Hvethrungr here!
So, my first chapter is finally done...
I've been in a bit of a motivational slump lately, so if you're fans of mine (what am I saying, I don't have fans!), I apologize. There should be a new schedule and chapter posted for ANUC tomorrow.
This is a LIGHTLY edited chapter. It is subject to heavy change depending on what I want to do to it later.
I'll talk to Aaron later about syncing up title format.
Happy reading!
PS. The Red Scorpions are a real gang in the Vancouver area. I do my research ;)
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A small fist slammed into the side of David’s face, causing a fleshy smack.
“Fuck!”
The punch sent David’s head flinging to the side. Before he could react, another came from the opposite direction, a similar noise sounding out.
“Damnit!”
The boy punching him was a self proclaimed gangster named Teddy O’Donnel, self proclaimed only because he was twelve years old. His father, a well known executive of the Red Scorpions gang, had been trying to get him into the lucrative family business of drug trafficking for years.
Teddy wore a tight gray shirt and baggy pants, with a flat brimmed hat showing off various gang symbols. On his neck, was a red and black ‘R.S.’ tattoo. The school had almost suspended him for that one, but his father had pulled some strings.
Restraining him at either side were Teddy’s lackeys, Roy and Jimmy Goldstein. They weren’t the brightest kids around, but that’s the reason Teddy had roped them in in the first place. Teddy on the other hand, was a classic, grade-A sociopath. David knew this for a fact. He had done his research.
The three wannabe thugs had been harassing David ever since he made his debut at Mt. Lehman Elementary School three months ago. It was a regular occurrence in the past, David’s family had been rather poor even before his father died, leaving him no choice but to attend seedier schools. Often, students were a part of, or related to some gang or another in those areas.
Mt. Lehman was actually the nicest school David had been to thus far, courtesy of his mom’s new job as a secretary. They had been able to move to Abbotsford, British Columbia, and with the move came a new school. David was happy with the lower number of delinquents. Normally it was 6+ against one.
Another fist came streaking towards him.
“Guh!”
That one had been in his gut. David glared at Teddy menacingly, desperately trying to struggle out of his bonds. Unfortunately for him, what the Goldstein brothers lacked in smarts, they made up for in brute strength.
Teddy grinned at him with a crazed glint in his eye.
“What’s the matter, bastard boy, hit me! Come on!”, he said tauntingly, laughing. The Goldstein brothers laughed along with him, but it was doubtful they knew what half the words he said meant.
“Sorry, care-bear, I don’t hit girls or the mentally disabled.”, David shot back, a bead of blood dripping from his split lip.
“Che”, Teddy let out, and punched him in the liver.
David tensed up. That one had hurt.
“What did you call me, fatherless? I could’a sw-”.
David stopped listening. One of the brothers holding him on the right, Roy or Jimmy, David didn’t care which, had moved his right hand from his forearm to his collar, leaving him free to move his arm up to the elbow.
Taking the opportunity, David twisted left, yanking on the both of them. He grabbed the boy’s hand on his collar, putting his thumb in between the other boy’s thumb and index finger, and twisted his hand right, whilst pushing down.
“OW!”, he yelled, as the pressure on his wrist became unbearable.
His grip on David loosened, and David let go of the boy’s wrist, pushing back on his chest while kicking out at his knees sideways.
While the boy on his right was falling, David managed a headbutt against the other boy, before a kick slammed into his chest, pushing him back. He rolled backwards on the soft grass, and barely lifted his head before a knee slammed into it.
David rolled back again, and instinctively swung his elbow behind him, feeling a solid hit against flesh.
Scrambling to his feet, he saw Teddy holding his cheek and glaring at him hatefully. Behind him, the two thug brothers were slowly getting to their feet, one cradling his head while the other his wrist.
Before they could recover properly, David looked frantically for an escape route.
His eyes flashed left, then right. There!
After a short run across the small field, he could jump the neighbors fence.
David immediately sprinted for it, hearing a “Fuck!” behind him and feet pounding around the wind in his ears.
Soon he reached the tall wooden fence, feeling as if he would be tacked any second. With a huge jump, he grabbed the top edge of it, and scrambled up the rest of the way.
