The price of vengeance

Like a thief in the night, Kato crept out of the wretched hole he’d called home for the last few days.

The joyous laughter of the blursons echoed through the narrow space he’d been kept in. In his past life Kato had done a lot of things to survive, stealing, arson, cheating at cards. He smiled ruefully; cheating had been the most dangerous of the lot.

But he’d never killed anybody. He had seen no reason to, ‘you can’t profit off the dead’ had always been his motto. Yet now a strikingly similar thought loomed in his mind.

“You can’t profit if you’re dead.” So similar, and yet it was worlds apart.

A small nagging sensation at the back of his skull, whispered to him. ‘They don’t need to die, if you do this, there is no going back.’ If it had just been him, maybe he’d have listened, his eyes traced the poker’s motionless body.

Perhaps he’d have just left, hit the road and never looked back.

His eyes skimmed a bare patch in her matted and torn fur, a brutal scab weeping in a place that had been healthy and vibrant just days before.

‘I can’t leave now,’ he shook off the nerves, ‘it’s far too personal.’

Resolved he crept further ahead, letting his body lie flat to the wall of the wagon as he inched forwards.

Whoever had said revenge was a dish best served cold was a fool, Kato’s anger could not be abated with time. Do victims truly get justice if the predator that victimized them is taken down years later?

Maybe time heals all wounds, or maybe it just lets them fester.

Kato was not prepared to find out the truth. He stepped forward.

CHINK! A sharp metallic sound broke the relative silence. Kato’s foot had brushed against the tankard that had been left there so carelessly on the floor, sending it ricocheting off the curved cloth walls, narrowly missing a supporting wooden beam.

It lay pressed against the aged cloth, dully gleaming in the small sunlight that did filter through.

Kato paused, his body tensing.

The blursons laughter reached him again.

They hadn’t heard or hadn’t cared. Either way it didn’t matter much. Kato was coming and nothing would stop him.

He turned the corner, the dull, gloomy interior of the wagon he’d been trapped in faded away into the dusky light of a day’s end.

The blursons were ahead of him, sprawled out, without a care in the world. Some strange beasts carting them and the wagon behind them.

Kato had no idea where they got them from, they were easily the size of a horse, but with wide pale green antlers jutting from their head, a strange misshapen lump adorned both the creature’s backs.

A saddle, carved from faded, brown, leather and adorned with a swirling gold filament lay across their backs. Loose straps had been haphazardly slung around the creature’s waists before arcing back up and nestling into slots in the saddle.

Three blursons sat on each mount, resting on their opulence.

There were six of them in total now. Kato didn’t know where the rest had come from nor did he particularly care. ‘Just means more to take care of.’

One of the blursons kicked out viciously, a spurred heel dug into the side of its mount.

Another threw back its head, letting out a brash, guttural laugh that echoed through the evening air.

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Kato recoiled, his stomach churning with shock.

‘Was this what they had been laughing about? Hurting innocent creatures?’ A bitter astringent taste filled his mouth.

“CRAAHHH” the creature cried out, its head turning and staring back at its attacker.

He clenched his fists, ‘they are monsters.’

The beast had a thick misshapen trunk and two large ears, easily as wide as its head. Its eyes were large and pitch-black eyes, one pierced by a sharp, cold calculating yellow slit, while the other was split by a wide milky white spreading from its centre. A thin blurred line of grey separated the milky pupil from the soulless black surrounding it.

It blinked slowly.

A pale, pinkish scar, reminiscent of a whip mark, segmented the eyelid that overlapped its blind eye. Thick drooping eyelashes struggled to conceal the mark, but ultimately failed.

With a low yawn, it opened its mouth wide, the sharp canines of a predator on full display.

The beast stared the blurson down, hatred evident in its working eye, as if a look alone could take its tormentor down.

Kato shivered, his earlier pity evaporating. What sort of monster had the blursons found?

‘Doesn’t look so innocent now.’ He gulped.

