Hunter: Chapter 1

He spent the last part of the night back in the wood line well away from the small village. Far enough away that his preparations wouldn’t be heard or disturbed. Honing and stropping the wide thick blade of his knife. Oiling and checking over wheel guns. Finally lining up the choice of shells on the bandoliers he wore across his stomach. If he didn’t miss his guess Necrophage loads would be his best bet. He picked his way into position, and with the first rays of dawn began his approach to the village.

It wasn’t long before he started catching the initial smell of death. The unexplained scent that catches in the back of your throat that a normal human know to be wary and turn away from. He only unslung his double gun. Still doing his best to pick a quite path. He closer he got the thicker the smell became. Finally moving between the small ramshackle buildings the source of the smell became clear.

Up and down the Main Street was littered with human remains. Arms, legs, a few torsos, here and there a visible face. Blank eyes staring out into nothingness. Then there were the creatures consuming the pieces. Ghouls. Bent over on all fours lost in the feast lain out before them. They hadn’t noticed his approach and while he doubted very much they were the cause of this massacre, they would definitely be a hindering factor to his investigation. He raised the double gun. Pulled it back into his shoulder. Drew a steady bead on the closest of the creatures using the side of the building. Slowed his breathing. Waited. The closest ghoul raised its head, and with a loud bang, it ceased to be. Exploding in a red cloud of gore. A second bang and the next ghoul was writhing in the road. Firing through the smoke of his first shot it would have been hard to make a precise head shot. However the carving and make up of the necrophage ammunition would ensure it stayed down. He took steps forward around the large cloud of powder smoke that had formed after his shots. The smell of it mixing in his nostrils with the smell of death. Double gun action open smoking brass shells falling to the ground as practiced hands brought up two more. Dropped into place. Action closed. Double gun back up scanning. A third rising up to run toward him and movement in the corner of his eye reveled a forth. His pace quickened, not so much to add room but to line up. With two quick booms the first was squirming in the road. The second snatched out of the window frame that it was crawling out of. A breeze moved this new cloud of smoke out of the corpse strewn street.

As he broke open the action he stood and just watched. Four was a typical size for a pack of ghouls. Thought these seemed to be missing something. The something came slowly walking into the light from the large meeting house at the end of the street. Al-ghoul, large gore dripping from its mouth and hands. Eyes sizing him up. His hands slowly moved down to the lower bandolier. Scattershot. Large balls made to shred targets at close range. While the Al-ghoul was still a little bit away, but he was sure that was about to change. It new he was a threat, it didn’t have to see the bodies of its pack, or know what the thing he used was. The al-ghoul ran at him all four claws kicking up dust. Milky white eyes locked on him. He swallowed trying to keep his heart rate down. Double gun at the ready. Waiting for the moment.

As the beast leaped at him he pivoted quickly out of the way letting off the first barrel. The al-ghoul landed in a heap it’s breath rattling. He approached it carefully gun still tight in his shoulder, and as the Al-ghoul rolled onto is back he squeezed the second trigger. It’s face all but disappeared in a cloud of gore. Another reload. More waiting.

After several minutes he started walking toward the large building that stood at the end of the street. It appeared to be a house of worship. From all the trails of blood it also seemed to be the epicenter of this massacre. He walked on, slowly up the steppes. The doors were torn off the hinges. Even after the ghouls attack, the effect of the killers was notable. The point they were trying to make still visible. On the walls, the floor, and parts of the ceiling bodies were crucified. Men for the most part. Women and children were strewn around the floor.

Between the crucified bodies was tight scrawling lines. He stopped short of touching them. His better judgement telling him that it wouldn’t be a great idea. Despite the fact that the more he looked at the lines the more his head aches he followed them to a central point that was i front of a small alter that was in the center of the building. He knelt down, pulling out his wide bladed knife. Engraved along its blade with its own runes. He made to drag the blade across the scrall but as soon as it made contact numbing pain shot through his arm making him push hard away from it falling onto his back.

“Damnation” he breathed.

It would need to be investigated. The massacre was the trigger for something. He took his weathered hat of and pushed a hand through his hair. He needed to get to his horses. The message bird.

“What happened?” The voice was behind him and a heart beat later violence was in his hand cocked and pointed at the forehead of the intruder. The Kid.

“I told no one to come here before I was finished, boy.”

“Heard all the shootin. Old folk sent me to check.” The kid said looking past the gun at him. “So what happened.

The fact the kid was so unperturbed by having a gun in his face was probably a story on its own. He violence away and lowered the hammer down. “I don’t know” he said honestly

“Ain’t you hunters supposed to know everything?” The kid asked.

“Do I look like an academic to you kid?” He said picking up his hat and placing it on his head.

“A...what..?” The kid asked with a scrunched up face.

