The Hungering Saga Complete

by Heath Pfaff

  It was an hour before night of the following day when we saw a trail of black smoke rising from the valley in which we'd built our cabin. We knew immediately that something was wrong, as a wood fire should never have burned so dark. The black smoke that wafted into the air was from a pitch, a type of sealant which goes between the wood logs of a cabin such as ours. We ran hard then, letting our hearts pump fast and strong with the full range of our inhuman strength. The world seemed to slow around us, but we were traveling far faster than we had been up to that point, abandoning any thoughts of salvaging our waning energy. Malice pulled easily ahead, for her stamina far outpaced mine, and I soon lost sight of her.

  When next I saw my friend's back, she had come to a stop at the edge of the trail that lead from the woods into the clearing in which our cabin stood. I let my speed fall off, almost afraid to go any further. Malice had stopped and was staring at something that I couldn't see, something hidden up behind the tree line. I made my way towards her, and then passed her and walked into chaos.

  Our cabin was a smoldering ruin, reduced to a blackened pile of ash and cinder. I stepped towards it, my mouth falling open, unable to find any expression that might truly capture the horror I felt, and then stopped, transfixed by a new and even more horrifying sight. There, lying upon the pathway that lead up to our now-destroyed home, was a corpse. Naked and spread-eagle, her arms and legs were pinned to the ground with stakes, and the signs of vicious violation were all about the body. Familiar scaled arms terminated at wrists, terribly absent of clawed hands. The body's head was missing, and one of the breasts had been removed by what looked like vicious, cutting teeth. There was a short dagger protruding from the tortured bodies stomach, a piece of paper pinned beneath it.

  The corpse was bloated, ripe with maggots. I made my way towards it numbly, knowing already who it belonged to. I walked past it, stumbling on the path, my feet not wanting to go any further.

  "Kay!" I called out, my voice only a whisper. "Kaylien!" I called more loudly, though my voice was horse and crackling with fear. A shadowy figure emerged from the rubble of the house, drifting amidst the wreckage. It was Tyvel.

  "Noble, they took her! They came, they killed Wisp, and they took little Kay!" He called, distress sharp in his voice. "I couldn't do anything! I tried to scare them away, but they just ignored me. I couldn't do anything." He said, falling to his insubstantial knees and sobbing.

  I walked around the devastation, stunned. Malice was talking to Tyvel, but I heard nothing of it. I circled the whole house multiple times before coming back to the body of Wisp, lying violated and destroyed upon the ground. I looked more closely at the paper on her chest. It was neatly folded, and had my name written across the front in large, bold script. I bent over, and drew the knife, along with the letter, from the body. Tears filled my vision, and I had to stop multiple times while trying to read the letter. It was short, and to the point:

  Lowin,

  Your daughter is in our care now. If you wish for her to remain well kept, you will wait two weeks, and then proceed to the capital city with your accomplice, Malice, where you will be expected for an audience with your king. If you are seen in the lands of men before the two weeks allotted, your daughter will die slowly - and painfully - over the course of many days. We are watching you, Noble. Do not cross us again.

  Your Majesty, the King

  Such a rage welled up within me as I read each additional line of the short letter. I threw the paper and knife down and charged into the wreckage of my home, smashing and demolishing the fragments of building that still stood, my strength raining havoc down upon those few pieces that dared stand as a testament to my foolish belief that I had found a safe place. The smoldering ash burned my flesh, but my healing ability, even exhausted as I was, repaired the damage near immediately.

  I screamed my fury, letting all of it free on the world around me until everything seemed to fade to a red blur. I don't remember how long it went on, but when next I was aware of my surroundings I was on my knees at Wisp's side. I realized that my hands were clenched so tightly closed that blood was running freely from my palms, my claws digging furrows into them. I opened my fists, and stared at the bloody gashes as they healed closed in a moment. I looked around. Anything that had been standing when I entered the clearing, any partial remainder of our life in the quiet valley, was now destroyed.

  Malice was kneeling to one side of me, her head down, but her shoulders shaking in such a way that I knew she was crying silently. She held the note from the king balled up in one fist. I saw the remains of Wisp's clothes off to one side, torn to pieces, all but her shifting cloak, which lay mostly undamaged, though covered in dirt, and apparently trampled upon. I picked up the cloak and draped it over what was left of her body. Wisp had been the sister I'd never had, though only for such a short time. I ran my hand down my face, tracing the scars I knew were there, remnants of a different time for Wisp and I, a time when she had wanted to kill me. Now those scars, and the few memories that we had built, were all that remained of a woman who had been too good for the fate that had searched her out. I wrapped her body, picked it up, and oriented myself on a direction I'd only ever walked once before.

  I heard Malice get up, and speak to Tyvel. "Where is her head?"

  "They took it with them." He said softly, and I gritted my teeth together and walked away as fast as I could.

  "We'll be back." I heard Malice say. If the ghost replied, I didn't hear him. Malice fell in at my side, obviously aware of where I intended to go. If she'd ever been there before, she hadn't told me about it. It wasn't that I cared whether she'd gone to that quite grove where I'd buried Kye, but I had never gone out of my way to let the others know about it. It had been my intention to never return there.