Less than half a second later, something large slammed into the fence, shaking him off to the other side, and he fell to freedom.
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David’s feet slammed into the asphalt hard, his cheap dress shoes making a loud clack. He spared a quick glance upwards, noticing that, while the gangsters on his tail were running down the fire escape stairs as fast as they could, they weren’t quite crazy enough to jump down the outside of it.
Not as crazy as David.
Fortunately for him, his dangerous move paid off.
With the little time he had bought himself, David couldn’t resist shouting up at them, “Sorry, kids, I’ve got a bus to catch!”
He pushed strongly off the asphalt and sprinted off down the alleyway, the jacket of his discount suit fluttering in the wind. Behind him, various colourful curses rang out, echoing in the small alleyway.
David made ground quickly, and before the first thug had even reached the street, he was around the corner of the building, losing himself within the crowd.
As soon as he was out of sight, David pulled out a red baseball cap and a blue windbreaker from his backpack. He managed to put on his new attire and stuff his suit jacket into the pack just before the colorful thugs blasted around the corner, shoving people around and looking for him furiously.
“Where the hell are you, you slippery cunt! When we find you, you’re dead! You hear me!? Fucking dead!”, one of them yelled into the air. As people began noticing the scorpion tattoos on their bodies, they started to give a wide berth around the gangsters. Everyone knew not to mess with the Red Scorpions.
“Too close...”, David muttered, pulling his hat over his face. “I guess I won’t be job hunting around here for awhile. Though, I could probably run those Reds out of town right quick.” He gave a confident grin at the thought.
As he walked calmly away, David looked up at the cloudy Vancouver sky, and sighed. He was twenty two already, and still without a job. Granted, not many employers would hire a person who came in with bruises and torn clothes. He certainly had a knack for pissing off the wrong people. He figured it was mostly a mixture of rude remarks, and an inability to care where those remarks landed him.
It wasn’t that he went looking for trouble, it was just the way things went sometimes.
When his father died when he was eight, he was forced to find some sort of coping mechanism. Most people might have taken up a hobby, gotten into the wrong crowd at school, or they might have even turned to alcohol or drugs, destroying their bodies while their minds healed.
David had turned into a rude and apathetic ass to everyone except his mother.
To be accurate, the rudeness was the coping mechanism he came up with. The apathy came later, after spending years in a heavy, deep depression.
The death of his father was only the start. His attitude, the very shield he created to protect himself, was only burying him deeper in the abyss. Everyone he met; children, adults, teachers, parents, they were all repulsed by him. It was the loneliest time of his life.
Even while he pushed away the people around him, these dark feelings grew in his mind. They churned and clashed with debilitating strength, oftentimes leaving him bed stricken and lethargic.
Why do people have to die?
Why do we live, if all that awaits us is death?
What do I even live for?
Questions like these swirled around in David’s mind; threatening, needy, unanswered. He began to think of suicide, an escape to the seemingly never ending cycle.
He considered it often, spending hours staring at his ceiling pondering, deliberating over whether it was alright to keep going on. It was an option in his mind, certainly. If the exit could not be found, he would just have to make his own.
For what seemed like an eternity, David kept these thoughts and feelings locked up inside, plastering on a mask of certainty and confidence to those around him. They roiled and groaned, growled and coiled, threatening to spill out until eventually, he couldn’t hold it back. The very essence of what made him who he was, his humanity, was cracking.
Shortly after his tenth birthday, a short affair with naught but a cupcake and a song, he gained an epiphany.
He didn’t care.
He didn’t care why people die, didn’t care what his purpose was. If he couldn’t find one, he would just do whatever he wanted.
Why should he, when the world didn’t care about him?
The only one who had ever really cared for him were his parents. Why should he care about the world if he didn’t get the same in return?
The cracks faded. The turbulent storm in his mind withered away, beaten back under the onslaught of his newfound strength. He was free.
However, he had to sacrifice a part of himself to beat back the beast.
From that moment on, David was born anew. No longer human, but something else. Sure, he looked the same, his body did not change, but his mind was different, something new. No more, no less. Simply, different. To him, a human’s life was equivalent to that of any other animal. Only his own, and his mother’s safety mattered.