“Run to the tree line and bring my horses kid.” He said with a sigh.

“Shouldn’t I take word to the old ones.”

“Soon enough but fist my horses.” He said. He took out a half smoked cheroot placed it in his mouth and lit it. The kid went off for the horses.

He sent off a messenger bird hoping a cataloger was close. Then he took a worn satchel and walked back to the church. Being as meticulous as he could be he began to sketch and write a description of the scene. While not an academic, he had picked this up as a key part of his life. Gathering what information he could to pass onto bother hunters that may need it. And if a cataloger wasn’t close there was a chance all sign of this would be gone before he would be able to properly look into it. It welt to much like something bigger.

“You remember anything strange happening a’fore this place went quiet?”

“Lightin storm. Real quiet though, like sometimes in the summer happens”

He stopped sketching staring at his notes and drawings while he thought. This wasn’t the worst massacre he had scene. He was fairly sure he had been a part of ones larger than this. A summon was a possibility. Though most of the summons he had scene would have drifted through the woods and exterminate all that lived in the next closest one. He looked down at the skull that hung on his belt. Covered in scrimshaw it seemed to call to him suddenly. ‘Look through my eyes hunter. My eyes hold the answ-‘ he shook the voice out of his head.

“Or it holds the lies” he said to himself

“What lies, I ain’t never lied” The kid asked.

He ignored the kid going back to the sketching and note taking. The sound of a horn sounding outside made both of them start. The kid ran outside. He ran over to his double gun checking to make sure he had dropped new shells in before running out into the evening light. Just as the horn sounded again...from over head.

“Had to be this cataloger...” he said to himself gaping up at the air ship that had suddenly arrived over head.

“Wha- wha- whats-“ The kid began to stammer. Gun in his face and surrounded by carnage without a word from him. But a simple flying machine and he is speechless.

“Run boy and get those old folk you were talking about I’m sure they are ready to come now.” He said to the kid who was still leering into the sky. “Now!” He yelled at the kid and to punctuate it fired his double gun into the air. The kid took off at a sprint.

The shots second purpose was to mark himself for the air ship. It resembled a flat bottom ships hull lashed to the large canvas ballon that some how kept it a loft. He had never wanted to be on one long enough to ask. The airship drifted to the side of the town then began to settle to the ground. He walked over to his horse, placed his double rifle in its leather scabbard, and walked over to where it was landing.

A wooden gang plank was extended to the ground with a thud. The cataloger was thin and sallow even spending most of his time in the air. They were knows to stay in the hold writing and researching. He walked towards the hunter cataloger Ehrengard.

“You made good time.”

“Oh I was in the neighborhood” the cataloger grunted at him. “You rarely put out the call for one of us so took a special interest.”

“This way then. “ the hunter said turning and walking towards the town. The cataloger doing his best to keep up.

“Curious” Ehrengard said looking as the massacre in the church. “Blood magic but on a lager scale then just some satisfaction for the gods.”

“A summoning?”

“A good chance. Still odd that what was summoned didn’t go and gorge itself on the main village.” Ehrengard paused talking a look around the slaughter. “Though there is a chance just draining these was enough to slake it’s hunger.”

Ehrengard bent down to look a the same scrawled lines of writing that connected the corpses. As if an electric shock hit him his arm shot back.

“You didn’t break it?” The cataloger said “it’s still flowing!”

The hunter perplexed as he was didn’t have time to reply. As the free arm of the closest corpse reached out and grabbed him.

***

He turned drawing his wheel gun Mighty in one smooth motion. Baleful eyes once dead now filled with a green fire. The corpse was fighting against the bonds that had it pinned to the wall. He heard the bones snap as it tired to get at him. With a boom of the wheel gun there was a channel dug into its skull. It fell slack again. Moans and groans were all around him now though. The dead all starting to come up around him. Even the half ghoul eaten started Moving there gore crusted limbs.

The cataloger was speaking quickly almost to himself as he dug into the pockets of his robe. The hunter was firing his wheel guns in as quick a succession as he could as the horde began to close in around them. Ehrengard stood tossing out a large tape on to the floor. With a loud shout there was a rush of air from the hunters back and the green fire in the eyes of the corpses faded and they began to crumple into heaps again.

“You didn’t think to cut the link,” Ehrengard said over his shoulder. “Some great hunter you are.”

“Well I knew you would want something to do when you got here,” The hunter replied.

He reloaded Mighty and Violent the top break action making it faster then the standard wheel guns. Grabbing his double gun from the wall he reloaded it with shot shells and looped the sling in his arm for added stability.

“The rune chord will hold keep it cut for the time we need,” Ehrengard continued and began to look closely at what was essentially the alter in the center of the chaotic gore stained room. “When did the people that hired you stop hearing from this place?”

