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The Hunter’s Duty
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My holy hunter,
You shall be my light in the dark,
My sacred blade,
My sword and shield.
Thou shalt protect the weak,
Destroyest the beasts that corrupteth this land,
Burneth out the darkness
And punish evil without mercy.
Now, go thou and cleanse the dark to bring the light.
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CHAPTER ONE
AMADEUS
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The moon shone and called out to the beasts of the night.
A young girl named Mira frantically ran down a city street. Her bare feet pattering on the stone floor and splashing in small puddles, she ran furiously down the moonlit road. She could hear the beasts behind her; snarling, growling, hungry for flesh and thirsty for blood. With every stride she ran, she could almost feel their breath on her neck. Every passing shadow seemed to be a monster in her eyes, every alley held different terrors.
Mira ran, too terrified to look back. She screamed,
“Help! Somebody!” Tears of terror ran down her face and blurred her vision but still she ran. Her small legs and lungs burned but she refused to stop, her breath turning to mist in the cold night air.
She ran and ran, until she turned down an alleyway and almost ran into a wooden door. She twisted the handle but the door remained shut. She banged on the door with her little fists, but to no avail. She pummelled the door until she thought her hands would break, but her arms lacked the strength to do any damage. She howled in frustration and fear,
“No!” Mira sobbed. Then she turned around and she saw them, the beasts. Brought to light by the full moon, they appeared to be mere shadows darting down the alleyway. Their glowing purple eyes, their foaming mouths and sharp jagged teeth. They bolted towards her, eager for their feast.
Mira screamed and fell to the ground, her back towards the door. She waited for the beasts to take her life.
Then, like a blur, a shadow darted between Mira and the beasts. There was a blinding orange light that heated Mira’s face and eyes. For a brief second, she felt like she was looking at the sun. She closed her eyes tightly to avoid going blind. There were slashing and splattering sounds, then silence. A quiet tap tap tap broke the silence and moved towards her. Mira opened her eyes and looked down. In the firelight, she saw a pair of blood-soaked boots. She turned her head upwards and saw a hooded figure wearing a silver mask with the image of a wide smile with pointed teeth engraved on it. The person stood tall and menacing before her, their stature erect. The person was holding a whip in their right hand, the whip blazed and swirled with orange and white fire. In the other hand, they held a blood-soaked sword. The mysterious figure crouched down before the girl, at eye level and removed their mask. Illuminated by fire from the whip, the girl saw the face of a man. His face held little emotion, but there was something in the man’s glowing eyes that told the girl this man was dangerous. He had black hair which was tied behind his head and his eyes blazed brightly, like coals from a fire.
The man extinguished his whip and hooked it onto his belt. He held out a gloved hand towards the young girl.217Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsKWz5MIm0R
“Come,” he commanded, his voice gentle, but full of authority and determination.
Mira hesitantly took his hand and they began walking down the corridor. The man stopped before the masticated corpse of one of the beasts, took a steel syringe out of a small sack on his waist and inserted it into the monster’s hairy neck. The neck no longer had a head attached to it.
“Who are you?” Mira asked quietly.
The man put the syringe back into the sack and picked the girl up in his left arm, balancing her on his hip. His right hand held his bloody sword. His arms were large and full of strength, but he held her gently. He smelled of leather and blood.
“Amadeus,” The man replied.217Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fUJQjN2nS
“Where are we going?”
“To the temple.”
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Amadeus carried the young girl through the city of Miganya. He carried Mira through the many markets of the city. The city streets were empty now, nobody dared to leave their houses on moonlit nights. The entire city was covered in a permanent layer of filth due to the fact that there was nobody willing to clean it. Miganya had no lord, so the citizens tended to do as they pleased.
Miganya was built on a large slope and organized in three circular shapes. Beginning at the apex of the slope, there was the temple of Damascha, as well as some inns and shops. This was the cleanest part of the city. As the city sloped downhill and outwards, it got dirtier. The people were less friendly, manure and other sorts of waste were scattered about the streets, there were even all sorts of dangerous monsters lurking throughout the lower parts. There was the inner circle, the middle circle and the outer circle, each one containing many people and beasts alike.
Mira gazed up at Amadeus.
“What are you? Why did you help me?”
“I am a hunter. It is my duty”
Amadeus approached the temple and climbed the long staircase that led to the doors. The steps were littered with decaying corpses of beasts that were foolish enough to attempt entry. The temple had spells and blessings surrounding it that would repel beasts and burn the skin off their bones if they got too close. If they had bones to begin with.
He walked through the grand obsidian doors and past the looming pillars. The temple was very dimly lit, with a few torches flickering on every other pillar. Amadeus looked down at the girl in his arms. She was looking around at the ceiling, the pillars, the walls. Each part of the temple seemed to fill her with wonder and fear.
“Where are your parents?” Amadeus asked the girl.
She didn’t respond. Amadeus continued walking until the girl said, with a choked whisper,
“They’re dead.”
The hunter was unsurprised. There were many children in Miganya who had no parents or close relatives that were still alive.
“Where did you live?” Amadeus asked.
The girl paused again before replying,
“The outer circle…” She drifted off,
“Street seventeen.”
Amadeus did not find the girl on street seventeen, or in the outer circle. She was in the middle circle, on street thirty-six, a great distance from the outer circle. She must have been trying to move closer into the city, looking for safety.
“What’s your name?” The hunter asked.
“Mira,” the girl answered
He continued walking until he reached the temple sanctuary. At the front of the sanctuary, past many rows of pews, kneeling in front of an altar covered in candles, there was a woman dressed all in black. She turned around and rose. Upon seeing Amadeus, she walked over to greet him with a smile.