The blurson kicked again.

Kato flinched.

The blurson made a shooing motion with his hand.

Three tonnes of pure muscle made a slow, lumbering turn.

‘Good,’ Kato thought to himself, then immediately felt guilty, no matter its appearance it was still just an animal, no less trapped than he had been.

Kato stared for a moment, just looking into the distance, his eyes unfocused and his mouth hung, agape. if the blursons had control of such a monster, what could they do to him.

The beast pawed the ground angrily, its cloven hoof sending dust particulates flying to the air.

The wagon suddenly lurched forwards as the cords lashing the beast to the vehicle went taught, its companion stopped ruminating over the mouthful of dark, green, grass it had snagged during the whole ordeal and strode forwards.

The wagon lurched again.

Kato went tumbling.

The front of the wagon tilted down.

Kato desperately flung his arms to his side wheeling them frantically.

‘No! Not when I’m so close,’ he thought desperately,

Panic clawed at his throat, as he hurtled ever closer to the ground.

He pushed off his heels, forcing himself backwards, with what little momentum he could gather.

It was not enough.

Kato fell off the edge.

Thud!

Six pairs of eyes spun back. The laughter stopped, amusement shifting towards something much more sinister.

Kato looked up, his hand stung nastily from their impact with the ground, but that wasn’t important now.

A blurson jumped from its mount.

“//////???//???” The words were guttural and spat in that same foreign dialect.

Kato briefly considered engaging with the creature. No that wasn’t right it was a monster. He shrugged off the desire, it wouldn’t get to justify itself, change his mind, not now. The man-made beast was unworthy of a second look, let alone a response.

He spat to the side.

“Bring it on” he muttered under his breath, his left arm beckoning the blurson forward.

It hesitated, glancing at its compatriots before bursting into laughter. The sharp mocking trill pierced the air, and the other blursons still seated, lowered their hastily raised spears. The tips lazily tangled towards the ground.

“That laughter…” Kato shook his head; black spots filling his vision. His heart pounded and he shook violently, hands clenching and unclenching to the frantic rhythm. A sudden rushing filled his ears, and he heard nothing more.

“Monsters” Kato hissed under his breath, he didn’t even hear himself say it, yet the word resonated with him, nonetheless.

He lunged forward, images of wooden bars, bloodied scrunched fur and blinded, scarred creatures filling his vision.

And still they laughed.

With a primal roar his fist struck. Once. Twice. Again, and again. Too many times to count.

Kato stood tall, his heart beating uncontrollably in his ears as the broken body of the blurson lay ahead of him.

Reaching down with a callous glare, his hand grasped its neck. With an animalistic grunt, he lifted the monstrous being from the ground, his other hand clasping its fully formed tusk. He spun it viciously to the side.

With an audible snap its size was halved to match the other.

Kato dropped the body. Kato smiled, brutality coursed through his veins, and he liked it.

Another blurson dropped to the ground, it raised its spear and charged towards him, their companions following closely behind.

Kato barrelled forward; with a vicious right he sent the spear spiralling from its still clenched hands. Kato’s left hand met its neck, lifting it above the ground.

“You think you can just hurt those creatures… hurt the poker! HURT ME!” he screamed the words, spittle flying into the blurson’s face.

Its hands grasped at his desperately clawing at him. With each passing he could feel his control slipping, a red mist consuming him.

Long gouges from dirty, blackened and broken nails crisscrossed his wrists. But he did not care. He did not stop.

“You’re going to pay” he screamed,

The blurson’s mouth began frothing, a yellowish foam spilt out of cracked lips.

Kato didn’t notice the foul smell of death, he had long since been driven past human sensations.

The blursons eyes rolled back in its head, its body tensing and going rigid beneath him

“This one’s for the knot.” He growled. Clenching his hand. The blurson’s head jerked back and then fell limp, dangling uselessly at its side.

Kato dropped it, breathing heavily, adrenaline coursing through him.

The four blursons roared as one and charged.