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Previously on Fang & Bone, Corea had obtained a new knife and a short bow from a corpse that Fang found. Since then, Fang and Erryl have been on edge about local bandits and have quickened their pace…

There was no sign of the bandits that Fang and Erryl were convinced were lurking in the woods. It wasn’t that Corea did not believe them, but rather that with every inspection she made of the treeline, she saw nothing but trees, shrubs, and the errant shuffling of small animals. She did not know what they saw, and as of now, she couldn’t ask them. Fang was on the alert, and she watched his ears turn and wiggle at sounds she could not hear. Erryl forced a quickened pace, pushing Corea into a faster stride that was beginning to get exhausting, nearly as exhausting as the barber’s continued utterance of “move.”

Whenever she asked for clues as to what she should watch for, the reply was always the same from Erryl – either “move” or “hush.” She dared not call out to Fang, yards ahead, for fear of making noise. Both of her guardians moved near silently, and she had quickly decided that should be her approach as well, outside of frustrated whispers that were met with, again, “move” or “hush.”

They had been teaching her things all day, for hours now, but now they weren’t, and it frustrated her. As she walked, she would periodically glance at her feet and stare at the toes of her boots as they swept over the roughshod path, conscious more than ever of her youth. She was small and something to be protected, to be watched over like a small child, and she hated it. She understood it, but she did not like it.

The awareness of the shift from contributor to burden made her face feel hot, and she clenched her fists so hard that her nails were on the cusp of breaking the skin of her palm. Realizing how tightly she had been clenching at nothing, she loosened up and flexed her fingers, trying not to let the annoyance and shame get the better of her. She wouldn’t be a burden, she decided. She was a hard worker at home. She could be a hard worker here. Soon the woods would clear, and they’d enter the field that surrounded the outskirts of Gordhurst. There would be less cover for all parties, which was probably worse than the equal cover of the woods. This was her chance to learn.

And with that, her focus shifted to the treeline surrounding the old road. She would glance between the trees into the darkened woods, despite the day. She took in the strange greenish tinge of the sky, subtle, but it had been growing more obvious as they walked along the road through the cracks of the canopy. She tried to hear beyond the sound of her steps, beyond the immediate area. She tried to discern scents. She did everything she could think of to be more aware of the woods, to reach out beyond the immediate. She was met with nothing beyond the immediate. She began to clench her fists again. She unclenched them, exhaling.

“Move,” Erryl whispered.

She began to clench her fists again. She released them, again. She picked up her pace and whispered back.

“How do I do what you do?” she asked.

Erryl was silent for a moment or two. Then he spoke.

“Surgery or swordplay?”

“Survive. See what you and him see.” She pointed to Fang up ahead.

“Do this for a while. My lupine companion and I have nearly a half-century of experience between us.” Erryl patted her on the head. “It’s time that hones the instincts.”

Corea said nothing, but felt a little comfort at the feeling of his hand on her head.

“Now, hush and move,” he added, spoiling the moment.

Corea sighed and picked up her pace, yet again.

…

Despite what Erryl had said, Corea was still seeking to pick up on little things in the world around her, trying to hone her senses for what was sure to be a trial within the old town – Trying to build up those “instincts” he had mentioned. It would take time, but surely there was some practice too, wasn’t there? It wasn’t just a passive experience; it was something that had to be honed to some degree. It had to be.

The repetition, the pace, and the focus began to come together, and before she knew it, something seemed different. A strange awareness that wasn’t necessarily of her worldly senses. She would find it impossible to describe in the years since. It was like there was a rhythm of the world, and errant notes would pique her attention, and she’d feel something, experience something like color in her head, though she could not quite understand what any of those colors meant.

But there was a familiarity. There was a blood-deep feeling about it all that she could not quite articulate..

There were blues and greens, which seemed to be the most common colors she saw, but sudden flashes of other, warmer colors would burst into subtle pops and sparks, vibrating and humming, fading in and out of the worldly rhythm. As she focused and fell into experiencing this strange layer to her experience, she found herself conscious of two worlds. She saw the road and her werewolf guardian ahead. But there was another world of color over it. It was like when she applied pressure to her closed eyes in the darkness of night when she was tired; the kind of sparks that danced in her vision after. But also not quite that, as those faded after a time. This experience persisted and only grew as she focused on it. It was like each of her eyes saw something else. She felt dizzy trying to make sense of it all, but not physically so.

This wasn’t entirely a new sensation, either. She’d been recognizing this feeling for a while now, before, in other moments, back home, back during chores, or spending time with Garen. She’d experience spells of rhythmic lights in the night, but this was different. This felt like something deliberate and something she was making happen.

She pushed further, trying to comprehend both worlds simultaneously. As she saw green and blue dancing, shimmering, and pulsing, she too saw Erryl to her left, looking at her with concern. As she heard the rhythm of the world, she also heard him speak. 

“Your nose is bleeding.”

She felt the sensation of the blood from her nostrils and over her top lip. She saw blues and greens give way to warmer hues, to yellows, golds, and oranges, and until bursts of red violently and continually tore at her vision. Her ears popped with discordant, droning sounds. She felt herself wobble and stared at the road, unsure whether the world was shaking or it was her.

Seconds later, there was a roar. She stood unsteadily and watched Fang draw his sword and heard the cracking of branches and the violent uprooting of earth and brush. An ear-piercing squeal tore through the woods, then, and the world of color dropped from her vision, as though someone had just simply pulled it away. In one moment, her altered mind snapped back into a violent, bitter reality. She felt nausea wash over her as a giant boar erupted from the tree line and dashed past the Wolf as his heavy sword swing missed it.

“Damn! Corea, hide!”

Erryl dashed past, shoving her body toward the treeline to her right, but she couldn’t move; the world still rocked, and she was having trouble getting a sense of herself. As the Barber pushed toward the boar, he turned his gaze back to her to yell, again, “Hide!”

She shook her head, trying to jostle away whatever bewitchment clouded her mind, and with an immediate burst of strength threw herself toward a large tree off the side of the old road. She pressed herself against it and slid down,, shrinking into the ferns that grew at the base of the tree. She still felt dizzy, and she swore at herself. She focused through the rocking sensation as best she could on the Barber and the Wolf. Erryl seemingly danced around the boar, looking for an opportune moment. The beast, dwarfing even Fang, the Wolf had given up his sword for his fists. 

At shoulder height, the boar looked to be a head shorter than the werewolf, but with the long, muscular frame of a swine – all front-heavy. She’d never seen such a large creature in her life, and suddenly she felt very scared. Hunters had told stories of massive boars, but this beast was larger than the surely exaggerated tales overheard by the hearth at the inn. Now, seeing this, she wondered just how exaggerated those tales had been.

Fang had not sheathed his sword, exposing his massive hands – or were they paws? – and the dagger-like claws at the tip of each finger. She’d not seen them this present yet, and he appeared terrifying and primal, barking and growling and slashing at the boar between dodged charges. Massive fingers flexed out from his hand, tipped by sickle-like tips, not unlike the knife she had found on the body less than an hour ago. The boar would take huge, striding passes while the Wolf and the Barber would strike in passing. Fang’s claws raked at the thin skin effectively, drawing red ribbons that sprayed out at each swipe, but Erryl’s sword seemed almost useless. The thin, swishy rapier did not seem to cut well, and she began to see the man wielding it lose his temper.

“Hold the fucker,” Erryl barked, barely dodging another charging swipe from the boar. It had been very close, and Corea was not sure if he’d been entirely unscathed.

Fang raked the boar across the face, barely dodging the strike himself. The boar squealed a horrible swine-squeal that bellowed from massive lungs. The boar cleared some distance and began to turn, digging its weight deep into the soil and kicking up a torrent of dirt. The boar stood then, panting, sizing the pair up. Two sets of tusks raked at the path, throwing up clouds of dirt and clods of musty soil along with clumps of grasses. It looked poised to charge again.

“Near a thousand pounds. Not that strong.”

“I need to get it in the eyes,” Erryl added, not acknowledging Fang’s point.

“Fine.”

She watched the Wolf widen his stance on digitgrade legs and leaned slightly forward, lowering his body to the earth. His arms were outstretched, as though he planned to catch the boar. He wasn’t planning on doing that, though, was he? Corea noticed him breathing hard, his fuzzy brow furrowed in concentration.

The boar kicked up more dirt and dust and suddenly charged forward. Erryl took a few steps back as Fang began to shift, crablike, along the path as the boar charged. She flinched when the massive beast came upon the Wolf, but then she saw the boar lift into the air, almost like it was in a flying leap, only back-first. Time felt slower now, as she took in the sight. The boar had not willingly gone vertical, but rather she saw that Fang had locked his massive hands around the larger set of tusks that were peeking out of the boar’s maw and had seemingly lifted the boar skyward by the head. The boar was at the apex for whatever this flip was as Fang twisted his body, holding the boar upright with all his strength for a scant few moments. As soon as the boar crossed that apex, the beast slammed down, hard, on its back, and Fang stumbled backward, either dizzy or exhausted from carrying the weight.

The boar, helpless for a moment, legs kicking skyward, wiggled its massive bulk as best it could to right itself. As soon as it had slammed, Erryl had darted forward toward the gnashing ahead and with great finesse threaded the shaking needle of a blade into the beast’s eye socket. He planted the rapier tip deep into a giant, pale yellow eye and swished and flicked, finally drawing the rapier free with a sickening thread of eye jelly arcing from it.

The boar squealed and gnashed and kicked with all its might, nearly knocking Erryl over. Fang, meanwhile, still recovering, began to claw at the kicking legs, nearly succumbing to two direct hooven blows to the face. Within the ferns, Corea’s eyes shone at the opportunity, and she arose, firing her small arrows at the giant, aiming at the guts where she knew pig skin to be weaker. Yet still, several of them bounced off the thick, bristled skin. But as the beast finally gained enough momentum to right itself, a single arrow hit its mark, finding purchase in the large testicles that dangled between the hind legs. The boar screamed and whipped its massive head in her direction as it steadied itself on its hooves, one eye little more now than an oozing socket running down a thick jowl. It snarled, drooled, and tried its best to scrape the arrow from its balls with a hind leg as it began to thrash her way, knocking Erryl over and swatting Fang with a heavy tail across the chest, sending him stumbling back.

What began as a slow lurch accelerated into a charge, and Corea fired an arrow that missed the boar entirely just as it crashed into the tree where she had sought cover. The tree fell forward and nearly crushed her as she scrambled into the low ferns, crawling as far from the boar as she could. Still enraged and sure the target of its ire was in the immediate area, it began to whip its tusked snoout in the ferns and shrubs, tearing up every single plant it hit, nearly catching Corea by the ankle or ass multiple times as she crawled as fast as she could. She tried to throw herself over the downed tree as best she could, but was not fast enough. The boar howled and began to thrash on the fallen tree, and she tried to crawl over. The tree rolled and bounced, tossing her back into the shrubs.

She was exhausted and tried to crawl again, away from the boar as it slowly approached. She had turned and was now pulling herself from it as she faced it directly. Only inches away, the jaws of the beast opened, and the scent of rotting meat hit her like a gust of rancid air. The heavy breathing belayed a frustration, and Corea was now the scapegoat for the massive swine’s wrath.

The head of the boar suddenly jerked upward, exposing the fleshy neck. She saw two massive, clawed and furred hands digging deep into the jawline and pulling the head upward. Fang’s grip was so deep and powerful that his knuckles were buried in the porcine flesh. The boar thrashed, but she could see Fang straddling just behind its skull, desperately wrestling the head skyward.

“Cut!” Fang roared, continuing to jerk the massive head upward and exposing the neck flesh. The boar continued to roar and shake, but Fang held on, gripping with all his might and digging his claws deeper into the fatty jowls that began to ooze crimson.

Corea drew the new curved blade and was relieved that it was still sharp. She rose to unsteady feet and threw herself forward and upward, toward the neck as the boar stomped and thrashed, jamming the knife as far in as she could. She had nearly sunk the blade to the handle; she struggled to keep her grip as hot blood fushed from the wound. When she realized she had gone as deep as she could, she threw all of her weight into running the full length of the buried blade across the throat, showering her in even more blood as she dragged.

Finally, the blade popped loose, and she collapsed, accidentally tossing it a few feet away as the boar began to die. Directly under the thrashing beast, she breathed hard and spat out what felt like an eternal stream of blood raining all over her. She tried her best to belly crawl out from beneath the boar, but the plants were slick with blood, and the dirt had become ruby mud. There was no hold to propel her along, and each inch was hard won.

As she crawled, she watched Fang continue to pull the head upward, the new neck wound widening further and further, like a fabric sack splitting open. The sound of broken bones and tearing flesh was eerily clear despite the earsplitting gargling and mournful squeals of the boar. Within a few moments, punctuated by his inhuman growls, Fang pulled so hard that the neck broke upward and ripped the boar’s head clear from its shoulders, just as Erryl swept in, plunging his rapier into the tearing tendons with a near frenzy.

Corea had never seen so much blood. She stopped trying to move and simply watched, in awe, at the sheer ferocity of Fang. As the boar’s body collapsed, he tore the head free of the last of the tendons and the remainder of the spine, and tossed the newly freed head, weighing at least a hundred pounds, to the dirt. He crawled from off the beast’s shoulders and began to lick away the blood from his claws, staring at her, saying nothing. His eyes shone with a bright yellow glow as the forest darkened around him and he seemingly fell into the shadows themselves, with the exception of those beautiful, horrifying eyes.

It was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. She passed out just after.

…

“You had no place in that fight, and you nearly got yourself killed, you idiot. You godsdamned child.”

Erryl stomped over to Corea, his rapier flexing as his wrist rolled. She flinched. He paused, whipped around, and marched back to the boar’s severed head and kicked it across its massive snout.

“Fuck!”

