“What do we do with it?”
Fabius turned to stare at his comrade with a hardened gaze to those words that were uttered. He was appalled by such a thing said from his friend. It. ‘It’.
It.
As if these ‘it’s were not Human. As if these ‘it’s were nothing more than objects discarded along with the rest of the things in this forsaken place. Where the graves rose higher than the houses and the decay smelled stronger than the rotting corpses of a long-forgotten carcass.
“They are not an ‘it’.”
His comrade, Blade, had the audacity to laugh at such retort. His friend, his long-time hunting partner, fixed his gaze upon Fabius with an amused expression. It was if he could not comprehend that Fabius had the audacity to defend the idea that these things were not more than what was.
“They are already gone.” Blade raised his finger to point at the ‘it’s. “Look.”
Hidden beneath the cloud of death that slowly rose over the entire village like the morning fog huddled two ‘it’s.
Two children.
Even if he wanted to deny the words said to him, even if he wanted to think of these children as nothing more than that as children, it was obvious in their eyes that something was more to them than that. They were more than children. Or maybe less than so. Deeply, horribly, wrong. Fabius’s gaze kept upon these children as children, he himself found it difficult to maintain his usual composure as the Hunter. But not for the children, but so he could not betray the truth of his feelings to Blade. So he could not betray that he agreed with his friend’s wisdom in regards to these ‘it’s.
They were touched with a mark of something more than cruel agony of death that licked at the heels of everything else in this place. Fabius saw it in their eyes. Saw it in their barely naked bodies where the rotting cloth stuck to them as a second skin. Saw it in the gaunt expression which they stared back at him with. That these ‘it’s held the appearance of a child, but deep down in their soul weighed something more than just that. Something more horrible and diseased.
But Fabius was a Hunter. His goal was to protect the people who would be harmed by a rampaging Monster. His goal was to ensure that no harm would come to the non-Hunters who lived on this world where beasts walked. He was not a spiritual man by any means. That duty was left to the Wyverians and those of a more spiritual caliber. He had come here for a singular mission.
A mission that had failed.
But it seemed it have failed long before he and Blade had set foot on this unholy ground.
Now it was their responsibility to pick up the pieces of what was left for them. Those pieces being these two children. These two ‘it’s.
“They are children.” Fabius returned an even stare to his friend. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to be convinced of his own words the longer he stood in this horrid decay. “Only children.”
“They are touched with evil.” Blade jabbed his finger back at the two huddled shadows. “Don’t you see?”
He could see.
The children shifted beneath the rot in weird ways and their stare kept wide at the two Hunters that stood several lengths away from them. It was difficult to discern where one body ended and the other one began. A heavy grime covered the bodies of the two children which turned their skin shades of black and purple. They held one another in their arms. One was much older than the other, and it was difficult for Fabius to tell if they were related or not underneath the haze of muck and petulant fog that hazed over his eyes.
What was obvious, however, was their eyes. Both their eyes were of the same color in a way that sickened Fabius. A completely normal shade of hazel made its home in their left optical. This gave no fear. But the right optical… the right one… this one was… inhuman. It was as if these poor souls had been bestowed something upon them that was beyond the scope of Human and Monster. Beyond the veil of a great beyond through a thread of time that pulled itself thin and scratched itself over the once normal right eye. A red, piercing, horrible thing. As if a wyvern of some caliber had plucked its own eyes out and placed it inside the gaze of these poor children. As if they now shared a same sight. As if something looked through that gaze as behind a glass window that was not their own soul.
They were all wrong. Wrong in a way Fabius could not comprehend. Maybe he never would.
“No child already has evil in their heart.” Fabius stepped slightly in front of Blade. As if to protect the children from what his friend might do. He knew Blade well, but this talk of evil was unsettling. It was not like the companion he knew for so long. It was if another spoke in his stead. “We will take them with us to the next village. Perhaps there someone will know a distant relative.”
“They are evil.” Blade pointed the finger at the children once more as if to make a point. “Don’t you see it?”
“I do not see it because it is not there.” Fabius took a step forward towards his friend. He squared his shoulders and raised his chin slightly towards Blade. His friend seemed to scuttled away from the threatening disposition and crawled back into the muck. “If you do not agree with me, then stay here until the Guild Hunters arrive. But I will have no more talk of this ‘evil’.”
Blade crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Fabius. “I will stay here and pass the report along then.”
Fabius let his lips part as he drew back slightly from his friend. There was some surprise in his face that Blade would rather stay in his haunted grounds than go with him to the next village. But there was nothing else he could say to his companion. He had made the offer to his friend, which his friend took happily in response. It was strange that he rather not save these children from their doom and stay in this horrible place of disease, filth, and wasteland. Even if it was not quite as enticing to play babysitter to two traumatized children, it was better than to stick around in a horrid ground and risk a curse.
