So here you are again eh? Come back for more of my ramblins or cause the storm last night shut down most of the town? I bet it was the first, heheh, enough of that though, back to where I left off. Ah yes, the man this story is about, and the man who I have hopes may return someday. If you remember though he set off into the wilds, and he might seem like someone whos not to be messed with, he's not of course, but he wasnt always like that. The first time I saw him, he wasnt no older than 8 Rotations. A Rotation bein another time teller that we use, has 12 Cycles within so we know about how long weve been scrapin by round these parts. How many Rotations have I seen? Ha, best not answer that, not good luck to live more than 30 on this planet.
His name, was Griff, and the first time I saw him was in a meeting between his parents and a Reapers debt collector. From what Ive told you about the Reapers you might be able to assume where this ones going but its my story so stop that dreamin and listen up. It was just after hangin day some oh i dont know, 20 Rotations and a few handful cycles ago. He looked so small and innocent to be put in the situation he was, but his father was on the drink like me, cept he couldnt keep steady work and owed alot of people alot. His mother worked at one of the local markets but she too got hooked on something, this thing called Kreece. Nasty shit Kreece is, dont know how they make it but its a drug, and none too pretty at that. His parents got so far into debt they had several collectors from the Reapers approach them about it, and everytime they were given another chance to pay up but they took to long, and went to deep.
Not three days later the Reapers called for their new recruits, and I often went down to see the poor unfortunate souls who got chosen. Nothing you could do to help them but hope they make it through, or have a fast death, not sure which is worse or better to be honest with ya. I saw Griff, and he was one of twenty others, never in my life had I seen a group that big, and havent since. They were on a raised stage near the center of town, where they always held these events, and other things as well but they are rather not important. On the ground before the stage sat the families of all twenty one soon to be Reapers. They were given a choice and you see with Griff's parents not being the best, He decided to move on from them. They had seven others refuse and well, I will get to that in a bit.
They handed those that chose to move on and continue their recruitment a knife. This knife was one that was nearly as old as the Reapers themselves. Couldnt tell you what its made of or feels like cause Ive only seen it, havent actually held it in my hand, but I do know, it was razor sharp, and made to kill. One by one the recruits killed their loved ones, and as the bodies of their families fell to the sand, the knife was passed, and they were handed a shovel. The shovel was to bury their familie bodies, and nearly all of the recruits cried their hearts out while diggin them graves. Griff was towards the middle of the group and once the knife reached his hand and he stepped forward to deal the final blow unlike the others he did not hesitate. It was with a malice that I had not seen before watchin as many of these as I have, it was cold and unforgiving.
He started with his mother and sliced her throat so deep he nearly cut her head all the way off, the blood on the knife nearly coated the entire thing, and it was the blood of all the families. When Griff moved to his father, the man was in tears, he kept saying he was sorry for everything, and begged for his life. Griff said nothing, and drove the knife deep into his fathers chest. He then pulled it out and let his father suffer a slow death. He passed the knife along with cold eyes and an even colder heart. He began to dig their graves and when they were done he laid their bodies within, and showered the sand over them. Whats worse is when he went to bury his father, the wound he delivered wasnt fatal enough, and when he showered the sand over his father, he buried him alive.
Now I for one had never seen a recruit do something that cold, and even the several Reapers that were there showed signs of shock at what they saw. Once he finished burying his parents the muffled screams of his father slowly drowned out and went silent. He stapped back to where he was before he was given the knife and stared blankly into the crowd that watched. the next one after him, when handed the knife, refused to do it. He and his family were led off, and not shortly after shots from an Iron rang out, and stopped as suddenly as they started. Several bodies were drug out of an alley, off towards the hanging tree, and they were strung up for the whole town to see. Those particular bodies hung there for almost an entire cycle before they were cut down and cast out, nasty business it is, telling the Reapers no.
After those who did not have the grit to kill their loved ones were dealt with the new recruits moved on to the next part of their initiations. They crossed the town square and stood just in front of the hangin trees, and this part always made those of weaker guts turn away. They were moved under the bodies of those that hung, and in doing so, caused the blood that dripped from their bodies to fall and land on the recruits that stood beneath.