“Two weeks. Local marshal and a posse came out after the first week but they never came back either,” the hunter said his stormy eyes continued to scan the dead.

“So much time,” Ehrengard leaned back on his haunches. “did you ask him”

Him was the skull that hung from leather straps on the hunters belt. A channel for a gift that marked him, as cursed.

“We haven’t been seeing eye to eye lately,” the hunter replied looking down at the skull. “He whispered to me at the start”

“Mmhm” Ehrengard replied still back on his haunches starting at the center of the room. “When’s the last time you put a summoned one down around here?”

“Years. Been doing my best to keep the cults culled. This new band of priests that’s set up has helped with that to be sure.”

While hunters tried to not kill other people it was sometimes a necessity to keep something far worse from coming down the pike, but if someone could whip the townspeople into a bloody fury then so much the better. He would make up the money some how.

“Until they deem us the cult,”

“I guess that could be one way of looking at it,” hunter replied “what are you thinking on this?

“Necromancy summoning if I was pressed,” Ehrengard said standing. “The corpses reanimating was probably a trap to cover tracks.”

“Well...I’m glad I sent for you then. “

“Yes, it would have been quit the end for the legendary Hunter Fardan.”

“What could they have brought across?”

“One would hope just a dead lover or relative that they had a question for.”

“Is it ever that easy?” It came out with an unexpected sigh. “At any rate I’m only getting paid to clear the town. And now I have to split that with you,” Fardan turned to see Ehrengard staring at the line of ruins. It almost seemed as if some of the color had left his face.

“What is it?”

“It’s not necromancy,” Ehrengard said quietly “someone made a deal, and used this town to get some attention.”

He was motioning at a line of ruins. They shook and waved in Fardan’s eyes keeping just out of focus for some reason.

“What does it mean?”

It means you face so much more than you believe. It means there is more than just necrophage in these woods. Will you let your greed save you hunter. the slick voice in his head made a chill run down his spine.

“I didn’t ask you”

“What?”

“Not you...what does it mean?”

“It’s an elder name,” the Cataloger said. The elders, great beings worshiped and feared. It wasn’t wholly unusual to see the name in this situation.

“Which, something is warding my eyes,” Fardan said shaking his head.

“What does it matter what dirty name was used to commit this...damndable atrocity!”

Fardan’s muscle memory was hard to over come, his hands pulling wheel guns, cocking as he turned, and searching for the new voice. The speaker, a leather skinned, weather faced man in black clothes dusty and dirty hanging off in an emaciated frame.

“And you are?” Fardan said slowly.

“I...I was there shepherd...bu-but now...it seems I am but a fool,” the man said sobbing, his eyes darting around at the blood and gore. “I heard the screaming...in my..in my...sleep...”

The man fell to his knees. Tore his shirt open. Screamed to what ever god had let him and these people down. “What manner of span would commit such a damndable disgusting thing.

“That is yet to be clear to us,” this came from Ehrengard. He walked around the hunter kneeling down the ragged mans level. “In your sleep..what did you see?”

“I saw them...crucifying them. Heard there cries. Heard laughs...Dear god the laughs...” He was shaking. His eyes unfocused. Color draining from his weathered sun baked face.

“Did you see what was doing this?”

“They were shadows. Like smoke with deep red eyes that seemed to see me even though I wasn’t there.”

Heed his words hunter.

At the dark voices words the ragged mans head jerked up. Eyes now hard. Boring into Fardan.

“Did yo-“

“How dare you!” The ragged man spat each word out at him. “You would bring in even more filth into this place”

“You hear the voice?” Fardan tried to ask the man. To hear the dark one while a gift and a curse was still a rare thing.

“I heat there lies. The deception it seeks to cloud your reason with. Take that taint from this place.”

Fardan looked over to Ehrengard who nodded. He was the talker, let him talk.

Fardan took his leave from the slaughterhouse that had once been a place of worship. Walking toward his horses he pulled a new cheroot, pulling out a match, lighting and inhaling a long deep lung full of blue smoke.

Another contract down. He would have to ride back over to collect and deliver the news. Sad news that it might be. The horses snuffled at his approach. The smell of the dead necrophage had him mincing.

“I know. I know.” He said walking over to the reins and patting the horses nose.

After the cheroot burned out Ehrengard came out and walked to Fardan.

“He broken?”

“Don’t think so. May be a real touched one like you.”

“Well my part of the contract Is finished. The elders from the main village should arrive soon and-,” there was a look and Ehrengard face when Fardan turned toward him. “What is it?”

“He has a request,” Ehrengard said tossing a large leather purse at Fardan.

“Damnation” Fardan said catching it. It had to be three times what he was going to be given for this job. “And the request?”

“Why finding who did this to his flock, and half of that is mine.”