The monster had ripped through the village, devastation following like a shadow. A tall woman in black armor walked through the destroyed village; the scent of lake rot, and old blood reaching her nose. The moan of timber giving way could be heard from streets away. She kept her hand on her sword and her shield at the ready, as old scars ached like a long healed break on an old sailor. The black liquid splashed on the buildings and ground said that the villagers had made the beast bleed, the corpses that they paid for it with their lives. Vaska knelt down next to the body of what was probably once the village blacksmith, large muscles evident on what remained of his arm. The cut on the shoulder seemed to be the oldest wound, so she checked that one first. It was a clean cut like it had been created by a knife instead of claws or horn, the edges were dark and black veins burrowed like worms through flesh. She closed his eyes, it didn’t erase the look of agony upon his face. The only solace to be had was that he had died as himself.

Somewhere in the village, there was a scream. In one motion, she surged to her feet and started to run toward the source. There was a boy, trying to crawl backwards away from a jerking, and thrashing body that had sprouted long, delicate, and gleaming spider legs from it's back. Muscles twitched under the skin, and the spiders legs dripped with black blood. The blood was pooling under the body, the extra legs twitched and futilely struck against the ground unable to get a grip. As Vaska charged forward, she could see that there was a massive wound that exposed the spine, black blood was seeping out and the corruption spreading out. Gnarled hands reaches for the boy.

“Get up and run!” She called out. The boy looked at her, panic widening his eyes. He didn’t move and his eyes turned back to the monster.

“Yeash, ruuunn.” Said the thing that was once a man, who must have still enough mind to warn the boy away. She knew that it wouldn’t last long, already he was losing control of his body. Vaska stabbed into him, pinning him to the ground, the boy letting out a small scream as she did so.

She walked over and pulled the boy to his feet and shoved him away from the body. “Run, while I take care of this.” Now she could see the face of the corpse. It was still recognizable as a man’s, but the skin was peeling away from the mouth and eyes, the black blood flowing like ink. Even as Vaska watched, something started to grow in the throat and punch out, adding to the blood pool.

The boy hadn’t run, instead watching in horror. “You should have run.” Vaska said to him. She walked back over and yanked out her sword, and lopped off it's head. As the sword came down the boy made a noise and took a step toward her, before stopping.

She waited to ensure that it actually was dead, before she cleaned her blade and went to check on the boy. “Were you hurt?” She looked the boy over, he didn’t look like he was injured. She overlooked the tear trails on his face, and looked for any blood upon his clothes. “Were you hurt?” She repeated.

“No.” His eyes were still locked upon the body.

“Good. Do you know where you parents are?”

“My mother is dead.” He pointed. “My father is right there.”

She flinched, but she pushed her memories away. “I'm sorry, do you know where the rest of your people have gone?” He shook his head. “Then stay close to me, and we'll go look for them.” They left the boy's father beheaded and mutilated.

They walked though the village, passing by more bodies. Some had died where they laid, others not so lucky were going through a brief transformations before they died, either from their wounds or the improbability of their new forms. Organs sliding out slack flesh, and out of a shell that tried to save a remnant of themselves. A bold crow tried to peck at one before taking off, not even the scavengers were interested. They passes the body that must have belonged to the original monster. Vaska felt her heart rate accelerate as she saw the wounds that the villagers had inflicted upon it before it’s death, and even her iron stomach roiled as she saw that tiny limbs had started to grow from the wounds, fingers dipped into the pool of blood, As they explored the ruined village, the boy started to walk closer to her while watching the surrounding area.

A low growl came from within a house, someone had survived the transformation. “Get back. Shout if anything sneaks up on me.” Vaska said before moving forward to engage the beast as it started to leave the house. It was crawling out on all fours, the skin gleaming in the sunlight. Make that all eights, what Vaska had originally though was the arms and legs, was actually what was left of the arms with a second set sprouting from the elongated torso, a second set of legs sprouted at the hip. Thick fur was starting to sprout, but was already slicked down by blood and slime. This was one which would survive to spread the curse, and so it would have to die. When it's maddened eyes landed on Vaska, it snarled and charged. Vaska lifted her shield to deflect a slash while she got out of the way. She stabbed forward and opened up a cut in it's side. As her heart started to pound, she found a grin stretching her lips as for the first time today, she was free of pain. For more years than not, every day she was plagued with a pain that moved from her bones, to her flesh on a daily basis. It was only now in the midst of battle, with her heart thudding and breath rasping out, that the pain abated.

It whirled around and attacked her directly. She slashed at it's hands and it grasped or tried to punch her. On the next blow it landed upon her shield shoved her back, the impact caused some loose skin to come off revealing the changes that were starting to take place, the muscle was growing too large for the skin to contain it, splitting it open. Along the hands the muscle and skin were starting to grow back from the injury, with the bone being covered by a talon.