But even he could not help but gaze towards the two little bodies that hid deep beneath the rot and think to himself that maybe Blade was right about something. That something Fabius was not so certain about. That something he could not place in his heart. But one thing was for certain; it would prove difficult to escort two frightened children to another village on a four-day trek through the woods where Monsters lurked.
He returned to the children and they stared at him with their scared little eyes and filth covered bodies. It was a miracle that they were able to survive this long. Fabius could not comprehend what must have been done to survive, but he would rather not know the truth of it. From the cursory waltz through the village he had seen the mangled and diseased corpses. The torn and shredded houses from whatever Monster had seen fit to touch this place with its horrid wings of destruction. The diseased grim that seemed to clutch to this place as though it were moss or slime. It was a wasteland. A wasteland that nothing could survive within.
No one but these children.
What that Monster was that did this terrible thing, he did not know. But this horrific creature had long since disappeared to another place as evidence by how far the bodies had rotted through. The Guild would need to know about it. And he prayed that the Guild would take pity on these two poor children should there not be anyone to take them.
He heard his friend dismiss himself from Fabius. The rotten wood beneath cracked with every step of Blade’s heavy armored body. He heard his shuffling away as the rot seemed to split open to let him through back to the courtyard of the village, or rather, what was the courtyard of the village.
Slowly, Fabius reapproached the children. He held his hand out to the mass of flesh and did not shun away when the older children moved forward as an animal and hissed towards his savior. He bared his pearly white teeth and Fabius and gnashed his teeth as if he were a Monster trying to protect its young. It was an unsettling sight to see.
“It is alright.” He tried to soothe the child. He wondered how the two Hunters looked draped in the pelts of beasts to these poor children. “I am here to help you.”
The older child said nothing. His teeth still bared themselves to the other Hunter. He kept his body between Fabius and the younger child who kept a listless look. She stared through Fabius. As if he were not even there. As though she were staring through the looking glass of the red eye.
Fabius sighed and replaced his hand back to his side. These two children were traumatized enough by the situation. It would be unfortunate to have to use force in order to bring them out from their self-made cage. But what else was he to do than to leave the children in this haze of death? There was no time to have them warm up to him lest he stay in this horrible place longer than he needed to. Although he would prefer a gentler hand, it was obvious he was going to have anything but an easy time with these children.
The Hunter had no other choice than do what needed to be done.
“I am sorry.”
He said it both as an apology for what was to come next and for what had already occurred.
With both hands, he reached out and grasped the two children’s wrists.
Expectantly, the older one started to scream. He balled up his free hand into a fist and began to bang it against Fabius’s armor. It would have hurt the child more, but he hardly ceased the banging even when his fist went red and slightly bloody. Curiously, the younger one did nothing and allowed Fabius to drag her along to the outdoors as if she had no desire to evict her hand from Fabius nor any reason to stay in this place. He would have preferred to hide their eyes away from the death and decay of the land, but what good would that do when they had already lived in this reality for so long? The children were not stupid. They were not fools. They understood what this place was and what it had become. More than Blade. More than Fabius.
As he walked across the courtyard, he noticed Blade standing there with his arms folded over his chest. He stared as Fabius struggled with the two children. He stared unmoving to the screams that resounded throughout the desolate village. He stared without a hint of pain on his face as Fabius dragged the children through the decay, over the people that might have been the children’s family, friends, or loved ones.
He stared just the same at these children as the children did to the Hunters.
Who was the real evil here?
That question would stick in his mind for a long time.
Longer than he ever would have guessed.
True to his word, Blade stayed at the village.
Fabius had unloaded a sizable pack from the Aptonoth for his companion before he had set off towards the next village. It was better to leave the ruined grounds as soon as possible than to try and stay any longer than what was necessary. It was no easier when the children that were now in Fabius’s charge had proven much more difficult to handle. Though the younger one seemed more complacent, the older one had become a problem. He would try to run off or try to hurt Fabius, and the Hunter could do nothing more than to tie the boy in rope and throw him on the back of his monster of burden. All he could hope was that the boy would scream himself into exhaustion sooner rather than later.
The Hunter wasn’t proud of it, but it did get results. And results mattered. Fortunately, the young girl was content to be carried by Fabius.
It was only easy to travel the roads because it was the peak of Spring. Though this part of the Schrade providence always held a rather temperate climate compared to the Eastern portion of the land over the mountains, the rainy season would come soon. But there were still a few more weeks left before it would come. Thankfully, it seemed that the weather would hold at least until he arrived to their next destination.