Fang glanced up at Erryl, as he was sitting by the trophy, and punched the man in the hip. “Don’t spoil the prize. Go kick a tree,” the Wolf said in his low growl.

Erryl sheathed his blade and placed his hands on his hips, fuming, staring downward, but not really staring at anything as far as Corea could tell. Fang sat, observing, patting himself with his massive hands and releasing puffs of dust into the air. He examined a claw and began to lick at it.

“You need to grow the hell up.” Erryl’s tone was curt as he looked back at Corea. “This is life and death.”

Fang said nothing, his eyes shifting between the two of them. Corea didn’t quite know how to make out his expression, but she had the distinct feeling the Wolf was annoyed. She was surprised how different he looked now, sitting casually by a grotesque severed boar’s head, seemingly fiddling with what would have been his nails had he been a human.

“If she dies, she dies. She’ll learn quickly or not. No sense in a tantrum,” Fang added. 

Corea felt her skin redden in embarrassment, and she quickly buried her face into some of the cloth Erryl had gathered earlier to cleanse the sticky blood from her face.

Erryl sighed. He glanced down at Corea, but she did not look back at him, pretending to be focused on scrubbing her face.

“We’ll keep an eye out for a pond or something so you can wash away that blood. Serves you right to be covered in it.” Erryl marched toward the boar’s corpse and began to look it over. He knelt and felt the thick, fatty skin. “For now, we take what we can.”

He drew a knife and plunged it into the back alongside the mane that ran down the spine. “Not the largest one I’ve seen, but a real hefty fucker nonetheless.”

Fang had shifted the boar’s head between his legs and was sawing at the flesh around the tusks. “Out west. Real brutes,” he added.

Corea couldn’t resist asking. “How big did they get out west?”

Fang continued to saw at the jaw. He paused and gripped a large tusk, trying to shake it loose. It didn’t budge, so he grunted and continued cutting into the flesh. He spoke then, “West Brakfel, furthest out I’ve been. Saw one nine feet at the shoulder. Several orc riders on it. We retreated after we lost three men in one charge.”

Corea said nothing. She watched the men work, harvesting different things from the corpse. Fang had grabbed his tusks and tossed them into a bag. He began to cut strips of flesh from the jowls and laid them out over the snout. Corea figured he planned to dry out the meat.

“Need the eye jelly?” Fang asked.

Erryl paused his work. He’d cut several large squares of thick skin from the back and was now inspecting thick bristles along the sections. He plucked at one, inspecting it carefully.

“The intact eye. Full thing, try not to break the sack, it’ll ruin the jelly.”

“Not very delicate, friend,” Fang muttered. He glanced at Corea, who had timidly approached him. She sat in front of him and gestured to the intact eye. Fang nodded.

She pulled out her kitchen knife and began to prod the socket, careful not to pierce the eyeball itself. She was so engrossed in the task she nearly missed Fang’s sniffing as he continued to carve at the jowls.

“You smell like an abattoir,” he muttered. Corea laughed under her breath.

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“How long does it take for a werewolf to pee, honestly?”

“Child, do you not see the size of him? The last thing I would do is complain about the micturition rate of the thing that is getting us through these woods unscathed.”

Corea glanced over to Erryl. He was leaning against a gnarled old tree, with a small book, scratching something into it. She watched the featherless quill shift between his fingers.

“What is ‘micturate?’”

He glanced up from his writing.

“It means to pee.”

“I’ve never heard it that way.”

“It’s a  scholarly word, the kind you learn from studies among mages, surgeons, and doctors.”

“How did you get in with them?”

Erryl paused for a moment, pinching the featherless quill between the pages where he was writing and folding the small book closed. He crossed his arms, and she could hear him tap the book against his bony elbow.

“I went to school for it at my father’s insistence. Then he died, but I was already deeply into the training, so I continued. I had planned to open a shop, but war came to Tradewind, and I worked on the battlefield. Never really stopped.”

He paused.

“I suppose to answer your question: I went to school.”

“Is that where you get one of those weird little featherless quills?”

Erryl paused for a moment. His face screwed up into a pinch, like he’d not understood the question. But just as soon as he had done that, he glanced down toward his small book and extracted it.

“This is a pen. Virtually identical to a quill, but you can keep it much longer.”

He held the pen vertically with pinched fingers and glanced at it for a while.

“It was a gift,” he added.

He shifted his focus to Corea and held the pen to her. She had begun to teach out to pluck it from his grasp, but she held back. It had been important to the man. Upon his wiggling the pen in front of her, she gingerly took it from him and began to examine it.

It was mostly wood, but there were bits of brass. A small plate showed something engraved, but what it was she could not read. The pen had a heftiness to it and was much heavier than she had expected. What intrigued her most was the point that was something between a spoon and a blade. It was like the end of a quill she had seen, only carefully made from delicate metal.

She had been so entranced that she hadn’t noted that  Erryl had his book open to her on a page.

“Try drawing a line here, in the corner, where it’s blank.”

She could not recognize the words he had written on the open pages – they looked like scribbles – but there were pictures. There were local plants drawn in the gaps between the words, and she recognized several of them quite readily from her own experiences. The pictures were quite good.

She glanced up at him, and he nodded back.

“You have to hold the pen at an angle so that the ink will flow from the reservoir inside to the tip. Try it.”

The blank section was not very large, only about the size of a thumb, but she placed the pen tip near the top of the gap and began to drag the tip downward, angling the pen. In the first moment, there was nothing, but then suddenly bluish-black ink began to run from the tip to the paper. It was fascinating.  She rolled the pen between her fingers and was alarmed to see that smooth line erupt into a splotchy mess.

Erryl pulled the book away and reached his hand out for the pen.

“Aside from the blot, the line looks pretty good. Perhaps we can make a writer of you, yet.”

She handed the pen back.

“What is it you are writing in there, sir? I saw nice pictures of some of the plants.”

Erryl was fiddling with his pen for a moment. He tucked it, and his book, into a pocket inside his vest.

“A trick I learned from hedge doctors I’ve met. I take notes and observe unique things as I travel and make a record of different places and what resources I might use if I ever return.” He tapped the journal where it rested against his chest. “This is my third such journal. I may write a book one day.”

“What unique things have you seen?”

Erryl leaned back against the gnarled tree and thought about it.

“Many things. I find I surround myself with unique things. I’ve met a mummy. I travel with a wolfman. I’ve seen the cousins of dragons – not dragons, mind you. They’re gone.” He thought a moment more and smiled. “I can also say that I have never quite met another Corea Gorse out there. The gods blessed me with a life that helped me to learn the letters and use them quite well. It would be a shame not to use them to point out the unique things out there.”

Corea was quiet for a few moments, thinking about words – the written ones. She’d seen they were useful, but had never had a chance to learn them. There really wasn’t much use to them in a dying down.

Maybe after finding Garen, she could convince the Wolf and the Barber to take her and her brother with them to a town where learning to read would be useful.

“Do you think I might be able to read and write like you one day?”

Erryl said nothing.

…

Corea had been asking Erryl questions for quite a while, with no sign of the Fang. After a time, the conversation lulled, and some noises came from the brush. Corea kept her hands near her knife, but Erryl continued to lean against the tree, unmoved by any caution. It must have been Fang.

And it was. The Wolf took heavy steps from behind a tree and emerged onto the road.

“Took you long enough,” Erryl muttered.

He glanced at Fang. Corea could not tell what sort of expression the Wolf  had on his face, but Erryl did, and he moved from the tree and placed a hand on his rapier’s hilt.

“Come,” was all the Wolf said.

…

The corpse was, from what Corea could tell, a day or two old. She did not recognize him, no matter how many times Fang and Erryl had asked her or painted out some detail. She was just glad he was not Garen. She was content in the fact that she knew nothing of the man, given the state of the body. He was just a stranger who met with a grim fate and not someone she knew. The two roadmen spoke to one another in hushed tones, and Corea kept at a distance from the corpse. She couldn’t help but stare.

A rumbling question of “what killed him?” snapped her attention to Fang, who was staring at her. Not just Fang. Erryl as well. Their attention was upon her, and it appeared they expected an answer.

“I’m not sure.”

“Not good enough,” Fang responded. “Really look. Get closer.”

Corea felt she had seen too many corpses today, but stepped closer. They expected an answer. It was some kind of lesson, and this one was at Fang’s urging. The last thing she wanted to do was to keep him waiting.

The corpse was a man she did not recognize. He was against a tree, his head lolling down, chin on his chest. Blood had soaked through the top of his shirt just around the neckline. His arms hung loose, and his fingers twisted and curled over open palms that lay up from the ground where he sat. Before she moved closer to investigate his neck, she took in the state of the scene. He was not quite sitting in a camp, but it was apparent he had been sitting down and resting. His gear had been set aside, his weapons laid out within grabbing distance had there been an attack, but to no avail, clearly, given the fact that he was dead. She spied some rations that had yet to be picked up by a scavenger. Nor had the body attracted much beyond bugs and the ever-present maggots found around rotting meat. The denizens of the woods claimed the dead quickly.

This was beginning to feel like it was a matter of hours, not a day or so, since the man met his end. No slimes. No dismemberment. Just a dead man, alone.

Behind her came the sounds of muffled chewing, and she looked back to see Fang and Erryl observing the situation, clearly judging her, while eating some of their own packed rations. Fang had a rather large serving of saltpork and tore at it with vigor, and Erryl seemed to be picking at some croutons.

“How can you eat in front of a corpse?” she asked.

Erryl continued to pop croutons into his mouth. Fang looked down at her and shook his head as he chewed through his sizable bite of meat.

“You eat when hungry. You eat when you have a moment to spare.” He gestured back to the corpse with a nod. “Tell us what you see, girl.”

Corea knelt and paused for a moment. She took a breath, grabbed at his hair, and began to pull the head up from the chest. A sticky, unfurling sound made her uneasy and turned her stomach, but she continued to pull, shifting her gaze from dead, shocked eyes and staring at his neck. Several gashes came into view all over, just above the neckline. She’d thought, maybe, it had been a slit throat, but she hadn’t expected it to be so jagged. She was no stranger to butchery. With chickens, quail, and other birds, it was a quick chop. She’d bled goats and pigs for Mr. Gorten in the line of duty. You learned that a single, strong stroke was the way to go. This did not appear to be that. Those required a smooth slice at the neck to bleed them rapidly. The first time she was tasked to slaughter a goat, she’d fumbled it and got kicked in the face by a flailing leg. She didn’t let that happen again. The pigs still bothered her, though, and she was thankful pork was not something New Gordhurst had a lot of access to.

But this – this was clumsy and violent.

“He must have been resting, and someone snuck up and stabbed him several times. Would have been more proper to slice him.”

Fang grunted, nodded, and crouched beside her, still tearing at saltpork. He pointed to the wounds. 

“Not unusual for bandits. Touchy ones at that. Dangerous places make dangerous men.” He sniffed the air and peered around before he continued, “I doubt they’re far.”

“Idiots at that,” Erryl added. “Took his gold purse but left just about everything else that would be useful for survival. I doubt they are locals and know what else lingers in these woods.”

Corea has risen to her feet and taken several steps back from the corpse to take in the scene, visually sorting through the scattered belongings. She noticed a knife.

Within an instant, Fang was within earshot, having risen without her hearing him. His hot breath near her face was like the steam of a boiling stew. His massive, snouted face snuck into her range of vision as she continued to look at the corpse.

“Take the knife. Take the short bow.”

She would do as she was told and pick up the knife.

“Good. Learn as you go.”

The knife had an accompanying wooden sheath that could be tied on one’s person with a basic cord, and she did just that. She didn’t really care to think about what the notches on the sheath had meant. Knife secured, she drew it, noticing the blade was blackened. It was roughly an inch or two shorter than her kitchen knife, but also slightly curved. This was a bleeding knife, and the man’s killer would have had a much easier time with this blade.

“A good knife,” Erryl remarked. Corea nodded and sheathed it, turning her attention to the shortbow near the corpse. Erryl had already been picking at what arrows he could find and had found the small quiver. He finished slotting a pair of arrows and handed her the quiver. He turned his attention back to the corpse, picking through what had been this dead man’s few belongings.

The shortbow was a small weapon of stealth, as she understood it, talking to some of the town guardsmen, but it did not have the power of a longbow. But then again, Corea was shorter than those men, and in her own hands, the bow did not feel very small at all.

Again, Corea was caught off guard as the Wolf crouched before her, as she had studied the bow. She had heard nothing, again, only just catchingt a sudden, massive form slide out in front of her. He looked at her with his large, yellow eyes. She could read his expression here, one of concern, his browline raised and curious.

“Ever use one?” he asked in a low, soft voice.

“Never.”

“We practice as we go. You fire past me. I collect them. I’ll point out the targets. You don’t have the strength to kill with it. But you can maim if you attack the legs. Do not fire at me.”

Corea heard Erryl cast a muffled laugh at Fang’s words. Her face flushed, and she felt a surge of shame recalling that morning. She glanced into Fang’s eyes, but there was no sense of annoyance. There was a softness that felt odd, but reassuring. She nodded.

“But ghouls don’t really get hobbled by arrows, sir.”

Fang rose to his feet and looked down at her.

“Not ghouls that worry me.”

…

Erryl had scrounged up cloth from the man’s pack as well as his small, thin bedroll. As the party moved forward, he would tear up cloth for bandaging, wrapping the scraps into tight bundles, and then tucking them into the bedroll.

As for Corea, she and Fang had been at work training her archery skills, which were far from satisfactory. He would point out a tree, she would miss, and she would inevitably empty her quiver. Fang would fall back from his lead position and return, handing over the arrows he had collected.

The first time this had happened, she had cracked a joke about playing fetch, and Fang told her that he would eat her. She had not made that joke since.