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He cared not about relationships, emotions, or conflict. He knew what he enjoyed, and lived his way as such. Fighting, cooking, chemistry, his hobbies became his life’s purpose, and he welcomed this lifestyle with open arms.
Unfortunately, human society would not let him simply live his life thusly for free. He had to get some kind of job, and to David’s eyes, what better job than doing something he liked?
For the last four years, David had been pursuing a degree in chemical and biological engineering at the University of British Columbia. The workload was nothing to scoff at, but without the social interaction of a normal student, he was able to finish everything without much problem. David had found little challenge learning the new material, he had spent long hours sharpening his wits during high school.
With his toxic personality, he had avoided expensive hobbies like video games or fashion, and was left only with school, and the little he could do at home. This boiled down to cooking for him and his mom, and chemistry, his favourite subject.
For a time, David had done nothing but read about the culinary arts and the science of chemistry. The library near his house was practically his second home, he was there so often. The librarians dreaded his frequent visits.
These days, David didn’t do much except study, avoid gangs, and advance his cooking skill as best he could with what little money he had. Without a job, David was forced to live on what little money his mother sent his way. The scholarships he had won payed only for his small apartment and tuition.
David hopped on a bus around the corner, and soon found himself in his dingy apartment. After a short dinner of homemade alfredo tortellini, he brushed his teeth and tossed himself into his bed, thoroughly exhausted.
His consciousness faded, drifting into a restless sleep.
David opened his eyes.
The air was thick with ash and dirt, swirling uncontrollably in the hot, dry breeze. In the distance, a great range of mountains towered into the dark sky, several spewing red hot magma that pooled at the base. Overhead, sinister storm clouds roiled and swirled impossibly fast, red lightning flashing through the overcast. He listened, but thunder was nonexistent.
The place was quiet, unnaturally so. The land did not rumble as it should from the eruptions, the thunderheads did not clap.
His foot moved slightly, the scrape of rock deafening against the stillness of the land.
David stood there for a moment, taking it in. In the back of his mind, perhaps he was aware it was a dream.
Something woke him from his reverie. When he thought back on it later, he couldn’t be sure what exactly it was; a whisper of wind behind him, the slight shuffle of rocks, a sense of danger maybe.
David dived to the left, feeling a huge rush of air and an explosion blast through the place he was just standing, pelting him with rocks. The rough lava stone scraped against his body, leaving bloody scratches and gashes against his almost nude body as he rolled on the ground.
Quickly, he scrambled to his feet, and whirled to face his attacker. Before him was a breathtaking, awe inspiring sight. At this divine scene, as he stood in naught but his undergarments, he couldn’t help but let out a word of biblical wonderment.
“Fuck, dude, what kind of drugs did you take to get muscles that big?”
Indeed, before him was a mountain of a man, easily eight feet tall and thicker than a professional body builder. An unkept, short beard framed a square, primal face. His long, wild hair fluttered in the wind, giving him a feral appearance. In his hands he held a massive claymore, embedded deeply into the volcanic rock. A faint red aura was exuded from his eyes and around his body.
The man, who previously wore a serious expression, suddenly broke out in a wide smile and let go of his sword, leaving it sticking out of the stone. A deafening blast rang out as he clapped his meaty hands, causing a shockwave to hit David, nearly knocking him over.
“Congratulations!”, the man said in an oddly high pitched voice. “Not many mortals can dodge my first strike so perfectly, or even at all! I, Bruno, Deias of war, battle, and strength, hereby pronounce you, David Jon Tailor, to be our candidate for championship!”
David stared at him for a moment, before saying, “Does it come with health benefits? I’m kind of desperate for a job right now, but I do like to keep my teeth clean.”
Bruno, Deias of war, battle, and strength, did not so much as twitch. However, his body did turn into shimmering particles of light. In fact, the whole dreamscape started to disintegrate slowly.
When only Bruno’s gigantic feet were left, his strangely pitched voice rang out once again.
”You will soon meet my companion in the mortal realm. I hope that you will consider our offer, David Jon Tailor.”
