Chapter 3

“So…how’d it happen?” Shep was sat at the rickety wooden table in the centre of his shack. Anthony was perched on the surface, impatiently clicking his fangs at the multitude of spirit creatures surrounding it.

“The young master Orion killed her, she disobeyed him so he killed her” spoke the elderly head butler matter-of-factly. Shep looked up at the old man, his voice was as curt as usual but the tear falling down his face betrayed him.

“Where’s she buried? The cemetery past the eastern gate?”

At this the old lady beside him began sobbing uncontrollably, “She… she… she wasn’t buried, Orion fed her body to Sapphire, his lion.” The old lady was inconsolable, the rabbit spirit sat on her lap similarly buried its head.

The old butler stood silently, he was watching Anthony and the other spirits when he saw the small ant grow to twice it’s size and change colour to red for the briefest of moments, before returning to its original appearance. In the history of the Alderin kingdom he had never heard of a spirit that could change, but that didn’t matter, the boy was more important right now.

Shep, hate and rage filling every fibre in his being, asked the people to leave, and as the last of them exited he slammed the door shut and sat back at his table. “Fucking asshole…I’ll kill the prick… I’ll kill all of them.”

6 months later.

Shep never had anything against Orric, he didn’t want the old man dead, only the old man’s son had to die. That all changed when Shep overheard Orric and Orion talking in the study. He was quietly cleaning the hall when he heard the voices of the two men discussing him, so he silently moved to the door and cracked it open, listening to the hushed voices.

“Why the hell didn’t you kill that failure, father?”

“He is an embarrassment to the Irons family, that much is true, but he shares our blood, does he not? Tell me Orion, do you remember the stories of ‘The Mages of the Blackheart Isles’?”

“Old men who can cure any ailment, if I remember correctly.”

“Correct, however they need body parts from a member of the family of the one that needs to be cured. That is why I let that miserable wretch live, that is why I give it food.”

At this Shep turned and left, he finally understood why the old man didn’t just kill him, he was a fucking organ bank for the rest of the family. Fuck this whole family, he would make them suffer for what they had done.

He wandered out of the estate and back to his shack, he reached under Esme’s old bed and picked up his hunting knife and a scratchy blanket. Shep then ran to the Eastern gate and snuck past old Reg and into the forest. He ventured further than he ever had before, past the campsite and even approached the river that separated the dangerous area from the safe hunting place used frequently by Orric. He sat on the river side and glared across at a large blade wolf drinking from the water. It was a five meter goliath of a creature, its fur shined silver and reflected the noon sun, after it finished drinking it looked up, it’s eyes met Shep’s briefly before it turned on its heel and disappeared into the brush. Shep sighed and turned back, wandering back he eventually reached a familiar location, the place where Orric had ‘killed’ a midnight blue deer several months before. He looked around the area carefully, relying on his tracking abilities he had gained in his previous life and found a trail obviously frequently used by the local wildlife. Shep dug a pit out on the trail, covered it with leaf litter and then used his knife to saw a long, relatively straight branch from a tree before proceeding to sharpen it into a long spear.

Shep crawled behind a nearby bush downwind of the trail and wrapped himself in the scratchy blanket. He remained motionless for several hours, bugs and all manner of insects crawled across him but he remained stationary. After the sun had set and the pale glow of moonlight illuminated the forest, the first of the night creatures emerged. A pure white stag carefully trod the trail, nervously sniffing at the air, after several minutes it moved forward before stepping onto the trap and letting out a moan as it fell. The fall was not far, Shep knew it wouldn’t even be injured, just temporarily stunned, so he rushed over to the pit and drove his spear into its head. The beast fell silent.

It took the entire night to drag the carcass through the forest and then to skirt around the estate’s walls to emerge outside the town nearby. Shep had never been in the town, he had never left the estate alone, so he smeared mud into his conspicuous silver hair and left the body of the creature in the forest under his blanket. He ventured onto the streets and as the morning sun rose so did the town, he wandered into a random shop and approached the counter.

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“Begone kid, I don’t do handouts.”

“Where can I sell a stag I killed?” Shep asked.

“What? You killed a stag? The butcher’ll buy it, if its any good.”

Shep thanked the man and left, he wandered down the street again, it was slowly filling with people, none of whom even looked at him. He eventually saw a sign with what looked like sausages on it, so he assumed it was the local butcher. He stepped through the door and saw a burly man wearing an apron slathered with blood. “You the butcher?” He asked.

“Fuck ‘chu think? Piss off I don’t give out scraps to beggars.” The man replied, looking Shep up and down, his eyes lingering on the muddy hair and his hands encrusted with brown, dried blood.

“Got meat to sell, you willing to buy?”

The man’s eyes widened momentarily, “What you sellin’?”

Shep smiled, “Wait here, I’ll go fetch it.”

“You expect my entire fuckin’ shop to shift while you fetch something.” The butcher laughed, “Hurry up though, sooner I get it, fresher it is, more I’ll buy it for.”