She was hitting the trees more often now, after what felt like a quarter-hour or so, but the problem was getting the arrow to stick. She was strong enough to hit the range given her life of choring, but the arrows mostly bounced off the bark, barring one or two instances of the arrowheads finding purchase and hanging loosely. Hardly a true success.

After the third quiver of arrows was returned, she asked for a break. Fang shrugged and obliged, darting back ahead. Erryl snorted.

“Corea, how do you expect to be of any use if you don’t push yourself?”

She didn’t answer.

“Children’s games, I suppose,” Erryl mused. 

She felt a radiance of annoyance from behind her, the words lapping at her like a cold wave. It was just a break; what was the concern? She shrugged his words off and kept her pace. Besides, she had already contributed. She pulled the small slime bottle from a coat pocket. The pale green substance sloshed in the bottle, but the organ inside, the clear bubble, did not really move.

She had earned it. Sure, she was not as strong as Fang, nor as experienced as Erryl, but she was holding her own, and she was learning. 

She put the bottle away, pulled out a strip of saltpork from another pocket, and began to eat as she kept up her pace.

…

“Godsdamn it, Corea, I told you to stay inside.”

Garen looked quite funny, wrapped in blankets and wielding a broom.

“These bats can give you the sickness if you’re bit. Go back.”

Most of the local bats were largely harmless, but a new, larger bat had begun nesting just outside under the shack roof, pushing the old bats out. Garen had asked around, and from what he could gather, this was a type known as an Iskaran Wraith. It was huge with coarse black fur and giant red eyes. Some in town even suggested they drank blood and preferred children and goats, specifically. There were werewolves to the north, and this could just as easily have been a vampire, as he saw it. It wasn’t, but if a vampire were going to take the form of a bat, then the bat would be an Iskaran Wraith – at least, that is what he reasoned to her.

The local Red Furs ate the insects of the area, and their guano helped fuel fires all over New Gordhurst. Their local cluster that lived under the roof was harmless and helpful, and Garen had decided that the Wraith had to go, for their sake, and definitely not because it was probably a vampire.

“What’s a broom gonna do?”

Garen looked over at Corea and shook his head.

“The broom is just to knock it down, dummy. I’ll stab it once it’s on the ground.”

“I can help.”

“You can help by leaving me alone.”

“I can go tell Mr. Gorten?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t need him.”

“But he’s tall, he can probably get at it easier than you.”

“I’m tall for my age,” Garen chuffed.

“Kent is taller than you, and he’s nine.”

“Kent stretched himself by tying his feet to a mule and hugging a tree. We all know that.”

“No, he didn’t.”

“He did. Now hush. I’m gonna kill it.”

Corea watched her older brother awkwardly wave the broom around in the gaps and corners where the roof met the shack walls. Shit, twigs, and cobwebs clung to the broom, which would be up to her to clean. What wasn’t trapped by the broom had now fallen onto the blanket armor that he had swaddled himself into. Again, it would be on her to clean that too.

Garen’s yelp snapped her out of her grumbling as she saw him frantically flap and toss the broom as the black bat was darting at him, annoyed.

“My knife. Shit! I’m tangled!”

She watched his swaddled form practically dance, his bagged body unable to get a grip on the knife, wherever he had been keeping it. This would go nowhere beyond some kind of sickness for her brother. 

She dashed to her frantic brother and grabbed at a flapping corner of Garen’s blankets and pulled enough fabric free to arch it high above the bat. She pulled the fabric down and pinned the bat to the ground, trapped beneath cloth, as Garen lost his balance and fell, hollering and thrashing all the while.

The bat’s shrieks and chirps filled the air, along with Garen’s confused yelping. The creature would be going nowhere, and with all her weight, Corea hopped upon the rustling lump and felt the body shatter and squelch beneath her boots.

Garen saw what Corea had done and went silent. Then he vomited.

…

Corea swirled the substance in the bottle a couple of times, having fished it back out of her pocket, marveling at the remains of the slime she had killed.

She would have a fun story to tell Garen when she found him.

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Mulluck Eghart lay on his back, his head turned, watching the Wolf leave with the thin stranger and the child. He smiled and spat up a little blood. He’d enjoyed himself greatly and was excited to have an opportunity to fight the werewolf. He’d kill him next time.

He rose off the muddy grass and spat up a bit more blood with a cough. After catching his breath for a few moments, he rose to his feet, swiped at whatever mud he could see clinging to his body, and trudged toward the Mayor’s home. He slipped off the iron knuckles and tucked them into his pocket. As he approached the steps to the porch, he noticed one had been shattered into splinters – likely the fault of the beastman. He skipped the step.

The foyer of the home was a mess, again, mostly the fault of the wolf, though Eghart himself had contributed to it. Though the Mayor needn’t know that – if he were still alive. Eghart paused at that thought – he sincerely hoped the Mayor was not dead. The man had been one of the few people in Eghart’s life who treated him well enough. Eghart may have tried to pull the wool over his eyes with his gambit all those years ago, but the Mayor gave him work and a home and a sense of stability he’d not felt since he was a child, before the monastery, the farm, and the various bandit camps he’d fallen into. Eghart liked the man.

Though he wasn’t convinced that the Mayor wasn’t aware of what Eghart truly was. If he was, he understood the score and kept Eghart around. It was maybe the best relationship Eghart had with any authority in his life; he would rather not lose that. He doubted the town would last long without Mayor Gorval. Though that was likely due to whatever bargain he’d struck that Eghart had no details of.

Eghart approached the man on whom his comfortable existence depended; the Mayor was crumpled into a heap at the base of a bookshelf, covered in errant tomes and scrolls. Eghart crouched, cleared away the small pile, and saw that the Mayor was alive but unconscious. Eghart exhaled and then realized he’d actually been holding his breath. He was relieved that he hadn’t been mauled to death.

Eghart lifted the man from the floor, quite handily despite the Mayor’s not-quite-inconsiderable girth, and propped him up onto one of the seats in the center of the study. The man’s head hung loosely, and Eghart had to lean it back over the top of the seat. 

Glancing around the room, Eghart took in the chaos – the wolf had carved a swath through the study. He couldn’t make out much about what had happened beyond an overwhelming sense of rage. The crossbow bolt sticking out of the opposing seat suggested the Mayor had been agitated as well.  After a few seconds, Eghart saw the crossbow on the ground near the doorway and picked it up, just as Mayor Gorval stirred, groaning.

“Ughn.”

“What happened, sir?”

Corrigan Gorval’s head lolled toward Eghart, and the Mayor was slow to respond, his eyes wide, then shutting again. The man was having a hard time seeing. Eghart approached, holding the crossbow in one raised fist with his other hand held open and flat.

“It’s me, Captain Eghart.”

Gorval, with great effort, leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees, and his head slumped down, staring at the floor. He coughed a bit and spat up some blood onto the rug.

“Fucking werewolf attacked me. One second, I was dealing with that medicine man, and the next I felt myself flying. Then I hit something, and everything went dark. Did you see where they went?”

Eghart placed the crossbow down on the floor next to the Mayor and stepped toward the shattered window, where the werewolf had made his entrance into the home. Glass crunched beneath Eghart’s bare feet, but he felt nothing.

“I saw him climbing into the window from the street and ran here to stop him. Fought him, and he overpowered me. I got my shots in. Ran off with his partner and the child – the other Gorse kid.”

“You fought him?”

“Yes. I can get him next time.”

The Mayor was silent for a moment. Eghart continued to stare through the shattered window as he heard Gorval rise to his feet – all grunting and heavy breathing.

“You saw the Gorse girl… they took my niece?”

“She seemed to go with them willingly, sir.” Eghart turned back slightly to look at the Mayor. “She stabbed me.”

“It’s all falling apart, isn’t it?”

“Not if I can help it, sir. Now that I know you’re safe, let me go get them.”

The Mayor had walked toward the pile of books on the floor at the broken shelving and tapped at them with a slippered foot. He grunted, though Eghart couldn’t be sure if it were frustration or pain. Maybe it was both.

“The Wolf… they were… are… a Triserian. There is some magic in their blood, and that may be why the undead are closing in. Like predators fighting over territory.”

Eghart understood predators more than the Mayor ever could. He said nothing.

“It’s like watching ants. Those two stirred up the whole pile, and they’re trying to kill the invaders…”

The Mayor turned from the pile of tomes and stepped toward Eghart.

“Can you kill the mercenaries? Maybe we can still salvage this situation. If they’re gone, things can go back. The truce can go back.”

Eghart nodded.

“I need silver.”

The Mayor’s eyes widened for a moment, and then he made his way, limping, to another set of shelves against one of the walls, piled high with boxes and books. He plucked a polished wooden box from a shelf and wiped away a layer of dust from a bronze plate set on the lid. He paused for a moment, glancing longingly at it. He limped back to Eghart and shoved the box toward him, which Eghart took.

“Do what you must. Kill them both. Bring back my niece. I’ve already lost a nephew. I won’t lose her, too.”

“I don’t know if she’ll go willingly. She attacked me.”

“Beat her to within an inch of her life, then. Just bring her back alive by any means necessary. She can hate me for the rest of her life, but at least she’ll be alive to do it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Eghart, thank you. You’re going to save us all.”

Eghart paused. He nodded awkwardly. 

“Sir.”

Eghart swept out of the room and out into the open air of New Gordhurst. He pried the box from his chest that he had been clutching tightly, overwhelmed and short of breath.

Eghart had always been a survivor beset by cruelties beyond measure. He still woke up some nights, terrified that he was still the same boy on that ranch. Sometimes Elspeth would rub his chest and ask him what was wrong. He’d tell her nothing and take her, or she would take him. That was their arrangement. 

But the Mayor’s words had shaken something loose just now. Corrigan Gorval relied on him, and not just as a captain of the guard. For the first time in a very long time, Mulluck Eghart felt something other than rage or the anxiety of survival. 

It was pride. He had someone he relied on, but who relied on him as well.

Eghart would do everything in his power to fix the crisis and get the girl back. He’d slay the mercenaries. He’d beat the Wolf to death. He would save everyone of this shitty town. He’d not just be “Egg” anymore – and even if they continued to mock him, he knew that they depended on him, and he would remind them of that. Their lives were in his hands.

He glanced down at the wooden box in his hands. The bronze plate’s etching read “To Harriet, my Beloved.” He flipped the lid open to see dull, but still quite fancy silverware. The set was still complete. Now it would serve a greater purpose.

Eghart closed the box and made his way to New Gordhurst’s meager forge; the weight of the iron knuckles in his pocket was a welcome sensation.

Soon to be the tool of the demise of the werewolf.

Soon to be the tool that saved the town.

…

Nathan Gorten watched Egg wander from Corrigan’s home, holding a small wooden box with a rather uncharacteristically light step. He wondered if the man had taken to looting the place, and if he would find his brother dead. He’d heard the clatter from the inn and had watched Eghart and the Wolf fight. He’d seen his niece in the fray and had conflicted feelings about that.

Eghart had fared well, but ultimately lost. The mercy of the Wolf was striking, and Nathan had wondered if that had been a mistake. Eghart was a murderer – that much was obvious. He’d become a good tool for his brother. Nathan never trusted the man; his arrival was suspect, and the man was off. Between the pale skin, his massive frame, and his curious tolerance to pain, Eghart made Nathan nervous. He’d seen the man back into a spear once and not react. It was terrifying watching the man pull the head of the spear loose from his side, slowly and awkwardly, and not so much as flinch.

Nathan approached and surveyed the damage to the home. The window had been shattered, there was damage to the steps to the porch, and the front door had been ripped off its hinges. He made his way up and paused at the doorway. He’d not set foot in the ill-gotten home in years. He followed the porch to the window and glanced inside, seeing Corrigan’s back as he sat at the desk.

“Are you alive?”

Corrigan glanced back over his shoulder, staring back at his brother. He winced, clearly in pain, and Nathan was pleased by this.

“Yes, regrettably for you, I am still alive.”

“I may hate you, Corr, but I don’t hate you enough to see another brother die. I came to see if you were okay and let you know that our mother died this morning.”

“Fuck.”

“Corea found the body.”

Corrigan turned back to face the inside of the study.

“I see. I feel for her. That can’t have been pleasant.”

“No, she is Larian’s daughter for better or worse, and she seemed… hardened this morning. Resolved to something. She reminded me so much of him when we were kids.”

“She was here, you know.”

“I saw. With the two mercenaries.”

“And you are okay with that?”

“She is Larian’s daughter. She won’t be stopped.”

“You’ll trust her with a fucking monster and soldier of fortune over her uncle, then?”

Nathan huffed.

“You’re not her uncle, Corrigan.”

“I am Larian’s brother, just as I am yours. I am her uncle by all rights, and you fucking rats filled her head with lies. Her and Garen, both. Do you hate me so much?”

Silence hung in the air for a long moment as Nathan wondered what to say. He said nothing, and that said everything.

Corrigan rose from the seat and approached the window, looking Nathan in the eyes.

“I won’t lose any more of my family.”

Nathan moved closer to the window frame and leaned against the wall, staring at Corrigan.

“Its not just your family that matters, Corr. You have never understood that.”

“I lost my son.”

“So did others. And some lost daughters. Some lost husbands, fathers, uncles. Wives, mothers, aunts. We should have fled further when it all fell, but you chose not to.”

“I had my reasons.”

Nathan slapped the wall.

“Just like you had reasons to fall in with that magician. You were blinded by greed. You’ve always been. You hired a killer to guard this town. How many people need to die for your poor judgment? You can’t salvage this. That Necromancer wants us here, and you are giving them what they want – why?”

“Then flee. Leave.”

“You know that I can’t do that.”

“You did when you and Larian changed your names. You forced Mother to do the same thing. You poisoned everyone against me when I needed you all the most,” Corrigan leaned closer, continuing, “yes, I fell in with that dark magician, and he seduced me, Harriet, and Martin. But you abandoned us to him.”