He basked in this pleasant weather as he cast his gaze down at the girl held in his arms.
Truth be told, he wasn’t sure if she felt anything. She was quiet, listless, and her body seemed to tug itself around like a doll on string. Perhaps she was exhausted, hungry, or both. But Fabius was not going to even attempt to care for the children until he found a nearby river to have them bathed. It was unfortunate he did not have any proper clothes for them, but he supposed tearing a hole in a blanket and providing a makeshift dress was better than the rotten covered clothes they had been wearing.
It was when he was able to wash the children off at a nearby river that he was able to get a better look at them and realize how far the ‘evil’ that Blade spoke of spread through their bodies.
Their eyes were noticeable from the very beginning. A singular red gaze from each their heads seemed to stare at Fabius with a look that was not their own. As if someone else was gazing through the child’s mind. Even if he had become used to that strange look, he had learned to ignore the feeling of his hair on the back of his neck stranding upright whenever a particular gaze would fixate on him. It was not easy. But it needed to be done.
As the rot washed off the children’s bodies, he was able to see the taint unfurl itself in different ways. As though a flower set to bloom.
From this bloom, he saw its entirety. Their hair was purple. For a moment, he had thought that he had not washed the dirt off enough, but when nothing bled into the water, it was obvious that this was their natural hair color. Maybe. A sickening purple shade that was several shades lighter than the Purple Gypceros hide. The black grime gave way to light skin, with the younger girl’s skin a bit tanner than the older boy. Their faces resembled one another, but Fabius still unsure if they were siblings or not.
But set in their chest was a bruised looking skin over their heart. As though the bodies were rotting beneath the thin skin. A sort of pustulating thing that seemed to squirm beneath his touch as if it were a living organism attempting to spread its coils through the children. He had never seen this thing before. Never heard of this thing before. And he could only stare with widened eyes and hope that he did not scare the children more than need be.
There was nothing to be said of it. Nothing could be done besides give them Nulberries and hope that the discolored skin would fade. He tried not to shake when he passed food to the children.
They ate this food as a ravenous Deviljho would its first meal in minutes since its last.
None of them said a word to Fabius, and the Hunter was not going to bother the poor children more than he needed to until the next day. The very world they lived in completely changed and it would have been overwhelming to ask them all questions about what had happened to them or even their names. Besides, even if he wanted to ask them questions, it would have been stupid to do so. He saw how they looked. He saw the broken shade of the soul that sat inside of them. It would have been foolish to waste his breath on the nothing that would be said in reply.
There was a drawn-out sigh as he stared at the two children. They sat beside one another in their half-made clothes but rather clean bodies. The kids were much better off than earlier. But that evil was still there, draped over them as a haunt.
The Hunter shook his head. They were traumatized. That was all.
He washed the purple grime from his hands into the river.
It made strange shapes in the water.
“Are you going to kill us?”
Fabius lifted his eyes to stare at the boy on the other side of the campfire. Beneath the night the stars twinkled in their brilliance as the crescent of the moon hung low in the sky above them.
They had settled themselves in a Hunter Outpost off the beaten path. It might have been more dangerous to traverse between the well-walked road to the Outpost, but, historically, the Outposts were much safer at night than sleeping out in the open fields where Monsters would prowl for food or territory. Fabius was thankful that the Outpost was unoccupied by Hunters on any local quests. He did not want to have to deal with the gaze of another who might think these children as ‘it’s or ‘evil’.
Fabius thinned his lips at the boy’s words. It was the first thing he had said since both him and Blade had found their ruined village. It was heart wrenching, and Fabius had to wonder what sort of turmoil the children had endured before the Hunters set foot to save them.
“I am here to help you.” Fabius gave the child an even stare. He lifted the thick and heavy blankets from the pack that the Aptonoth carried and turned towards the boy sat across from him. “I have no intention to harm you, and I will do all in my power to keep you safe.”
They stared at each other for a time. The boy played with his own hands as the rope wrapped around his wrists prevented him from doing anything else but sit there with the younger one as Fabius continued to prepare the makeshift bed for the two children.
“Where are we going?” he watched as Fabius laid out the bedding for the children.
“I am taking you to a village in the North.” He pressed his hand out to even the fabric out. “Yainorak Village.” He cast a short gaze towards the boy. “Are you familiar with it?”
The boy shook his head in reply.
