There was a small slicing sound as the spade cut into the ground and was pushed deep under the earth. The dirt was removed and a small set of seeds planted. A moment later and the dirt was covered. This had been done on that day dozens of times. It has been done every spring for dozens of years.
Reuben’s hands were worn with blisters and his skin was sunburned. Sweat was dripping across his forehead and blood dripped from his cut pinky. Yet he kept going, he kept digging. He didn’t have anything else.
Truth be told, none of them did. Dozens of farmers were all spread out across the field. Each one plowing away at dirt, digging trenches, pooling buckets of water, and finally planting seeds. As they worked, a dark shadow loomed across the entire farm that every farmer could feel staring them down.
Between every third row, donning thick armor and a long wooden pole there roamed soldiers with fierce eyes and abusive hands. Soldiers who were allegedly there to protect them and keep a fight from breaking out. Yet they all knew better. They knew they were being watched to ensure they met a quota. To ensure they didn’t get too rowdy. To ensure they kept to their meager positions in life.
These soldiers were only the hands of the beast, not the head. As the peasants cut their hands on thorns and sweated their body weight, the chief of the village sat comfortably on a chair, resting under an umbrella. He was a short pudgy man who did little to help the others aside from employing guards to watch over them. Guards who were kept far more fed than the people actually doing the constant labor. No, they often saw nothing but scraps come to their tables.
“Reuben, could you come here for a second?” the chief called out between talks with the woman at his side. She was young, only a decade older than Reuben if that.
Striking his spade into the ground, Reuben got up and walked to the edge of the field. He wiped away a pool of sweat dripping down his eyes and said, “What is it, my lord?” It was a title he hated to say, but was forced to respect.
“Well I can’t help but notice you’re hardly halfway through your row. Everyone else is nearly done and Louise, he’s on his second one. I’m not going to have to cut your rations again am I?” the chief asked as he tore an entire loaf of bread in half and handed one to the woman next to him. He then took a massive bite out of it and swallowed before it was halfway chewed.
Resisting the urge to attack the man, Reuben merely said, “No… my lord. I’ll work harder. You have my word.”
“Wonderful. Now get back to work.”
“I hate this…” Reuben muttered as he dug another hole and planted a new set of seeds.
“You say that every day,” a boy next to him replied as he dug his own set of holes. The boy laughed and said, “Everyday it’s the same complaining and grumbling but we still have to do it. You wanna eat don’t you?”
This got a snarl from Reuben as he smashed his spade into the ground. He shot back, “And everyday I hate it. All we do is dig these stupid holes. Plant these seeds and wait around for crops to grow. You really call this living, Louise?”
“Suppose so,” Louise replied with a shrug as he wiped his own sweat away. He added,
“Work, eat, sleep. That’s kind of the whole point isn’t it? Not much else to it. We’re animals in our own way, doing our job in life.”
By now Reuben was working at a machine’s pace. He didn’t want to go any hungrier then he already had. He was more so hammering away at the ground rather then digging and planting. When he reached the end of his row he turned and looked at a nearby man who was only halfway through. He said, “What about the people living in the bigger towns? Kept safe behind walls and able to pursue real dreams? I bet they have it good. I bet their bellies are full.”
Louise shook his head and said, “The grass is always greener. You know what they actually do? They walk around, buy some bread from grain we grew, and then make something or talk to someone. It isn’t much different. I’d say it’s worse. They’re all cooped up in those walls with those busy streets. At least we’re free.”
Disagreeing entirely, Reuben sneered and said, “The chief’s life is different. All he does is eat and entertain women in the village. He gets the first pick and gives the city second best and us forth best after the guards. What makes him deserve that? What makes us deserve so little?”
For once Louise gave in, saying, “That’s true. The chief is a bit of a bastard but what could we even do? We’re peasants, farmers. The bottom of the bottom. Our lives are a lot easier when you just focus on the task at hand. Stay in your circle and make the most of it. We aren’t chiefs and we aren’t city dwellers. Hell, if the chief heard us saying this he would probably have one of those guards break our wrists.”