“Welcome home, Amadeus. Was the hunt bountiful?”
“My cleansing is done for the time being.”
She placed her hand on Mira’s head, but Mira turned her face away into the hunter’s coat and gripped his arm tightly.
“Another one?” The woman asked sympathetically.
Amadeus gave a short nod.
“Her name is Mira; her parents were killed by the wolves.”
The woman sighed, “Here, let her down.”
Amedeus gently put Mira down on the ground. She refused to look at the priestess and gripped Amadeus’ leg tightly.
The woman crouched down and put her hand on Mira’s shoulder. Mira still would not turn her head.
“Here, child,” The priestess said gently. “I’m Emily.”
Mira didn’t respond.
“I’m a priestess here in the temple.”
Mira continued to be silent. She kept her face hidden in the hunter’s coat.
“I was hoping you would like to stay here, in the temple. You see, Amadeus takes many children like yourself to the temple to keep them safe. If they don’t have parents, we let them live here.”
Mira looked up at Amadeus with desperation in her eyes.
“Should I?”
“Yes,” Amadeus replied. “You’ll be safe here.”
Mira looked over at Emily.
“What do you say, dear?” Emily asked.
Mira said nothing, but just nodded. She held out her hand and Emily took it.
“Let’s go get you cleaned up.” Emily offered.
Mira certainly did need to be cleaned. If she lived in the outer circle, she would need new clothes as well. She may also be infested with many pests.
As Mira walked away with Emily, she looked back at Amadeus. The dirt on her face was smudged and tears were still dripping down her face, but she didn’t make a sound. She turned back around and continued walking with Emily.
Amadeus walked to the altar at the front of the sanctuary and knelt before a basin filled with Damascha’s holy water. He raised his sword and dipped the blade into the water. The water sizzled and steamed as Damascha’s power cleaned his sword.
“Oh holy mother, purge my sword,” he prayed.
Then he drew his sword back out and stood. The sword was no longer coated with blood, but now gleamed with a bright white light. He sheathed the sword on his back and left the sanctuary.
On the second floor of the temple, there was a small room that served Amadeus as his study. His study was filled with books and monster parts collected over the time he was a hunter. His study was where he kept his weapons as well as anything else of significance. Amadeus set his whip down on the desk, but he always had his sword on his back.
He removed the syringe from a pouch on his waist and picked up a small glass bottle. He filled the bottle with the blood from the syringe and put a cork in the top. He then placed the bottle on a shelf, next to some other bottles of blood he had collected.
Amadeus then smelled a falcon at the window. Before he even saw the bird, he could tell it came from the Alathian capital, The Citadel, it smelled like lavender. It was a welcome change from the sickening scents of Miganya that burned the hunter’s nostrils. Amadeus opened the window and let the bird in, it screeched and turned its back towards him, there was a letter tied to its foot. Amadeus untied the letter and read it.
The letter read:
Our holy hunter, we have need of you.
There are beasts surrounding the citadel and they are becoming problematic. My brothers and I would like to deal with them ourselves, but we are currently busy elsewhere. I also do not want to send out my guards, because I believe the beasts came from The Scar and I do not want my men to become corrupted. I encourage you to remember your duty as a hunter.
Supreme king Niratan
The hunter sighed. The seven kings of Alathia had been constantly begging him for assistance because they were too lazy to take care of their kingdom themselves like real kings. Amadeus flipped the paper over and with a quill he wrote, no. He tied the letter to the falcon’s foot and sent it back outside. As Amadeus closed the window to his study, he heard gentle footsteps coming down the hallway outside, then a quiet tap tap tap on the door.
Amadeus walked to the door and opened it, Mira was standing in the hall in a white gown. She was clean now, and her facial features were clearly visible, her brown hair was no longer matted down on her head by dirt and other filth. Her arms hardly had any flesh on them, like the rest of her body.
Mira spoke,“Thank you for saving me.”
Amadeus welcomed Mira into his study. Mira gazed at the books that lined the walls, rapt in awe.
“Are these all yours?” She asked.
“Every one.”
Mira walked up to one of the shelves and stroked the spine of a book.
“You enjoy reading?” Amadeus asked.
Mira nodded, “My mother taught me.”
Amadeus was surprised, children in the outer circle did not usually know how to read, especially at such a young age.
Amadeus walked over to his desk and opened up one of the drawers.
“Here,” he beckoned Mira over and handed her a large leather-bound book.
“What’s this?” Mira asked.
“It’s a bestiary. It contains all my studies on every beast I’ve hunted.”
Mira opened up the book and looked over a page.
“Did you draw these?” Mira was referring to the sketches of beasts that were on each page.
“Yes.” The hunter answered. “It allows me to keep track of beasts. And that way anyone who finds the book knows what the monsters look like and how to kill them.”
Mira gazed at the book’s pages in wonder.
Mira flipped to another page and turned it towards the hunter. “What’s this? Lockers?”
The hunter looked at the page Mira showed him.
“Laukyrza,” he corrected her. “The most defiled and corrupted monster I have seen as of yet.”
“What are they?”
“It doesn’t matter. You’ll never see one as long as I’m around.”
Mira closed the book and hugged it to her chest. She spoke, not to the hunter, it seemed, but to the floor.
“Thank you. Thank you for saving me.”
Then she rushed forward and hugged the hunter’s leg. The hunter crouched down and looked into her sky-blue eyes.
“It is my duty,” He told her. Then she embraced him and began crying into his shoulder.
She cried until she fell asleep in his arms.
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