It was unfortunate. Fabius couldn’t discern if the boy simply did not know the village’s existence and had family there, or if his hometown was more isolated than the Hunter presumed. All he could do was pray that someone in the next village would know of these children. If not… he was quite unsure what would happen to them. He had heard the stories of the Guild taking orphans and raising them to be Hunters or to some administration position in the Guild’s office. But whether or not that was true, Fabius was unsure. Besides, it wasn’t as if he was near Dundorma. The closest proper city with a Hunter’s Guild was Verudo, and he had heard plenty of stories of that place being as harsh as they come in the Schrade Providence.
He did not know what to do if the children had no family.
When he finished setting up the bed, he sat in front of the campfire and began to feed it some more wood. The silence was pleasant for him, but he was unsure of the children who sat huddled beneath the quiet of the night.
“What’s your name?”
Fabius’s lips quirked into a smile. He was gladdened that the boy was trying to make some sort of conversation even in the wiles of trauma. It relieved him to see some semblance of Humanity still in there.
“My name is Fabius.” He lifted his gaze to the boy who stared at him. “What is your name?”
“My name is Alienor.”
It was progress. Slow progress. But Fabius was happy to finally be able to give the child a name in his mind. No longer would Blade’s horrible words echo through his memory of the term ‘it’ one and ‘it’ two. Now, this child was Alienor.
“It is nice to meet you, Alienor.” Fabius lips tightened into a smile. But his gaze trailed towards the girl beside him. “Do you know who that girl is?” He tried to keep his voice gentle and even.
Alienor glanced over towards the younger child beside him. His eyes looked saddened for a moment as he lowered his gaze at the sight of her. “That’s my sister…” he confirmed Fabius’s suspicion. “Her name is Nicole.”
She hardly seemed to react to her name as she kept her stare at the fire in front of her. It was a strange thing to see. There was no evidence of any sort of fire blazing through the ruined village, or any sort of elemental damage at all for that matter. Yet she kept her firm gaze upon this camp fire, as if this were the thing that would cleanse her soul from the hellish nightmare she was living in.
“Can you take these off?”
Fabius gaze shifted back to Alienor who stared at Fabius almost annoyed. He lifted his hands up to Fabius, expecting the Hunter to immediately cut the restraints off as soon as the request (or demand) was made.
“Do you intend to run?” Fabius leaned in slightly with a bemused smile.
Alienor was quiet for a moment. As if he genuinely considered the option to run away from Fabius in his mind. He flicked his eyes towards the wild outdoors, away from the Outpost, and into the complete darkness of the night. Maybe he was considering how to get back to his village, or maybe he was considering something else.
“I don’t think so.” Alienor finally replied.
“You don’t think so?” Fabius repeated what was said back to the boy.
“That thing is still out there.”
“What ‘thing’?” Fabius leaned in further now. His brows furrowed and he had a more serious look about him.
“You know…” Alienor shifted uncomfortably. He looked away from Fabius and tried to mouth the words he wanted to say, as if something else was keeping him from saying what was needed to be said. “You know…” he repeated the word again as he seemed to shy away from the darkness and closer to the fire pit. “The thing that…” Alienor tried again. But his words could not form another sentence. He only went quiet.
“The thing that attacked your village?” Fabius completed.
Alienor only nodded in agreement to what was said. His gaze was cast faraway from this place, and even the red eye seemed to gaze in the same way a Human would.
“It will not attack us here.”
It could. It might.
But Fabius did not know many Monsters who held grudges. The ones that did were the things of legends and tales that even the Wyvernians spoke of believed to not be true. For that he knew it was simply only that: a legend.
The Hunter slowly inched towards Alienor and began to untie the binding that held him together. When he was released, the child scratched the place where the rope had been bound to his skin and gazed out again into the darkness. Someone else might have presumed that he would try to run into the dark of the night, but the boy stayed still on the ground and only stared out into the abyss where Monsters now roamed. Only stupid people that would try their luck at wandering this time of day. Or Hunters that made their way to hunt that which needed to be slain.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Fabius smiled.
His gaze took to the same place that Alienor looked upon. There was nothing but darkness. But the way the boy’s eyes seem to flicker in the shade, he wondered if there was something more out there that Fabius could not see with his Human eyes.
Nicole stared at that same place too. Her red gaze glimmered. And she watched things through a different lens than both of them.
Fabius laughed. He smiled down at Alienor who stared happily up at him.
He covered himself in twigs and began to imitate a Monster that Fabius had regaled a story about. A beast on one of his very first hunts that he had slain in order to protect a nearby farmer. It was a rather simple hunt, but the child was enamored by it. And the stories filled the child with a feeling besides the haunt that seemed to follow his corpse.
