The Hungering Saga Complete

by Heath Pfaff

  "King Noble, they're Hungering!" She yelled, as she ran with her spear at the ready across the deck of the ship. Her words ignited a fire in me the likes of which had not burned in a long time.

  "What?" I asked, standing, and instinctually preparing myself for a fight. I was unsure what Silver meant, but just hearing the word "Hungering" after so long set me on edge.

  "I went to make use of the head, and when I stepped out of the room, I knocked into one of the crew by mistake. He fell over, and his hood came undone. The crew is not human, King Noble. They're Hungering." Her eyes scanned the deck as though the crew might attack at any moment. "I couldn't see all of him, but I could make out his red eyes, and that strange pale skin of theirs. She held her spear at the ready.

  "You're probably mistaken. The Hungering would never have allowed us to sail on one of their ships, besides, they don't sail normal vessels. They use black drakes." Ethaniel's voice cut in. I ignored him.

  Fury was soaking through my body, permeating to the center of my mind. I remembered the bony shoulder I'd grabbed on my first day aboard ship, and the agile way which the crew members went about their business. I remembered the strangely familiar, yet alien movements that I couldn't quite place. It all seemed clear to me in that moment. Silver was right. The crew were Hungering. I crossed the ship, walking towards one of the deck hands that was still going about its job with complete indifference.

  I grabbed the thing's hood as I drew within range, and pulled it back. Its head was wrapped in linens, a strand going around its eyes to cover the red glow, making it nothing more than a feint shine, but as soon as the head was uncovered, there was no mistaking the creature that stood before me. The Hungering. I expected the creature to attack, to strike out at me in some way, but it didn't do anything at all. It kept to its task. I stared on in horror.

  I recoiled from it, the claws of my hand sharpening without any intentional willing on my part. I was so close to striking it down, but instead I backed away. It wasn't attacking me. It hadn't attacked any of us and we had been aboard ship for weeks. Though the impulse to kill burned through my veins, I would not strike down an enemy in cold blood. Questions flooded my mind, needing an outlet.

  "What in the hell is this, Ethaniel?" I called back across the ship. The old Knight did not reply. I spun to face him, storming across the open deck. "What is going on? Why are the Hungering taking us into land? Is there a trap waiting for us at shore? What is your part in all of this?" I demanded, my ire rising with every question that occurred to me. I was certain he had played some part in the events that were transpiring. I reached for my sword. It wasn't there. It hadn't been there since I'd lost it to the great ocean depths. The blade given to me by Uin Delmore was gone forever, vanished into a blackness that seemed without end.

  The door leading down into the ship interior opened at the far end of the deck, and the captain stepped forth. She moved quickly, as though she'd been alerted to what was going on. I turned away from Ethaniel and faced her. The Knights were all standing. Those with weapons held them at the ready. I stepped out in front of the other Knights, placing myself between her and them. Such a feeling of hostility radiated from the woman that my skin felt as though it were crawling under her eyes. She started towards me. I widened my stance subtly as she approached, and prepared myself for an attack.

  "What is this?" I demanded as she came nearer, waving my hand at the crew around me.

  "We're transporting you and your men into shore. That's what you want, isn't it?" She answered, her voice calm, but undercurrents of hostility radiated out from her. She kept coming closer. I refused to step back.

  "Your crew are monsters. What are you? You don't move like them. What are you planning for us?" I pressed, but I felt the situation was on the cusp of flying out of control. The captain lunged forward, her body blurring with the speed of her motion. I hadn't anticipated such quickness from the woman. It took me completely by surprise. Her hand latched onto my arm before I could even shy backwards. Suddenly the crew of the ship were alert, moving towards my men, weapons I hadn't known they possessed, drawn. Their hoods were pulled back, and their red eyes burned through the cloth coverings. We were surrounded by hostile Hungering forces.

  An image of Kay being dragged away by their red glowing eyes flashed through my mind, and with it came a phenomenal rush of strength. I twisted my wrist with explosive force, breaking the hold the woman had on me and grabbing a hold of her throat, all in one darting motion. Her hood fell back as I lifted her from the deck by her neck. She was human in appearance, but her eyes were terrible. I had seen such eyes before. They were dark gray, and seemed to seep smoke from their corners. They were the same eyes that Ethaniel had taken unto himself when he'd joined with creature known as the shadowlyn. The woman differed, though, as she did not have any other eyes besides those gray ones. The look of hostility in those smoking orbs was exactly as it was in Ethaniel's. In my shock, my grip slackened, and the woman tore herself free and backed away from me. She drew a saber from beneath her cloak.

  "We're leaving." I said, as I began to back towards the section of the ship to which our lifeboat was bound. "Everyone, to the lifeboat." The Hungering circled around, but they did not pursue. The woman had pulled her hood back over her head as I released her. She stood at the head of those creatures that comprised her crew, a dark force whose whim they obviously followed.

  "We will still take you to shore, Lowin Fenly. Come with us." Her voice had resumed its calm tones, but the anger below it gave it a subtle growl.

