The ground was hard and unforgiving as Snake landed head first onto it. The impact caused him to lose grip of his sword which skipped and slid out of reach off to the side as he continued to slide and roll along the ground. He finally came to a stop by sliding the last few feet face down along the ground. The ground was dry and dusty where there had been no rain for several months. Snake slowly pushed himself off the floor onto his hands and knees at which point his body began to spasm as he coughed up blood which flowed from his lips and splashed onto the ground. Spitting the last few drops of blood from his mouth Snake sat back and looked up into the sky letting out a sigh. It was a stunningly sunny day with a brilliant blue sky that had no clouds in sight. There had been little to no wind for the past few days and the air was hot and heavy making his job that much more tiring. “The things I do for money!”
The thudding of feet in the distance made Snake look forward towards the sound as he continued to blink trying to bring the world back into focus. As the two images in front of him became one the mist within his mind cleared and a look of urgency and panic crossed his face as he began to look frantically from side to side in a desperate search for his sword. Seeing the sun light glistening off something in a patch of tall grass a few feet away Snake sprung off the ground and flung himself towards it half running half crawling along the ground. Reaching into the patch of tall grass Snake stood up and looked at the shiny fist sized stone that he had just picked up. “ FUCK!”
Throwing the stone at the ground like it had wronged him someway Snake began to again look around for his sword as the ever approaching sound of the thudding feet got closer and closer. There was little to no other plant life and the ground was wide and flat all around him so the only place his sword could be was in the tall thick grass that he was standing in. Snake stooped over and started to part the grass with his hands in a desperate attempt to find his sword. “WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, YOU BLOODY PIECE OF SHIT?” Again Snake began to cough blood but he no longer had time to feel sorry for himself. The hit had been much harder than he had expected which was evident as it had sent him flying for a good ten metres and sliding for another ten. The pain in his chest was a very clear sign that a few of his ribs had been broken and the blood meant that they had probably punctured his lungs. Looking up again the sound of the falling feet was almost on top of him now and he stood little to no chance if he didn’t have his sword. Stepping backwards Snake slipped on the stone he found a few seconds earlier and landed hard on his arse. Through the tall grass in front of him Snake could see the horns of the approaching beast that he was battling as it closed in on him at great speed. Snake put his hands on the ground to brace himself and half turned his face and closed his eyes in anticipation as the beast reached back with its muscular arm to deliver the finishing blow to Snake!
The night before.
“I’ve lost over half my herd to that, that thing now!”
“Me too! It took all my live stock and left me with nothing.”
“What about my fields! That beast and its hellish flock have ravaged my crops and left the ground unable to grow a single thing. It will be years until I can grow anything again. What am I suppose to do to support my family?” The group of half a dozen men sat around a table off to one side of the main room in the Little Nook Tavern. The men were all farmers and the majority land owners around the village of Little Nook and because of their status within the small community they had appointed themselves as council for the village and its people.
“Gentlemen! Please calm your selves! We have all suffered losses due to this monsters rampage and we will not solve this problem by yelling the place down, will we!” There was silence from the men around the table. The three men who had stood up and began to shout were standing still as they suddenly remembered where they were. The tavern was mostly empty except for a couple of heavily drunk kart drivers who were barely conscious and a small group of people celebrating. It was quite late and as this was a farming village most of the people had gone home as they worked in the fields and would need to be awake and working before the sun came up the following morning. Two of the men sat back down again leaving the third looking over the far side of the tavern at a lone dark figure sitting at a table nursing his drink. “WILL WE Sebastian!”
“No!” Looking back to his table Sebastian remembered who he was talking to and softened his voice to a more subservient tone. “Of course not Mr Henshaw. Sir!” With a look of a small child being told off by a parent Sebastian sat back down and took a heavy swig from his tankard.
Mr Henshaw had arrived to the village just a couple of years ago when he became owner of the old Stevenson’s farm. Mr Henshaw explained to the villagers that the Stevenson’s had grown weary of running the farm in their advanced years and had decided to sell up and move up country to live with family. Everyone knew that the Stevenson’s loved their farm and had no family other than each other however as Mr Henshaw had moved to the farm with a few dozen men who looked more like hired mercenaries than farm hands the villagers felt it would be best to quietly ignored this and move on. Over the following few months one by one the neighbouring farm owners to Mr Henshaw’s ever growing estate sold their lands to him and left quite often without a word to anyone else. It was very obvious that they were not doing this by choice but everyone within the village was too scared of what would happen to them if they spoke out against Mr Henshaw.