The child stomped around holding the branches up to his head pretending to be the big scary monster. His teeth bared to Fabius as he imitated the call badly. He walked around, his face looking mean, and roared up at Fabius. Then he turned towards his sister, and a round smile reached his lips as he looked at his siblings.
“Nicole!” he leaned down to tug on her arm. Her vacant expression kept still. “Nicole. You have to pretend to be the Hunter that slays me!” Alienor laughed as he continued to prompt her. Continued to try and shove the stick into her hand to try and pretend she was Fabius in the story the Hunter regaled.
She held the stick in her hand for a time. Her eyes gazed to meet Alienor’s. But she tossed the branch onto the ground. A scowl on her face.
“Nicole-e-e-e-e.” Alienor stared down at his sister with pleading eyes. “Come on… Don’t you want to play?” He hefted a sigh as he bent down to meet her gaze.
She said nothing to her brother. Her gaze shifted to the side.
Fabius continued to stare. His own laughter fading away in the process of this interaction.
Alienor stared at his sister.
“You can be the Monster. If you want.” He brought his faux antlers down and handed the sticks to Nicole.
She stared at them incredulously as if he were handing her poison. When she did not take the antlers, Alienor took her hand and placed the sticks in her tiny little fingers. She held these ones for a time, but after a heavy pause, she let her grip falter and it too fell from her grip onto the dirt below.
Her expression remained vacant.
“Nicole…?” Alienor stared at his sister. His voice was so small and stricken with sorrow. “Nicole… Come on…” the boy reached out to his sister. His hand touched her shoulder. But she remained cold to the outside world.
Fabius continued to stare. His laughter now gone. His heart heavy with grief.
His approach was slow. He leaned down and placed a hand upon her head. She did not flinch. Did not react. Her expression remained the same and she continued to stare at that particular spot on the ground. Unfeeling. Uncaring.
Fabius opened his mouth to say something. To ask how she was. To try to illicit some reaction from her. To do anything to bring her from the stare that she kept on the ground. But there was nothing that was uttered. Nothing that the Hunter could possibly say to her in order to break her from this terrible trance. There was nothing. Nothing. And Fabius felt so weak in this predicament. As though he had failed his mission.
“Let’s go.” Fabius muttered. He lowered himself slightly and took the child in his arms.
He did not know what else he could say. He did not know what else he could do.
This was all he could do for her. And for himself.
“Please… please stop.” Alienor yelped as he covered his mouth.
Fabius halted his march and turned to stare up at Alienor wide eyed whom sat atop the Aptonoth. He dropped the reigns and hurried towards the child who stared down from his perch with a pained expression. The child kept his hands firmly on his lips as he struggled down from the monster of burden. He struggled, unable to wait for Fabius, and almost tried to make it down from the towering beast himself even if it were to cause him injury from falling from that particular height.
Without missing a beat, Fabius lifted Alienor from the mount and placed him on the ground. But before he was able to ask what ailed the child so, Alienor stumbled several paces to the side of the dirt road. He bent over, uncovered his mouth, and began to expel more than his breakfast from his stomach.
Fabius stood and stared to what purged from the child.
Sickening purple ooze splattered onto the dirt below. An aroma of death permeated the area as the ooze fermented into a foggy haze that seemed to crackle like fire in the light. It pooled onto the ground like blood often would when mortally wounding a Monster or Human. Bubbling. Shifting. Boiling. The purple stained the blades of grass. Killing the plants in an instant. Decaying them. Sinning them.
Fabius covered his mouth and regrettably stepped away from the child in fear of what was seen.
“My stomach…” Alienor groaned. “It hurts…”
The boy held his stomach as he closed his eyes. He grit his teeth as the ooze dripped from his lips. Down his mouth. Onto the floor joining it with the rot below.
It was the same rot he had seen back in the village. But this was fresh. This was new. This taint… this evil… it spread its tendrils from the child down to the ground and spread its wings to make something even more evil than what was in the village. Hatred. Rot. Infection.
It was nothing like Fabius had seen. Nothing that he had ever read from the countless of Monster Magazines that the Guild had released to him. Nothing like any report from the local outposts from around the land. Nothing that the Guild had prepared him for in training.
He stood there in fear.
But he could not allow himself to be overcome by this base emotion. He could not allow himself to succumb to the thoughts that Blade had set forth. These children needed him to be strong. He needed to be strong. He was the Hunter sent to save this village. He was the Hunter meant to protect the people. He was the Hunter to represent everything that the Hunter’s Guild stood for. He could not stand idly by and let the child suffer. Even if his instinct told him otherwise.
He took a deep breath. He reapproached the child, and slowly pulled him away from the sickening purple haze that lingered at the spot in front of him.