  When we finally reached the grove, I was surprised to find that the grass was sheared short and nothing had grown over. All was well kept and neat. The amethyst stone that bore only a single word, a name, "Kyeia," still stood straight and tall, a proud reminder of the woman whose resting place it marked. I was as happy as it was possible for me to be at that moment, to see that things had not fallen to disrepair. I couldn't know whether it was Malice or Wisp who had taken care of things, or maybe both, but I was thankful. My sword still lay in the grass at the base of the stone, where I'd left it after carving her name into the rock. I gently lay down Wisp's body and picked up the sword. The hilt was still familiar to me, despite the fact that the leather was dry and cracking, and the entire weapon was covered in rust. I placed it back down, and walked a few feet from Kye's grave before I dropped to my knees and began the process of digging.

  Malice knelt down beside me, and before long we'd dug a deep hole in which to rest Wisp's body. We carried her in together, laying the body down with a care it no longer needed, but that we felt it deserved. Once we were done, we left her at the bottom of a deep, dark pit. Looking down into that hole, the body laying so far away, I was struck by the finality of the moment. Wisp would never laugh or smile again, and she would never stay up late telling Kay stories that were not really appropriate for a little girl. She would never shoot me one of her angry looks when I was too moody for her liking, and she would never again surprise me with her unusual brand of wisdom. I picked up a handful of dirt and let if fall into the grave.

  "You were a sister to me, and I loved you." I told her, speaking those words which I had so feared to say to anyone, and wishing only that I'd had the nerve to say them to Wisp before it was time to bury her. I wondered if I would ever have the chance to say those words to my daughter.

  Malice took a handful of dirt and dropped it into the grave. "There were twenty of them, and you killed seven. You are the bravest person I've ever known, and I too loved you as a sister." Malice looked to me as she finished her words to the dead. "I spoke to Tyvel while you were. . ." She didn't need to finish her explanation. I nodded, thinking I should have had the forethought to do that. We filled in the grave together, and found
a great rock of black obsidian. It took us much of the night to find the stone, but we would not settle for less a marker. I used my rusted sword, and carved the word "Wisp" into the rock. We set it in place, and I lay the rusted sword between the two headstones. Kyeia and Wisp. They had not known each other, but they were both family to me.

  I sat down heavily between the two graves, and Malice came and sat in front of me. For a time we were silent, the beauty and peace of the grove almost like a spell of calm all around us. Unfortunately, the spell did not carry its effects beyond my surface. My mind was a whorl of chaos and confusion, and my emotions felt as though they might break my sanity at any moment. Those who had so violated my sister, now had my daughter in their grasps, and I was powerless to do anything. I felt that at any moment I might either burst into an unstoppable bout of tears, or descend into an unending fit of rage. I was, however, certain on one matter.

  "I'm going kill them all." I said, that decision being the only one that was easy for me to make.

  Malice nodded. "I know. Have you asked yourself how they knew where to find us?"

  I shook my head. I hadn't thought of that at all. I didn't know how they could have found us. We'd left no tracks, and had moved so far outside of human lands that we should have been impossible to find. That they knew how to locate us was a frightening realization, and one that I was not equipped to deal with.

  "The letter said that they are watching you. They must have some magic that lets them find us. Maybe we should ask Tyvel about it?" Malice asked, though her tone implied there was no question as to what she thought was the best course of action.

  "Yes." I replied. My thoughts had gone elsewhere though, to a matter I had not thought about it two years. "How far would we need to travel to find a Kaziem Wolf?"

  Malice visibly started, her eyes going wide. "Lowin, no. There is no way we can. . ."

  "You can, Malice. You know how to do what is necessary, and without it I can't hope to survive what lies ahead." I interrupted her, my decision firm on the matter. The Kaziem Wolf was a creature of boundless stamina. Its heart was a rare and powerful source of energy, and joining it to my body would allow me to reach my full potential of strength and speed. The process for integrating it however, was a dangerous one that only three Knights of Ethan had survived. Malice was one of those three survivors. She was also trained in the medical processes required to perform such an implementation.

  Before she had given it up, she'd been studying to become one of the Knights of Ethan responsible for grafting new parts into the Knights' bodies. It was a difficult process, and Malice had been very adept at it early in her training, but after receiving her eyes, and discovering the horrible cost of the improvements given to the Knights of Ethan, she had given up that line of research, and had instead dedicated her life to becoming a proficient fighter, a task at which she also excelled. This was an aspect of her life I had not learned until we'd lived together in the cabin for some time, and I hated to use the information told in confidence to force Malice into doing something she didn't want to do. However, if I was to avenge Wisp, and get my daughter back, I would need to be better than I was.

  Malice was shaking her head. "What if I were to kill you, Noble? I couldn't stand that. . ."

  "If you don't do it, Malice, I will certainly die. This is what I want, and you need not feel that this burden lies entirely on you. This is my choice." I took her hands in mine as I spoke, and forced her to look into my eyes. Her green eyes shone with pent emotion. "Now, where must we go to find these Kaziem Wolves?"

