a little intimidated by the animalistic ferocity he displays as he tears into enemy after enemy with his spear, gutting them and leaving them to die before moving onto his next target. He makes no effort to keep himself clean, either, getting covered in more blood with every kill, even taking some of their teeth as they fall, reaching his hand into their mouths and tearing their teeth out with his bare hands, gums and all, taking basically everything that isn’t their jaw itself.
After a short while, the battle has ended and we stand in the clearing surrounded by the lifeless bodies of at least a dozen hunters. Valefor has the leader flat on his back, his blade poised to strike above his throat. “I highly suggest you tell us where you’ve sent the mother,” he says, “you’ve seen what we’ve done to your friends, don’t think we won’t do the same to you.”
The leader simply laughs, “You’re really stupid, aren’t you?” he asks, “Once the Goats have someone, they’re never seen again, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”
“The Goats?” Valefor questions, “Enough with trying to confuse me! Where is the mother?”
“Burn in the hells, bastard.” The leader spits in Valefor’s face, “My mother is going to be here any moment now and when she is she will not let you go unpunished. I think I’ll tear that thing limb from limb and make you watch before you die.”
Valefor pushes the tip of his blade into the leader’s throat, “How dare you.” He growls, “That ‘thing’ is an innocent young boy, and I won’t let you harm him!” He steps back, letting himself cool off and freeing the leader, “I won’t kill you, but I’ll make sure you go to prison for a very, very long time.”
The leader scrambles to his feet and cackles at Valefor, “You utter fool! You’re not getting any mercy now! No prison could ever contain me-” I cut him off by jumping up and jamming my knife into his throat, removing his capability to talk.
“The kid has a name, by the way.” I tell him calmly, “It’s Faolan.” I then tear my knife out of his neck, letting his blood spurt onto the ground beneath him as he crumples to the floor in a miserable little pile of patheticness. I, of course, being ever so reasonable, reach into the man’s pockets and start extracting anything of value.
“Hoolio!” Glue scolds me, “Valefor spared him, you couldn’t just let one guy live? And on top of that you start robbing his corpse?”
“Course not.” I explain, nonchalant, “He was pissing me off. Anyway, look at this, he’s absolutely loaded! You think I’m just gonna leave all of this here?” I show Glue a nicely-sized pile of silver coins in my hands before stuffing them into my pockets. I eventually pull out a sizeable coin, larger than a gold piece. It’s rim is made of gold but the centre is painted an olive green, emblazoned with a raised image of a goat’s skull made of what appears to be ivory. I pocket it and move on, wondering what the symbol could mean, especially after the leader of the hunters had already mentioned goats.
“I’d like to call his bluff on this whole ‘mother’ business,” Valefor says, “but something feels off, we need to get back to safety as soon as possible to protect Faolan.” He gestures to the boy, who looks like the absolute picture of innocence, covered in blood and viscera from the countless men he just murdered. I roll my eyes and decide that these bodies likely won’t have anything worthwhile on them anyway, and follow him just to make the rest of the group happy.
After a brisk walk back through the forest, we make it to the city. The streets are now bustling with activity, and the sun is high in the sky. In front of me, Faolan shrinks away from the large crowds, slowly edging back towards the forest. Glue also notices this and kneels down to him, “You alright Faolan?” He asks, “Not used to this?”
Faolan shakes his head in response and mutters in response, “Too many people,” he says, “Too big, too much, too loud. I don’t like it!”
Glue smiles and stands up, “It’s alright, you’ll get used to it,” he starts, “but for now, you’re going to have to walk through it to get to a quieter place, ok? We’ll meet our friends there.” Faolan slowly nods in response and we make our way back into the city, weaving through its streets. I notice several eyes locking onto Faolan and I make an effort to walk alongside him, shielding him from view, at least as well as I can. I fail, being as small as I am, but I can at least make an attempt to comfort him as he shies away from the countless eyes drifting towards him.
We eventually shepherd Faolan back towards the inn, opening the door to see the common room relatively empty, only containing a few lone individuals along with our party. Havsen stands up and makes his way towards us, “You’re back!” he says cheerfully, his smile quickly dropping from his face “But not in one piece, what happened?” He asks, kneeling down to mend a cut on my shoulder from one of the hunters. I’m still not used to the warm feeling that comes from his healing magic, it makes me shiver uncomfortably as it flows through me.
“And who’s this little guy?” Saki asks, looking down at Faolan, taking a scrap of cloth from her bag and starting to clean the blood off of him, “You’ve made quite a mess of yourself from the look of things, I’ll get you cleaned up in no time.” Faolan shrinks away from the attention, but ultimately lets Saki clean him off, removing most of the gore from his body.
“Everyone,” Valefor calls, “This is Faolan, some hunters kidnapped his mother so we’re taking care of him for the time being.” He looks away and surveys the rest of the room, “Also we might have to leave the city… immediately.”
“What, why?” Xhyn asks, looking at him angrily “I just got here!”
“It was definitely his fault,” I say, pointing at Valefor, “We were getting threatened by the guys who took Faolan’s mum so he killed him.”
“Hoolio!” He exclaims “I did no such thing! You’re the one who put a knife through his neck!”
“Ok, come on now, let’s not assign blame.” I say, “What’s important is that some big angry lady who was this guy’s mum might really want to kill us, so we have to leave. Now.”
“So it was you lot that did it, eh?” A voice says, coming from a shadowy figure in the corner, “You took out the boss’ kid?
“And who are you supposed to be?” Matchstick asks, reaching for his glaive resting against his chair and standing, preparing for combat. “Don’t try anything funny or your guts’ll be on the floor before you can move.”