Now Reuben was picking up a bucket and taking it to a nearby well nearly overflowing with water. As he came back he said, “So that’s it? Every day is like this because we were born into it? Doing a few tasks because we’re told to, eating, shitting, then dying? That’s life?”
Between dry coughs and a spit, Louise replied, “Pretty much. Maybe you find a little lady. Maybe you rise somewhere to prominence. Or maybe you die in the village you’re born in. But no matter what you’re still just living. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too boring either. It’s just life.”
This got Reuben to be quiet as he started filling the trenches around the seeds with water from the filled bucket. This time it was Louise who asked, “So what exactly do you want anyways? You’re bored on the farm, you’d be bored living in the town. What do you want from this life you constantly criticize?”
Reuben stood there, staring up high at the sky. Soft clouds drifted across the bright hot Sun as he thought. Finally he said, “I want some excitement. I want a life where I don’t live the same day over and over. A life where I decide how much I get to eat and people listen to me for a change.”
Chuckling, Louise replied, “That's quite a tall order. So, farming isn’t exciting enough for you? Alright then, what do you want to do for some excitement?”
The question caught Reuben off guard. He tried to think of a good answer as he worked, but he could hardly think of anything else but plowing and pulling crops. Finally he replied, “I want to go check out the capital. I want to see what its like at the other side of this life, living in luxury. You and I could sneak off and try and make it there. Maybe we could be aristocrats- or sorcerers.”
Of course Louise smiled at the idea and said, “Sure thing. First let me fill my backpack for the trip since we’re overflowing with food. Then we’ll surely walk in the right direction since we don’t know where it is. Then we can enjoy a nice life of begging on the streets. Certainly beats a boring secure life of farming.”
“Fine,” Reuben grumbled back. “You have a point. Still, as soon as I figure out something- some way out of this miserable life. I’m going. I won’t stay here a second longer than I have to.”
Both of them knew how many times Reuben had said that. How every year he vowed to leave, to be something more. How each year he stayed. Each year nothing changed.
Then there was a boom in the distance. It sounded like one of their wooden shacks collapsing in itself. A moment later there was the sound of a scream then silence once more.
Louise looked at Reuben and said, “Seems you might be getting some of that excitement you had been hoping for. Come on… let’s go see what’s going on.” He slammed his spade into the ground and stood up as he brushed dirt off his knees.
As they got up there was a growl heard in the distance, a horrifying noise and one recognized by everyone in the village despite none of them ever having heard it prior. They all knew what lurked on the borders of the kingdom.
Reuben felt his heart sink as he whispered, “Louise that… that was a beast. In the village. It had to be.”
At the edge of the farm, the chief was swiftly pulling himself out of his chair. He shouted out, “Five guards to me, right away! Get me to my home and protect me! If there’s a beast loose in the village you mustn’t let it harm me, do you understand?”
The moment he said this, villagers were panicking and running towards the chief shouting, “Wait, my lord! You have to let us stay with you! Our homes can’t guard against a beast! You can’t leave us to die!”
As the surge of bodies rushed forward towards the chief with fear in their eyes, he shouted, “Guards! Hold them back before they go mad! I cannot accompany every damn villager! I must prioritize the most important ones!”
Reuben and Louise were watching the display in horror at the brutality of the chief. As an older woman rushed forward and begged to be saved, begging to not become food for some godforsaken monster, the chief screamed at her and sent a guard after her. Three whacks were heard as the thick wooden pole slammed against the woman’s back.
When she toppled to the ground, the chief roared, “All of you go to your homes! Stay quiet and stay hidden and you will be fine! Now get back and leave me be!”
Just like that he was settling off, even leaving the woman he had been previously entertaining. A thick circle of five armored men formed around him as he swiftly sped off from the farm leaving the peasants to die.
