Chereads / The Once and Forsaken Osz / Chapter 3 - Path of Revenge

Chapter 3 - Path of Revenge

"Sorry dear child, I am unsure how to provide clarity. It has been an age since last we spoke with anyone. It is possible the concepts being conveyed are no longer applicable. I will process this dissonance."

He didn't bother to respond to the increasing crypticness. Instead, he'd spotted the hatchet still quivering in the bark of a tree ten feet away. He'd done that without trying.

He waded through the drifts of snow, which were now a nuisance but didn't risk sapping the life from him. The coarse wool of his shirt and pants looked ridiculous beneath the liquid darkness of Ankou. The little wounds on his body were now healing of their own accord. He'd dodged the first few swipes of the bear, which was when the rabid monster had turned upon his father. He should have allowed himself to die so his father could be the one alive now. No one had to be murdered. If only his stupid feet hadn't been so quick.

He ripped the hatchet from the tree trunk with his right hand. It felt unbalanced now, too top heavy. He'd have to compensate to make it fly true. That didn't seem like it'd be a problem for anything he wanted to hit that was stationary and within fifteen feet. Outside of that range would be tricky. He grunted. "How much time has passed here?"

"The three ticks of time within Ebonfair."

"How much time within the Nothingness?"

"Time as it exists here can only be measured in reference to something else. There is no reference within [The Nothingness]. Therefore there is no answer to your question."

"It doesn't matter. I feel different."

"Yes, you attained the First Level of Ascension. You absorbed the [Essence] of your father, who considered himself on the [Path] of the [Hunter]. The Hunter's Path was a convenient limiting adjunct to place before us. Do you wish to know more?"

He glanced down at the bear's tracks; every second the snow obscured more. If he cocked his head and the wind favored him, he could hear the deep, ragged breathing of the beast. There were other signs of its passage. Broken branches, bits of fur stuck on bark, and even a few claw marks. "Later. I need to kill something." He frowned and shook his head. "I need to get revenge."

"We are all responsible for our choices as we walk the [Path], child. We are happy to help you accomplish your objectives."

He didn't linger long on Ankou's words. Instead, he set off after his prey. Stalking the bear through raging gales and buckets of snow was pleasant. Without the bone chilling cold and flesh numbing slush, he could turn his entire attention to the task of hunting. He must be walking the [Path], because his tracking skills and his senses were never that good. Now they were. His da had been the best hunter in their village, and now that burden fell upon him.

He tracked the bear deeper into the mountains. His father would have told him to keep his head down, walk away, and lick his wounds. Except right now, he couldn't sit still. He wanted to hurt something. He wanted to draw his feelings upon the face of the bear with his hatchet. Ankou only offered more encouragement than his mother ever had. The bear moved faster than he could, and the mounting blizzard worked to cover the enter incident.

He followed the trail through the drifts, the pine forest, and along the spine of the great mountains. He climbed high enough for the air to thin and the gail to turn furious against his body. This would have been impossible without Ankou. The ice talons of the wind was now just a distraction, and not the life stealing hazard it used to be.

"Thank you Ankou." He said, kneeling before the mouth of the bear's cave. He heard deep snoring within the mouth of the cave.

"You are welcome, child. Caution is advised. This encounter is beyond the typical limits of your progress on the [Path]."

He grunted as he used [Consider] on the mouth of the cave. The mouth of the cave was painted in bright yellow-orange hues like a beautiful sunset, and the air shrieked a warning that he should reassess his plan. He dismissed the idea; the warnings disappeared. He'd been trained to run from anything that didn't [Consider] as green with the harp playing in the background.

He crept into the darkness of the cave. Sunlight only pierced the first five steps, but the bear was only another five beyond. The bear was curled around a small treasure chest. It's giant snout rested on top the tarnished brown wood and metal rivets of the chest's lid. He paused at the edge of the light to see if his [Stealth] would hold. The bear grunted and lifted its head, but before it could take a sniff, it dropped it back upon the chest and resumed its snoring.

Ankou fluttered around him. He picked his way past piles of bones and debris. The bones had been snapped and the marrow sucked clean. Time had destroyed the various other remains of the bear's previous victims. These were a warning to would be pursuers. Most of the bones looked bi-pedal, probably human. His feet picked each step for themselves and glided through the debris upon tiptoes. A few times that he misstepped, the edge of Ankou wrapped up and deposited the piece that might have given warning.

Standing before the body of the bear, he was washed over with gouts of sour breath. White flecks of foam bubbled at the edges of its black, rubbery lips. A single, gray fang extended down five inches. Of course, this made sense now. They'd wandered into the territory of [Iron Fang], the bear that ruled much of the mountains in this area.

With the hood pulled up, Ankou could whisper inaudibly into his ears. "Killing an unaware opponent has it's own satisfactions."

He nodded and placed his hatchet in his belt. He crossed his arms and regarded the scene. The cave was just big enough to be a den. The bear took up a quarter of it. There was the chest and the bones.

"Perhaps a dagger to gauge out its eye. Retreat and inflict more damage when it sleeps again."

He refused to touch the dagger, but he did have an idea now. He retreated a few steps to were he'd seen several snapped femur bones. He took these, withdrew back down the trail and into the forest. A fire was impossible in the blizzard, so he crept within the bough of a large pine and worked on the femur bones with his hatchet until he was satisfied with their edges. He selected the best pair and slotted them into his belt. The others he placed into the Nothingness.

He'd seen some holly along the way, and he backtracked further. It was a small ten foot tree buried in a mound of snow amongst a sea of evergreens of all shapes and sizes amongst the endless piles and curtains of snow. Still, his eyes had caught sight of the glossy, curled leaves and bright red berries peaking out when he'd first passed.

His skill in [Survival], which had been meager before his ascension, now made it easy to extract the best berries. These he worked into the jagged edges of the femur bones. He also added a coating along the rusty length of his hatchet. The remaining berries he mashed with his fingers and made a poultice of it and wrapped it with the ripped left sleeve of his shirt. The result was a tight ball of poison, which he tied around the last strap of his belt. He cleaned his hands with the snow, not feeling the cold. Ankou muffled even the sound of his feet in the snow, and his steps were now light kisses across the snow's surface. It was dusk when he made it back to the cave.