She did her best to dodge each swipe as it attacked, each blow creating a whine in the air. When it had a moment when it seemed to be confused by it's many limbs she took advantage, lunging forward and stabbing it in the throat. A roar turned into a chocked gurgle. It thrashed around but she stayed back out of the way of the flailing limbs, when it stopped and when she was sure that it wasn’t a trick she cut off it’s head. She cleaned it off her sword and looked around for the boy, she had to find out what his name was. Wisely he had cleared out to behind a building to hide.

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“Why did this happen?” The boy was looking around at all of the dead bodies and destroyed home.

“That's what I'm here to find out.” Vaska said. Keeping her eyes out for anymore that would come to attack. They walked through the village looking for a sign of any other survivors.

“There was never any chance of saving Father was there?” He said, his tone flat and barely masking the crack in it.

“No. There is no cure for the Black Curse yet.” At this the boy fell silent and when Vaska looked over at him she could see his face twisted contemplatively.

“What's your name?”

“Thomas.” They walked in silence together, the boy thinking and Vaska fighting back memories of previous villages, of one specific previous village.

Eventually they found traces of the people that had escaped and they followed. They had started to hide out by the hills, where there were large boulders to hide behind. She approached them, then stopped two yards away with the boy, Thomas.

“All the monsters are gone now.” Best to keep it simple, she thought as Vaska called out. Not every one was understanding sympathetic to the survivors.

The leader an older but not old man poked his head out and then walked over to them. “Are you sure, are you sure that it is over?”

“It is for now.” Vaska replied, but the elder's attention had turned to Thomas. The boy was staring at him.

“We thought you were dead, Thomas.” The elder said to Thomas. He just nodded. Vaska tested the sharpness of a tooth with her tongue as the watched the byplay. She hated to get involved with things that didn’t involve her, taking care of the outbreaks of the Black Curse was one thing, village politics were another.

“Were any of your people scratched or cut by them?” The elder looked up confused.

“No, no one wounded.” Vaska didn’t believe him, and made a note to have someone swing by in a few weeks when they might be feeling more honest.

“Do you remember how this started?”

“Yes I do.” Came a voice and another person came out. It was of a tall woman, long wavy hair pulled back into a tail. “A stranger came to town. Said that he was only staying the night” She spat. “Should have known that he would have brought something like this to us.”

“What did he do?”

“He declined our hospitality. Instead of eating a meal or getting a drink at the bar, he brought his own and ate rations, instead of our good food. He thought he was too good for us.” There was a murmur of agreement from behind her.

Vaska thanked them. He must have been a veteran of the Battle of the Blackwater and suspected that the village had been contaminated. Bad luck for the village that he had changed in this town instead of on the road, where there was less of a change of it spreading. The villagers asked her to stay for the night and protect them while they started to clean up. She agreed and helped out where she could with the clean up, mostly handling the most destroyed of the bodies piling them into a pyre.

That night Vaska was sitting by a fire, cleaning her sword and shield. The villagers had decided to sleep in the intact homes while she sat out in the open to lure any remaining monsters to her. Her arm was starting to scream from the impact earlier in the day and today her ribs were staring to complain, with a feeling like someone was taking a knitting needle and jabbing her with it right in the sternum. She was going through her pack for a vial of medicine when she realized that she wasn’t alone. The boy, Thomas, was standing by her fire, watching her, the fire cast shadows onto his face. “Take a seat.” She said to him. He flopped down and continued to watch her. She pulled out the vial and took a drink, hiding her reaction to the foul, thick liquid coating her throat, waiting for the boy to say anything.

“Yet.” He said. Vaska looked over at him and raised her eyebrows. “You said that there is not a cure yet.”

“Yes, I did say that. There is a healer at the capital who is working on a cure.” She took another drink from the vial, and not even she could make a good tasting medicine.

“Then that's were I want to go.” Thomas declared, catching her off guard.

“What, why?”

“Because I'm too much of a coward to go and fight like you do,” He took a deep breath, “And I'd like to prevent more people from turning into those monsters.” He wrapped his hands around his knees, “Besides I have nothing here, they left me and Father for dead when we were attacked.”

“There is no shame in being scared in the face of that and it wouldn’t be easy, I don't even know if she is taking apprentices.” Vaska warned, she couldn’t argue with his reasons for wanting to leave. “You’ll likely be spending your first few month handling all the work that she doesn’t want to do” He stubbornly stared at her unmoved. “Does the Elder even know that your leaving?”

“Yes.” That was a surprise. “He agreed that it might be the best.” Well at least that he wasn’t running away. Vaksa felt that she should be talking him out of making this decision, but looking at him she knew that nothing she could say would change his mind.

“Then we leave in the morning.”