No one knew what to do. Their homes wouldn’t hold back a beast, but perhaps they could at least hide? Were they safer on the farm?
“What do we do?” Reuben asked, his body trembling. He couldn’t control his own shivering body. A roar was heard again followed by screams and he thought he would collapse from terror at any moment.
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Louise began moving towards the fence as he said, “We need to get to the house. We need to board up the door and hide. It either leaves or a guard kills it, but till then-”
Immediately Reuben protested and said, “You know a guard can’t kill that thing! The only way to kill a beast is to use-”
“What the hell else choice do we have?” Louise snapped. By now people were sprinting past them for their homes and the farm slowly emptied out until there were only a few of them left scattered throughout the fields. Some had chosen plots of corn to hide in, seeing it as more secure than trying to make it home.
Suddenly there was a cry from the other edge of the field. Both Reuben and Louise froze up. In the distance they could see the tips of the crops quickly swaying as something was rushing through the fields.
They watched transfixed as they saw the few guards that had stayed behind rushing into the field with their thick poles and praying their armor would save them. Three guards rushed deep into the fields, too thick to see where they could be.
There was silence for some time, then a scream. The sound of metal tearing and bones crushing could be heard as one of the guards cried out for help. Then silence again.
A moment later and the same sounds repeated. The second guard could be heard being gored as he cried out for his companion. Yet by the time he reached it was too late as well. In only a few minutes the beast had stalked and executed three armored men.
Realizing they were completely alone, Louise said, “We need to move! Reuben, we need to get out of here!” Louise shouted. He turned to run, but Reuben was frozen in place. Louise screamed, “REUBEN!”
That seemed to snap him out of the trance. They began rushing over the fence as another scream was heard from inside the field.
As they began climbing over the small fence, a massive shape leapt from the fields, roaring as it did. A massive body slammed into Reuben and Louise knocking them off the fence and rolling down the hill back to the crops below them.
Sitting on the bottom of the hill, Reuben got a frighteningly good look at the beast. It was like a massive cat, nearly the same size as a horse. Claws reached out from its four limbs in all directions making it look as if it walked on four maces. Even its tail had a sharp scorpion like point at the end. A massive jaw unhinged in a snakelike fashion revealing rows upon rows of teeth leading down a bottomless throat.
The most frightening part were the eyes. Two golden spheres situated deep in its head peered at them with a primal hatred. As if it had been born and raised for one intention and one intention only- the murder of every human it could find,
Those two eyes locked onto Reuben, and the beast leapt forward with horrifying speed. As it moved, Reuben wondered if this was it. Was he going to die? Right here and now? There was nothing he could do. No way to fight back. He was powerless. He was dead.
A loud cry brought Reuben back to his senses. He saw Louise leapt against the beast, knocking it away from Reuben. The beast was staggered and rolled over with Louise on top of it.
As Louise tumbled onto the beast, already cutting himself against its vile limbs, he screamed, “Run Reuben! Get out of here! RUN!”
There was no sensation in his body, yet Reuben was running. He sprinted into the fields as deep as he possibly could. He fell to his knees and threw his hands over his head. Tears were dripping down his cheeks and his entire body was shaking. His breath was frantic and his heart pounded in his chest.
Yet nothing was worse than the sounds. No matter how hard he covered his ears, how hard he tried to make it go away, he heard everything. He heard his friend’s screams of agony. He heard him yell out for someone to save him- calling out his name by the end of the carnage. Then there was silence. Nothing.
Somehow Reuben knew he was the only one left. That everyone else on the farm was dead. It was just him and the beast alone in a field. He felt like an animal being hunted.
“Get the hell up,” a voice called out.
Slowly Reuben pulled his head from deep within his hands. He slowly peered up and saw a tall shadow standing directly in front of the Sun. Slowly Reuben’s eyes adjusted and then widened.
