The Chronicles of Jaymie and Orion I

The Reason for Revenge

I, Jaymie, have decided to write down what has happened to me. If anything, to keep me in knowledge of my goal. If my hatred or desire ever lets up I simply have to read back and remember why I am doing what I am doing.

To the future Jaymie, if you have for some reason given up on your duty. DO NOT. Nothing else in this world matters more than your revenge. Make them all suffer, show no mercy, show no kindness.

3rd Moon of the fifth, 34 HT – Reinchurch Village

I was walking down the dirt road back to the village, the sun was bearing down on me, summer had well and truly come and sweat was soaking my brown ragged top. The two heavy logs in my hands didn’t help either with the heat, however I knew if I wasn’t back soon then mother would kill me.

“Jaymie!” I heard being called, I turned my head and saw Sammy running over to me.

Sammy was the beauty of Reinchurch. Ever unmarried man in our village were doing their best to claim her, however for some reason she never accepted an offer.

As she ran over her long red hair bounced around, slightly covering her pale, beautiful face. She wore a white top and brown pants, I spotted some mud on her, I guessed she had been doing some work with her brothers.

“Sammy, you okay?” I asked her, stopping walking. Although the weight of the logs in my hands made my arms feel numb, I did my best to hide the pain as to not embarrass myself in front of this beauty.

“Yeah, your mother got you collected wood again I see.” She said with a little laugh as she came to a halt near to me.

I marvelled at her sculpted face, the gods truly spent a great deal when crafting her.

“Yeah, what’ve you been doing today?” I asked her, shifting the weight from the logs from one hand to the other.

“Joel’s had me fetching water from the well.” She said, her smile holding me in a trance.

Joel being her eldest brother, he was twenty four years of age, six years my elder. He was also the biggest and strongest man in the village. The very rare occasions an unwanted person stumbles their way into Reinchurch he is the one that dealt with it.

“Fair enough, you going back now?” I asked her.

“Yeah, mind if I walk with you?” She replied.

My heart felt like it stopped that she was going to walk back with me, I wasn’t the biggest, strongest or smartest man in the village, however right now it seemed that Sammy wanted to spend time with me.

“Of course” I told her, although I was ecstatic to spend time with her, my arms were dying holding these logs and I didn’t know if I could hide the pain for the whole walk.

“Great.” She said then ran off, grabbed the wooden bucket of water from the side and joined me yet again.

We continued our walk back to the village, luckily the wooden houses weren’t far. I could already hear the sound of the little ones playing in the street.

Surrounding us both were green fields, many filled with grain crops and a handful of trees. It was thick oak that grew here, enough to have built our simple village, yet not enough that we can chop them down in bulk.

“So, are you going to the party tomorrow night?” She asked me.

As much as I wanted to pay her the attention she deserved, my main focus was not on dropping these logs.

“Yeah.” I quickly grunted out, the gods must’ve been laughing down on me at that moment.

“Are you… are you going with anyone?” She asked me, not that I noticed as the pain in my arms grew too great and I dropped the logs onto the ground.

“Dam!” I shouted as one clipped my toe.

“Jaymie, are you okay?” She asked me, noticing the limp in my right foot.

“I’m fine, sorry.” I said to her, trying to calmly brush off the pain, “I’ll erm, catch up with you later?” I said, not wanting her to see me embarrass myself any more.

“Okay, yeah, see you later.” She said and gave me one last smile before walking away.

As she went smaller into the distance and reached the village I rubbed my painful foot and let out a little moan of agony.

It took me a few minutes, but eventually I picked the logs back up and walked back into the village. Chastising myself the entire way for acting so dumb in front of the most amazing woman in the world.

When I reached home, I slammed the door shoot with my door and threw the logs into the middle of the room.

“Don’t dump them there!” My mother shouted at me.

I looked across and saw that she was brushing the dirt around. I never knew why she brushed so much, everything was dirt, brushing didn’t seem to do anything.

“Do you know how heavy they are?!” I shouted back at her, annoyed at how painful my arms and foot felt as well as being humiliated in front of Sammy.

“Do not speak to your mother that way!” I suddenly heard my dad’s voice call out. He emerged from their bedroom door and marched over to me.

I was fearful of my father, but at that moment I too annoyed to care.

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“I’m sick of doing these stupid jobs like collecting wood!” I shouted at him.

“You have to earn you keep if you are to stay in our house young man.” My father firmly told me.

I looked up at him, I wasn’t small, but he was still taller than me.

“I don’t want to stay here,” I told him, “This village, it’s so dull, I want more.”

“Your father and I have worked hard to build a nice home for you here.” My mother said and I felt her hand caress my back, she obviously didn’t like how worked up I had gotten myself.

“That’s good for you two,” I told her and stepped back so her hand was no longer on me, “But it’s not enough for me. I’ve never even gone further than a mile from the village centre!”

“You should count yourself lucky,” My father said and sat down on the wooden chair, “Do you know how many stories we hear from traders of troubles around Somerled? Wars, beasts, death and torture.”

“It’s better than just existing here.” I told him.

Although I had regularly daydreamed of going on an adventure and seeing the world, I never thought I actually would. I was just angry and taking out on my poor parents.

“That’s enough,” My father said and stood up, making me take a step backwards in fear, “Go to your room now and do not come out until you are ready to apologise.”

I didn’t even reply, instead I gave off a grunt and went to my small room. Dark wooden walls with just a single table and a small bed that I planted myself upon.

For hours I sat there, anger running through my mind. At one point I stood up with the intention of packing a few things, running away and never looking back. However, I quickly realised what a ridiculous idea that was.

By the time night fell I was growing bored out of my mind, I could hear my mother and father talking outside and people from the village in the streets.

