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CH: 7 Rumor

I keep updating late ~(>.<)~ Sorry! I actually had most of the chapter written down at the time I promised to post but...it was written, not typed. I have a little notebook that i’ll write chapters in if i don’t have access to a computer or have a flash of inspiration in some random place. Unfortunately, I wrote the chapter in pen and water ended up drenching my notebook…...It died TT-TT. All my writing is illegible, so i scraped it and decided since i couldn’t deliver the chapter in time i’d post late, no use stressing. This is a past time for me, though i won’t quit in the middle.

I know it’s been like 2 months, sorry bout that, but RL has been busy. Moving is the worst experience ever, and after all that, i’m put in an area with no internet ~(*o*)~.

Though i can’t promise regular chapter releases, my goal is at least 2 chapters every 2 weeks, I’ll try to start that up again.

In about a week or two i’ll release several chapters, sorry for the long wait.

I also kinda got distracted reading ‘Stellar Transformations’. Phones are AWESOME! Though not for writing.

I posted a link here: http://www.wuxiaworld.com/st-index/ Book 12 can be found here: http://www.translationnations.com/translations/stellar-transformations/

I seriously recommend this story, It’s ongoing and AWESOME!! The summary makes it seem like the MC might be a wuss who doesn’t kill, so at first i was skeptical on reading it but let me tell you, He kills….a lot. IT’s GREAT!! READ IT!

CH:7 Rumor

The situation in the towns and villages in the surrounding areas has finally started to stabilize over the passing years. The fear of food shortage is receding, as the yield of rice and crops has been on the rise, causing the lords to decrease the taxes on food.

The surviving farmers and villagers start to reconstruct their lives, family returning and morning for those who passed on during the famine.

With the number of deaths falling every year, an air of normalcy and tranquility forms around the towns and people. The past depravity is avoided and forgotten.

People start to fall into the routine of peace, but this illusion is soon to be broken, as a new threat starts to roam the area.

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A Procession walks through the town. Dark garbs cloaking depressed and crying faces. People follow slowly behind a rickety cart, a cloth of white blanketed over a small motionless figure.

The sheet shifts slightly as the cart hits a prominent rock, revealing a partially mauled stub. This bloody chewed up appendage once used to be a young boys hand, but now it just serves as proof to the outsiders viewing this tragedy, that the rumors circulating the village are true.

“It’s the demon”

“The one from the mountain ridge?”

“The very same…….. I heard it lives by the corpses”

“!?, I heard it was created from the corpses?”

“No, It must have been feeding on the corpses, It never attacked until we stopped dropping the dead into the ravine, after the famine ended.”

The Solemn atmosphere disrupted by whispers of villagers. They were afraid, all of them.

The rumors of a demon plaguing the surrounding towns had started to flair a few years ago. At first, the villagers thought it was an animal of some kind, A wolf or starved dog.

But soon this belief had been altered and molded into a frightening abomination.

The first tinge of fear, the villagers felt, came from the staggering amount of children and people spirited away when traversing a few of the mountains.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

When the number of disappearances was still reasonably low no bodies or corpses were ever found, but that soon changed.

It was when families looked or hired men to search for their loved ones or the cause of these disappearances, did the death toll sharply rise.

The lucky(?) families found a corpse, while the rest could only imagine the deaths their missing relatives suffered.

The victims had been ripped apart, limbs tended to be missing and the damage could be so extensive that only a pile of fleshy meat may turn up.

It was this extensive damage to the dead that had many assume these killings were done by an animal or a pack, and that the bodies had been left and gnawed on by other such creatures.

But as the deaths increased, so did the fear of the villagers. ‘No animal could do this, It must be a demon, too many have died for it to be anything but.

An immortal monster haunting the living.’

As fear increased so did the imaginary monster cultivate, until an exaggerated legend was bound to the mountain.

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A horrid demon lives on those mountains. The story began, a tale told to keep people from venturing to their deaths.

A curse has been cast on these lands. A punishment towards the livings disrespect for the dead. We tried to forget the tragedy, the famine, what we did to the dead.

As we partook in depraved acts due to hunger, now the dead have come back to remind us of our sin. They eat us, if you venture in the mountains they will eat you to.

“Why do they only plague those mountains?”

That is where the dead reside…...that is where we put them. No burial, no service, we left the dead to rot in the ravine….in the abyss and know they cannot rest. The unburied ghosts hold resentment towards us. They are jealous we live while they died. Their resentment congregated into an entity most foul, that hunts us if we trespass onto its land.

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After the first few groups who were sent to subjugate the beast never returned, the idea they were facing a vengeful apparition solidified in their minds.

The story soon became the common belief as half destroyed corpses were found around the area the dead were placed during the famine.

People started avoiding the demons territory.

Appeals were made to the ruling lords, but a raid against the beast was always delayed or avoided.

The lords stating, “we have our hands full dealing with reconstruction, or peasants can handle a simple beast”. Excuses were always given.

After many attempts to get help failed. The surrounding villages decided to just avoid that area and hope the demon would leave them alone. It was clear the surrounding lords didn’t believe or care about the peasants plight.

So years past. The demon lived and thrived with no one threatening it’s reign. Any unfortunate soul who wandered into its territory was brutally killed and rarely found.

Lively hoods had stabilized but the fear of the oni had shrouded the villages.

The death count was less than it was during the famine but the brutality and terror the villagers lived through was suffocating.

Life carried on with the people avoiding associating themselves with the cursed mountains. The villagers lived in fear, but endured, until finally a factor appeared that would spark change. Whether this would bring fortune or devastation…..well, you’ll find out.

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