Chapter V, Fur & Flesh
#6 of Tale's of the wanderer's
Chapter V, Fur & Flesh
A younger man sat at a dinner table; he sat his with his face down looking at his worn pair of tennis shoes.
"LOOK AT ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!"
The young man looked up.
"JUST WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!" a man no older then forty glared angrily down at the boy.
"I... I..."
"YOU WERNT FUCKING THINKING YOU LITTLE SHIT!!" the man spat, not even giving the boy a chance to speak.
"YOU'RE JUST LIKE THAT FUCKING BROTHER OF YOURS, NEVER STOPING ONE FUCKING MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT HALF THE SHIT HE DOES!" the man hissed.
"I... He... I DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE!" the boy tried to defend.
The man glared at him for a moment before he backhanded him with such force blood spurted out of his nose "IF YOU EVER RAISE YOU'RE VOICE TO ME AGAIN I'LL SKIN YOU LIKE A NO GOOD FUCKING DOG!"
The boy was Marcus and the man was his father, exactly what the boy had done was lost to time, but it was an old memory, like hundreds of others it was a common scene of the boys childhood.
It played its self in Marcus mind as he drifted in the ocean of unconsciousness. While it seemed real as breeze in the air his father was long dead of a heart attack, Marcus no longer was a boy and he no longer resided in 903 River-road. In reality he lay on the floor of a bare cave. The anger accusing dark brown eyes of his father were replaced by the inquisitive passionate blue eyes of a creature perhaps better suited for his dreams.
- + + +
While Marcus writhed as memories played in his head he was watched, he lay naked in a sleeping roll and was wracked with terrible shivering. Large beads of sweat dripped from his body, and in his fevered sleep he groaned names from the past.
Ayden watched this creature with a mixture of both fascination and fear. The... thing was an aberration, he had heard tales of elves and apes from village hamlets, but despite the creatures similarities to them it seemed too alien, too strange to be of this world. On the other hand despite its fearsome appearance it did not seem evil, once the caked blood and dirt had been wiped away it looked more pathetic then anything else.
It was completely furless save its head and thin strands of hair across its body; the beast must have been terribly cold. Every now and again it would occasionally awake from its sleep for a few seconds, only to fall back to its slumber. From the little he had observed of the thing its senses were weak and no match for his.
The fox sat tailor style next to the sleeping beast. He chewed a piece of Hardtack that had been soaking in water from a nearby oasis for hours, just one of the rations he and the other slaves had lifted from their sleeping captors.
He grimaced as he swallowed the sharp crumb, he had been chewing the cursed stuff for roughly four minuets and it was still like swallowing sawdust. He had given the creature mostly water and a few bits of pulped jerky. Of course it was difficult to feed the thing. So if the creature did not improve soon Ayden would run out of rations that the creature could eat in a comatose state.
To make matters worse its cuts were becoming infected and the most he could do was use some of the water from the oasis to wash its wounds.
Ayden began to think; What if it tries to kill me after it awakes? What if it is another slaver? What if it had no chance of survival? He watched the creature shiver in its sleep. He could slit its throat and be done with it, no danger, more rations and it might not survive anyways he might be doing the thing a favor...
He would wait to see more of this before he made a rash move...
- + + +
The young boy sat quietly at the table. The man sat opposite; his face was obscured by the copy of the Bangor daily news, small whips of smoke rose from the other side. The boy wrinkled his nose as he smelled the nauseating scent of the cigarettes.
"What do you have in school today?"
The boy looked up, his father did not even look up from the paper.
"Well? What do you have in school?" the voice more demanding this time.
"Ohh... Gym, math and history" the boy said as he looked down at his shoes.
Nothing came from his father, he was used to the silence.
"...Dad?"
the man folded down his paper, a cigarette smoldered between his lips and he peered down at the boy from his tired eyes.
"Are you coming home tonight?"
the man looked at him for a moment "...No" he folded the paper up again "fucking Democrats..." he muttered from behind his paper
Marcus took a deep breath, aside from the yelling he could remember this memory of his father, while he become stronger and grew older the situation was the same, if his father was not pissed at him he was nonexistent
- + + +
Ayden stood in a long line of slaves with each passing moment he grew more afraid, with every two minuets a sharp yelp came from one of the slaves ahead. The scent of burnt hair and smoke hung like perfume in the air.
The ship carrying him had stopped after six weeks of voyage; when he and the other frightened vulpines were first dragged outside the sun had pierced hem like arrows after six weeks suspended in the dark. But at long last a whiff of fresh air from the ships revolting filthy interior.
Soon though all his countrymen had been split up and he had been put into a long line of different furs each that spoke different tongues. Any comfort of being with others of you're land had been taken from each of the slaves.
All looked to one another in confusion some desperately trying to converse, only to find the task pointless. Their sense of panic grew with each yelp of pain ahead; the stench of burning hair grew more potent with each step.
Ayden's heart pounded like a drum his blood felt like fire running through his veins. A mixture of humiliation and fear ran through him; fear from the knowledge that whatever happened to the furs ahead would happen to him, and humiliation from being stripped to his bare fur and paraded like a captive of war or a common criminal.
The sight ahead did little to relive his fears; two stout guards held a squirming wolf boy, probably two summers younger then him on a stone block while another held an iron rod in a fire... a moment later the wolf boy let out a load cry of agony as the red hot iron was pressed against his flesh... Ayden shivered in fear.
- + + +
Dusk had fallen and a small fire illuminated Ayden and the mysterious creature. He traced his figure along the patch of scare that served to identify him as a slave. He watched the creature carefully; he remained intent, silent as a ghost as he listened for more word to come from the mouth of the beast. It sounded so strange, like the most ancient version of his tongue.
In a odd way it was comforting to hear words so similar to his... but in another it frightened him to see a creature so alien know his tongue; how could this creature speak his language, they must have been at least 6 weeks by ship and 3 weeks by foot away from Gaillen.
He sat there and stared at the creature. Could it just like him be a runaway slave? Perhaps it came from the highlands or forests? A clan he had never heard of? It was wholly possible; many of the great forests were uncharted. His heart leaped! A kindred spirit perhaps? He would not be so alone then...
A more sinister origin came to mind. When he was a young lad he could remember his clan patriarch telling them of the watcher of the woods. A creature of the dark, it had no fur, it looked as though its muzzle had been crushed into its head. From the dark of the forest it waited for hunters and when the witching hour came it would seize the lost hunter and devour him.
Ayden clutched his dagger tightly. But he released his grip soon enough. For one this creature had been in broad daylight when he came upon it; he had been told that it would crumble to dust if light touched its skin. And two what would it be doing so far from his homeland?
Perhaps it was a local monster? Perhaps a demon? He sat there and thought hard. Perhaps it was simply a native. But if it were a native why would it speak his tongue?
As Ayden sat there thinking he had failed to notice one crucial fact of the beast... it was awake.