The Hungering Saga Complete

by Heath Pfaff

  "You can talk." I stated the obvious, not trusting myself to say anything else.

  He nodded. "I've always been able to talk, but I had been under an order of silence until I left Fell Rock." My mind reeled, attempting to put together the fragments of information I had, but unable to make them fit in any semblance of order. Malice had said, and I believed her, that Silent had vanished from Fell Rock. I didn't, for a moment, think that she would lie to me about something that important, and I had seen the concern plain on her face when she told me. Would the king order one of his Knights to action without letting the others know what he intended? Had Silent been on some private mission that he wasn't allowed to disclose to the rest of us? I supposed that was a possibility, but it didn't set well with me. "You've come a long way since I left." Silent added, breaking my train of thought. I forced what I hoped was a sincere smile, and nodded.

  "Malice was a good instructor, and Weaver has helped me hone my new abilities." I found it difficult to sound natural, but I hoped that Silent took my strange behavior for surprise at his appearance and nothing more. "I had heard rumors that something bad might have befallen you." I said, testing the water with Silent, fishing for information.

  He laughed. "No, I had a mission of a secure nature that I had to take care of. I was forced to leave rather suddenly, but it is done now, and I'm going to join you and Weaver on your trip south to rendezvous with our main forces."

  His story made sense, but I felt ill at ease. I wanted to come right out and ask him what had happened the night that Fell Rock collapsed, and what he had been doing there, searching for me, but I felt that keeping my knowledge of his presence there secret was to my advantage at the moment. "Well it is very good to see you alive and well, my friend." I said, lifting my hand to clutch his in friendly greeting. The hand that came to grip mine was not the same as the one I'd gripped many times before, during my months of training with Malice. It was clad in black scale, and ended in fearsome claws. Silent had gained some new features in his time away. He must have noticed me looking.

  "I'm still getting use to them. It's not always easy." He said as he pulled his hand away from mine and flexed the clawed digits. "They are strong, and fast, but I'm still having trouble with fine control. Weaver and the others tell me that it comes in time, though."

  I was uncertain how to reply so I simply nodded and decided to change the subject. "Have you heard anything of Fell Rock? Do you know of the other survivors?" The question was still important to me, though I didn't know if Silent would have information to offer. Kensil had said that the Knight we were to meet had good news, and I was eager to get to the center of that news without letting on that I knew it existed.

  Silent chewed his lower lip for a moment before replying, apparently considering his words carefully. His hesitation piqued my curiosity. He, like Weaver, was hiding something. I felt certain of it. "The attack on Fell Rock was devastating, I'm afraid. Eighty percent of the Knights stationed there are confirmed dead, the others are unaccounted for. I'm afraid I don't know any specifics."

  I winced and grit my teeth together. I felt as though I'd just been dealt a massive physical blow. "So many..." I said quietly, my heart pounding fiercely in my chest. Had Malice gotten out alright? What good news could Silent have possibly delivered, if it was countered by such a colossal casualty report? "Is there any other news?" I asked, hoping there would be some glimmer of hope, and also hoping that Silent, one of the few people I would have considered a friend, would not hide things from me.

  "I'm afraid not, Lowin." He replied, and I sighed. Silent and Lucidil were both keeping secrets, and I was to be kept in the dark. Silent took the sigh to be over the news of the casualties at Fell Rock, and he patted me on the back, hitting me harder than he meant to and forcing me to stagger a bit to keep my footing. "Sorry," he apologized hastily. "Still getting used to things. Try to be positive, though. At least you made it out alive, and there are others. Things will be better down the road."

  "Maybe," I replied darkly, not certain I believed anything my once friend had told me. I suddenly felt incredibly alone. I was saved from any further conversation by the arrival of Weaver.

  "I see that you two have already become reacquainted. That's good." His tone was friendly and open.

  "Did you take care of the arrangements for Lace?" I decided it was best to make sure the girl was cared for, rather than trust in Weaver's good graces, which might, or might not, even exist.

  Weaver nodded. "She is free to go and do as she pleases, and I've seen to it that she was granted a small plot of land not far from here. What she does from here on out is quite her own responsibility. I trust that meets the requirements of our agreement?"

  "Yes, it does. Thank you." I was quite pleased to know that Lace would have a chance at a good life, and though I didn't trust Weaver entirely, I felt no deception in what he'd just told me.

  "You shouldn't thank me, Lowin. By the time you see her again she will have already found another man, and you will still have had to pay for the favor I granted." The red-eyed warrior's tone was grim.

  "I didn't do it because I wanted her, Weaver. I did it because I felt she deserved a chance to live as she would." I felt no anger at Weaver as I explained this. He and I saw the world in very different ways. He was fixated on a goal, and was focused on that goal to the exclusion of all else, while I found myself lost in the world, with no clear goal, but guided by a sense that I must do my best to honor the memory of Kye.