“We broke away because we warned you and you refused our help.”

“That is not how I remember it.”

“Memory was never your strength, Corr.”

Corrigan reached through the open window frame and grabbed Nathan’s apron, pulling him closer. Nathan ripped Corrigan’s hand away and took several steps back.

“I’ll be burying Mother this afternoon. You are welcome to come. Consider it a gift to remind you of having a family.”

“Fuck you.”

Nathan shook his head.

“Your greed fucked me and everyone else long ago. No, thank you. No more.”

Corrigan stepped further back into the study, nearly slipping on splintered wood from the collapsed desk. Nathan watched him in silence as Corrigan drew a crossbow that had been sitting in the dark. He held it aloft and aimed it at Nathan.

“It’s not even loaded, Corr. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Just leave. Go.”

Nathan sighed and sidestepped away from the shattered window. As he followed the porch, he could hear the sound of crying coming from the study.

He couldn’t help but cry as well. How had things gone so very wrong? He thought of his mother and was glad she had not lived to see what had just happened.

…

“I can take care of that for you in a couple of hours; there is no need for swords or horseshoes today,  Mr. Eghart.” Sandval, the smithy, looked Eghart over. “You look like a mess. Did something happen?”

Eghart stood there, a fistful of silverware in each hand. He said nothing, and Sandval simply shrugged and set the kettle into the forge. Eghart dropped both fistfuls of silver into the kettle and reached into his pocket, placing the iron knuckles on a nearby anvil. He walked away from the smithy, who began to inspect the knuckles.

Eghart whistled a tune as he walked back toward his home to prepare for his hunt. It was a sweet little song, and he couldn’t quite figure out if it was a lullaby, a work song, or a hymn. 

Not that it mattered.

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Garen was alive. Still alive despite everything this fucking town and the surrounding woods threw at him. 

His nimbleness had been his greatest asset, but he would find himself winded, repeatedly, while the unending tide of wandering dead would ceaselessly march on any resting place he would pause at for respite.

Old Gordhurst was a place he barely remembered from his youth, but the central lane from the escape was enough of a landmark to work with. He found himself clambering from ruined home to ruined home, narrowly dodging some hidden ghoul and barely escaping into the spaces between homes. It would have been monotonous if not the most terrifying thing he had experienced since the initial flight from the town years ago.

He pressed further into town, maybe aiming to reach the other side, or find some relative safety in some space that wasn’t already occupied by a shuffling corpse. He wasn’t sure anymore. It’d been at least a day without any food, and his water-skin was little more than some clinging drops and backwashed spittle. At this moment, he found himself at the gate of the old church grounds – it was a house of many gods, and he leaned against the cobblestone frame that made up the gateway of the entrance to the grounds.

He glanced behind him. Several houses away, a crowd of twenty of the undead continued a slow, lurching bead on his position. He coughed as he watched them stumble toward him and swore he tasted iron. He had been pushed for two solid days, or was it three, now? He didn’t know. He took several deep breaths to try to steady his heart and glanced toward the church. He saw and heard nothing within the openings that served as windows and decided to take his chances. It was a sturdy building, and he hoped the door could be opened and shut again.

He also hoped that nothing lurked within the church, either.

He made his way to the door and tried to open it outward, but it jerked suddenly, and the rattling of wood caught him off guard. The door had been barricaded.

He cried and slammed his fist on the heavy wood. He spun around, his back against it, and screamed in frustration. His spear clattered on the cobblestone steps that led to the church.

He gave himself a moment. That’s all he could afford. He collected his spear and approached one of the windows. The church had never been granted glass – it was a relic of an earlier time, and thus it was always open. Garen limped forward and studied the gap in the wall.

He might fit.

Fit or not, the moans from the undead compelled him to try to squeeze through. He leaned his spear against the wall. His head cleared the bottom of the window, and he looked inside. All he saw was darkness streaked with the greenish haze of light that had filled the sky – he had no idea why the sky was green here beyond the influence of the Necromancer.

He knew why, but not the mechanisms of it all; what the dark magic was. Skies were not supposed to be green.

He weighed the options one last time and, with all of his remaining strength, hauled himself through the window, collapsing to the floor. He expended the last of his reserves and climbed up, putting all of his weight on the church’s stone walls, and reached through the window for his spear. He clumsily pulled it through the open window and finally collapsed again, breathing hard through his mouth. His choking and wheezing breaths smothered any other sounds, and he might just as well die here and now – there was nothing he could do at this point. He was done.

He shut his eyes, and the creaking of wood from somewhere within the church forced him to open them again. He tried to get up, or at least roll into a position that could allow him to defend himself, but there was nothing to it. He shut his eyes again.

“You’re alive?” a hoarse voice asked; A man’s voice.

It took so much effort to open his eyes that Garen almost chose to leave them closed. His vision was blurred, and the darkness of the room made details indistinct, challenging to take in. A figure loomed over him, staring down.

“Blink if you’re alive,” the stranger demanded.

“Fuck you” was Garen’s reply as he finally blacked out.

…

Lemmex was quick to drag the boy and his spear away from the wall and toward the cellar hatch near one of the altars. He didn’t know gods anymore, not really, but the beautiful woman sheltered him, her altar next to the cellar. As he lifted the hatch, he took another look at the matron and the lettering on her platform. He couldn’t read. All he saw was a beautiful, nude grey woman with the characteristics of the Florian people – the living plantfolk of the woods and forests. Where there should be hair was delicately carved stone leaves, and her features were smooth in other spots. Where he might normally have expected a nipple, there was nothing, like she wore layers of plant growth, like her body was a flower emerging from the green of a stalk.

He did not know her, but he loved her. 

He kissed her feet, prayed to his unknown lady, and kicked the boy down the cellar hatch. He soon climbed down and shut the hatch off, lifting it again slightly to grab the spear and pull it under.

…

Garen awoke in a room that seemed relatively well-lit and surprisingly warm for what it was – all stone and rotting wood. The room itself was strange and built around the remains of a dead tree.

He adjusted his eyes, staring again. No, not a tree, but made to look like a carved tree. What was this? His head hurt, and he slowly pulled his body up from the floor, putting his weight on his right forearm.

That is when he noticed a small cup and plate on the floor next to him. He grabbed the cup immediately, sniffed it, and, not smelling anything suspicious, he sipped. It was water. He downed the rest of the cup desperately.

He turned his attention to the plate, and it appeared to be strips of some unknown flesh, burned to a crisp. He sniffed it, and it struck a foul note. He was so hungry, though… 

He shook his head and turned his attention back to the room, taking in the surroundings. He about shit himself when he noticed a man sitting in the corner, staring directly at him, his eyes shining in the dark.

“You’re from the town south, yes?” the stranger asked. His voice was brittle and hollow like bird bones.

“Uh, yes.”

“You here to rescue me?”

“I don’t even know who you are.”

“Lemmex.”

“Lemmex?”

“Don’t ask me to spell it. Don’t know how.”

Garen shook his head and sat up straight. His head was killing him, as he’d been sure he’d bumped it. His whole body ached as though he’d taken a fall. He wanted to be home, desperately. Not in this strange space.

Beside the strange, tree-like object built into the stone wall, the room felt like a hovel; a mishmash of scavenged garbage and religious artifacts. There was a small hearth that seemed to feed up into the Helatros hearth that would have normally occupied the church. Ash piled around it, either accumulated from worship long ago in the space above, falling through grates into this cellar, or accumulated from the cooking of Lemmex.

There were also rats, dozens, hanging from their tails across a line of twine stretched across the room. Some had been skinned, and Garen recognized they were going to be food. He glanced back at the plate, and then back to Lemmex.

Garen pointed to the plate. “Rat?”

Lemmex nodded and smiled. Most of his teeth were gone – except those that were rotten or shattered.

Garen pulled the plate toward him and grabbed a small strip. He sniffed it, and it smelled okay. He took some between his teeth, nibbled at it, and, content with the circumstances, ate it. It was gamey and practically burnt to ash itself. He ate everything on the plate.

Lemmex crept closer to the center of the cellar, out of the shadows where he had been hidden. His eyes were wide, yellow, and latticed with stressful red webs.

Garen scanned his immediate area and saw that his spear was not at his side. He glanced around in a daze and saw that the spear had been in the corner where Lemmex had emerged.

Unsure of what to do, Garen held the cleared plate close. He’d seen what a thwap from a plate could do atop someone’s skull from Mr. Goren’s place. It would at least give him a little space to grab something else if it came to that.

“So, did you lot come to rescue me?” Lemmex asked. “I seen your kind here before, but usually the heathens get at you. You all dress the same, so you have to be an army, yes?”

“My kind? Have you seen anyone else recently?”

“Just the dead ones being brought in.”

“Dead ones?”

“Yeah, dressed like you. Must be your friends. They’re dead now.”

“How many?”

“Can’t count. I was just the knife. No need for me to be learnin’ fancy numbers.”

Garen clutched the plate tighter.

“Knife?”

“Oh yeah, me and the boys did the knife work on folks before the town was killed. The road south. Made coin on what people were willing to pay, and made coin if they wasn’t. I was just the knife.”

Garen felt uneasy. The man was clearly a bandit. Had he been hiding here since the night the town fell?

“You live here alone?” Garen asked.

“No, got Stone-Tits upstairs.”

Garen’s head hurt. He felt a sharp pain behind his right eye. “Stone… Tits?”

“Some goddess. Statue of her,” Lemmex pointed above, “ a flower witch. She guards the hatch.”

Garen thought of what goddess Lemmex spoke of, but was not too familiar with the gods himself. He kept the faith in Helatros, but that was about it.

“Aside from ‘Stone-Tits,’ what else can you tell me about her? You said flower witch?”

Lemmex grew agitated and scratched at his cheek, really digging into the matted beard. “The F-florian goddess,” he grumbled, pointing a dirty, thin finger accusingly at Garen, “don’t touch her. She’s mine.”

Garen nodded, “Of course, I wouldn’t touch her. I was just trying to remember her name. I think it was ‘Rootmother.’”

Lemmex stopped scratching at his filthy beard. His eyes grew wide, and he chuckled to himself. He rose from his animalistic crouch and stood up. He did a jig. “Rootmother, eh? Ha ha!”

He stopped dancing and returned to his crouch, looking agitated again. The moment of joy evaporated instantly. “Stone-Tits is better,” he mused darkly.

He flashed a wicked grin at Garen and crept closer.

Garen gulped and nodded. “You’re absolutely right, Stone-Tits is better.”

Lemmex clapped his hands, giggled, and crouch walked toward the lit hearth, away from Garen. Garen released some of the tension in his body, but still held the plate close.

“Hey, Lemmex?”

“Yes?”

“I’m Garen.”

“Good name.”

“Thank you. Can we talk about what is going on here?”

Lemmex sat at the hearth, his body hunched, thin, and his bare back showed scars, including a nasty one near his kidneys. He glanced back over his shoulder.

“I can’t read but I can talk. I like talk.”

Garen rose to his feet and kept the plate behind his back. He stretched a bit. His body was still aching, and his lungs still felt like they were on fire. He took a deep breath and approached Lemmex very slowly. Lemmex turned his head back again, and Garen paused.

“Talk,” Lemmex spat.

“Yes. Can you tell me how you got here?”

…

Lemmex found it hard to remember a lot of things. He thought hard. He took time to put together what he knew. Maybe more would show up when he needed it. He spoke:

“I joined Egg’s band a couple of years before everything went to shit. We were doing good for ourselves. I did the knife work while Eggy did the planning. Smart guy, he was. Real asshole, too. Cracked me a few times, strangled Sylvo to death once on account of him slipping up at a bar. Egg planned to rob a small wagon, and Sylvo squawked and Eghart strangled him – no, snapped his neck – yes, broke his neck like a little chicken. Got rough for a bit and had to lay low. Only ever saw some of the guys try to kick out Eghart after that. We used to call him Egg, you know? They tried to kick him out, and Egg cracked three of them. There was fifteen of us. No, fourteen. Sylvo is dead. Yeah. Egg broke three arms, and then nobody said anything after. Lean times. Mostly knife work and buryin’ folks in the woods. Stripping bodies for what we could. Egg, Eghart, he got us through until all the shit happened. Some magic fucker raised the dead, and our robberies came back to bite us in the asses and we lost more guys. I was a knife guy, so I made it okay. Something wrong with all that. Unnatural, the dead walking, isn’t it? Eghart led us to town, but everyone was leaving in a panic. Then something snapped, Eghart cracked, and he crushed Millin’s skull like it was nothing and drew on us. We tried to fight, but he was an animal and felt nothing. I am good with the knife, and he felt nothing. He tried to stab me, and I ran here. Should have run elsewhere, ha ha. Ran here and found the church. Knifed the priest and locked the door. Heard screaming. Had to get away from Egg, though. Stone-Tits pointed the way to the cellar. Been here since. Got the priest down here, too.”

Lemmex pointed to the remains of the priest in the rightmost corner of the cellar.

“Felt bad about what I did. He keeps me company. Don’t talk much, though.”

…

Garen had originally failed to notice the remains of the priest, having confused them for garbage when he scanned the room. Now he saw the brown custodial robes and the leathery skin stretched tight over skeletal remains – some skin broken at the top of the head where a yellowed skull began to peek out.

All of this was a lot to take in. The mention of Egg alarmed him, of course, but the madman sitting at the fire was the immediate concern.

“Thank you for letting me know, Lemmex.”

Lemmex said nothing and stared into the embers of the hearth.

“I want to thank you for bringing me into your home and giving me some food and water. I am going to leave now. I promise I will send someone back to rescue you. I can’t do it myself. Okay?”

Again, Lemmex said nothing and continued to stare into the hearth.