“We are coming to a village soon.” He slowly brought the child close to him and held onto him. “There will be a healer there, and perhaps a Wyverian who will know what ails you.”
Alienor began to cry. “My body feels weird.” He tucked his head between the folds of the armor. “I want to go home.”
Fabius was ill equipped to handle a crying child. It was easier to hunt Monsters. It was easier to talk to people. It was easier to be away from this. But that was what made him different than Blade. That was what made him different than everyone else. His work was unfinished because these children were in his care. And he had to be strong for them.
“I know…” Fabius sighed as he held onto the child tight. It was always a sad thing to see orphans in the city. Even sadder was to be the one to ferry the child to a new world away from the life they always lived. “I know…”
“Where did you find these children?”
Fabius sat on the ground in the Chieftain’s house of Yainorak Village. An old and weathered Wyverian sat on the other end of the ground from Fabius cushioned only by the bamboo flooring of the house. Though old, he still seemed to be more or less in his Wyverian ‘prime’ years, as there still held a youth in the glimmer of his eyes. It was said he went by many names throughout the years of his life, and as his time as Chieftain of this village he went by the name of Tabe.
Both Alienor and Nicole were left outside of the Chieftain’s house. He heard the voice of Alienor as he played with the other children, but Nicole’s voice was absent. Fabius was at least content that the other villagers were looking after the children, but it seemed rather begrudgingly as it was obvious in their faces that they wanted nothing to do with these kids. They held the same contemptuous gaze that Blade had for the children. And he was thankful that Tabe had demanded the villagers do nothing towards these children with only just a wave of his hand and a hardened stare at the adults.
“They were found in Jeretude Village to the south.” Fabius kept an even gaze upon Tabe. “My intention was to bring them to Yainorak and see if there were some distant relatives who would take the children in at this village.”
Tabe rubbed his bare chin with his fingers as if in deep contemplation of what was spoken to him. It was the norm for any Hunter to do what Fabius had done should there be an attacked village with surviving children. Sometimes there were distant relatives, sometimes there were not. In Fabius’s time as a Hunter, it was more usual for him to deal with attacked caravans in the open. Not so much with villages being wiped out under no explainable cause.
“And you said Jeretude was destroyed?” the Chieftain mused.
“That is correct.” Fabius nodded his head.
“Under what circumstances?”
“That… is unclear.” Fabius’s lips thinned. “There were obvious signs of an attack, but after a cursory investigation, we were unable to identify the Monster that had attacked the village. It looked as though the villagers…” he could not help but let his voice trail away. His gaze took to another place.
“Yes?”
“It appeared as though the villagers killed one another.” Fabius refocused his gaze back to Tabe.
Tabe became quiet again. He closed his eyes and began stroking his chin once more in deep thought. “Those children were the only survivors?”
“Yes, sir.” Fabius nodded his head.
“Hmmm…” Tabe looked even deeper in thought than before as the wrinkles on his forehead seemed to multiply.
It was worrying.
In Fabius’s short life thus far, he had learned that being able to stump a Wyvernian was not always considered a good thing. New found knowledge was a blessing, but to see Tabe in such deep contemplation in regards to something that should be seemingly ‘normal’ was disconcerting.
“There is a legend that speaks of a time long ago where no living thing now lives. It tells of a God that upended the world in chaos.” Tabe began to draw some symbols on the bamboo floor with his finger. Maybe it was a language Fabius had never seen, or maybe they were symbols of that time. There was no impression left on the floor, but Tabe seemed to recollect the legend in his mind as he drew the symbols. “I do not know much of this legend, as I have only heard it on the winds of words past the Eastern Mountains of Schrade over Dundorma.”
“Do you think Dundorma would have more knowledge of this Monster that attacked the village?”
“Perhaps.” Tabe replied evenly. “Perhaps not. History that comes from a time where there is no single Wyverian alive to speak of it thus becomes a fable or legend.”
It was simply what it was. Wyverians lived such long lives, and the tale must have been old if even Wyverians considered it to be nothing more than a legend. But for Tabe to mention such a story did not sit well with Fabius.
“Do the children have some involvement in this legend?” he narrowed his eyes at Tabe. He felt unsettled.
Tabe shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps. Perhaps not.” He gazed up to Fabius and let his finger pause between a stroke of a pattern. “But it does not take a legend to see that these children have been afflicted with pestilence.”
Fabius’s shoulders sagged at those words. It was disappointing to hear that even the Chieftain thought the same that everyone else did. “So, it is true then…” Fabius leaned back slightly with a sigh. Tabe raised his brow at what was said. “My Hunting partner had mentioned the children were changed in some way. That they had become… evil.” It sickened him to repeat the words that were said. “I do not believe that to be the truth, but even I can see that the children are not normal. I had hoped you would have answers.”