A sickly sight to watch the blood of those that either came across the Reapers mission or were criminals punished in other ways, and that their blood now soaked the recruits from head to feet. They stayed like that for an entire day, not allowed to sleep, not allowed to move or clean the blood from their eyes. If they tried to do so they got a single warning, anything after was a bullet to the head, and another body was hung, extending the time the recruits stood under them.
Most of the recruits were in shock from exhaustion, and some cried, but not Griff. Whatever horrors that kid saw meant that what he was doing now held no fear over him, or anything else from what it seemed. No emotion was showin from his face, no remorse, no pity, no disgust, and it was a sight to see indeed. I saw this once before though, many cycles ago. I think I told you of the man whose Iron was named Vengeace? He stood the same way Griff stood now, but that was before Griff's time even, about twenty or so cycles.
Seein it again made me realize that this might be the next Reaper to climb to the top with ease, and run this group to greatness. Another part of me felt that he could destroy the entire posse but with what he did to his parents it would seem he felt reluctant, and ready to take his place among the Reapers. After another day passed I went to the tree again and saw only ten of the recruits left, nearly a fifth of those that were brought initially.
Thats pretty normal however, when it gets down to the last few thats when things start to get interesting, and they had an even number which makes for a special treat for the crowd, not so much the recruits however. You see when they have an even number of Recruits left after the Bleeding Trial, thats what they called this one, they took on a game of sorts. This game was more or less a competition to see if the Reapers could figure out what role each would play should they make it through the Inferno Trials. The Inferno Trials will come later but they are probably the most important of them all.
This competition was made up of however many events there were to recruits left, so in this case ten. These ten events tested the very being and mind of the recruits and pushed them to the edge of their physical ability and mental ability. The first of the games was called Runnengro, and this one was only just a little, cardio excersise. The Recruits would be ran until they dropped to the ground, and most of them didnt last very long. Griff and three others were the ones that got the farthest, and so they were moved up to the next game.
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The next game was a measure of willpower, each recruit stood within a large circle, centered around a cage. In this cage was housed a beast from the Shrieking Wastes, a beast called, a Gvarna. Gvarna's are nasty winged creatures of a decent size, heard tales of them being much larger out in the edges of the Wilds but imagining them bigger is not a fun thing to do. The Gvarna has large bony wings, and massive claws on its feet.
The beast was chained to a large stone pillar before it was released upon the recruits. Make no mistake, even though the Gvarna was chained, it was not trained to heed the call of a master, only its primal urge to kill and feast on any living thing unfortunate enough to get caught by one. Another thing about them is that their beaks are rather slim, but very long, and they give off a poison whenever they bite onto something.
This poison is a paralyzer, and causes any that get bit by them fall over, unable to move their bodies and unable to escape. This was only the second time I have seen a Gvarna, the other was when I visited the Shrieking Wastes but that is for later on in my little story. Oh shit. I forgot to mention what happened to the other six recruits who didnt make the cut the last game, although youd rather go not hearing it but I think I'll say it anways. They were thrown into the cage where they kept the Gvarna, and one thing that makes them more dangerous is if they get to eat before finding you.
The more blood they taste, the angrier and stronger they will get, and after eating their appetites grow to a level that cannot be filled. With this one, it was a game of lasting, whichever recruit could either outlast the others or outsmart and kill the Gvarna moved up the totem pole so to speak. They had a inner ranking system among the recruits but it was nothing more than something to see how likely they were to survive the trials up until the point of the Inferno Trials but theres still much to tell until we talk about those.
So as they released the Gvarna from its cage, the winged beast immediately moved onto the recruits unlucky enough to be closest to it. It quickly killed two of the poor souls and started to sink its claws into them and piece by piece consume them. Griff was not one to fear certain things however, and only him and three other recruits stayed calm when the beast was released. They were in a larger cage, so the Gvarna couldn't fly off but there was only a small chance in that happening because they only tried that when they killed all the recruits, which happened quite often.
This is one of the more, interesting trials. For this one they waited, and gathered a group of recruits. All these recruits passed the Runnengro but at different times. With trials as dangerous as the Reapers built to train and test their new blood, it sometimes took a while to gather up enough, worthy souls, at least as they would say. In total there was nine of them, and two were killed within seconds. Scattered around the large cage were several weapons, no Irons mind you, and they weren't really weapons either. Most were tattered farming tools and sharpened wooden spears.