Shep back tracked through the town and back to his kill, he hoisted the large stag onto his shoulders and then walked back to the butcher’s store. His trip this time garnered many looks from onlookers, staring at an eleven year old dragging a majestic white stag over 3 times his size down a busy street. He pulled it through the butcher’s doorway and smirked at the large man as he stood in awe.

“How much for this then?” Shep grinned.

“Its…It’s a pearlescent.” The butcher said, shock filling his face. “Boy…if you can hunt these… this is the start of a beautiful friendship” He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a bag of coins, his dog spirit yapped happily, mirroring the emotions of its master. “Stay a few hours while I dissect it, after im done, take its horns to the apothecary across the street and the skin to the tanner next door, we split the money 50/50, sound good?”

Shep looked up confused, “Didn’t I just sell it you? Why split more money with me?”

“It’s a pearlescent boy… the meat is worth about 3 times more than what I gave you for it, its pelt and horns are worth far more, I would usually just take you for a shmuck and cheat you outta some money but… these things are notoriously hard to kill, if you can hunt one, we can be in business.”

Shep smiled and nodded, he then wandered to a small chair in the corner of the room and watched while the butcher began to work, deftly skinning the creature and peeling it’s magnificent pelt from its body, plucking out its organs and placing them in a bucket and finally sawing its majestic horns off. He wrapped the pelt in twine and handed it to Shep who took it silently and went to the tanner’s next door. After several minutes he returned with a larger bag of coins which he emptied onto the counter and began counting it out.

“20 gold and 18 silver, he offered me 30 gold but I’m getting him to teach me how to tan hides, you can have it all if you teach me how to skin ‘n prepare corpses.” Shep said as the butcher peered over.

“Sure, be nice to have a helper” grinned the butcher, “Name’s Bart, you?”

“Shep, nice to meet you…boss, I’m gonna do the same at the apothecary, that all right.”

“That weirdo won’t teach you, he’ll just give you some books.”

Shep smiled, “That’s better than I wanted, with books I can learn at home.” He picked up the horns and ran across the street to the dark store. It was almost pitch black inside, the walls were adorned with various plants and vials containing swirling liquids, thick black curtains covered the doorway which Shep had to push his way through and a gnarled man sat at the counter.

“Poisons…tonics and potions” he smiled through gold teeth maliciously, “A poison to make your enemies die in agony, a potion to make you stronger, I have them all.”

“Not buying, old man, selling pearlescent stag horns, interested?”

“Pearlescent you say” The man chuckled, “I am indeed interested, and of that quality and size, how’s 50 gold sound.”

“I’ll take 25 and for you to teach me how to make potions and poisons, how’s that sound?”

“Ha, interesting, here’s 30 gold, and wait here.” The man threw a money pouch at Shep before disappearing into the backroom, he re-emerged moments later clutching 2 leather-bound tomes, “Read these, and memorize them, come back when you’re done with them and I’ll lend you the next 2.”

Shep grinned and nodded happily, he then ran back to Bart’s place and picked up the blanket he had left there. “See you Bart, I’ll be back soon.” He then ran back through the town, stopping only at a street vendor and buying some cooked meat for the return journey. He disappeared into the forest and hugging the wall of the estate ran back to the eastern gate. Carefully he snuck past Reginald and back onto the Irons estate’s grounds, he returned to his shack and sat on Esme’s bed, throwing his knife and blanket under it he then began to chew on the meat he bought, pulling pieces apart and handing it to Anthony on his shoulder, whilst simultaneously leafing through his new books. After reading the books well into the night, he finally decided to sleep, he curled up on the old bed and fell asleep.

The forest was dark, Shep lay in the dirt, his AK47 pushed against his shoulder and he glared down the sights. The silence was deafening, Shep could hear nothing but his own breath and thumping heart. It felt like an eternity before he finally heard something, the clicking of an insect creature and the mechanical whiz punctuated the night. He immediately knew what it was, ‘The Hive’ was here, down range the brush was pushed aside and a mechanical behemoth forced it’s way through.

“No…oh god NOO!” Shep screamed, the creature was the same one that had killed him, its eyes held the same cold, empty gaze it had when it had fired numerous bullets into his body. As his scream echoed through the forest he awoke with a start, he was in his scratchy straw bed dripping with sweat, shaking uncontrollably. He gazed around the room, looking for Anthony or anything familiar in the pitch dark room. As his eyes adjusted he saw it, in the corner, its colossal form crooked as it bent beneath the ceiling, even if Shep couldn’t make out the shape, it’s empty, cold eyes were unmistakable. The Hive behemoth loomed over him, Shep began to shake uncontrollably, his lower half was wet as he pissed himself in fear and he began backing up slowly, he was as silent as the grave, fear had bolted his mouth shut, and he felt light-headed. The creature stepped toward him, slowly approaching, step by step, it reached out, its mechanical claw brushing Shep’s quivering face and as it did the creatures form began to melt away. It melted away quickly, its metal parts and its flesh turning to liquid which vanished before hitting the floor, and after a few seconds all that was left of it was a small ant impatiently clicking its fangs at a bewildered Shep “…Anthony?”