Chapter Text
Your stomach gave out another loud rumble as a reminder for your hands to dig deeper into the depths of another pile of food in the alleyway. Smells of various rotting vegetables and long dead, most likely decaying, month old fish filled your senses but another harsh growl stifled a gag back down your throat.
The agonising pain shot through your elbow and arms, threatening to give out, but your hunger and desperation for survival pushed you on, suppressing the agony to a numbing static in the back of your mind. Finally, your slim fingers managed to grab around the sole reason for why you were here, looking through every single rubbish pile in the village streets - a roll of bread.
It was cold and soggy, the rotting juices of the fruits and vegetables had seeped deep inside the roll but it was larger than usual and would keep you full through the night. It didn’t take you long to rip into it with putrid, yet pathetic, greed and hunger for survival.
It was getting late and the suns light rays had already begun to colour the streets and houses with purples and pinks as the sun reached the horizon, ready to set. Yet the streets were still busy as ever. You watched the hundreds of feet walk past you, families, groups of friends, farmers, business owners. Crouching against the wall of one of the buildings, its rough, rocky structure protruding into your back, you watched the people walk past you, dust off the floors kicking up and into your face. You could feel their eyes on you as you brushed your fingers through your matted hair. Their stares burning holes into your dirty skin and thin, ripped clothes.
It didnt matter to you though. It bothered you at first, sure, but you didn’t care what these people thought of you, that they saw you as a stain on their perfect little village or some street rat that stole their spoilt food when they weren’t looking. You saw how mothers dragged their kids away by their sleeves whenever one of them stopped and looked at you for a second too long or got a step too close. You pretended it didn’t hurt you, you had to, in order to survive.
A harsh smell, that burnt your nostrils, braught you back from your wistful daydream. You tried to blink the dust out of your eyes as they adjusted to their surroundings, the once bright streets now getting dimmer and dimmer with grey smoke. It wasn’t long before your ears were hit with screams, of children and adults alike, and the once peaceful streets were now filled with a stampede as people urged to run.
Eyes wide and ears sharp, you stood up, straightening your back and coughing as you did so, looking around for the possible cause of the commotion that had destroyed the peaceful afternoon. Your legs forced you to move as the people became more and more chaotic, pushing you around and against the walls as you attempted to make your way to the source. The miasma of malevolence and pure bloodlust hit you like a brick, the sick and nausea already building up in your throat. But you pushed on towards it. Something was screaming at you to keep going. Whether that was your own arrogance and stupidity or something deeper, more important you would find out sooner or later.
People’s screams only grew louder, blending in with one another into a continuous stream of fear and terror as you drew closer. Your heart pounding in your ears by the time you reached what looked like the core of it all. A fire. The smoke soread and lapped itself around the roofs of the building and down the roads, trapping the people in them like an endless, deadly maze. You expected to smell ash or smoke but instead your nose was hit with a smell of rotting, burning flesh so pungent you had to swallow your puke back down your throat. Noises of the cracking fire, piercing cries of the victims and tearing or bones and flesh filled your ears, eyes darting from side to side and until you had found what you didn’t know you were looking for.
A large, muscle figure was walking out of the flames, miles away yet still somehow towering over you. The flames lapped around his neck, body and between his four arms. One of them gripping a form of a woman, holding her by the hair as her lifeless body was dragged across the floor, carrying the fire with her. Another hand reached for her, grabbed the rest of her body, twisted it, ripping her head clean off with unnerving ease.
He didn’t stop.
He didn’t falter.
Just threw her to the side, the flames engulfing her within seconds. The casualty, unbotheredness of it all, as if it was second nature to him, sent shivers down your spine that paralysed you in place. You’ve seen your fair share of distress but as you watched people fall down, split in half, if not torn to shreds as the monster walked, no, strolled down the road, all you could do was just hope to blend in and be left unnoticed. Your breathing becoming a fast wheeze in your throat as your heart only pounded faster and faster and the rotting smoke filled your lungs.
The abomination approched you slowly and steadily. His crimson eyes staring into the distance, right through you, as if already having found his next target. Your breath hitched as he walked past you, mere centimetres away. You felt the weight of his aura crushing over you, pushing onto your shoulders as if drilling you into the ground. The stench of bloodlust and greed filled your nostrils, his ambition, desire to kill burning your lungs.
Yet, beneath all that you felt something else.
His power.
His strength.
It was radiating off of him.
Those seconds that he had strolled past you felt like an eternity, as if simply being near him was a fight of its own. A sense of relief washed over you as he disappeared, yet it was enough to ignite something inside you. You could feel it burning in your soul, probably a fraction of the same ambition, desire and want for more that you felt, pressing down on you just moments ago. Turning your head to stare at his, now fading, figure you couldn’t help but want to follow, to seek that power, to seek the change you’ve been looking for for so long. This was your chance and you weren’t about to miss it.
Before you could completely understand what you were doing, your legs were moving. Following the trail if miasma and terror down the burning roads, now empty and deserted. The screams and cries had now become faint, instead deathly silence filled the air. Yet it didn’t matter to you, your mind and soul were focused on one thing and one thing only - him. You needed to find him, to follow him and to learn from him. The terror had long passed by, replaced by a sense of excitement that was probably more of a foolish excuse for your egotistical actions.
Yet you didn’t care.
After a lifetime of being a stain, a rat, a nuisance, you deserved more and you wanted more, this was your chance to be something. As you approached the edge of the village, where the fire had already begun to die down, you just saw his dark figure disappear into the thick of the forest ahead.
This was your chance.
Stepping out of the village grounds and into the forrest, following him. There was no turning back now.