Not much to go off of but some recruits managed to use them to their advantage. Griff and the other three that didnt freeze in fear took to finding a weapon of their own, two took sickles, one took a wooden spear, and Griff took an old forging hammer and a Ghar Whip. The whip was really the only interesting thing that the Reapers gave the recruits, and when Griff chose to use it, they became interested, not many ever did. This whip was no more than a regular whip, aside from the barbed ends, and it had many, not sure on the exact number but it flayed flesh and bone the same.
The whip was made from a Ghar, on account of its name, and that was a completely different beast altogether. A Ghar was a large scaled beast that roamed the Blackmarsh, and its claws were sharper than a razor, and thats what the ends of the whip were made of. The whip is interesting to the Reapers, mainly because it takes a level of skill not many of the recruits ever had for them to use to the best of their ability. Griff was different however, and he had his unlces to thank for that. You see Griff's unlces were Beasters, and Beasters only job was to capture and sell the dangerous beasts that roamed the nearer Wilds.
They were some of the best Beasters to have ever been round these parts, Ghar, Gvarna, Squeelers, and even more dagerous beasts were what they captured and sold. They used Ghar whips very often and no doubt taught Griff to use one. As the Gvarna finished devouring the first two recruits that fell prey to it, the beast lurched its body around and looked at all the other recruits, some had weapons, some did not. The beast lurched at the nearest recruit without a weapon and prepared to kill yet another one when it was suddenly hit with a hammer.
Griff had thrown the old smiths hammer and cracked the beast dead in its razored beak. The Gvarna looked at Griff and leaped towards him but was met with razor sharp claws in return. When Griff attacked with the whip the Gvarnas left wing was almost completely severed and chunks of its beak were torn off. This pissed the Gvarna off a very good deal but hurt the beast gravely. Now on a defensive path from Griff it moved out of reach of the whip and continued to take down recruits one by one until only the ones with weapons stood.
Griff never said a word during this trial, nor most of the other ones as a matter of fact. Griff had a plan, and it was to kill this beast but he could not do it without it being distracted so he motioned for the two with sickles to move in and they did, although very hesitant and slow as they cautiously approached the beast. The Gvarna took its chance and leaped onto the nearst one whose throat was torn open and his screams were gurgled out by blood spraying from the wound in his neck. Griff took this chance and moved closer to the Gvarna and took several attempts at slashing at the beast with the whip.
Griff missed his attacks and soon the beast backed off and stalked around the small cage it was initially placed in, still chained. This went on for quite a few hours when suddenly an Iron rang out. One of the Reapers shot the chain and freed the winged beast from its limited movement. With its one wing still hurt it couldn't fly however, but it was much more of a threat and it became enraged once it knew it was free. It shot forward and impaled the recruit with the spear leaving only Griff able to fight the beast.
As Griff watched the beast impale the recruit next to him he wrapped the whip around the beasts neck and pulled on the whip as if trying to strangle the beast. Instead the whip lost its grip around the neck of the winged abomination and flew back towards him, slicing his back terribly in six spots. The Gvarna then leapt towards Griff to deal the final blow but what Griff saw the beast could not. The spear from the recruit which it just impaled was lodged in the chest of the beast so Griff lashed the whip at it and yanked down.
This slammed the beast into the ground and Griff picked up a nearby sickle dropped from one of the recruits earlier and hacked at the neck of the beast until its head split open and sprayed the area with blackened blood. Griff was covered in the blood as was the close area around him, but he stood over the body of the now flaining body, its wings and legs twitched since its head no longer was attatched to its body. Griff turned to face the Reapers that stood at the entrance to the cage and walked out as they opened the gate.
He took with him the whip, and the Reapers allowed him to take it, and it was always by his side from then on. They normally wouldnt let recruits take weapons from the cage but this was a special case, and some of the Reapers began to respect Griff for how he handled the Gvarna. They learned this recruit may just have what it took to become a Reaper. Now that Griff was the last standing recruit he had to wait until more came through so he could continue his journey to the Inferno Trials, it might seem like I could skip all of this as you all know he made it through but to explain someone, you need to explain their past, and as far as pasts go, Griff's was full of things like this.