Witness

Having suddenly seen things go from a minor disagreement to a violent death, little Fawn was absolutely aghast. She had seen her brothers die over time, and she had even watched her mother perish, but this was the first time she had ever actually witnessed the brutal slaying of one man by another, and over such a small thing.

She knew there was no way that she wanted to be caught and toyed with by the man who now was dead, but she was still a child after all ... and the thought of killing him for something he had considered, but not actually done, was something she could not imagine. Still though, the experience of watching as one man destroyed another was something she dearly would have avoided if she could have, and it left her truly shaken.

What to do now was the real trouble. A feeling of dread, expanded across her in a very real way, that included the people of the Village—just as much as the all-terminating hand of the Cast Soldiers.

For a moment, a feeling twisted in her stomach. The isolation, true isolation of someone who was considered a pariah by all, takes over, leaving her with a crushing mass. She felt the world both stretching away from her as well as closing in.

There is ... no one ... no people that will help me. I miss kind words ...

She sobbed silently against the backdrop of emptiness. Her last hope drifted away amid a blackened fog.

Bez, Lil, and Tren were shaking from the shock of what happened to their acquaintance.

“Theor!”

Lil was in shock.

“Why would you do such a thing?”

The Ohun turned to her with heartless eyes.

“He threatened my girl children, there is no surviving that. If I had left him, he would have come for my littlest one, she is the most beautiful. Then I would have had to break him in front of her. This way, he won’t come, she won’t have to see what happens, and I won’t have to concern myself with shielding her while I’m away hunting with the others. There was no other way.”

Lil, still not convinced, carried on.

“I understand he had to die, but why in the manner of the Heretics? Why not a simple death? He had not yet committed any crime against you.”

Theor—now amassing irritation due to the questioning—stepped forward toward Lil.

“HE THREATENED MY CHILDREN!”

Tren quickly moved in front of her.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Calm, Theor, calm. She meant nothing by it, she simply has never seen the Heretic’s Death before. I understand your protection of the family.”

Theor settled, glancing around the empty room with the blood from his would-be assassin soaking into the ground.

“Mind yourselves, none of us is the top of the food chain here, but I will not tolerate any threats. The Ohun Clan feed you, I hope you all remember that.”

“Yes, we do.”

“Now we all need to ... ”

Theor abruptly knelt down.

The strong smell Fawn knew so well now, permeated the air. A Cast Soldier came in through the open barn door. The group froze.

He spoke with a cold and terrifying steadiness.

“What are you all doing? And why is there a dead Dust Cloth on the ground?”

There was no emotive distinction between a question about the gathering, and his inquiring about the dead man at his feet. He drew his blade, the sound made all in the barn quake with fear.

Fawn, still sitting in her darkened, elevated hiding space, took her stillness to a new level, and slowed her breathing to ease the chance she might make any sound.

Theor lifted his head from his kneeling position.

“The dead man is my doing. He was warned more than once, and he was foolish enough to threaten my family. He warranted the Heretic’s Death.”

With that, he bowed his head back down and resumed kneeling motionless.

As the Cast Soldier heard the news from Theor, he did nothing to acknowledge the unfortunate corpse crumpled at his feet, but instead looked directly at Theor.

“You were not given permission to administer the Heretic’s Death. It will cost you your family’s portion of the hunt food this period.”

Theor lurches forward in an oppositional fashion.

“But that will—”

The Cast Soldier snaps his weapon hand and severs Theor’s right ear with such ease that the ear just falls off, as though it were never attached in the first place. The shock from the loss doesn’t even have time to set in before the Cast Soldier starts to speak again as if nothing has happened.

“You are all alive and intact as we see fit. Question nothing, and never challenge us. You have received a very light punishment, Ohun. Make no further movements or I will admonish you further.”

Theor held his breath to keep from gasping or retaliating in any way. He was of an extremely powerful lineage of the hunters, but he was no more a match for the Cast Soldier than a house kitten for an adult panther.

Seeing all this unfold, the remaining villagers were stricken with silence and frozen in place, each of them taut, and hoping with all desperation that the Soldier didn’t turn his attention to them for any reason—or worse yet—maybe the noise would attract the attention of an Officer, and that would bring with it a new threat entirely.

Praying for respite from the demonic cruelty of the Cast Soldier in front of them, they struggled to contain their dread, all the time pressing their lips together, trying not to mumble, as that would bring punitive measures as well.

Fawn was working her utmost to come to terms with all the awful things she had seen and suffered since the loss of her family. Her pain and suffering were wearing her down. She strained to hold her eyes closed—she’d seen too much already. Desperate to hold back the tears welling in her eyes, her face tightened.

Why is everything so scary and horrible?

With all the strength she had left, she held her little body quiet and still. Tears of fear and misery began streaming down her face.

Watching the other villagers quake and drip the fluids of their accumulated terror onto the now-disgusting dirt floor, was enough for her to understand why they would turn her in immediately, given the chance. She saw they could only cope with so much, and she would most definitely represent a reprieve from their endless trepidation.

It was clear now, she could let none know of her presence, and she must keep extra distance from the Ohun—they seem to be bred to be dangerous. The unsavory idea that many of the males would seek her out for Breeding Play was additionally nauseating. The whole concept remained a foreign thing to her, but no matter how she heard it come up, there was no doubt that it would be an unpleasant experience.

The one they called ‘Ohun’ killed that man awfully just because he threatened other little girls ... he didn’t even do anything yet. He must have planned something horrid.

She watched as the irritable Cast Soldier looked over the other quaking villagers, his orange-rimmed eyes flickering with the extraordinary danger they represented.

Finally, he moved away from the cowering group, slowly at first, then suddenly, like a hunting reptile. He was gone in a swift intense motion, covering a lot more ground than one would normally expect for a person.

–Garrick M Lynch–