Garen took a deep breath and edged his way toward the corner where his spear rested, the plate still firmly tucked behind his back.

“Death out there.” 

Lemmex’s low whisper forced Garen to pause. Garen felt sweaty now and cold around the base of his back.

Lemmex rose to his feet, eyes still locked onto the flames. “You won’t come back.”

“Lemmex, I swear, I will. We’ll get you out of here, but I have to leave to do that.”

Garen edged closer to the corner and began to reach out with his fingertips. He was just about there.

His eyes darted back and forth from the corner to Lemmex. Lemmex stood still, and Garen’s fingertips crept ever closer to the spear.

A glint at Lemmex’s hip caught Garen off guard, and before he could quite understand what he had seen, Lemmex had lunged, knife arcing wildly in front of him. He gargled and barked, swinging the blade.

Garen reached out for his spear with his free hand and waved it at Lemmex’s arm as he went in for a thrust right toward Garen’s gut. In the moment Lemmex was caught, he yelped at the redirection of his trajectory. Garen pulled the plate from behind his back and slammed it into Lemmex’s face. The heavy clay shattered into a dozen pieces, and the madman fell to the ground, face-first.

Garen tightened the grip on his spear and stood in front of the ladder, peering above, noticing the hatch. He began to climb and pushed the hatch upward, but it didn’t budge. He fumbled in the dark for the barricade and threw it to the ground, finally lifting the door, climbing back into the darkened church. The eerie green light already told Garen it was late afternoon. Darkness approached.

Garen stepped away from the hatch and observed the statue of the Rootmother. He silently mouthed a “thank you” and found he was still very much winded. Whatever amount of rest he had taken had certainly helped, but it was not enough.

He leaned on his spear, doing his best to catch his breath again. The noise of the hatch, he realized, must have echoed in the stone church, because he heard the barricaded door at the entrance shake. Ghouls had begun throwing themselves at it. Through the glassless windows, he would see ghouls reaching decaying arms into the sanctity of the church.

He spun around, taking in the entire room, and saw a door opposite the entrance, behind the central pulpit. He weaved between the seats and climbed the steps, throwing himself past the pulpit to the other portal. He opened it with little caution to find it was nothing but the chamber of the custodial priest. He grunted and dashed to another chamber door on the opposite side of the pulpit. He threw open the door and found the kitchen. He stepped in, found a door to his left, threw it open, only to find it connected back to the priest’s chamber.

Garen howled in rage.

He shuddered in surprise to hear someone howling back. He stumbled through the priest’s chamber, back into the church proper, and saw Lemmex standing before the entrance. He began to howl again. He smiled, flipped the barricade upward and to the floor, and slit his throat, stumbling into the door as he bled out. His weight fell into the door with such force it popped, creating a crack for long enough for a ghoul to slide an arm through, and soon enough, tattered fingers gripped at the wood, pulling the doors increasingly open against the crush of ghouls pushing toward the church. The very doors once thrown open, outward, to collect the weary, were now a funnel for the damned.

Garen dashed to the cellar at the base of the Rootmother’s visage and threw himself into the hole, looking upon her as he fell.

He landed hard on the cobblestone floor, but wasted no time grabbing the barricade at his feet, climbing the ladder, and locking the hatch. He slid down the ladder and heard clumsy feet walking all over the wood, rattling it terribly.

Garen’s legs gave out, and he slid down the ladder, sitting just below the entrance. He was tired and had to hold himself up using a rung.

He began to cry.

…

It must have been night by now. Garen had drunk more of Lemmex’s water and cooked up some rat. He was surprised to find a wineskin and took a sip.

His first real drink. Hell of a place for it.

He’d tried to drink from one of the cups left by a patron at the inn when he had worked there briefly. Mr. Gorten – no, Uncle Nathan – caught him in the act and slapped the cup out of his hand after barely a sip. To add insult to injury, his uncle had slapped him hard across the ear, which rang until the next morning.

He hadn’t tried that since.

But now, the dead above, in the hovel of a lunatic murderer, he was sure he would be forgiven for drinking something.

He’d fucking earned it.

Above him, there were still sounds, but they’d slowed down and grown less intense. Still, it seemed too dangerous to move back into the church. With little else to do, Garen began to explore the cellar. As near as he had determined, this room was a secret space that was intended for some other faiths. Maybe far older ones than he knew. More private, he supposed. It couldn’t have been storage for the other shrines within. This was a secret place.

There was the stone tree and the smaller hearth. There was also a cracked pillar that held a stone hammer, or most of it – the handle had broken off. There was a tapestry on one wall, hidden behind Lemmex’s filth and scrounging, and covered in grime and dust. Garen could not figure out what it meant to depict.

But two of these hidden shrines stood out to him.

The first appeared to be a carving of a werewolf into ancient wood. The figure appeared to be a woman with a wolf’s head and tail, her body draped in some robe with regalia he did not recognize. He took a swig from the wine skin, taking in the detail.

She looked resplendent yet feral. He considered Triseria to the north. Gordhurst had been close to the border of the kingdom, and as a child, he remembered tales and warnings of the wolves. Triseria had once laid claim to this area, he imagined. Long, long ago.

But the wolf in the carving comforted him in some strange way he could not understand. He continued to gaze at the shrine, nodded to the figure, and poured some wine to the floor. It seemed like the thing to do, like something in his very blood demanded he pay respect in some form.

The other shrine that spoke to him was one he knew was far older than any other here. He saw a stone, largely roughly hewn, but carved from it was the delicate work of a skilled hand, depicting a dragon.

Dragons died centuries ago, as Garen remembered from childhood tales. They gave their souls to Poe, the hero of legend. They’d given their lives to help him to defeat the Void, which ended with a cataclysm that shattered the West. As he understood it, the Void had not fully been defeated. All the dragons were dead. He was here in this godsdamned cellar, staring at some shrine to dead gods and dead heroes.

He sighed and squeezed out the rest of the wine from the flask to the floor. Once empty, he threw it toward the hearth in the back of the room and stood in silence. The silence helped his head hurt a little less. But the silence was broken by something curious – the sound of running water?

He looked around for the source and noticed the wine draining off, behind the dragon shrine. He glanced around the base and followed the flow to the base of the stone wall next to the statue. On a whim, he tapped at the stone and was greeted with a hollow sound. He felt the wall and ran his fingers over the surface, desperate for a seam. He began to search the cellar for something to make a torch. He found a broken chair and pried a leg away, and then made his way to the remains of the priest, nodding solemnly before tearing old fabric from the robes. He dipped his torch into the wine on the floor and lit it in the hearth.

He felt hope as the old robes caught flame.

Under torchlight, he searched for a seam, and finding it, traced the outline of a passage. These were old religions, some of them perhaps forbidden. There must have been an escape in case of an emergency. But pressing on the hidden door did nothing. There had to be some trigger.

He took a look at the dragon shrine again. The placement of the shrine and the door had to have a deeper meaning. But what? He recalled everything he knew about dragons and the legend of Poe, but nothing seemed obvious to him.

As he scanned the dragon shrine, he took in the intricacies of the depicted dragon and wondered if this had been a specific one. He had no idea, but he took in every detail he could notice. This shrine, a depiction of a serpent-like figure carved from a solid stone, emphasized the torso where a human chest might appear had it been a bust of the legendary hero himself.

He thought back on the legend as he knew it. The dragons gave their souls to Poe. Garen’s heart pounded in his chest. He was so close to something. As he grew conscious of his heartbeat, a strange turn of phrases rattled around his brain. A common saying, innocuous enough, really. He thought of Corea, as he always did. He loved his sister… heart and soul.

“Heart and soul?”

Garen took a free hand and placed it on the part of the dragon’s torso that seemed to him where a heart would be, as much as one could interpret the body of a dead dragon. He put his weight against the stone and felt the stone begin to shift and grind as three of the bands that made up the dragon’s underside began to collapse into the shrine under the pressure of his palm. Once the resistance grew too great, he heard a click as the hidden passage popped open. It was a simple wooden door with stone tiles meant to mask it like solid stone, so seamless in craftsmanship.

Garen glanced at the dragon statue and began to cry.

“Thank you.”

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Most of the walk from the sight of the town had been silent and uncomfortable. Fang had walked several yards ahead, as Erryl fell behind, taking a rear position behind Corea by a dozen or so feet.

Occasionally, he would clear his throat and flick his hand forward when she looked back. She understood that it was her falling behind in the middle, and she would need to keep pace. She would oblige as she scanned the treeline along the road.

They’d been walking for at least two hours, by her count, with no sign of a ghoul, and only the company of birds in the trees. She thought she had seen a thin rabbit ahead, but Fang snapped at it, and whatever it had been had darted into the safety of the brush.

The road itself was overgrown, with deep ruts of ancient wagon tread filled in with small blades of grass peppered with the occasional hardy weed. There was a more defined path, that of previous patrols. Corea hadn’t expected to see a sign of her brother, yet, but she felt a great pain as she marched. A pain that she would never attribute to Egg’s punch.

Eryll cleared his throat again, and she turned; he flicked his hand forward, and she picked up her pace again. This would get old, fast.

The sun had crossed the middlemost part of the sky by the time something happened. Fang, yards ahead, had stopped suddenly, and yelped a dog’s whine, like when someone stepped on a hound’s tail. Corea herself had stopped and began to approach, but Erryl cleared the distance and held his hand back toward her, blocking her progress, his rapier extended.

Errly then whistled. It sounded like a bird’s call, but she didn’t recognize the bird. Corea and Erryl stood as Fang took several steps back and turned his back to the road, toward their destination. He looked miserable and hunched, walking back toward them. Erryl lowered his blade and strode toward the Wolf. Corea followed.

“What?” was all Erryl asked.

Fang looked sick, his ears drooping. Corea thought that he would have looked pathetic if he hadn’t looked like he could kill her with a glance, otherwise.

Fang whimpered and buried the tip of his nose into the back of his hand.

“Slime.”

Erryl sighed. “You are the most vicious fighter I have ever had the pleasure to work with, but I marvel at what actually fazes you sometimes.”

“A slime?” Corea asked, stepping toward Fang. He ignored her, breathing through the fur on the back of his hand.

“A slime, young Corea, is one of many monsters that are found in the world. Putrescent little living puddles. They are not uncommon; I am surprised you have never heard of them.”

“I’ve heard, but I don’t see it? Also, my brother killed one once.” She glanced at Fang. “Why is he scared?”

At that, Fang looked at her, his eyes sharp, annoyed. He grunted.

“Not fear.”

Erryl shook his head. “Our friend has a tremendous sense of smell. That comes at the risk of sensitivity. It’s why I carry wolfsbane on me.”

Fang grunted and peered behind him, his ears moving, trying to pick up movement.

“How would you describe what you smell, my friend?”

Fang stepped further back down the road whence they had come. He now had his nose buried into his forearm, draped by the cloak. It was as though the scent had pushed him away.

“Imagine every dead thing a vinegar jelly picks up and let’s rot inside it.” 

Corea swore she heard him gag. She gagged, too.

Erryl turned to her. “What do you know of them, Corea?”

“I know their acid can melt just about everything over time, but you can use it for a lot of things if you treat it right.”

Erryl smiled, and Fang grunted. Erryl continued, “spoken like a farmer, but a good observation regardless. Let me ask again, what do you know of the creature itself?”

Corea wasn’t sure what he was asking, but she answered as best she could. “Well, they are these jelly things that wander, eating whatever they can pick up as they move. They don’t really have a shape, and they don’t think. They don’t have brains or anything. They can slip into any gap they find. If they roll into a critter’s warren, they can fill the whole thing up with their… I guess you’d call it body?”

“Not bad, but if you are going to travel with us, you need to learn to hunt. And you are wrong on one key thing. No, they do not have brains, not as we understand them, but they do think, and they think quite hard about how to eat everything and anything.”

Erryl glanced down the road.

“And I want you to kill it,” he added matter-of-factly.

She stared at him for a moment. His smile was not quite friendly or reassuring, but something severe and forced. It was inscrutable.

She glanced back at Fang for guidance, but he had already retreated several more feet back down the road, staring past her and Erryl. His ears drooped, and he still had his cloak in front of his snout. He would periodically shift, looking for the source of the smell.

Corea looked down toward her waist and drew her knife, holding it up. She felt stupid holding it in place and standing in silence. She felt like a child playing pretend in the moment.

Fang’s sudden yelp caught her attention, and she glanced at him as he took several steps back, eyes locked on something ahead of the party. She turned to look up the road, and that is when she saw the slime ooze out from the brush. The green, jelly substance rolled up on itself, settling into place like a broad bubble, like on the surface of a stew.

Erryl glanced back and shook his head at Fang. “It’s a small one, you ferocious beast, you.”

Fang said nothing, simply shaking his head. After a moment, he hunched over, wretching and stumbling.

“Well, he is going to be as useless to us now as tits on a goose. Alright, child, listen closely.” Erryl crouched and pulled his bag from his shoulder, setting it on the ground. The sturdy leather held the bag’s shape as he ran his fingertips through various pockets, pouches, and what appeared to be a wooden case within.

As Erryl continued searching for something unknown, Corea glanced back toward the slime. It continued its slow approach, seemingly indifferent to the presence of herself and the two men.

It was an ugly, but fascinating thing. She watched as what was essentially a pale green bubble undulated slowly across the road. She couldn’t make out anything specific from this distance, but the surface shimmered as the slime seemed to wiggle forward, and less than an inch at a time. Within the pale green translucence, she swore she saw the remains of a rabbit suspended in the gooey body.

Or at least what was left of a rabbit.

“Ah, here we go.”

Corea turned her gaze back to Erryl, who now had his rapier unsheathed. She noticed he was rubbing something across the surface of the blade – not the entire blade – but a measured, practiced distance. She realized it was chalk.