  A single tear trickled from her left eye, the first since we'd finished burying Wisp. "The foothills of Tuv'et. It is perhaps a five day trip from here if we go directly, but please Lowin, don't make me do this. I don't know if I could stand to lose you too right now."

  I smiled at her, an expression that was difficult for me with how terrible I felt inside. "We can do this, Malice. I know we can." I had no intention of dying before I'd made those who'd hurt my family pay.

  We slept for a time in the quiet grove, amidst the graves of our loved ones, before rising and returning to the ravaged remains of our home. I would have liked to have left immediately, but both Malice and I were at the ends of our energy. We had run so far, and so hard, that our exhaustion was no longer ignorable. We slept for several hours and rose ready to do what needed to be done. Malice felt no better about what I expected of her, but I could not let the matter go. I needed the Kaziem Wolf heart.

  If I was to become strong enough to survive the fight that would be necessary to save Kay, and seek revenge for all that had been done to my family, I would have to be able to use my full potential, and my current heart did not have the strength. I knew that Malice was aware of that truth as well, though she desperately wanted it not to be so. The kidnapping of my daughter, and the brutal murder of Wisp had changed something in my mossy-eyed companion. It might have been grief, but some part of her was subtly different. It was probably the trauma of our situation, I thought. It was affecting her actions and mood. Still, uncertainty remained, nagging at my mind.

  It took us three hours at a hard pace to reach the cabin again. I hadn't realized just how far away the grave site was from the place that had once been our home, but my mind was beginning to settle, the shock of the terrible events wearing off. The clarity was almost worse than the confusing haze in which I'd been enveloped. I was left with a terrible grief, and a stomach churning fear for the safety of my daughter. I knew not what those monsters would do to her, but I was only too aware of the bizarre experiments preformed on her mother while she was kept in captivity at one of the king's research centers. Tyvel had told us of the tortures they'd inflicted as they searched for answers she simply couldn't give them. Thinking about them doing similar things to my daughter made me want to rush after them immediately. Resisting that urge was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. They had several days on me, and would be running fast. I could catch them, I knew, but what would they have done to poor little Kay in the interim if they knew that I was coming? A chill ran down my spine. Be alright, Kaylien. I willed it with all my heart.

  Tyvel was standing just beyond the burnt remains of the house when we came within sight of it. He was more transparent than usual, which meant that he was at the fullest extent of his range from the box that housed the fragment of his body. I was surprised that, despite the damage the fire had wrought upon the home, Tyvel's box and bone fragment had not been destroyed. I wondered passingly if they were enchanted in some way that stopped them from being physically harmed.

  "I'm glad you came back. I worried for a time that you would leave me here." The ghost said, his voice holding a wavering edge. I realized it had been unfair to leave him in the wreckage of the cabin, amidst a scene that must have been filled with such terrible memories for the ghost.

  "I'm sorry, Tyvel. In my grief I didn't think of how hard it must be to remain here. Of course we would not leave you behind. You have been a good friend over these years." I told the ghost, who smiled in reply. "Now, where is your box?"

  The ghost turned back to the rubble and began to walk through it. He came to a place where our single table had been and bent over, pointing at a pile of debris.

  "It's beneath this mess, here." He said.

  Malice crossed the threshold of the house, walking through the place where the door had once been, possibly from habit, or possibly from inability accept that it was really all gone. I felt moisture building in my eyes again and forced myself to take a deep, steadying breath. The time for tears was past. I needed to be stronger. There was much that needed to be done, and I had to ready myself for it. In a few moments Malice stood up, holding the unharmed black box in one of her hands. She pulled off her pack and, after disposing of a pouch of meat, slid the box inside. We would, of course, no longer need all of the food we'd hunted. Neither of us spoke the sentiment, unwilling to confront the truth of exactly what that meant.

  "What are we going
to do now?" Tyvel asked. Malice looked away, a worried expression playing across her features.

  "We're forbidden from traveling into the kingdom of men for two weeks, though I know not why, so we are going to travel north and east of here, to the foothills of Tuv'et." I told the shade.

  "Tuv'et? What could you possibly want there? That entire area is full of unspeakable monsters. It is as far north as you can go from the king's land without sailing." Tyvel's natural scientific curiosity was piqued; however this was one matter I didn't want to go into with my ghostly friend. It was a private issue meant for those of who were cursed with the stolen eyes of the Uliona.

  "I have business I must attend to there before we move on, I'm afraid. It shall not take long, and we should be back to where we need to be before the two weeks are out. From there, we will set a hard and fast pace to the capital. The sooner Kay is safe and sound, the better." I turned to face Malice. "Are we ready to go?"

  She nodded her reply, and we began our journey. Tyvel hovered about us, needing no effort to keep pace with us as we traveled. He went where his box did. I knew by the time we'd run the four days out and back, I would be envying his position, but at the moment my freedom seemed a far better deal than his confinement to the box's minuscule range. While we ran, I knew it was time to talk. I needed to know things about the attack, things I did not want to know, but had to. I also needed to see if Tyvel had any idea what methods the king was using to keep track of us.