He towered over Reuben and seemed as broad as a watchtower. A thick head of auburn hair fell from his head and two dark black eyed bored down at him with focus and seriousness. Once again he repeated, “Get the hell up. Do you really intend to die in this god forsaken cornfield?"
As Reuben did, he realized the man was wearing a cloak. A dark green cloak. He choked out the words, “You’re… You’re a sorcerer. You’re a geomancer…”
“Yeah,” the man said as if it was too obvious to give further attention. “There’s two beasts roaming this village. I killed one but the other one got over here. Are you the only one left alive or are there more?”
“Louise… My friend. Take me to him! Please!” Reuben pleaded. He had to get to Louise before he bled out or died. He had to do something.
Before the sorcerer could even reply, Reuben was rushing out of the crops so fast he had to struggle not to trip over himself. In the distance he heard, “Wait you idiot! God damn it!" Yet he couldn’t be stopped.
The fields cleared away and Reuben had reached the end of the farm again. The moment he came face to face with his destination, he felt his stomach empty.
Lying at the bottom of the hill was a hunk of meat too ripped apart to even be called a corpse. To be called… “Louise,” Reuben whispered. He collapsed to his knees, his eyes locked on the mass of blood and torn flesh.
As the tears ran down his eyes and his shoulders heaved with sobs, he couldn’t look away. He couldn’t look away from the friend he had run from. Hid from as he was torn apart. Why hadn’t he done something? Anything? Louise had slammed into it to save him and it killed him. Louise died because of his patheticness. The image of the corpse would burn into his brain, and the reason behind his death haunted his soul to the core.
“A friend of yours?” the gruff voice asked. He stood beside Reuben and said, “You’re probably blaming yourself. Don’t bother. I promise there was nothing you could have done against that beast but make its belly fuller.”
Reuben struggled to compose himself as he asked, “But what about you? You said you killed one of them. Why? Why couldn’t I? Why couldn’t I do anything but run and hide and sob and break while he… he…”
At that moment the fields parted once again. The prowling beast chose its moment, chose its time to strike. It saw a weeping boy and an aged man in a cloak. It saw two easy prey. It saw-
The world spun as the beast tumbled and flew through the air. Its golden eyes grew dizzy as its body danced and bounced against the ground. Bump, bump, then stillness once more.
There was a sharp metal noise as the sorcerer drew his saber in his right hand. He held it tightly as he eyed the beast up and down. A horrendous smile spread across his face as he watched the beast struggling to get back to its feet.
“There we go,” he said in an excited tone. “Come on now. You killed all these people, right? What’s one more, you rotten creature? Come on! Show me what you can do!”
A roar of defiance resonated loud enough to be heard through the entire village. The beast kicked off the ground and began charging at the sorcerer. It was closing the distance, getting closer and closer. Reuben nearly wanted to scream for the sorcerer to do something. It was going to kill him next! He needed to attack! He-
The sorcerer waved at the beast and the ground exploded. Rocks, dirt, and even crops shot into the air encasing the beast in a thick net of soil. It was held in place as the tight grasp of earth held it in place.
Now it was the other side’s turn. The sorcerer shouted with glee and began sprinting at the beast with his saber poised to strike.
Realizing the danger it was in, the beast began trying to get back up. Yet every time it moved so much as a claw, another barrage of earth slammed into it. Dirt smacked its sides and rocks pounded into its limbs keeping it too disorientated to get back up.
A strange shout of disappointment and rage erupted from the sorcerer’s mouth as he plunged the blade against the beast’s thick hide. The first jab only parley punctured its thick hide. As it did, the sorcerer hissed, “Why? Why couldn’t you have finally done it? Two of you and still nothing? Pathetic!”
The beast screamed with what could only be described as terror, but the sorcerer didn’t care. He coated its body in dirt, encasing it to the ground, then plunged the blade once more, deep into his chest and through the heart. The beast gave a weak cry as blood pooled from its body.