“These foul little slimes are acidic, as you so astutely mentioned earlier. On most contacts, the acid is very weak, but where there is one slime, there can be several, and enough acid will eat into your steel.”

He stopped chalking the rapier and held the chalk to her in his open palm. She grabbed it. It was a simple stick, like what Mr. Gorten used at the inn.

“We neutralize the acid with chalk. There are a few other things that’ll do it, but it’s always wise to carry chalk. Not just for killing slimes, but you always want to find as many uses for what you carry as possible. Understand?”

Erryl glanced past Corea, where the slime had emerged; there was rustling in the nearby brush. A moment later, another slime, around the same size, sloshed through branches and leaves and bubbled up onto the road.

Fang barked. “Would you get on with it already? There are two of them now! They stink so much!”

“Ignore him.” Erryl rose to his feet and smirked at Corea. “Another thing to know is how to kill these things.”

Corea stood up next to Erryl, applying chalk to her knife tip and along the blade.

“Since we have a new guest, I’ll show you what to do with the first one. Walk with me. Keep my pace.”

Corea nodded. Erryl crept forward, not exactly at a tiptoe, but each step was deliberate and placed at an even pace. As they approached the slimes, the stench grew worse. For a time, Corea had considered that Fang had been overreacting, but at this distance, feet away, the smell turned her stomach. She’d smelled rotten meat that was more pleasant than this – and Fang had been right about the vinegar element of it, too. She stumbled a bit and noticed even Erryl had masked the scent with his left wrist beneath his nose.

He glanced toward her, his eyes watering. She felt her eyes water too.

“Look into the slime’s body,” he whispered. He nodded toward the slime that was only four feet from them. “Creep closer, but no sudden movements. They will lash out.”

She moved forward a couple of steps to where she could clearly see several things within the bubbled surface, including the remains of the rabbit – it almost appeared wrung dry.

“There is a bubble inside the creature. Think of it like a heart or brain. It’s not very big, but it is distinct. You need to pierce it. Have you ever played marbles?”

Corea glanced back, and she took a few steps back toward his side. “Yes. I have some in my pack…”

He shook his head and seemed to smirk. She’d missed something.

“It’s like poking a marble with a stick. Get through the jelly and tap the marble. The thing will practically melt.” 

He readied a stance with the rapier angled downward. She took a couple of steps to the side and watched him shuffle forward, almost like a crab; his upper body was locked into place, but his legs slid across the road in an odd, weaving shuffle.

She had barely caught the actual strike; it had been so fast, all she had seen was his arm expand outward and retract back into his stance. But the effect was immediate, and the slime began to bubble along the service and seemingly melt, as though the jelly had been exposed to the heat of a forge. There was a small hiss of acid and a puff of foul scent, but the thing was apparently dead.

That, however, caught the attention of its companion, and the other rancid bubble began to inch toward the remains.

“Now you.”

Erryl stared at her and nodded toward the slime.

“GO.”

Corea did not hesitate and approached the bubble, slowly. She noticed now that the slime had seemingly picked up speed, excited by something, and she wondered how that had worked. Within a couple of feet, she glanced over the dome-shaped body, seeking the marble shape beneath the slick surface. She found it floating in the ichor near the corpse of a bird hatchling. She held her breath and stabbed into the ooze, aiming for the internal bubble.

She retracted her blade but noticed nothing had happened. She stood, puzzled, for a half second, and then yelped as a slime-tendril lashed out from the seemingly placid surface. She felt the jelly whip her across the hand as she retracted her knife to her body and felt the hand tingle.

She took several steps back.

“The surface of the bastard is going to throw you off, so you’ll need to adjust. I find it tends to be a little deeper than you’d think. Try again.”

Corea shook her hand, adjusted the blade, and moved closer to the again-placid bubbled surface. She thrust the knife in deeper this time, to the point where her fist plunged into the surface. She felt an immediate tingle and nearly let go of her knife, but as the slime began to dissolve around her hand, she regained her grip.

“Good, now, hurry!” Erryl had swept in beside her and thrust a small vial toward her. Collect the ichor, collect the marble. Hurry, before the acid is useless.”

Corea’s hand still tingled, and it was very uncomfortable. It was like she had fallen asleep on it. She dropped her knife and fumbled at the vial, popping the latched cork and glancing at the rapidly liquifying remains of the slime.

Her first real kill, she thought. Then she shook her head. No time.

She found the “marble” in a mass of jelly that hadn’t quite liquified just yet and scooped up the little ball with as much of the material as she could on a couple of swipes with the vial. As she had scooped the small, round object in, she noticed it was soft, not quite as gelatinous as the rest of the body, but certainly not hard, like glass.

She held the glass vial to her face to get a sense of what this was. She hadn’t even noticed that Erryl, crouched, was already applying something to her hand. She didn’t know what it was, and nor did she care at that moment. She was too intrigued by what had been her first battle. 

It wasn’t much.

But I‘m not much, either, she reckoned.

“What you have there, child, is something very valuable, as you are already aware. Slime ichor is very potent, with a thousand uses. The trick is to keep the organ with the slime. The innards neutralize quickly when exposed to air, but keeping the organ, even pierced, with the slime will slow the reaction down and preserve it for a little longer.”

Erryl rubbed some form of ointment on her tingling hand, and she immediately felt a cooling sensation. She glanced down, noticing how red her skin looked across the back of her hand. Whatever poultice he applied had started to soothe the irritation.

“What you are feeling is the mint.”

She nodded and reached for her knife, but didn’t see where it was. 

The roadman held the knife toward her, handle-side first.

“Your blade. Thank you for not stabbing our mutual friend with it this time around.”

Corea flushed, embarrassed still. She took the handle and drew the knife closer to her body. Erryl rose to his feet. He continued speaking.

“You should know these things can get quite big. I’ve heard of one as big as three houses roaming the plains of Sanara that nobody has managed to kill. Some say larger ones still haunt some dungeons and caves all over Aurin.”

Corea nodded absent-mindedly. She hoped she’d never see a slime as large as that the Barber mentioned.

The smell had begun to diminish and was not as overwhelming. As far as Corea had figured, whatever caused the slimes to melt seemed to also cut their stink, and she was thankful. She still smelled decay, as now the remains of whatever the slimes had been digesting were exposed to open air, but it felt less intense.

She knew it was less intense as Fang’s thudding footsteps approached from behind her and Erryl.

“It still reeks here. We need to move before-”

A rustling from the undergrowth along the road further ahead made Fang pause. Within a moment, three more slimes shlorped their way onto the road, in the direction of the party.

Fang took several steps back.

“Fuck.”

“We seem to have a migration, my friends.” Erryl sniffed. “Interesting.”

“Migration?”

Erryl turned back to Fang, seemingly ignoring Corea’s question. She looked back as well, and Fang, covering his snout as best he could with two massive cupped paws, nodded solemnly.

“Damn,” Erryl added.

Corea asked again about the migration. But Erryl was still quiet; he seemed unsure of what to say. It was Fang who broke the silence through the muffling of his hands.

“They’re drawn to death.”

Corea wasn’t sure why Erryl couldn’t rattle that out. He was quite talkative. Why did it take the Wolf?

“Well, we just killed these two slimes, right?” she asked.

Fang was silent. He stared at Corea, his eyes appearing almost concerned… about her? She wasn’t sure what he was getting at. It was something that frustrated her immediately – some knowledge she was too simple to be let in on. She hated that.

“A slime migration moves toward battles. Nobody knows what draws them there, but if there is mass slaughter, they seem to find their way to it. Like carrion birds. No… more like a tide.”

“This was a battle, though, right?”

Erryl shook his head.

“This is nothing. Migrations are always aimed toward a significant number of deaths – that is why they come to battlefields and consume the dead of armies if left undefended. There was a fight in this area, somewhere on the way toward the old town, and it appears several people died.”

Corea suddenly understood and stared at the emergent slimes, inching their way toward her. They would consume what they could here and continue toward the old town.

She prayed silently that Garen would not be among the remains that drew the local slimes.

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Breaks were something few and far between, given the nature of the great work that drove the Necromancer. There was no sleep, hunger was mostly an afterthought, and boredom was non-existent within the compulsion of the work. But even a worn, undead body needed repair. Fingers splintered, flesh tore, limbs sagged. I’m falling apart, again. The work was an ever-present drive in the Necromancer, and there was a restlessness as they lay on the slab where they had been working just moments ago.

Derobed, the thin, desiccated body was no longer identifiable as who they once were, because, like their constructs, the Necromancer had long since had foreign flesh and bone stitched onto what was their original form.

Nude in the flickering torchlight, the Necromancer struggled to recall who they were before the work had consumed them. Things slipped in time, especially given the sacrifice of the work. How was I remembered? That was the nature of the work. The power to raise the dead was among the most potent of magics, but every construct slivered the soul.

The gods could be lenient. This world was a harsh one where everyone gave up a little bit of their soul to survive – the Necromancer remembered that much of the other faith they had once followed. Damnation was reserved, truly, for the most wicked, they had been told once. Who had said that? But the sheer volume of the work carved away at what the Necromancer once was. I was human once.

The sound of clattering bones on the marbled slab interrupted the drifting thoughts. By now, the construct created to tend to the Necromancer had removed their shattered hand. The Necromancer was impatient to get back to work, but there was a need for new fingers – fingers that were delicate, ready to work. Fingers that were special, strong, and nimble.

The construct was one that the Necromancer had seemingly known as it awakened. How did I know this thing? Its form was specialized, suited for the work of keeping the Necromancer in the condition to keep up the great work. Long, delicate fingers, constructed of five finger bones each, rested upon four hands, placed upon four arms. Each slender finger curled and flexed in four places, bone and sinew exposed, twisting in ways fingers did not twist and bend in life.

The Necromancer watched the construct split the skin at the fingers of the severed hand, like splitting open a bag,  plucking cracked shards of bone. Beautiful, delicate, new finger bones were attached, and the fingers were stitched anew. Shredded skin was replaced with patches of the best quality skin gathered from a recent band of scouts out of the town down the road. It had been three so far. The fool feeds the work.

The parts had been a boon. Mostly fresh parts came from wandering bandits who could put up a fight. Constructs inevitably would fall, be dashed to pieces. But as each of the ghouls fell in battle, those pieces would be collected and brought back. Reassembled, they would rise again to complete their tasks for the great work.

Because all that there was was the work. The Great Work.

The construct finished reattaching the wrist to the Necromancer’s arm, and the Necromancer’s thin form hopped off the slab with a click as bony feet hit stone. The construct bowed and skittered back into one of the spots in the wall where long exhumed corpses had been stored. Did I know them once? The construct would wait until needed again.

The Necromancer plucked their robe from the table and held it out, looking at it. It was large and formless; there had once been a belt or sash, but that had long since vanished. The robe was more practical than stylish, and the Necromancer wondered why it had these thoughts. Am I vain?

Why did the robe matter so much? It was dirty. It was torn. It was… purple? A hint of an elaborate pattern to the fabric remained. 

Flowers, weren’t they? No time for flowers.

The Necromancer stood, thin and bare, contemplating the nature of a robe. Finding no further need for one, they cast it aside and sat down at the stool before the slab, setting back to work.

“Master?” A wispy voice emerged from the darkness of one of the radiating tunnels. A construct, mostly fleshy, stepped into the chamber. Its voice was weak, thin. Three new sets of vocal cords would fix that. The Necromancer stared toward the Herald.

“From the south. Another scout. Dead. On the way.”

Speech was very taxing on the dead. It was best used sparingly, but the Herald was a necessary construct – even for simple updates such as this. A voice is a voice.

The Necromancer thought about speech. Even the slivered soul felt something. Was it loneliness? Am I lonely?

The Herald approached from the tunnel. It had once been a young woman, mostly. Parts were parts, and the broad chest that had belonged to a man worked well with the bellows that collected the air to force the words out. The Herald pushed the bellows into the chest, collapsing the pumps, filling the bladders that replaced lungs in life.

“Saw Wolf. Triseria. Swordsman. Enter town.”

The Necromancer had only recently felt a new sensation for the first time in decades. Curiosity. Leylines radiated across the land, down to thin veins of coursing magic, and there had been something. A spark. A sense of something at least – something not of the land.

It had been distant and small, but it was new. Is this doubt? Is this fear? ‘New’ merited study, and the Necromancer had pulled constructs from the Great Work to investigate. That had explained the expanded patrol from the town, but the patrol had not been the source.

Triseria. The word was familiar, but the context was not there. It was something of a story from a life formerly lived, but there was one clear association. A wolf. A prize.

Several constructs were reported to have been smashed to pieces, teeth removed. Why teeth? It was curious. It was a sensation. The work consumed, but now too did the question.

What draws the wolf to these lands?

The Necromancer had stopped their work for long enough, but then felt compelled to look at the delicate replacement fingers, flexing them and feeling something else. You are so vain. They turned their attention toward the herald.

“Anything else to report?” Each word required tremendous effort.

The Herald pumped the bellows twice. “Crow fly south. See wolf. Swordsman. Girl. March north. March here.”

Had this been the Mayor? Is it him?

The Necromancer paused. They could not remember a name, and suddenly, a new sensation arrived. An auspicious day, to be sure, but the sensation was painful. Not like the pain of the work – not like the compulsion. This pain was sadness.

The Necromancer rose from the stool and walked toward a door behind their station. A door that led into a deeper crypt. The heavy stone door required effort to move, and the Herald approached to help. The flexing of the chest inadvertently pumped the bellows and let out strange, soft wheezes as Master and Herald pried open the heavy door.

Within the chamber was a long hall of holes where coffins once rested. Centuries of some bloodline tied to these lands; tied to the town above. Which bloodline the Necromancer could not quite remember, but it seemed connected. Within moments, constructs clattered out of the dark spaces. Hundreds. The work begins.