Right, come on, this is stupid now. Just apologise. I thought to myself.

Then.

“HELP!!” I heard being screamed outside from a woman’s voice.

In an instance I jumped up from my bed and burst through the door. I saw my mother and father sat with panic in their eyes looking at me.

“What was that?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” My father said and then walked towards the front door.

“STOP!” Another woman’s screamed outside.

When we stepped into the street the night sky made everything hard to see, only the moon and stars gave light. As I looked around I could see other people from the village coming out of their houses to see what was happening.

Then, a sight that stopped my heart appeared from the main hall. Our Mayor stumbled through the door with blood covering his entire body.

It took a moment for me to acknowledge it, but his right arm had been cut clean off and blood was spurting from him onto the dirt ground. The Mayor was letting out a few little grunts and wheezes and then he flopped onto the ground.

I can still see the image of his body slightly twitching on the ground as a pool of blood formed around him.

When I turned to see my father, his face had turned a deathly pale, something I had never seen from him before.

Suddenly the door that the mayor came from flew off of the wall, it soared across the street and hit old lady Janet. I could only assume that a wooden door at that force killed her instantly.

What is going on?! I remember thinking.

Then the sound of wood cracking and flying through the air felt like it burst my ear drums, followed by a high pitched, evil screech.

Emerging from the now hole in the main hall was something I couldn’t make up in my darkest thoughts.

The first thing I can remember seeing is the big, bright red eyes burning through the night sky. As my sight adjusted I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.

This beast, the only way I could think to describe it. It was as tall as two men, stood on two legs which looked to be as thick as the strongest black oak tree. The beasts’ arms were a reach as long as a horse. Considering its thick legs, this monsters arms were surprisingly slender. At the end of each arm the beast had four fingers, each long and spindly with claws at the tip, sharp enough to pierce steel. It seemed to be covered in a grey and black, wispy fur. Its face looked to be that of a wolf with fangs poking from the top gums out of its lips.

I had never even heard of such a beast existing. My heart felt like it had stopped at the mere sight of such a thing. What had the gods sent to us? I questioned.

I witnessed thick, crimson blood dripping from its fangs and covering its chest. For a few seconds this beats chest heaved up and down as it scanned the village road.

It seemed as though the entire world went silent, there were dozens of people from the village stood staring at this thing. Wondering what it was going to do next. No one dared approach it.

When it stepped forward, a loud thud echoed through the night sky and I heard a woman’s shriek.

All I could hear was my heart beating out of my chest as my eyes locked onto his curse. Whatever it was, took a few more steps into the street. Then, its eyes honed in. I could see it had sharpened its vision and when I turned my head to see what at, I saw Sammy.

Without missing a beat this monster strode towards her and I heard a few people let out screams.

The lumber, Marc, didn’t move out of the way quick enough and this beast easily hit him with the back of its hand. The claws were sharp enough that I witnessed Marc almost cut in half.

In my entire life I had never seen someone die before, yet I had just witnessed it happen twice.

Inside I knew I should do something, but I was just frozen solid, as though my body had no control.

“Noooooo!!” I heard a scream, the voice, it was Sammy’s.

As I looked back at the beast it had scooped Sammy into it’s claws and held her into the sky. I knew I was about to watch it kill the woman of my dreams. Yet, it just stared at her.

This horrible, beast stood perfectly still as it looked at Sammy and no one did anything. Everyone, including me, just watched, helplessly.

This monster was acting as though there were no people around it when it started to casually walk away, towards the edge of the village. Instead of trying to stop this thing from stealing Sammy, the people of the village just stepped aside as to not get in it’s way.

That was until Sammy’s older brother Joel came running out of the, albeit small, armoury. Armoury would be a stretch, being a small village it had a handful of bows and blunt blades. Nonetheless, Joel charged at the monster and roared with his heaviest breath.

Before he even got close, the dark monster simply batted it’s hand and struck Joel, sending him soaring through the air and crashing back into the dirt road. I could just hear him letting out deep grunts and moans of pain.

The entire village remained perfectly silent as we watched it carry Sammy away, the only sounds coming from her screams for help that were never met.

And then, it disappeared into the night and the distance. Whatever it was got what it wanted with Sammy and left.

“Joel!” Suddenly his mother called out and ran across the street to help him to his feet.

From the sound of his wheezing and his state he looked to be in a great deal of pain.

“What are you all doing?” He whimpered out, “Go and get her.”

“Save your energy Joel,” His mother said to him, “You need to get to bed and get the doctor to look at you.”

“No,” He grunted out, he tried to push away from his mother but he fell to the ground, “We need to get Sammy.”

“Shhh, come on.” His mother said and picked him up.

Joel kept shouting about getting Sammy as his mother helped him back to their wooden house.

Once the door shut the village was silent yet again, everyone just kept looking at each other, confused and frightened over what had happened.

I couldn’t believe what happened to me, fear had completely taken over my being. I just stood there and did nothing as Sammy was taken for who knew what.

After a few minutes, some of the villagers took charge in picking up the Mayor and the two parts of Marc that were on the ground and took them to be buried. It was strange how quickly people just disappeared into their houses, as though nothing had happened.

When I returned home with my mother and father my head was spinning.

“What was that thing?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” My mother said with tears streaming down her face, “It was… horrible.”

“What was it doing here?” I asked.

“We don’t know son!” My father suddenly shouted at me, “Who knows why the gods sent it here!”

“We can’t just do nothing!” I shouted back at him, I wasn’t angry at my father, I was angry at myself for doing nothing, for being a coward.

“What do you expect us to do?” My father asked.

“I don’t know, something!” I shouted and marched into my own room and slammed the door.