  "We've come far enough with you. We'll find the remainder of the way on our own." I said, the Knights were behind me, and I could hear them readying the rope to lower us down onto the lifeboat.

  "You will die, smashed upon the rocks at the coast. The tides of the coastal waters cannot be navigated by such a small craft." The female captain said, and I could hear the ire in her voice rising.

  "We do not die so easily. I don't know what you intended, but keep your ship away from us here on out. If we cross paths again, I will tear this craft apart, plank by plank." I said, forcing the words to sound firm, even though a terrible chill ran down my spine. She'd answered none of my questions, and I didn't believe that she would, even if I wanted to stay and ask them again and again. My men, I believed, would be enough to take out her crew, and kill her as well. She would have to be wary of my threat. I did not believe she would pursue us any further. I felt a tug at my sleeve.

  "The others have gone, it's just us now." Malice's voice sounded in my ear.

  I nodded, still not taking my eyes off of the woman and the Hungering crew that surrounded her. "Go, I'll be right behind you." Malice's hand released my shirt, and then I heard the sounds of her quickly navigating the rope. I grabbed on behind her, and made my way quickly down the line, only taking my eyes off of the woman and her crew when my line of vision passed below the level of the deck. I severed the rope with my claws as we struck bottom.

  "Oars, paddle hard and fast. We all know the direction now. Stay to the charts, we should be able to make it into shore." I ordered, and six of us grabbed oars. I did not take one. Instead, I looked at Ethaniel, who was staring at me, barely concealed hostility playing across his features. His smoky gray eyes burned ferociously. I wondered if the others had seen the eyes of the ship captain as I had. They didn't seem to be paying any extra attention to Ethaniel, and that lead me to believe they had not. I, however, could not get those dark eyes out of my mind. The ship faded behind us, apparently having drawn to a stop.

  I was leaving the enemy behind, but I had the sneaking suspicion that I had also allowed the enemy to come along with us. He rowed with the others, seemingly as intent as them to get us away from the ship, but Ethaniel was nothing of what he seemed. The situation was out of my control, and I wasn't entirely sure how long it had been so.

  We paddled tirelessly in the direction indicated by the charts until finally, for the first time since we'd begun our seeming
ly endless journey, land appeared at the horizon. It had been too long since we'd last seen dry land. There was an undeniable giddy excitement amongst us, though Ethaniel did not seem to be affected for either good or ill. I had not spoken to him since leaving the Hungering controlled ship. Indeed, little had been said by any of the crew, though days had passed. Leaving that ship had felt like defeat. I was certain that it had been the correct choice, but getting back in the life boat had been difficult for everyone. I was just thankful the ship had not made an attempt to follow us. I had believed that it might, but I never saw sails on the horizon. That my threat had worked at all on the woman and her strange crew was bewildering.

  Of course, I was beginning to realize that I understood very little of what motivated those strange creatures. I had once been told that they lived to feed and expand, but I no longer believed that. The Hungering were driven by some purpose that I couldn't yet fathom. What could they possibly want with Kay, and why would they allow the other Knights and me to sail upon their ship? I looked over my shoulder at Ethaniel. His eyes were elsewhere, apparently far away. He had answers. His gray, smoky eyes were part of those answers. I needed to confront the old Knight. When we reached land, it would be time for him to tell the truth. I would force the point if I needed to. I was tired of the lies and half truths. Was he an agent of the Hungering? If so, he would have to be dealt with.

  The water became increasingly violent as we drew closer to land. We could make out the shore, and the tree line beyond, massive mountains sprawling in the distance, but all of that faded to the tumult of the ocean. We went from paddling for speed, to paddling just to keep our boat oriented and upright. We drew nearer, and suddenly there were jutting rocks amidst the waves, knife like protrusions that were covered by water one minute, and exposed the next.

  The ocean surged around us and I felt a heavy impact on the hull of our boat. The sound of wood splintering followed. I felt our craft slide down the side of a rock, and we hit the water just as it was rising back up to throw us forward again. The impact of boat on water tossed us into the air, and it was a struggle to land back in the relatively small confines of the craft. Without any help from us, our lifeboat was surging forward. The tide running inward towards the coast was dragging everything afloat along with it, and we were helpless to do anything other than hold on. Rocks scraped the bottom of our craft, but I knew it was only a matter of time until the surge ran low and we hit something that could not be passed over. I shifted my position in the boat, trying to get a better grip on my seat. I glanced at the others who were all doing the same. The pretense of paddling had been discarded. The tide was taking us into land, but whether or not we would survive being scraped over the rocks was still to be seen.

  The wave upon which we were riding crashed downward, but our boat did not follow it. We struck a rock half way through the descent and we stopped with a tremendous force. The boat split, the water etched reef cutting into it like a knife, and suddenly we were all being tossed into the cold sea. I hit the protrusion that had split our craft as I fell downward. It was an abrasive, cutting shard of stone. I felt my flesh split and tear as I was dragged down, and then back up the length of the rock as the water rose once more. Everything was a blur. I paddled frantically, looking for the others, but it was difficult to see them amidst the swells of water, and the churning white caps created by the dangerous rocks beneath the surface.