The Necromancer stood to the side of the door, pointing toward the tunnels at the other end of the chamber where the work was done. Chattering skeletons and lumbering ghouls pushed out of the chamber, flowing around the marble slab that served as the Necromancer’s station. Atop which sat a bell jar, tangles of filament rising to the ceiling of the chamber and down the tunnels. Within the jar, a green miasmic haze pulsed regularly.

The Necromancer watched them wander into the tunnels.

A truce was broken.But why did the Necromancer feel sad?

Click here to visit the project hub for Fang of Triseria; click here to read the next installment of Fang & Bone.

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The post Fang & Bone: “19. Reserves” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Questions and Answers: Fang of Triseria

Special thanks to Kevin and Couch Gregor for asking a bunch of really good questions. I wasn’t able to get to all of them, but I tried to tackle as many as I could to make this post a reasonable length.

Do both moons affect people like Fang or just Umbra?

Both moons, Argent and Umbra, have an effect on lycanthropes and other entities that have a connection on moonlight. Argent is seen as a “slow moon” of the two. As a result, you’ll generally get two to moon cycles of Umbra for every Argent cycle. With that said, a full moon of Argent would be the more dangerous of the two as it would last roughly double the time of Umbra.

And then that implies a double full moon event periodically. Fang does not have it easy and it is why few members of Fools’ Errand feel entirely comfortable to travel with him.

How did Erryl join Fool’s Errand?

Following the Siege of Tradewind he had a romantic and adventuring partner he traveled with that he had met during the campaign. That partner, Flint, brought him into the fold before his untimely death.

This was about twenty years before the events of Fang & Bone.

Is there a story behind how Fang got his sword?

Most equipment does not last long in Fang’s possession – he’s not had a sword or weapon he’s named in ages because they are a means to an end. As we saw, his sword swings are more like a thin club than actual cutting or slashing. So for this sword, no, this sword is just something he bought at a shop.

Imbuing a weapon with a name tends to be reserved for ancient or notable weapons that are likely to be enchanted. A name is part of the enchantment process. I do have a named weapon Fang would eventually get in a different story.

What was Triseria like before the fall?

Triseria was a rather rugged kingdom of warriors that appeared more noble than it truly was and revolved around worshipping a wolf goddess. Imagine a whole nation devoted to meticulously patrolling forests because they could not collectively cope with a past trauma of invasion. Their whole culture essentially engaged in perpetually scouting and engaging in black-ops operations in vast territories that lacked civilization. Very much a hammer in want of a nail.

In the long run though, they grew to consider themselves stewards of the wild lands to the north of the kingdom, as though only they were capable of protecting lands to the south. Their arrogance is what ultimately doomed them when they took advantage of their goddess, resulting in the fall.

What can you tell us about Fang’s reading habits?

Fang was fortunate enough to be given an education back when he was the human named Fain Maerok as he climbed the ranks of the royal guard. He developed a love of reading, but he was limited in what we was allowed to read, until he met The Wanderer, or E.C.

If Fang can grab a book in some dungeon or temple he’s more than happy to do so. Granted, his education was a little limited, so he will struggle with some words here and there, but ultimately he is more literate than most. He may even be more well read than Erryl, given some of the multiversal texts he’s had access to.

Are we going to see Egg again?

Egg has multiple chapters ahead that explain more about him. I don’t want to say he is sympathetic but there are elements of his character and past that make him someone you can understand.

He’s been a complicated character to figure out and I have had to “ramp up” into writing his POV compared to other characters.

Would you want to live in this world and how do you think you’d do there?

I’d be dead in a ditch within an hour of arriving on Aurin. I’ve been writing notes on this setting for a while and it is not a land that revolves around Fang – there is danger and crisis everywhere. It’s a pretty bad time in Aurin right now. Essentially this is a world that has already had one apocalypse. Fang and Erryl dealing with a necromancer is not the worst thing going on in the setting at this moment.

What’s your direction with it leading you through the fiction and is it helping you hold your interest with the story?

I think one thing that has helped me is having already written a novella before. Fang & Bone is a greatly expanded form of that novella, which while I still consider pretty good, doesn’t feel as complex as what I am writing now. A lot of that comes down to experience, but a lot of it also comes down to wanting to improve on what had been done before. Everything I write now is a reaction to that original piece.

Favorite scene so far?

Most definitely the scene from “The Gold Coin” where Corea is speaking with Fang as he is hiding in the stable trying to avoid the moonlight. Corea is the one with the most power in that scene because Fang is terrified of her being there in case she exposes him to Umbra due to curiosity. I think you can really feel the tension of the exchange – he just wants this kid to go away and she will not.

Favorite progressive complications?

Corea being a stab-happy gremlin. Her stabbing Fang was something that emerged as I was writing the chapter and since then it’s become a part of her character arc I am planning. I know who I want her to be in the long run, but the kick off for that emerged in writing “The Point of the Spear with the Tip of the Knife.”

Regarding the wild west of the internet, are you planning for developmental editors? Any plan for beta-readers/sensitivity readers?

Absolutely, in the future. For now I am focusing on just writing chapters regularly for two reasons. One, obviously, is the ever present need for “content” to satisfy algorithmic discovery on the web. The other is that I am trying to grow in my speed and editing skills.

Each chapter gets about two or three edits. After an initial draft I do a developmental edit. First drafts are just getting to a natural ending to a chapter. For the developmental edits, that is where I try to hammer home elements that develop concepts or threads I am focusing on. The developmental edits have lately been being posted to Ko-Fi.

Following the developmental edit, I’ll do a polish and proofing edit a day or so before chapters are posted here. For the most part, this catches a lot of the issues. Sometimes it requires new lines or moments to connect some ideas. It may even be an issue of fixing references or adding in new references to something I want to set up later.

Usually, if something has slipped through after a chapter goes live, I do a third edit. This is usually fixing typos. I have my fair share of typos.

Another reason I am publishing in this form is an interest in webnovels and my desire to share what I learn. My bills are paid through my work as a teacher – it is part of my personality. Writing these chapters and sharing my process here aligns with that, I think.

How does this relate towards The Dead Life?

Originally the idea of the undead in The Dead Life was that they originated from the events of Fang & Bone due to multiversal shenanigans. However, the types of undead between both stories diverged with The Dead Life maintaining the “infection” concept while the Fang & Bone undead are purely the result of necromancy.

That is not to say “infectious” zombies do not exist in Triseria – but we are strictly dealing with constructs in this story. As for The Dead Life, I have two possibilities for where the undead came from there, but I doubt I’ll ever really mention in directly.

Which ideas did not make it to the full draft?

It is still a little early to say anything has been jettisoned as a whole. Part two, structurally, is a road story and will be me leaning into the “Grail quest” concept of metaphorical and developmental encounters on the journey to Old Gordhurst. So I have a list of things I would like to do and might be possible to slot in, but that will change as I progress through that portion of the book.

Though, considering the original intention of linking The Dead Life and Fang & Bone, I think maybe that would count?

What’s the reassuring thing about the project? Along with the non-reassuring thing?

What I find most reassuring right now is that I am actually capable of doing this process thus far and I am actually making it happen. I’ve had a rough go with projects given numerous factors in my life. However, I am now writing two books simultaneously. I am publishing their drafts serially, which isn’t a great idea if you are looking at it from a financial aspect, but is great for me to practice sustained narrative with a dedicated schedule.

The non-reassuring thing here is that serial releases like this are hard to market and pitch to readers. I love the webnovel concept, but the executions of big webnovels are very much counter to what I am pursuing here. Webnovels usually rely on shorter and faster chapters. I am essentially sharing a chapter every two weeks, and often they can be slower or more about sustaining mood. That can be a hard sell for a potential audience.

I think that every chapter so far has introduced important things, moved the narrative along in some significant way, or provided some key information about a character. But there is a lot of time investment from potential readers to see these things that can be hard to convince them to consider.

Ultimately, my hope is that building that reliable, large archive allows potential readers to feel more confident in starting the story.

Any masterworks Fang & Bone is inspired from?

There are a lot of influences, but I think I’d like to focus on a few more obvious ones.

Tonally and aesthetically, Fang & Bone borrows heavily from the Diablo series of games. I’ve played them all my life and the kind of grim, gothic world of those games stood out as something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time.

Narratively, I am very much blatantly remixing different takes on Arthuriana and even repurposing beats and characters. Especially for Fang & Bone I am learning into a “quest” trope. I really enjoy each “stop” on a Grail quest being some unusual detour that teaches a lesson or exemplifies a philosophy. There is also Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road, which carries a lot of importance to me.

Lastly, the hyper-violence of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal has been very inspiring to me is definitely shaping how I am thinking about some moments ahead. Though I also would need to mention Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack, given the larger wandering warrior trope I am leaning into for this story, among some other planned Fang stories.

Erryl’s Journal: “New” Gordhurst

Lastly, before I close this volume out, I wanted to add one of Erryl’s illustrations into the mix. Here is a map he drew of “New Gordhurst” during the course of part one of Fang & Bone.

Thank you for reading this volume of Fang of Triseria: Notes. As always, I appreciate your questions and comments and hope you’ll continue to share your thoughts.

If you enjoy this material, consider supporting my work on Ko-Fi.

The post Fang of Triseria: Notes Vol. 2 appeared first on hpkomics.com.

I’m kind of celebrating the latest milestone in Fang & Bone, and I felt inspired to draw him in a different style. You could say I’ve gone barking mad…

I was combing through retro cartoon clipart, just because that is something I do from time to time, and saw a lot of classic cartoon wolves. Think of classic depictions of the Big Bad Wolf. So I decided to run with it and draw Fang in the style, which I feel turned out to be pretty fun. It’s not inspired by any particular wolf cartoon, but definitely evokes the general retro animation look, I think.

The two moon iconography here being a direct reference to the story itself, of course.

Now on Sale!

This “Two Moon Wolf” or “Two Moon Fang” design had a good look for a shirt, so I decided to throw two versions of the design into my merch shop at TeePublic Clicking an image takes you to the respective design if you want a sticker, shirt, tote, or something.

I really enjoyed the general design and thought it would make for fun shirts and stickers. It doesn’t take a lot of time to throw them up on a shop, so here we are. Just a fun little design that I can offer up if anyone is interested.

Anyway, here is the larger art of Fang without the sketchbook features so you can see the details.

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #009 – Two Moon Wolf appeared first on hpkomics.com.

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Fang shook off the morning dew that had collected on his fur, taking in the sight and the scent of the killer in front of him. As far as he knew, the man, who went by Eghart, or to the village, “Egg,” was the captain of the town guard.

But what Fang inferred was that the man was a killer. As the heavy-set, pale man tightened his fists, the dense muscles of his forearms would twist like knotted rope. His arms, like the rest of his body, were extraordinarily pale – the man was an albino.

But it was the slivery lines of scars that latticed the man’s body that stood out most. Each one implied a moment of violence, and the sheer amount of scars suggested the frequency of the violence was more than one a town guardsman would face in the line of duty, even for a town such as this. The deep scars suggested blows of all manner obtained in the line of the bloody work that Fang too found himself embroiled in from town to town.

If the Egg was not a roadman, he was a bandit who had found his way into the graces of the town, leaving the roads and woods to his kind who were not as clever as he was – and Fang could tell, the Egg was a clever one. The heavy sag to his pockets said as much, and the man slipping on a pair of iron knuckles from them put a point on it.

The man’s scent may have been the most unusual thing about him, from Fang’s perspective. There was an acrid taste of fear emanating from the man, but nowhere near as great as it should have been – given the nature of his opponent – given the nature of the blows that had exchanged so far. Instead, there was a spicy scent, a peppery note of adrenaline. The pale man was looking forward to this fight as much as Fang was.

As soon as Eghart began his dash toward Fang, the Wolf eased onto his back foot, expecting the iron knuckles on the first strike. Instead came a kick to the hip with such impact that Fang twisted against his will, falling off balance, allowing for the knuckles to come down to the top of his shoulder with a heavy thud. The explosion of force sent Fang sliding into the mud and grass. Eghart followed that opening with several stomps to the same shoulder.

The pain was exquisite. The Wolf began to growl, and Eghart’s foot obliged the Wolf again, right in the shoulder.

Now, though, Fang seized the opening of the repeated strikes and threw his other arm across his chest, raking his claws on Eghart’s foot as it slammed into his shoulder, placing as much pressure as possible to catch the large man on his other foot, unbalanced.

Fang’s claws were sharp. Fearsome. He’d made short work of many with them, and he’d always understood them to be agonizing, dagger-like points. But there was no cry from Eghart, and any resistance to them felt delayed, like the man learned his foot had been pierced seconds after the fact. There was no flex to the muscles.

Fang glanced back at the dumbfounded Eghart, who was staring at the claws in his foot, registering what had happened, but not feeling it.

The man felt no pain.

Fang raked regardless, shredding his claws through the man’s foot and rolling away. Eghart’s balance faltered, and he landed forward on the shredded foot and tumbled forward into the mud. Fang, having rolled into his back, seized the opportunity to bring a heavy fist square to the back of Eghart’s bald and scarred head, shoving his face further into the mud with the strike.

Fang was already trying to get back up to his feet as Eghart pulled his face up from the mud, who was now sputtering grass and gunk, hoping to catch his breath. He wiped away what we could with a heavy forearm and saw the Wolf begin to rise to his digitigrade feet. Fang glanced down and just caught the impact of the iron knuckles on his ankle, dropping him to his knees with a muddy splash.

Fang yelped as the heavy knuckles buried into his hip bone and again in his ribs. He felt his lungs deflate at the sound of a crack. Without thinking, Fang lashed out, raking again and finding purchase on some muscle he couldn’t quite see. But again, there was no sound or reaction from Eghart. Fang raked again, drawing claws through meat, and then gripping, using Eghart’s flesh as leverage to push himself away. The Wolf scrambled forward, pulling himself along the mud, grass, and blood until he was able to look back, seeing he had made a mess of Eghart’s calf.