The figure sighs and stands himself, reaching for his sword “You didn’t know who he was so we’ll make this quick, ok? I’d rather not get my hands dirty right now, but she is not happy” He signals to someone unseen, smiling, “Boys, let’s teach ‘em a lesson. Boss sends her regards”
The door to the inn flies open and more people dressed in hunter’s gear come streaming in, weapons ready. I draw my bow and start shooting, hitting as many of them as I can but they just keep coming. They surround us quickly, but we keep fighting towards the door, working as a unit to try and escape. Valefor and Matchstick cover the group as we move, with Sake and Havsen providing support while Glue, Xhyn, and I throw as many projectiles at them as we can from this range.
All of this is to protect Faolan, who stands at the centre of our group. “Damn!” Glue calls, slinging his rifle and pulling out a smaller mechanism, “Out of spell bullets!” He aims at one of the hunters, who knocks the smaller gun out of his hand, sending it clattering to the ground.
The hunter pushes Glue out of the way and grabs Faolan, making a move towards the exit while Faolan cries out in pain, clearly distressed, being dragged by the wrist, fighting against the larger man. He almost makes it out, taking Faolan with him, until Havsen runs up behind him and breaks a nearby chair over the man’s head. “Sorry!” He calls to him as Faolan bites the man and uses it as an opportunity to escape back to the group, who have made it to the exit themselves.
We break through the entryway to the inn and make it back out to the wider streets, seeing a stream of hunters coming towards us, “We gotta run!” I call out, breaking the formation to start dashing through the narrower streets, trying to shake the oncoming mob.
Though they’re slowly gaining on us, we manage to keep enough distance that they can’t reliably fire on us. Glue holds up at the back, firing some sort of projectile back at the hunters from his smaller gun. They might not be spells, but from the look of it they pack one hell of a punch, almost consistently causing the hunters to drop to their knees whenever they take a hit from one.
We can’t outrun them forever, however, and we eventually corner ourselves in an alleyway, with the hunters approaching at the other end of the street. “Damn it all!” Valefor shouts, looking for any way out while I prepare to fly away to safety and abandon the rest of these people.
However, before I can, Glue unslings his rifle once more and loads a bullet into it, I can practically feel its heat from where I’m standing. “What are you doing?” I ask him, panicking now, “You said you were out of spells!”
“I am!” He responds, equally stressed, “Mostly! This type of bullet in particular’s really hard to make, I’ve only got one on me right now and I really wanted to avoid using it, especially in a crowded space like the main streets!” He hoists his rifle to his shoulder and aims it at the large group of hunters, “Cover your ears, kids, this can get a bit loud.”
I roll my eyes, but I see Faolan reach up and put his hands over his ears as Glue carefully aims and finally pulls the trigger. The bullet doesn’t hit any hunters, but instead makes contact with the ground in the middle of their mob, creating a great, roaring explosion of fire that consumes a good portion of the group, shaking the ground and releasing a giant plume of dark smoke into the sky. “Yes!” Faolan calls, jumping up and celebrating, “You got them! You got the bad people!”
I share in his elation, but it’s quickly dampened by the fact that through the smoke, even more hunters walk towards us. “Damn bastards!” One of them shouts, “You’ll pay for this!”
“Uh, Glue, got anything stronger than that?” I ask him, backing my way away from them towards the wall.
“No! Now I’m really out!” He slings his rifle to his back again and stands in front of me and Faolan, a knife brandished in front of him, “I won’t just let them take you, I’ll occupy them while you and Faolan make a run for it, ok?”
Valefor steps in front of us too, brandishing his blades and assuming a defensive stance, “That’s right, you two,” he says, “even if we don’t get out of this, you have to make it out of the city.”
“Did I ask for your help?” Glue scolds Valefor, “I can hold them off perfectly fine by myself, let me do this!”
“Oh be quiet,” Valefor fires back, “I have as much of a duty to protect them as you do, I won’t stand by and watch while you go and sacrifice yourself.”
“Aw, how adorable!” One of the hunters says, now closer to us than ever, “As heartwarming as it is to watch you fight over who gets to die first, none of you are leaving this place alive.”
Valefor steps forward to engage with them, but stumbles. In fact, the whole party does, it feels like the ground is spinning under us… Because it is! The wall behind us gives way and we slide downwards into a dark tunnel, illuminated only by the faintest of torchlight.
“Gods that was closer than I wanted it to be! So sorry for causing you that much stress!” A masked man says, now standing in front of us in the centre of the tunnel. “Anyone hurt? You’re all ok?”
I’m the first to jump to my feet and draw my weapon, holding my knife cautiously out in front of me. “Who the hells are you and what do you want with us?”
“Woah, woah!” The figure exclaims, “Stand down Hoolio! I mean you no harm, I’m just ensuring your safety!”
The feathers on the back of my neck bristle up as I’m more on edge than ever, “Hold on,” Xhyn interjects, struggling to his feet behind me, rattled, “How do you know who we are? We never gave you our names, we’ve never even spoken to you!”
“You might not know who I am, but I know you!” The man says cheerfully, “Heroes of Panatura who felled the terrorist that captured the prophet that foretold the end of the world! That was a very impressive battle I must say!”
“And you know about the prophecy too?” Matchstick asks, pointing his glaive at the man, “I’m going to need some answers to Hoolio’s questions before I make you tell us.”
“So violent, but reasonable.” the man answers, “I can’t tell you exactly who I represent, it would compromise us too greatly, but I can say that we have a vested interest in your continued survival so I had to make a move. But as for me, I go by a lot of codes, it comes with the territory of my job, but you lot can call me Echo.”