Chương 2: Beginnings (2)
CHAPTER 0.2
Something that Claden and Skennick inadvertently picked up on over the years was how their father treated the people they captured.
He never tortured or belittled them, never gave them a chance to speak out or move. The man treated every single one of them with a great deal of caution and thought. After all, it only took one escaped prey or fragment of cooked human remains to spread the word of cannibals.
That was one of the things he taught his kids to fear the most, the deadly hand of public fear.
Suddenly every road they travelled would be watched, any town they entered would be locked down, and not one person could be singled out for kidnapping. Everything had to be done in accordance to his plans, otherwise they'd end up caught just as their mother was a few years prior.
Having already planned out the order and rations of the food supply before them. The old man scooped the slightly older girl of two from the cage and closed it back up. They had both been wearing hoods atop gags and were bound entirely in rope.
It would definitely create too much discomfort for anyone to last long in, but their lives would be cut short, so the three males never cared too much about the whines or groans of pain when moving their victims around.
The sudden motion of being carried awoke the girl and she wriggled the best she could in defiance. The old man pulled the hood off the girl revealing a blindfold underneath as well, just to be sure the little girl beneath couldn't peer through the fabrics. All of it was covered in dried snot and tears, but the most menacing was deep brown stains from years of various blood stains.
"Hold on, what's over there?" Stennick's head swivelled to the direction opposite of the roads, making everyone freeze.
Whenever the wind picked up, there was usually a cascade of leaves running together and sometimes a breeze of saltwater. This time it was only the sound of a small section of leaves, meaning something else might be close.
All of them waiting, Claden was holding his breath while trying to stare into the darkness trying to make his eyes adjust. Only after a minute passed did they determine it wasn't anything of interest or concern.
The old man set the girl down, now fresh tears and snot were escaping the blindfold and gag. No matter how hard she tried, the constraints left her so immobilised that she couldn't even hurt herself when attempting to break free.
Making sure his work wouldn't be difficult, Stennick walked over and pinned one of the girl's shoulders down on the log their horses were tied to with his knee. After a sudden application of pressure from his whole body; the three men all heard the crunch of her shoulder dislocating from the socket.
Underneath the gag, the girl managed to scream harder than before, this time with a mix of both terror and pain. Claden winced at the girl's howling, but the oldest two were accustomed to the noise.
Break the bones, section the limbs, and roast the meat. The recollection of feasting on so many others before had already made their mouths water. They weren't sympathetic to the girl's pain, it was simply a part of the routine to making their meal.
Claden looked back into the dark woods to distract himself and see if he could spot something. As if by fate, he peered into the pitch black again, and immediately spotted a human shape coming closer.
The rustling of shrubbery was a lot more apparent, even the rest of the forest seemed to stop and listen as a man emerged from the shadows.
Stepping into the light, taller than any of the men in camp, was a man with strangely pale skin. His facial features appeared to be a citizen of Solumina, minus the usual tan from the blistering sun that hit them for most of the seasons of change.
He would've seemed like he had gotten lost and became sickly in the forest, but what betrayed that assumption was how clean he was. He wore some kind of strangely patterned vest with no sleeves and pants hemmed down to his bare feet that carried not a speck of dirt or grime on the grey material.
It was as if he had just come into existence from out of the void.
"Are you an elf?" Claden asked with more curiosity than fear in his voice.
The stranger's dark hair was long enough to cover the tips of his ears. Meaning his question could not immediately be disproven, but the stranger stood silently, not breaking eye contact with Stennick.
"What the hell are you doing out here?" Stennick asked, now pointing the axe forward, holding it between himself and the stranger.
They had set up camp just far enough away from the dirt road so that no one would happen upon them by pure coincidence. Clearly this guy was there longer than they could allow, so it was very likely more people were going to die tonight.
Slowly without a change in expression, the unknown man raised his hands in surrender. He then gestured a finger at the girl still pinned beneath Stennick's leg.
"Shalbreak'uck to femin." He commanded.
The stranger spoke in a language they had never heard before, confusing them. His tone seemed to carry no emotion about what was happening, but all three of them could tell that it was a command to stop what they were doing.
The old man took a step forward, now holding a segment of Stennick's spit like a crutch while hiding the sharpened segment under the fold in his clothes. He was trying to make himself appear small and defenceless, wanting to close some distance without warranting suspicion.
"Oh I do not want to misinterpret our intentions." He took a few more steps closer. "We are merely carrying out justice as she has stolen from us. A thieving arm always gets dragged to the Ether as one might say." Lying with a smile.
He gave a chuckle and fake cough while looking to his eldest son in agreement. Stennick and his father made eye contact for a moment, and the look on their faces confirmed they would attack him the moment they spotted an opening.
The stranger did not move or seem to acknowledge their words at first. Instead he furrowed his brows and tilted his head slightly, seeming to ponder something.
"Nat'a compedest to voca ve Odbrane? . . ."
None of them reacted.
"Suuka." He exhaled in disappointment. He shook his head and in that moment of breaking eye contact, Stennick and his father pounced at him.
The son jumped over the slumped over girl and swung his axe in a wide arc, wanting to distract more than anything. This would allow his father to stab at a quick lunge with no time to react properly.
Everything was executed as they planned minus any movement from the stranger. He didn't react at all, his finger was still pointed at the girl while the stake drove through his stomach and squelched out the side of his back.
Stennick thought the man was simply too shocked to react, and decided to follow through on his rebounding swing. If he could cut away at his throat or crush his jaw with the hefty metal end, then there would be no chance for the stranger to scream out for any sort of help.
Unfortunately his mild caution and greater ambition only set his fate in stone.
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