But now, Eghart had already been turning to right himself, and Fang had done the same, rising onto unsteady feet as his ankle throbbed. The two took a moment to size one another up.

Fang had just barely caught a sign of movement behind Eghart when he heard a familiar squelch.

Eghart took a step forward and had already taken a second step before he noticed something had happened to his thigh, as he dragged Corea along, who had her knife buried deep into his flesh. The weight shift was what he had noticed, not the point of the blade.

He looked down at her, confused, unsure of what he was seeing.

…

Corea stared back at Egg, his eyes were wide, and his brow raised. He didn’t look like he was in pain at all, and Corea doubled down, putting all the weight she could against the knife, plunging it deeper. She felt hot blood bubble up and burst across her hands. She pressed her full weight into it.

Her eyes shut tight, she never saw his hand reach for her hair. One second, she clung to the blade; the next, she felt a fire across her scalp. She kicked her legs, not feeling the ground, and as she opened her eyes, she saw the ugly face of Eghart, staring, furious. Before she could spit in his face, she felt a heavy strike right into her stomach. She felt herself curl up into a ball and hit the ground. Her vision doubled on her as she lay curled tight in the mud, her belly throbbing.

She glanced toward Eghart. He smiled wickedly and shifted his attention to her, so many feet away – how far had he thrown her?

She caught sight of Erryl, the scarecrow man, leaping over her, his thin, reedy sword drawn, making his way toward the giant man.

But Erryl never made it.

She saw Fang leap from the blurriest end of her vision, land on Eghart, and watched them slide out of her sight. Fang’s roar split the air like a thunderclap. She shut her eyes to stop the world from spinning.

…

Erryl came to a sudden stop as his companion’s gigantic form collided with Eghart with such ferocity that it nearly sent Erryl himself reeling back. He felt his grip falter on his sword, Lancet, as both massive combatants vanished from his view, only to right his grip as he scanned to his right, seeing Fang perched down over the Eghart. The man’s bulbous head rested in the Wolf’s slathering jaws, and the jaws were now tightening.

This had gone too far. Fang’s eyes, yellow, shone with a feral aura that Erryl knew all too well. The jaws clenched, and the sound of bone splintering was clear. Fang wanted to kill the man as painfully as possible.

And yet Eghart did not scream. He wrestled his thick fingers against Fang’s muzzle and tore at the jaws, but it was the struggle of a man trying to break free to continue the fight, not of a man on the verge of having his skull crushed. There was no fear, just simple anger.

Erryl whispered a minor prayer to Armastrid, Raven of Roads, as he thwapped the flat of the rapier against Fang’s face, right at the bridge of the snout, just above the nose. He’d had an aggressive dog once, and the snout had been useful then.

“Don’t you fucking dare kill him! Spit the bastard out.”

Eghart’s head was still clenched between Fang’s jaws, and the yellow eyes focused on Erryl. There was a flash of predatory menace and the hottest rage one could imagine – as though Fang wished death upon him – but Erryl stood his ground, raising his rapier aloft, and staring right back at his partner.

Without a warning, Erryl struck again, the same strike in the same place. Eghart continued to grab at Fang’s maw, and Fang squeezed his jaws together tighter. The pale man’s face was covered in blood.

“Fang. Stop,” Erryl pleaded.

The werewolf paused for a moment and loosened his grip on Eghart’s skull. Fang whimpered slightly, his eyes wide in alarm and confusion. He opened his jaws fully, and Eghart’s body dropped to the mud. The man laughed.

“Good dog,” Eghart muttered, spitting fresh blood from his mouth.

Fang rose to his feet, and Erryl observed a slight limp. He would need to inspect that ankle once they’d made some distance.

 Fang wandered off, pausing for a moment to observe Eghart and then Corea. Erryl saw him pause, hang his head, and limp over to his belongings discarded for the fight. He’d never seen someone put up this much of a fight against the Wolf. That terrified him.

Erryl turned his gaze back to Eghart, who was grinning and breathing heavily on his back. Erryl took in his features, committing them to memory.

Erryl pointed the tip of the rapier at Eghart’s face. The man did not flinch. Erryl began to speak.

“Next time, I will not be there to save you; I do you this kindness as a medicine man. If you approach us again, you will die. I’ll do it myself to spare you my friend’s full fury. Do you understand?”

Eghart, still on his back, collapsed under his massive bulk, wiped blood from his face, flicking it at the feet of Erryl, dashing red streaks across his boots. Erryl did not react. Then the giant spoke.

“People have tried to kill me for years, barber. Best you kill me now. I’ll come for you, the mutt, and your little bitch, all.”

Erryl stared at the man, his toothy grin reduced to small yellowish islands in a pool of blood. His eyes were wide with the fervor of a predator, not unlike Fang.

Erryl shook his head and stepped away, seriously considering putting the rapier through both of the man’s eyes and down his throat for good measure.

…

Corea was still curled up and winded as Erryl approached. He tapped at her rear with the tip of his boot.

“Can you stand?”

“I can’t breathe,” she choked out.

“We are leaving now. Before any more violence breaks out. Get up.” His voice was emotionless. Couldn’t he see she was in pain?

“Get up, or we leave you here.”

Corea did her best to uncurl her body. She tried to take in some breaths and felt her midsection burn. She coughed up some blood onto the grass and curled up again.

“Get. Up.”

She uncurled and rose slightly, looking at Erryl’s severe face. She saw no concern, and it angered her.

He looked at her for a couple of moments, shook his head disapprovingly, and walked off. At that, Corea scrambled to her feet, though it left her breathless and throbbing, falling to her knees. She glanced around. Eghart was still breathing heavily in the grass. Her knife was left where they had been standing before Fang…

She glanced around. Fang was already several yards away, and Erryl was gaining ground on him. The Wolf had just walked with his arms full, not even pausing to set his chains or shoulder his cloak.

Corea rose onto unsteady feet and trudged swervingly to the knife. She picked it up, slick with blood, mud, and failure. She glanced back over to Eghart, who had turned his head to look at her. He smiled at her as blood poured from his mouth. Several large punctures ringed his head across the crown. After a moment, he turned his gaze back up to the morning sky, and Corea did her best to jog after the Wolf and the Barber.

…

“The good news is, the ankle is not broken or sprained. Now my specialty is not werewolves, but it’s stiff because you took a big chunk of iron right fucking to it.”

Erryl tightened the lacing leather cuffs Fang wore around his ankles. The Wolf growled at the sudden tightness, but Erryl simply continued his work.

A low, rumbling “Thank you” came after a time.

 Erryl smirked. “For the ankle, my company, or stopping you from killing that man in a shower of gore?”

Fang was silent.

“You keep your temper remarkably well, given your affliction. What set you off?”

Fang continued to sit in silence, almost sulking. Erryl slapped Fang’s ankle, making him yelp.

“Fucker!” he barked.

“You don’t get to do that – be silent and brooding when you are a goddsdamned powder keg. I travel with you because you have a handle on it, but you terrify me, you great big bastard.”

Fang glanced directly into Erryl’s eyes. Erryl continued.

“Between us, me and the child, even as fearsome as she is, we know you are the things parents warn their children about in the dark. I know that’s not all you are, but you fucking terrify me. What happened?”

Fang shook his head and hung his gaze low, not wanting to meet Erryl’s eyes suddenly.

“The girl… the man hit her. It was a stupid thing she did, but she reminded me of my son.” Fang glanced back up at Erryl. “I miss my boy.”

Erryl fell back from his crouch to sit on the grass. Taking a moment to think.

“Didn’t know you had a son. How old?”

“Little older than Corea.”

“Shit. That would do it, I suppose.”

The Wolf said nothing further. He nodded to the girl as she limped up the road toward the northern gate – toward the two of them. Erryl gestured for her to sit, just as Fang rose and wandered past the gate, onto the larger road. He would take watch in case trouble came to find them before they left.

“I see you decided to join us,” Erryl said tonelessly as he rose to his feet.

“I’m really hurting.”

“Serves you right for your second stupid assault with a knife today.”

“He was attacking…”

Erryl slapped her.

Corea rubbed her face, her eyes wide in shock. She looked stupid and betrayed. She looked like a child.

Erryl hadn’t wanted to do that – to strike her. Especially given what Fang had said, but the Wolf did not react to it. This was a lesson she had to learn.

“At this point, Corea, you are a liability. You are the weakest link in our chain, and that will change. Either that changes, or we set you loose and you die on the way. Understood?”

He stared into her eyes and saw that they were watery and red. The change occurred almost instantly, with a blink and a hard gulp. One moment, her brows were drooping like those of a spoiled girl; the next, they were furrowed and angry. Good. He could use that.

“Understood,” she said.

He knelt to look her in the eyes. “Good. May I check your stomach? You took a strong blow from that monster.”

“Fang didn’t hit me.”

Erryl glanced toward Fang, noticing an ear twitch. Good. He needed to hear that.

“I meant the albino,” he added.

“Oh, right…” She looked at Erryl, then past him, toward Fang. “Did he hear me say that?”

“Absolutely,” he added. ‘I need to feel under your clothes, it is just the stomach and the lower ribs, understood?”

She nodded and untucked the shirt from her breeches and lifted the tunic. A dense, rectangular bruise emblazoned the pale skin of her stomach, just below the ribcage. There was a chance that had the strike been higher, her ribs would have shattered.

Erryl shook his head and lowered her hands that held up the clothing.

“A nasty bruise that took the wind out of you, but you’ll be fine. I’ll give you something for the pain.”

He handed her a ginger root that had been dusted in crystallized bloodshroom sap. “Chew as we walk. We leave now.”

He stood up as he slung his bag over his shoulder and reached his hand down to her. She took it and rose to her feet, tucking the shirt into her pants. Erryl had already begun walking, and she came up behind him.

Fang stood outside the gate, a few yards away. He’d finished wrapping his chains around his massive body and throwing his cloak over his shoulders, latching the pin. He turned to face them as Erryl stepped past the gate that made up the northern entry to the town.

Corea hesitated. Erryl continued moving, perhaps not really noticing in the moment, or perhaps knowing this was a moment she needed to do on her own, when he thought back on it years later.

…

Corea had never ventured along the north road, having been told by Mr. Gorten that he would tan her hide for even approaching it. He was a mean man in many ways, but it was the meanness of someone caring.

She felt bad that she had left so quickly after letting him know his mother had died. She wanted to help him tend to the body, but there was no time if she was to find Garen. He’d take care of her. He’d put Grandma to rest.

She felt bad about it, but in at least a couple of ways, she was relieved Grandma Nettie had passed this morning. Corea was free now to do the work that so few others would do. And uncle Nathan – Mr. Gorten –  would be too distracted to tan her hide for what she was about to do.

She took a deep, painful breath and stepped past the gate. She hung there for a moment, in silence and doubt. She touched her tummy and winced. Was she ready for this, really? The Wolf and Egg had made short work of her twice this morning, and she would be traveling with the Wolf. He was scarier than she had thought he was last night – this morning it had been claws, teeth, and blood.

She tried to breathe again, and just as she let the pain settle, she saw down the road that the Wolf and the Barber were waiting for her.

She started walking.

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The post Fang & Bone: “18. Gentlemen (and Lady) of the Road” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Kidding aside, I’m “creating” a new character based on a newly freed character from the public domain as of 2026. I’m not only keeping up my trend of public domain adaptations, but I have a new character from one of my favorite settings I’ve developed.

So, let’s learn about today’s new character, Gold Phantom.

Public Domain and Design

I love January 1st each year because it means new characters become available in the public domain for adaptation and repurposing. This year had it’s share of bangers including Nancy Drew and the first pass at a character that would one day become Betty Boop. However, as I was combing through the new characters that were becoming available, I gravitated to one right away.

The Golden Bat (Ōgon Bat) is a character that originates in Japan, and in many ways might be the first example of what we might consider a modern day superhero. The character originates around the 1930s in the form of paper shows (kamishibai) with records going as far back as 1931. That beats Superman by a few years. The character also took off in South Korea and Europe. In Europe he might better be known as Fantomas or Phantoman.

The character is this fun bit of pop-culture that pops up in contemporary anime, but was pretty big in the 1960s with some films and an animated series. Though not recently adapted, there are many references to the character out there.

I guess you might compare Golden Bat to Doc Savage or The Shadow here in the United States. Plenty of references to the pulp heroes, but not much in the way of contemporary adaptation.

Lore and Setting

For my purposes, this character will one day be used in my setting, Aurin, from Fang of Triseria. Aurin as a whole has become my big, pulp-themed setting. This will also kind of adapt part of the lore of The Golden Bat – him being displaced from time and ancient Atlantis. Not that I’ll be using those elements exactly for Gold Phantom, but there is an influence.

As far as any lore, I am still in the early stages of figuring out what this character is. I don’t know how he might interact with Fang, Leezle, or Nitz. I do have some ideas about the region he occupies on the map and how he might figure into long term plans, though.

Just don’t expect to see much of him right away.

Public Domain

In the spirit of the public domain origins of the character, Gold Phantom is also fully in the public domain. You are welcome to use the design and repurpose it however you wish. You’re also welcome to adapt the character into whatever forms you wish – he is a public domain character.

If you need a characterization to start from, in the simplest terms, consider him a showy, mysterious and noble character with a golden skull motif.

Or do whatever you want with the character. That is the point behind all of this. Just please let me know if you do something based on this version of the character. I’d love to see it.

Oh, and be sure to read Fang & Bone, the first part of the novel is complete as of next week!

As always, if you are interested in supporting what I do, you can do so through donations on Ko-Fi. I also take commissions.

The post 2026 Sketchbook #008 – Gold Phantom appeared first on hpkomics.com.