  Lucidil's response surprised me. "They will let you down every time, boy... humans. If you put too much faith in them, they'll just have better leverage when they try to tear you apart." He looked at me with eyes that seemed ancient and, despite my familiarity with the other Knights of Ethan, still impossible for me to read. "I think you know the truth of it, somewhere inside. I see it written on your face when you're thinking about her." The emphasis on his last word told me exactly who he was referring to. "She is gone for those humans, dead so that you can fight on their behalf, and that thought consumes your from within. It makes you wonder what really matters in the world anymore, makes you question what your Knighthood really means. You have placed all of your faith in them, and what horrors have they wrought for your belief in their cause? They've made of you a brilliant sword, ready to fall at their command." He turned from me then, drawing his hood up as he began walking for the gate, his speech short, succinct, and finished.

  I drew my own hood up and fell in behind him, confusion overwhelming my ability to speak. I didn't understand all of what he had said, or what had motivated his words, but they had sounded like a direct defiance of the king. I wanted to disagree with him, to say that I had not lost my faith in my king, and that I did not question my own worth, or that of the task I'd taken up as a Knight, but I couldn't. Deep inside I was asking myself those very questions, and had been since I learned of Kyeia's fate. I wondered how he could possibly know, so precisely, what my innermost worries and questions were. Silent fell in beside me.

  "He is a smart one," he whispered, pointing at Weaver. "He's had a lot of time to think and he knows and sees a lot more than the rest of us. Listen to his advice. He speaks from a heart that has been hardened by experience." With that he fell back behind me, and we left Renwalk in a line of silence. The only sounds to be heard were our own footsteps, and the rustle of armor as the soldiers we passed snapped to attention. I felt like part of a funeral precession, and wondered how far from the truth that was. We were all, the Knights of Ethan, weapons of but one purpose, dealing death, and never had I felt that so keenly.

  Traveling into the land beyond human habitation was something that both scared and excited me. So far south, in the frozen lands where no farmer dared grow crops, the world had been abandoned and nature left to her own devices. All the dangerous creatures and fierce beasts that humanity had constantly striven to drive from its own territories had been forced into the bitter environments of the south, and become even more t
errible in order to survive the inhospitable landscape. The rolling hills of evergreens and the fields of frozen tundra were home to Fell Beasts. They were massive bipedal monsters that still possessed many features of the wolves they had evolved from, but were driven by a fearsome hunger to hunt constantly. The Shao Geok roamed in tribes, monsters of intelligence beyond the average animal, scouring the icelands and claiming as much territory as possible. If any humans made the mistake of trying to establish a settlement beyond the protection of castle Renwalk, the Shao Geok came quickly to devour those foolish enough to intrude upon their icy lands. The Shao Geok and the Fell Beasts were only two of a large assortment of terrifying creatures living in the south lands. It was truly a country ruled by monsters.

  The company I kept, the two Knights of Ethan, gave me some sense of security as we progressed further into the ice-locked world beyond human civilization, but my confidence in my own skills was not so great that I felt I could handle all the demons of the south. My travel companions spoke little as we progressed, and I could sense that there was a tension amidst them as well. I wondered whether it was caused by the danger of our situation, or by some friction between them. Neither of them seemed inclined to tell me, and so our party traveled on in quiet for two days. We had gone for nearly a full day without so much as a word passing between us, when Weaver stopped in his tracks and bent to inspect something on the ground. A moment later he was back on his feet and moving to inspect the trees in the area until he seemed to find what he was looking for. I watched him curiously, noting that the tree he examined had five deep scar marks across its bark, as though raked by a powerful claw. The red-eyed warrior returned to Silent and me, nodding to Silent as he did so.

  "Sign?" My once quiet, once friend, asked.

  "Sign." Weaver replied.

  "Sign of what?" I asked, feeling as though information was passing around me that was important to my survival.

  The red-eyed warrior smiled at me, a look of unreasonable excitement making his eyes seem to burn in the darkness of the night. "Fell Beast." He answered, and a chill ran down my spine. "We've entered the territory of a beast of the south, and if I read the sign correctly, we'll be making our way straight through its land." He added, that excited expression never leaving his face.

  "Perhaps we'll be through before it is aware of us." I said, having no desire to meet a Fell Beast, a creature that I knew little about at the time, only that one had severely injured Malice early in her career as a Knight. If Malice had been injured by one, I felt certain that I didn't want to meet such a beast.

  Weaver chuckled. "If we're seeing sign, it's because the beast already knows we're here. You see, the Fell Beast enjoys the thrill of the hunt. It leaves its mark so that we can see it, and fear it. This one is letting us know that it intends to have us as its prey. It feeds almost as much on its victims' terror as it does on their flesh."

  I pulled my cloak tighter about me and put my hand on my sword hilt. "How long do we have before it will attack us?"

  "A day or two. They enjoy stalking." Silent added from behind me, and I sensed no humor in his voice. Silent and Weaver were not merely trying to frighten me, though they were doing just that. I looked behind me, to Silent, and noticed that there were a few flakes of snow falling between the two of us. My gaze shifted up into the sky and I could see only darkness above. The heavy cloud-cover was blocking any light from making it to the ground. I wondered whether snow would aid or hinder our deadly stalker.