The sight was overwhelming. Reuben watched the sorcerer walking back towards him. He watched the blood drip off his saber as he slid it back into its sheath. The wind blowing through his green cloak.
“You asked me why,” the sorcerer started. “Why could you do nothing? Because you're weak. So was your friend, and the guards too. Every last one of these corpses. Beasts like these, they prey on the weak. They slaughter them. It’s the nature of these things. You best get strong, boy. I won't be here next time one attacks.”
Reuben couldn’t accept that. That his friend would die for the nature of things? Louise was the strongest person he knew. He wasn't weak!
He shouted, “To Hell with that! There has to be something else. This… this isn’t fair! It isn’t fair for it all to go like this while I just had to watch and do nothing! It isn’t fair! It isn’t fair!”
“Fair?” the sorcerer laughed. “That’s pathetic. There is no fairness to this life. Some people are born sorcerers and some are born powerless. Nobles and peasants. Kings and servers. That’s the way it is. Your friend is proof of that, isn't he?”
There were wicked thoughts bubbling up in Reuben’s soul. Ideals, desires, rage. He couldn’t accept this. He couldn’t accept being weak, being prey. He was about to explode. His breathing was getting heavier and his body was trembling.
“Is it taken care of?” a familiar voice called out. “The both of them?”
Reuben looked over and saw the chief emerging with his five guards. He was completely unscathed. He was unharmed. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. Born a peasant? Die as prey? All while the chief sits and eats and is safe? Abandoning them to die?
Once again Reuben looked at the mass of shredded meat beside him. The anger and hatred boiled over inside him, it shattered him. He screamed as he ran at the chief, as all other senses and feelings left him.
Frenzied shouts filled the air as Reuben slammed his fists against the chief, clawed into his skin, even left bite marks. He had become an animal as he screamed and sobbed and punched.
The guards were forced to pull him off, to hold him down. He continued screaming and crying out, trying to get himself away from the guards. He shrieked, “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! Why didn’t you take anyone! Why! WHY!”
The chief was furious, his face beat red. He was bleeding from several cuts and bites as well as from his nose. He hissed, “You- You little-”
Suddenly the sorcerer spoke up, “You didn’t take anyone into your estate?”
Sounding even more offended, the chief spat out the words, “Of course not! We all have our own homes to tend to! Why should I have to-”
The chief’s body buckled and fell over as the sorcerer’s fist slammed into his nose, breaking it entirely and sending another stream of blood down his lips. At once all five guards turned on the sorcerer. One whacked at him with his pole, but he merely grabbed it and ripped it from his hands.
“You disgust me,” the sorcerer declared. “Eleven dead bodies piled throughout your street. Do you think you have a right to decide their fates? Do you think being a chief for some washed up village grant you real authority over life and death? God, you're disgusting.”
Trying to talk through the blood pouring into his mouth, the chief said, “How dare you! I’ll… I’ll message the king! I’ll have your head! How dare you touch me!”
With tremendous strength, the sorcerer reached down and picked up the chief with one arm, holding him by the cloth of his shirt. He sneered, “You’re nothing more than a pathetic nobody playing at being a lord. You live on the edge of the kingdom, the king doesn’t give a shit about you. I only found this place because I was passing through after being sent for an actual mission. So go ahead, send your letter. I’ll smile while the king throws it away.”
There was a look of utter rage and disbelief in the chief’s face. He sputtered and shouted commands, ordered the guards to do something, but none could move. In those few moments of the sorcerer being there he had frightened them all into submission. He had show them all what true power was.
Meanwhile Reuben felt something rising up within him. The way the sorcerer had killed the beasts, threw the chief off of his podium, he was strong. Stronger than any of them. As the sorcerer turned his back and began leaving, he knew he had to follow him. He knew he had to do something- he had to-
A whack on the head sent the world into darkness. The chief growled as he gave Reuben another crack on his back. He growled, “Lock him in the deepest pit we can find. I’ve had enough of him.”