  "Malice!" I called out as my head cleared the surface of the water long enough to draw breath. My heart was racing. I was terrified, but not for my own life. I had confidence in my body's ability to heal. I couldn't find Malice. The others lay forgotten as I struggled against the current to try and find my green-eyed lover. Where was she? Had the ocean swallowed her into its grinding maw?

  In my haste to find her, I was not watching where the water swept me. The wave I rode upon ebbed and cold stone tore into my right arm, sending a burning flash of pain through my body. My mouth, which had been open to call out to Malice, snapped shut on my tongue and began to fill up with blood as searing pain lanced through the damaged flesh. I spit out a mist of blood and a small chunk of flesh that had been the tip of my tongue. The water surged hard again, tearing me off the rock it had just deposited me on, dragging me along its rough surface and taking away layers of skin as it did. The cold, salty sea water was like liquid fire against my freshly opened wounds. I felt myself lifting skyward, atop the crest of a great wave. I struggled through the pain that enveloped me, trying to make some sense of the world that had fallen entirely into chaos.

  The water dropped below me, and I fell with it. I was still nearly upside down, and facing the wrong direction. I couldn't see what I was falling towards, and I knew that was dangerous. I fought, letting the world slow around me as I struggled to use sheer speed to gain control of the situation. Moving faster was not helping. The water was pulling me along its course, and I could not get my body to correct. I hit another rock. It was smaller than the others I'd been bashed into, and it only clipped my left side as I was descending. Still, I felt a deep gash open up along my hip. I knew that if I could get my legs out in front of me, I would be able to control how hard I hit the jagged sections of reef, but I could not get my body to spin in the quickly churning waters.

  "You will die, smashed upon the rocks at the coast." The words of the woman leading the Hungering floated back to me. Had they been a portent? Was I doomed? No. I couldn't die. I couldn't allow myself to die. Malice needed me. Kay needed me. I couldn't let them down. I fought harder. My muscles strained against the water. Another swell blossomed around me, lifting me back into the air. A whirling current caught my torso and I felt my head being pulled under water. It all appeared to be happening so slowly. I tore at the water with my right arm, feeling the wounds on it split and open wider as I struggled. I had to save the others. I had to.

  The water fell away beneath me. I was completely upside down. My legs were out of the water, and my head was being held under by a strong current. I twisted with every bit of strength I could muster, and finally I felt myself coming around. I turned, orienting myself so that I could see where I was going, even if my head was still below the water line. At that very instant, a gnarled, jagged rock came up to meet me, and I struck it face first. There was an explosion of darkness, and then the ocean and its terrible currents went away.

  I found myself standing at the edge of a lake. It stretched out before me, meeting the tree line in the distance. There was a light wind blowing across its surface, cool and refreshing. I took a deep breath, and could smell that a recent rain had fallen. That scent was mixed in amidst the earthy smell of the forest. The sky was clear, and the sun was bright above me. I could hear the song of birds, and the sound of the grass, and the leaves of nearby trees rustling in the light breeze.

  "You've come a long way. You should sit and relax." A female voice, peaceful, yet gravely and strangely-accented, spoke from behind me. I turned to face the speaker. I was facing a large wolf with fur as green as the grass upon which she sat. There were strands of longer fur amidst her normal length coat that looked like the occasional long strands of grass that you would see in a field. Her eyes were a deep golden color that seemed to shine with their own light.

  "Whisper of the Mist," I intoned her name, as I recognized the female wolf that stood before me. I had not seen her in many years. She had died to give me the heart that still beat in my chest. Her expression was calm, yet feral. I felt a pang of guilt.

  "Lord Lowin." She greeted me, tilting her nose forward for a second, in what I took to be a wolfish bow.

  "Where am I?" I asked her, for I could not remember coming to the lake in the woods, and I remembered only too well that she was dead. I feared that I might be dead as well, though I did not want to ask that exact question.

  "You're not dead." Whisper answered, and I could see a smile in her golden eyes.

  "How did you. . ." I began to ask, but she spoke before I could finish.


  "You should understand how I know, Lowin. Isn't it obvious? We are the same, you and I. I am just the echo of another part of you, Lowin Fenly of the gods of man and wolf. As is he." She pointed with her nose, and for the first time I caught sight of another figure standing at the lake side. He was a few feet away from Whisper and me, with his back turned to us, apparently looking out into the woods. He was a hulking black figure, like a monstrous bipedal wolf-creature, with red tipped ears, and a circle of red at his single wrist, and ankles. He was missing an arm, as I was. I could not have forgotten that Fell Beast even had I tried, for I wore his legs, and his right arm still. He was as dead as Whisper though, another life sacrificed to make me what I had become.

  I ignored the Fell Beast, the monster that haunted me far too often. "Why did you do it, Whisper?" I asked the question that had been on my mind for years. Why had Whisper given her life to me, when it was I who had lost the combat between us? By her own people's rules, she was entitled to my heart, my strength. She had chosen to give her own instead.