  "They hunt best in heavy snow, and by the looks of it, we're to have a serious storm." Weaver must have noticed my stare. He seemed always to be able to read the questions I held inside, even if I never asked them. It unnerved me. Our eyes - the eyes of a Knight of Ethan - saw well in the dark, though they did not brighten the night so much as sharpen the details beneath its dark cloak. Weaver had told me before that heavy snow or rain was more difficult to see through, since our vision's peculiar ability to track motion could become confusing in such circumstances. I hadn't yet had a chance to fully appreciate that effect, but as the snow began to quicken around us, and the streaks followed every flake through the sky, I was beginning to see just how true his warning had been.

  "Come," Weaver said, starting forward again. "We should travel as far as we can before the snow sets in and we're forced to stop." We started forward once more. Every hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. I wasn't certain if it was a justified feeling, or simply paranoia, though I suspected that the feeling was indeed justifiable. The beast already knew where we were, and it was probably watching us marching further into its territory.

  The snow set in fast. Within an hour we were struggling against gusting winds and conditions that made it impossible to see each other, despite being less than an arms-width apart. The wind howled between us, making communication without yelling difficult, even if we had been inclined to talk to one another. It was Silent who finally called an end to our progress.

  "We should stop here," he yelled into the void of wind and snow. We were near a thick cove of evergreens that would provide some shelter from the wind, even if they couldn't keep out all the blowing snow.

  "Fine, find a tree and set your back to it, keep your cloak pulled up tight and you should survive until morning," Lucidil yelled back at us, and so we each took a separate tree, laying close to the trunk where the wind was least biting and the snow was least likely to accumulate. I noted where both of my travel companions were bedding down, in case of emergency. As I'd been told to do, I pulled my face mask up over most of my face, and drew my hood so low that it blocked out most of the world. Being blind, and knowing that we were stalked by a Fell Beast, I couldn't help but fear that which was unseen. The terrible howl of the wind, a noise like a beast of nightmares screaming through the forest and the darkness, made for an unsettling night. I did manage to sleep, but not for more than a few minutes at a time. I waited in anticipation of the attack I felt certain would come during the night, but as the light of day began to brighten the eternal whiteness of the world around me, I was still alive. The howl of the storm began to fade, and I lifted the hood of my cloak to look out at the changes the storm had wrought. The cloak, though difficult to see with its shifting camouflage on the outside, was solid black on the inside, so I was ill prepared for the brightness that met my eyes upon first peering out. During the night the snow had covered me almost to my neck, and it took a good deal of force to break the seal that had been formed about my body. I stood up and pushed myself through the snow, going to where I remembered Silent and Weaver to have bedded down.

  "Weaver? Silent?" I called, but there was no answer. I walked to the positions they'd been in the night before and found only a slight depression in the snow where the two of them should have been. A note of panic struck me, and I had to force myself to remain calm. I scanned the field of white around me, the snow nearly as high my thighs. There were no tracks, no sign of passage. Wherever they had gone, they had vanished not long after we'd stopped the night before and the storm had erased all memory of their passing from the earth. My initial fear was that they'd been taken in the night by the Fell Beast, but I couldn't believe that Weaver would go down without a fight. Of course, I had to consider the possibility that I might not have heard a fight in the howling wind of the night before. Besides, the other possibility was that Silent and Weaver had intentionally left me in the night, and that prospect didn't make any sense. I had been traveling with Weaver for a long time, merely to have him leave me alone in the most dangerous wilderness we'd passed through made little sense. Assuming they had not willingly left, I was forced to consider the first possibility more seriously. Had the beast come in the night and taken Silent and Weaver knowing that they were the strongest, and that it would best be rid of them when it had the advantage? With only myself left, I would be easy prey for a creature of such incredible ferocity and hunger, and it could enjoy th
e hunt and capture with little worry. I drew my sword and held it at the ready.

  I would have to keep traveling south, no matter what had happened. I needed to reunite with the Knights of Ethan. If I were being hunted I would need to travel fast and remain cautious. If the beast had killed both Weaver and Silent in the night, I had little hope of surviving with my meager skills and abilities, but I would not allow myself to be defeated without at least making an attempt to escape. I did my best to orient myself southward, making as clear a judgment as possible based on the position of the sun. I wasn't as directionally acute as Weaver, and the sun was mostly obscured by clouds, but it was all I had to work with. From somewhere not too far away, a howl tore into the void of white and urged me to get moving. The deep snow was difficult to move through, but I pushed onward, looking up to take my position whenever it was possible. The storm had gone, but the cloud cover was omnipresent, the sun rarely shining out from behind the thick cloud-cover to allow me to get my bearings. The snow came and went as I traveled, and always I felt the pressure of eyes on my back. Occasionally, when I would begin to feel comfort in my progress, another howl would echo through the trees to remind me that my pursuer was still following. I kept my fist tight around the handle of my weapon and trudged on.