Of Greed & Hunger (Tommyinnit)

Chapter 1

They had only one exception to this code.

Tommy knew it well, many nights spent sitting along the fire with music and jars of arak lulling their senses until they became completely captivated by the tale. The smoke in the air would twist and twirl as one of the elders spoke, small glowing embers floating up into the sky.

The legend of the Mammon.

Creatures of hell that roamed the empty desert plains surrounding them, they were said to be something that escaped from one of the spirit realms. Massive human-like forms that were faster and stronger than anything they could fight against, no one has seen one up close and live to tell the tale. The worst thing about these elusive monsters were that they ate human meat, they tore into flesh like sand and snapped bones beneath their teeth easily.

Many thought them only myths, but the people of the village knew better, having lived for centuries with the hulking beasts right in their backyard.

This meant they also knew how to survive them or keep them pleased at the very least. It was simple in hindsight for creatures that lived in hunger and greed; keep them fed. The fact that they lived on a strictly human diet was easily overcome.

The village practised the art of human sacrifice.

Every few years when the screams of the dead would come closer and sheep would start to go missing, the elders knew it was time. They held a meeting under the cover of darkness and weighed the options of who to send.

The person who was the most disposable, would cause the least amount of grief among their people. The person they could knowingly send to their death and go on living with a clear conscious.

That person was Tommy.

From the day he was born, he had been considered unlucky. His mother having slept with an already married man and died at childbirth, leaving him a bastard orphan among his people. They weren’t ever intentionally cruel to him, but he knew they held no fondness in their hearts either.

Everything he touched seemed to fall apart, it started with the farms that withered away when he helped plough them. Then the family he use to stay with all came down with red fever and passed away in their sleep. Even the dog he found injured and nursed back to health went rabid, frothing at the mouth and with madness in its eyes it killed one of the women.

They were afraid, no one wanting to go near him in fear of what happened to those who did. Tubbo had eventually convinced his father to let Tommy sleep in their barn. He had given in reluctantly if only to keep his son happy. They put him in charge of the jobs no one wanted, clearing stables, washing urinary pots, or going out to search for rocks that contained metal for the welders. Despite all of this Tommy didn’t resent them, he understood their reasoning, even if it hurt.

Somehow, he hadn’t considered the possibility of becoming a sacrifice.

He was sure someone had slipped something into his water pouch because when he woke up, he was already bound, sitting in a cramped space with his head between his knees. They had travelled far away from the settlement with him being dragged along in a wooden crate on a camel’s back. At first he was hysterical but once time had passed the reality of the situation set in. The crate had a small hole on the left side that he could peer out of, but he hadn’t bothered, he knew where they were going.