Leech was happy that Gordan had found him since he would have probably died. He still remembered that morning when his mother had given him three things, a small knife, a bag, and finally a small piece of advice.
My son, when you are gathering the food be careful of those that might wish you ill, but do not push away a helping hand, instead take it and repay your debts."
Of all of the thirteen members in his household his mother was the one to worry for him. And he knew that she had good reason to be worried, not many people had a high opinion of him this the name that he had received from the other children of the village 'leech' at first when he had heard that name he was so upset that he would not eat and cried himself to sleep for a week.
After that week his mother took him to the side and talked to him.
"You can't let something like a name effect you so negatively. People are going to say what people are going to say, you have to be above them because if you don't then who will?
His mother's words had given him confidence to live on and ever since then he never let peoples words effect him. Unfortunately that ment that those that didn't like him began to resort to other methods of antagonizing him, mainly psychological but sometimes it came over to the physical.
Even though things were like that he had never expected them to interfere with his trial, that was one of the most taboo things that could be done in the clan.
The morning that his mother sent him out with the gifts he left the village in surch of something to hunt. His day was rather successful for the first couple of hours, he hunted three rabbits and even a dozen fish, his knife served him well in all of this and he had been happy that he would be able to bring something to the table for his mother and the rest of his family.
The way that the trial worked was that a child was sent out on the morning of their twelfth birthday to hunt for the food to feed them and their family. You were not allowed assistance from anyone in the clan, but non-clan members could help if something happened. Though Leech had done a good job hunting in the morning he was not the only person to be hunting. Two of the other boys from the village who were the ones who bullied him the most were also going through their own trials.
At about the mid afternoon they lured Leech away from Fred who had been sent with him as his protector. Once they were separated the two boys overpowered, him took his prey as well as his new knife and threw him into an abandoned leech farm.
The leech farm had been abandoned since all of the leeches would die as soon as they were placed in it, so the farmers simply abandoned it out of frustration.
Once the boys had thrown him into the pit they caused some rocks to fall down on top of him trapping him in the dark whole.
"Dont you think that a leech pit is the most suitable place for you to be? After all you are a leech, you are a burden to the clan who can't event complete his trial."
And with that the two boys left him to continue their trials.
For the first three hours leech merely laid in the mud trying to calm down the rage that was welling up inside him. Fred found him after that point and ran around the whole frantically squealing for Leech to get out. Leech could not understand why fred seemed so agitated and drifted off into sleep, he had no strength in him at all. Only after leaving the pit did he learn that this was due to the leeches that had surfaced from the depths of the mud and had begun to feed. After drifting into sleep he woke to the sound of something falling down across from him, weakly razing his head he saw a monstrous figure covered in blood clutching its head before turning to him and slowly walking forward, it had been Gordan but not knowing that he had been quite frightened.
Leech looked over his shoulder at Gordan who had slung the snake over his neck again. His appearance creeped leech out a lot, he had been scared of him in the dark of the pit but seeing him in the light Gordan was even more terrifying to see. Almost the entirety of his front was covered in blood, which had mixed with mud to make quite the disturbing scene. His arms had several places were the skin was sunken like the skin had healed over a wound but the inside had yet to heal, Leech also noticed that the same seemed to be true for his stomach but he could not tell to what extent. Of course in Leech's thoughts on those things were mild compared to his face. His forehead between his eyes was rapped tightly with a cloth and his face looked to have been painted a ghost white which contrasted his rather tan skin. The smile that was painted on his face mixed with the blood that he had smeared trying to clean his face made it look like something out of the elders storys.
Even though he was scared Leech made sure not to show it, after all this person had helped him without cause.Leech could tell that he was in rather desperate need of medical attention and given that his mother was also the clans healer he felt that he could repay Gordans kindness with his own. He smiled thinking about that, this person hadn't judged him like the others had and that made him happy.
Gordan looked up to see that the kid was smiling at him, he had noticed that the kid seemed to do that quite a bit. He had been doing that a lot since Gordan had agreed to join him.
He had the feeling that the kid had a bit of a difficult life, after all one doesn't usually end up with a name like leech if one is held in high regard. Gordan didn't really care other than the fact that it made it hard to talk to the kid if he had to say his name, it made his skin crawl.
They walked for awhile in silence before Leech spoke up out of curiosity.
"How did you get injured like that in the first place?"
"Why were you at the bottom of a leech farm trapped under a pile of rocks even though there is no sign of the walls collapsing or any debris on the side of the pit?"
He responded without thinking, he had no wish to drag up the past six days again. He also had a headache like none he had ever experienced before, even the time that he had been hit in the head with a sledgehammer. Leech stopped abruptly causing Fred to bump into his back and snort in protest. Leech seemed to be thinking for a moment and then raised his head.
"Fair point, I can tell you if you're interested"
Gordan shrugged his shoulders, he didn't want to have to talk that much so give the shortest answer he could think of.
"Anything to pass the time"
Seemingly satisfied with this answer Leech started to walk again, giving Gordan an account of the reason behind the situation.
The sky was growing dark by the time that they reached the village, and Gordan sincerely felt like he was going to fall over dead. His headache had gotten worse the more they had walked and he was finding it harder and harder to focus so he did not notice that the boy had stopped and ducked down in the brush. He only realized it when Fred bit his left hand to get his attention. He grimaced in pain and slowly crouched down next to Leech without a word.
He saw what was worrying Leech, the village gate was closed and outside was a large creature that resembled a bear sitting in front of it, a small man was next to the bear, after some people gathered out on the top of the wall the small man began to speak.
"The lord Morrison requires all of you to die in order to further his empire, so I have been sent to exterminate all of you, be happy you will be given one hour to make piece with yourselves before you are obliterated"
=sigh=
Gordan put his head in his hands and started muttering to himself.
"This really isn't my week"