“Regrettably, I do not.” Tabe shook his head. “But your friend is right.”
Fabius felt his jaw tighten. “What do you mean?”
“The children are touched with an evil.” A grimace touched Tabe’s mouth. “What will come from it, I cannot say. But in my years toiling this earth, I have come to learn that death comes as a greater mercy than to be let to live.”
All at once, Fabius felt his heart sink to the deepest reaches of the world beneath.
“How dare you!?” Fabius rose to his feet. “To suggest such thing—!?”
“I do not suggest the sin lightly.” Tabe stared up at Fabius as he kept himself seated on the floor. “Is it not one good deed to commit an act of evil so long as the intentions are pure?”
Fabius stood appalled. He was no fool to not think that Humanity would never raise their hand upon one another and commit acts of evil that he could not comprehend. But for another Hunter to kill another Human was an inconceivable act to Fabius. He swore a sacred oath the day he joined the Hunter’s Guild. That he would do all to protect Humanity and the environment from Monsters and wonton destruction. To hear that the Chieftain would even imply that it would be a good thing to kill another Human, a child no less, horrified him. Who was he to save the children from a Monster only to become that very Monster that would kill them? Who was he to cast judgement and make the ultimate decision to ‘save’ the children in such a way? Who was he to do this thing?
It made him feel sick to his stomach.
Fabius shook his head. He clenched his hands to his side in a tight fist and could even feel how his nails pierced his skin. He turned his head away from Tabe in disgust. “I will not do it.”
“I did not expect you to.” Tabe lips quirked in a smile. “But the children will suffer penance at the cost of this evil.”
Fabius felt the cold wind of a chill down his spine. There, it began to brew a dark revelation.
“Do you think the village was killed by…” he let the words fall away.
Even he could not utter the name of the horrific beast of legend. To utter such a name was considered a sin more terrible than any conceivable crime. No one needed to say which needed to be said, as Tabe knew what Fabius was alluding to as he spoke those words. Even the implication of the beast of legend cast a darkness over the room. This creature, even with the mere creation of thought of it, could curse the very air that a thought touched. Fabius felt it even a sin to suggest the thought of that creature.
The Chieftain let out a dark laughter as his smile turned into a smirk. “If that were true, the Schrade providence would no longer be.” Fabius let out a breath as he let his shoulders sag. “This is a different evil. It is no telling what it will do to them, but I will make you a medicine that will lessen their ailments.” He slowly began to stand at his feet. “Come, I will show you how to prepare it.”
Fabius stood there awkwardly and watched Tabe move to the other end of his house.
“Then it means you will not take them?” Fabius tried to hide the disappointment.
Tabe shook his head. “No relative of Jeretude lives here. Even if I wish to take the children, I fear the villagers will do what you will not.”
Fabius let his lips thin at the reply. But he appreciated the honesty in Tabe’s words.
Slowly, the Hunter followed Tabe towards a little corner of the home which laid out plenty of herbs from the surrounding area. As he passed through the house he stopped at the window and peered out into the courtyard of the village. He watched as Alienor played with the children, but watched as Nicole sat far away from the joyous laughter. She curled up near a tree to appear as small as possible and stared at the ground below her as though everything around her was strange and unfamiliar.
“You will need to pass the orphans to the Hunter’s Guild.” Tabe turned towards Fabius as he held several herbs in his hand. “It will be easy to hide the shades of evil between people than it will be to hide them in the trees.”
The Hunter supposed there was wisdom in those words.
“Your help has been greatly appreciated.” Fabius turned to Tabe and bowed.
The Chieftain waved his hand to dismiss the gratitude.
“I think you stupid.” Tabe replied evenly. “But even I am too weak to commit the evil act.” He slowly wandered towards Fabius and stopped at the window. His gaze looked over the courtyard and stared at Alienor and Nicole. “But what does it say for those who would strike without knowing the truth of what we know?” He turned to look at Fabius who had straightened himself to stand upright. “It is a thin line we tread: Good and Evil.”
Fabius looked from Tabe, then out to the courtyard as well. He saw how the people stared at the two children. Saw the happiness in Alienor’s face. Saw the misery on Nicole’s face. He watched as Alienor looked at the world with his Human eye and Nicole stared out with the inhuman one.
“No child has evil in their hearts.” Fabius reaffirmed to himself. He let his eyes draw closed. “None.”
“Why didn’t we stay?” Alienor looked up at Fabius. He held onto his hand as they walked.