Around 6 months ago Mr Henshaw had managed to amass quite a lot of land from its previous owners and owned close to a third of all the farm and grazing land around the village of Little Nook. Word spread that a band of raiders had started operating in the area and they were beginning to hit the farm lands on the outskirts of the village. To try and help defend against these raiders Mr Henshaw along with a few of the other land owners banded together to form a defence council. This however was all a ruse. The raiders were in fact part of Mr Henshaw’s staff and were tasked to raid and destroy all farms including his own albeit to a lesser extent. The other members of the defence council were also in on the scam. Mr. Henshaw knew early on that if he made a play for all of the land around the village the people would eventually have enough and run him and his men out. He did not want this as they were skilled workers and he needed them to work the fields as he acquired them. This ruse worked in two ways. The first was to burn fields and kill live stock of the other lesser land owners so that they could no longer afford to rebuild or carry on which left them no choice but to sell up and move on or at least stay on as workers in the very farms that they once owned. The second part was to have the other members of the defence council, who received funding from himself, buy up the farm lands close to their slowly growing farms when its owners could no longer endure the raids. This stopped the villagers from coming to the conclusion that Mr Henshaw was behind the whole affair and left them unawares that he owned or controlled most of the land of Little Nook through the defence council who were all his puppets and reported to him.
“So what are we to do Mr Henshaw? This monster and its flock have to be dealt with! Terrance has lost his entire live stock and Conroy and his family have been left with nothing, even their stores were eaten when this beast passed through their land.” Looking over Mr Henshaw’s shoulder Sebastian could not take his eyes from the dark figure sitting far behind him as he continued to talk. He knew there was something not quite right with that man, something about his eyes left a bitter taste in his mouth. “There is only one thing that can be done now. We must call all the villagers together, gather whatever weapons that we can and hunt down these monsters and slaughter the lot of them before any more damage is done!”
“But there are so many of them and so few of us who are able to fight!” For the first time Riley the youngest of the six sitting around the table spoke.
Riley’s farther was one of the original six defence council members and Riley took his place when his father died three months ago. His father was a good and honest man if not a bit hot headed however back when they had formed the council his father had recently lost a large amount of his live stock. This was due to a vindictive neighbouring farmer who, jealous of his good fortune, introduced a diseased Rayliel into his flock causing most of them to become infected. They all had to be killed and there carcases burned. Riley’s farther knew who had done this but had no proof so was left angry wanting to take revenge on the man responsible.
When Mr Henshaw approached him with his plan Riley’s farther jumped at the chance to get one over on the man that made him kill his flock without thinking about what Mr Henshaw was really proposing. After watching what happened to the man he wanted revenge on and his family Riley’s farther realised that he made a huge mistake and went to Mr Henshaw to try and back out of their deal. Mr Henshaw told him that was not possible at which point Riley’s farther got angry and threatened to come clean to the entire village and expose Mr Henshaw for who he truly was. Calmly Mr Henshaw went into his desk draw and picked up a small scruffy teddy and handed it to him. Riley’s farther went white when he realised that it was his four year old daughters. Mr Henshaw told him to go back home and keep quiet.
Riley’s farther (unfinished!)
Riley looked around at the faces of the five men now staring directly at him and he shifted uneasily on his stool while tightening his grip on his tankard in a futile attempt to avoid their cold stairs. “Ahem. Sorry, I’m just thinking out loud that’s all.”
“That’s all right Riley.” Putting his hand on Riley’s shoulder Mr Henshaw gave it a gentle squeeze and flashed him a warm smile. Riley looked back and gave him an uncomfortable smile and then went back to sipping his drink. “However Sebastian, Riley does have a valid point. There are too many Rayliel out there and we cannot afford as a community to have to many men injured in a vain and reckless attempt to bring this solution under control. If we were to lose but a hand full of men to injury or death we would not be able to tend to the remaining fields and herds. Don’t forget that harvest will soon be upon us and if we cannot reap our crops before the rains begin everything will be lost and many families will starve.”
I am still working on this first episode so please be patient but in the mean time any comments or reviews of the work so far would be appreciated.