“Listen man, as long as the pay is decent, you’ve got me hooked.”, David replied sarcastically, a smirk on his face. Even in the face of godly smiting, his snide nature was undeterred.
Before his final words hand been said, David himself began turning into motes of light, starting from his hands. It moved up his arms, to his shoulders, and when it began to eat into his head, everything went black.
David opened his eyes.
And found himself looking at a familiar ceiling. His alarm was blaring loudly, the clock showing 6:31 AM.
He rolled out of bed groggily and began putting on some casual clothing. He had a lecture in the morning today, and didn’t intend to miss it, even if he was tired enough to pass out halfway through.
Despite getting over 9 hours of sleep the night before, David felt like he had hardly slept at all.
“Weird...”, he mumbled. “I can remember the whole thing perfectly. I don’t normally remember dream at all, let alone remember them so clearly the morning after.”
David sighed and moved into the kitchen, barely keeping his eyes from shutting. He had planned on making a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage, but he felt it was probably a bad idea. He didn’t feel very hungry, and was tired enough that he’d probably fall asleep in the eggs, so he grabbed a simple piece of toast instead, and slathered it with liberal amounts of blueberry jam.
David grabbed his laptop case and stuck the toast in his mouth before trudging out the door dejectedly.
His apartment building, a dingy little thing that must have been at least a decade old, was located in the sketchier part of downtown. The roads were thin and riddled with cracks and potholes, though to the car-less David it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. What was annoying was the fact that the nearest bus stop was two miles away, and the ride to UBC was twenty minutes long. Fortunately, David had lived in the area for four years, and knew all of the shortcuts.
He shuffled out the heavy front door of the building and took a right, turning around the corner and into a long dirty alleyway. He was a few meters in when he began hearing a weird bird call. To David, it sounded like a seagull that had a really bad cold.
Suddenly there was a rush of air above his head, and a black crow looking bird landed on the metal fence on his right.
“Shit, you almost took my damn head off, you asshole crow!”, David said to the bird accusingly.
The bird snorted, and replied in a feminine voice, “Hmph, this form is a proud raven, you ignorant mortal. Do not mistake me for one of those of lower life forms.”
David glared at the raven, and said, “I don’t care what the hell you are, be careful where you’re flying!”
With a final annoyed glance at the bird, David continued on his way.
The raven turned it’s head slowly to watch him, and when he was a few meters away, it took off, and landed on his shoulder. David sighed, but let it have its perch.
The raven stared at him curiously.
“Most mortals would be more shocked at the appearance of an avian creature able to communicate.”, it said in a deadpan voice.
“Well, hey, maybe I’m not most mortals. I’ve almost definitely got a few screws loose if I’m talking to a bird. Maybe this is all a hallucination due to sleep deprivation.”, David replied.
“While you are certainly more extraordinary than most mortals, I assure you that I am quite real.”, the raven said, unblinking.
David shrugged, nearly shaking the raven off his shoulder, and said, “That’s what a hallucination would say. How are you gonna prove to me that you’re telling the truth?”
The raven squawked, and ruffled it’s feathers. “Very well. I will teleport you to your place of learning. However, my power in this realm is limited, and this feat will drain me. I may not be able to perform any more miracles afterwards.”, it said after a moment.
David stopped and looked at it without much expectation. “Go on then. It’ll save me the bus ride at least.”, he said.
The raven spread it’s wings, and a slight buzzing sound began around them. The air began to distort, and when the buzzing was almost unbearably loud, it suddenly stopped, and David was somewhere else.
More specifically, the roof of his university building.
David stared out at the skyline from his new vantage point for a moment, then checked his watch.
Six thirty nine. One minute after he left his apartment.
“Huh.”, he said. “Thanks. You saved me a dollar seventy five in bus fare.”
The raven sighed. It looked visibly worn out, head drooping, wings limp.
“I am Unora, Deias of wisdom and shadow, it would do you well not to mistake me as a simple transportation service. I will not be doing this again.”, Unora said tiredly.
“Coolio. I guess you’re that muscle dude from last night’s pal, huh?”, asked David.
“Indeed. Bruno and I are companions. We are here to take you to another world.”, Unora said flatly.
David paused.
“So you are a transportation service!”