It comforted Fabius to know that Alienor had began to trust him so much to be able to bring himself to hold onto Fabius’s hand as if he were his parent of guardian. But Tabe’s words echoed through his mind and he wanted to draw away his hand from the child in fear of what he might do. It sickened him to even have such a thought. That he might do the sin.
“I thought they were going to keep us.” Alienor continued.
“I’m sorry.” Fabius shook his head. The words came out heavy from his mouth. It was no easy thing to say that no one wanted the children. “No one at the village could take you in.”
Alienor frowned at Fabius as he tried to keep pace with the Hunter. There was a look of betrayal on the child’s face as he stared up at Fabius with a near hurting expression. After all, Fabius had told them that they would come here and someone might take care of the two children. ‘Might’ was a heavy promise, but to a child it meant everything. Especially now that the two children now had nothing. They were left with no one. They were left without a single person now. Just someone whom they met only five days ago. Someone who now held a dark terrible secret.
“Why not?”
How could he explain to a child why no one could keep him? How could he explain to someone who could barely conceive the idea of good and evil why this was the way it was going to be? No one wanted them. Those people wanted the children dead. That was the truth of the matter. And Fabius wasn’t going to let anyone have them if Tabe’s warnings were true. How was he to explain that they wanted to kill them? Fabius could not… would not… This was a truth he would let die with him. Even if the children would come to hate him for it. This was his one sin. One sin for one good deed.
But the silence did not bode well for the reply. The longer he left the silence haze over them the more Alienor would become suspicious of the true reason. How could Fabius further explain that to them?
He opened his mouth to reply. But it was not him who replied.
“Evil.”
Fabius stopped. Alienor stopped. They both turned and craned their head up to Nicole upon the beast of burden.
She stared at him with an unbroken gaze. The red tainted eye seemed to look at him with a stare that was not of someone her age. It was a stare akin to a Monster that Fabius would slay. Of an intellect that was set behind the eyes that spoke that this Monster knew more than the poor little Human that would slay it. Of an unburdened knowledge free of the shackles of Humanity’s hubris.
“That’s what they said.” Nicole spoke again.
She stared at him as though a different sort of thing, a thing that was not Human.
Fabius could only stare back at the thing that stared at him.
“Evil?” Alienor stared up at his sister. He tipped his head to the side. But his look was more Human. “What do you mean ‘Evil’?” He did not seem to mind nor care of the expression that Nicole stared at him with. These two were siblings, after all, and he had that shared eye set within him. “We’re not evil. Right?” Alienor turned up to stare at Fabius.
The Hunter stared up at Nicole. Could she hear his heart thump against his chest? Could she hear the thoughts that clouded his vision? Could she see the moral battle against himself? Could she see the mantra wrote into his skin that he spoke of when gazing upon these two children? That they were not evil? That they deserved to live? That he could not sin?
“N-No.” Fabius swallowed deeply. He hoped that Alienor did not see how he shook. “No child is born with evil.” He repeated the mantra. Reminded himself the words. But sharing the gaze with Nicole, that mantra was beginning to become only words he said to himself. A false sense of hope. A false sense of security.
That was all she would say. Her vacant expression kept trained on Fabius. The red eye seemed to glimmer with a look that declared what was known.
The line between good and evil was certainly thin.
He awoke with the moon’s reflection against the blade.
Above him stood Nicole. Her small little body seemed a shade over him.
Fabius saw the evil that all spoke of. Saw what he refused to see.
Her hand lowered the blade. She stared at him vacantly.
There was no tear that was shed. No cry that was uttered. She only stared down at Fabius with the carving knife gripped beside her. It gleamed pleasantly in her hand. So big compared to her small little fingers.
Even if it was better to do a small sin than let a larger one go, he could not do what needed to be done.
Slowly, he rose from his bed. He gently took the knife in her hand and placed it to the side. The Hunter took the child and laid her carefully beside him.
Even if he saw the evil that draped itself over her as a veil would do to the bride, he could not do what Tabe uttered to him that day.
The child was not evil.
Nicole stared at him with a vacant expression. Her evil eye stared at him with anger, but even beneath it Fabius could see the Human one that pleaded out to him. That wished to cry but could not. That wished the suffering to end but Fabius could not.
Was that selfish of him to be unable to do what needed to be done? Was it truly a good deed to sin?
He raised the blanket and tucked her in as he rested beside her.
Carefully he raised his hand to rest above her chest as his father would do sometimes when he awoke from a nightmare.
“Everything will be fine.” Fabius spoke those words out loud.
He closed his eyes to let that sink into him.
Everything will be fine.