The strange fellow was there in the place of Baby Yuse and he was buck naked showing his ass to Harridan.
"The Heck!"
Harridan shook himself away from the fellow and he simply startled awake and started crying.
Harridan felt awkward like hell and was panicking like anything.
Where is my boy? and who is this guy? also why is he crying like a wussy?
Matthew was sound asleep snoring and was mumbling something in his sleep. The crying noises of this guy didn't faze him in the least.
The entire scene was calm except for this guy and his awkward presence.
Harridan slowly shook away the grogginess of his sleep by sudden twists of his head. As his head became clearer images of the nightmare came to his head and also the cry
'Father!'.
"what did you do to my Son! Speak!" Harridan bellowed.
It was now Matthew's turn now, to jerk out of sleep.
"Hell! Boss, is naked guy an enemy?" Matthew blurted, He was too sleepy to think straight. He was dim to notice immediately that the baby was missing.
"Where is the baby Boss? What happened?"
"The heck I am your boss! Nab this guy MIS!" Harridan barked.
"Yes! Boss! No! I mean , Sire!" Matthew jumped in and grabbed the naked guy by his wrist and twisted it painfully.
"Waaaaaah!" The naked guy wailed pitifully. It was really pitiful to look at that guy and oddly hearing him cry made Harridan tear up in his eyes.
It was then that Harridan noticed that this guy's face was really familiar and then the wailing naked guy's eyes came into contact with his eyes. then he quickly looked at the ground around them then Harridan shouted
"Stop it Matthew! you are hurting him!"
"What! Sire!" Matthew was still a little bit sleepy so he didn't quite hear him.
"Look at his face you Idiot!"
Harridan snapped his fingers and a red glow appeared on his fingers
"What is in his face?" Matthew was confused. He was sleeping soundly a little while ago. How could he have an inkling of a clue to what was going on.
He was confused but he just let go of the hand he twisted and the wailing instead of diminishing and lowering down blared up and the guy was crying with a more mournful tone and weeped rubbing his eyes like a small child.
"Why are you weeping like a wussy, Lad. Speak!" Matthew spoke with a haughty tone.
Harridan was too shocked to move but he moved unsteadily and somehow he reached the weeping lad and took away his hands saying "There! There, my Lad. Nothing happened to you. Nothing to worry, Boy."
Matthew saw the naked lad's face highlighted by a soft red glow coming from Harridan's finger. It took him just a few seconds to adjust with him being a talented assassin and no sooner he saw it he fell down on his bum.
"The Devil is this !"
Matthew saw that the lad looked just like Harridan but with a little more soft features, it was as if he was his ....
it was as if he was his son.
"Not sure if it was the Devil though."said Harridan.
It was because all the while one of the eyes was glowing a dull golden glow and put off his eyes as if his eyes were of two different colours.
"Yuse, Is this you?" Harridan asked.
"Sire! isn't it a bit too preposterous. He might be some random innocent kid who may be looted by Gallyhook bandits. I heard that they even loot the clothes of a person if it suits their liking."Matthew offered an explaination.
"Then where is my son? explain that Mis*. Wait first explain how this lad managed to creep up into my embrace and remove away Yuse without my awareness and without leaving a fucking footprint around a fifty armslength* around us."
Then Matthew looked at the ground and saw that no disturbance so much so as a sign was left in the ground other than the place in which they were standing.
"There are not a lot of blessings that can make a person float in the air without fighting. Flying makes a ruckus and it is impossible to float into a mile from around this place. I made it that way." Harridan spoke solemnly as if he was taking care not to disturb the lad who lay there sobbing.
The sobbing quietly softened.
"So.... This butt naked lad here is baby Yuse and he turned this way due to the blessings of a wierd deity" Matthew was unsure of how to stomach the events.
A blessing that makes a baby into a grown man.With a mind of a baby.
His mind boggled at the thought of such a thing. He was having a normal breakfast in the morning and came to confront a person who he thought was a simple normal assignment but he was a nightmare to face but what more he was a royal prince but not only that his son is more messed up than him.
Like Father, like son?
more like the tiger leaps nine feet and the cub leaps eighteen feet.
He looked towards the night sky so that he might find some solace in something that still resembled normalcy.
"Sire! up in the stars! look up Sire! quickly!"
"What did you see up there mis*, Your great grandpa's underwear...."
Then Harridan saw that sight in the night sky.
The sky was sparsely littered with clouds. That's not it.
There were stars here and there. That's not it.
There was the moon was full and was hung low and it looked like it would drop down any moment. That's not it either.
On the night sky there was a black space. That's not it either.
The blank space was in the shape of made their eyes transfixed at the night sky was like a perfect circle.
But that wasn't all around the circle was a thinner concentric circle.
"This goddamn symbol hates me!" Harridan spoke. He was not all that cheerful.
Grown up Yuse was clothed up in Harridan's spare clothes and it wasn't holding up against the night's breeze and Harridan lit up a bonfire and stayed awake for the rest of the night. He wondered how the abrupt growth of his child was much similar to his own breakthrough in strength when he was twenty years old.
"Kids sure do grow fast don't they?" Asked Matthew with a with a wry smile.
"Mis* speak like that and I'll kill you for real. Do we understand each other?" Harridan
"Yes Boss!"
"Mis, Call me boss and the same thing happens"
"Sorry Sire! but it is my usual habit to call people stronger than me as boss. Please tell me as what to call you Sire. I'm a bit of a bad egg if you haven't noticed."Matthew said.
"Yeah! bad egg! I noticed. What a bad chicken egg you are."Harridan chuckled. He was reminded of Matthew's chicken.
"Boss!" Matthew saw the flash of mischief in Harridan's eyes and said with a condescending tone.
"Chicken!" Harridan said shaking his head. 'Sire' had somehow become 'Boss' and it was useless trying to change it.
"Boss!"
"Stop it Mis! you can call me as boss."
"Not that boss. Look!"
Yuse was not in the place where he left him.
"Boss! the footprints are going that way." Matthew pointed.
They were headed towards the Kartingale* forests.
"The footprints are too far apart aren't they ?"
"Yes Boss, they seem to be far apart"
"I don't know if I have to be proud or worried damn it's all so confusing!"
"By the way Mis, You grew up near the forest right? Any dangers that I should be aware of ?"
Harridan was finally in his zone and was perfectly coordinating with his inner combatant spirit.
"You already know about that Boss. It's that teacher guy "
"Is he an active Necromancer?"
"Very much so, He lives near the Catacombs for a reason."
"Shit!!" Harridan cursed.
An active necromancer can have a lot of zombies under his control and he might have some of them patrolling the forest constantly.
If Yuse was unlucky enough to run into one things cam become very ugly.
Very ugly.
Glossary (for new readers)
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MIS- that's Harridan's nickname for Matthew Ingris Samuel, because his name was very long for him to pronounce.
Kartingale- The name of the forest they were headed towards after the first fight. That is where the elusive Necromancer lives