Epdemies looked around him in despair. An expression of muted horror played upon his features. He shook his dusty mane and tale as if to dislodge the abomination before him. Across the arid plain, he heard a cry. He stiffened and snorted, then relaxed as it became clear that it was nothing more than the lamenting of the bereaved. Stretched out before him, was a seemingly endless sea of corpses. Carrion birds flew wheeling and crying though the stagnant air that was heavy with the bitter stench of decaying flesh.
His rider, Ejiavstae, clicked his tongue and whistled through broken teeth.
“Ep come, we must see if we can be of use to the poor grieving wretches.” He said with all the vigor he could muster under the dire circumstances. To Epdemise, this seemed almost vulgar and disrespectful to the spirits of the nearby dead.
“Quiet for fear that our petty complaint might be acknowledged.”
“Then let us tarry no longer.”
“Cretin! Oaf! Speak not of the dead as one so rash as your self. Deed with caution in their presence.”
Ejiavstae held his tongue and waited for Epdemies’s sentence to trail in to oblivion. Now was not the time for a blow to be passed at their friendship, fragile as it was. He could not find offence in the words of the horse, nor the empathy to apologise for his ‘disrespect’. Epdemies was of the imperium. Pure bread and highest rank, he had known nothing of suffering. Living on oats and growing fat with ignorance at the fall of the world around him, it had drained away the last of his pride to bear witness to the destruction of the lands outside the city walls, where the floors were paved with marble not cobbles soaked in grime. He had walked over the bones of the slaves that built the city they could never come to appreciate. Hidden inside every perfect diamond was a life of the child lost to mine it. To Ejiavstae himself, suffering was not unknown. In the small farming village where he had lived out his childhood, they often bore the tolls of being a rebel village of both Imperium and the Horror. A tax of quite a substantial sum was required to stop Imperium flattening their tiny spark of rebellion. Half of all the money made by selling the grain of every family in the village was taken. This was no meagre amount for a village dependant on its agriculture but some how, everyone got passed it each year. It was the Horror’s payment that bared a more significant sacrifice. The blood of a child was to splatter the ground with the rise of every full moon. The gore could not be cleared as a reminder to never cross the path of the horror and expect to live unscathed. Driven to torment, the aggrieved villagers fought back. Kaa and his army were the only things that had spared them from a violent end. They crushed the Horror’s troops and forced Imperium to become part of a shallow truce. Kaa had told them to remember who the real enemy was… Ejiavstae owed his life to Kaa, it was a dept that he could only hope to repay by giving his service to the army. So he and his brother Farrez donned their armour and joined the fight for peace.
Ejiavstae sighed and glanced at his companion. Epdemise had not joined the army out of his own good will. Rather, he had been selected and press ganged into fighting by the Imperium. To give him his due, Epdemise never complained for his situation. He never boasted, he never showed any contempt for his rider being of a poor village. At first they had ignored each other as well as could be but soon Ejiavstae’s nature got the better of him and he began to share words and jests with his mount. Eventually Epdemise gave in. He stopped ignoring his rider and began to share pleasantries. His sulky demeanour faded somewhat though never left completely. Ejiavstae found his company amiable to some extent for he was well educated and a fine speaker though he sadly didn’t seem to know when to stop, and when told to ‘shut up’ he replied by becoming dour and morose. Their friendship was small, undoubtedly, but it was still there.
Ejiav gave a last sigh and Epdemise snorted before they picked their way down the side of a sandy embankment. They past a mountain of corpses that reached far over Ejiiv’s head even on horseback. The horizon was bathed in the grim light of the smouldering town they had been sent to save. It was a pyre for the many trapped at the heart of the inferno. Slowly burning, imprisoned inside the very stone walls they used as defence. Ejiav wrinkled his nose at the atrocity of the masicar. He felt Epdemise tremble. They had come too late.
Behind them three squadrons of foot soldiers followed. Each and every man struck dumb. Gradually they began to gather their wits. Their whispers grew to a babble of nervous voices then a torrent… The nearest of the black cloaked mourners lifted her sorrow shrouded face. Anger ignited her eyes to two points of fire. Ejiav pulled at the reins and Epdemise turned and cantered back up the slope to the squadrons.
“Quiet, blast you!” Ejiav hissed. Epdemise reared to emphasise his command. “We have come here to help these people not worsen their loss by showing your contempt! Men for blast ye, show your respect and stay silent!”
Chastised, many of the men bowed their heads in shame. A few however held their heads proud. Ejiav flicked his reins and together, horse and rider turned away from faces filled with scorn. They had made no effort to hide their distaste for their commander, Ejiav thought with disappointment. Many of the troops under his command were imperium troops and hardened with loathing against Kaa and any of his servants. So far no trouble had been caused, but it was only a matter of time…
Far from satisfied that they would remain silent, Ejiav called to Epdemise to turn. He raised his head to the grievers and blinked with shock. Krott! These were no grievers! Their bowed forms were not bent in sorrow, they were concealing their true purpose. Not mourning, feasting! Seemingly sensing his gaze, the nearest to him raised its head. Dripping flesh was held between its jaws, its eyes glazed with bloodlust. Ejiav guessed its intention in an instant.
“ON GUARD! Shield yourselves, CORPSE WAIF!”
If it hadn’t been fat and slow after feasting, none of the soldiers would have survived. As it was, Ejiav heard a bump as several bodies of the men behind him fell to the ground. Dead. Killed by fear.
Corpse waifs have the power to mentally drill into the minds of their victims, prying over deepest fears and casting shadows across the hearts of their prey til nothing is known but darkness and the host dies. They suck out dreams and aspirations to replace them with pain and suffering. Rotten to the core, evil as they come and just as deadly, corpse waifs are but one foe to face on the battle field.
The air around the ‘mourners’ veiled and shifted til their bodies merged to form one eternity. Ejiav couldn’t decide if it was more like liquid or smoke, but either way it seemed to have no fixed form. It was as if some giant had stained the air black or had cast a shadow suspended in the zephyr. For the most part it was translucent but at its core, the air was pulled tighter, thicker, darker to a space slightly larger than a man’s head. Poised, motionless inside the void, hung a lower jaw. The mandible was small, too small for a grown human, big enough for a child… Ejiav spat to try and clear the bile that had risen to his throat. The men behind him whimpered in fear and in loss, as many would have lost friends. It would be unlikely that any of them had cast eyes upon a corpse waif before and certainly not fought one else they would have stayed silent… They were doomed. The corpse waif heard their noise and began to move. It drifted as a mist of death towards Ejiav.
So this is it. He thought grimly, shuddering in fear. To his surprise, Epdemise did not move a whisker, not even flinch as the corpse waif drew near. It ignored Ejiav completely. Epdemise raised his head so he was facing the abomination.
“Boo!” He snorted.
The reaction of the corpse waif was instantaneous and surprising. It flinched and backed away shrieking before rushing with hurricane speed at the unsuspecting soldiers. It caught one before the wretched man had the chance to flee. Ejiav didn’t know the man well but it sent shivers of horror up his spine to watch as all that he was to be drained away, leaving behind a steaming corpse, stripped to the bone. The remaining soldiers ran in all directions but the corpse waif simply split and every soldier had a pursuer. Ejiav watched til their screams faded and tears pricked his eyes. He turned away. He had come close to death before, but not that close! He let out the sigh he hadn’t known he’d been holding.
“We have to go.” Said Epdemise simply, his voice devoid of emotion.
“How did you…”
“No talk! We have to go now before it comes back.”
“Where to?”
“Anywhere damn it!”
Epdemise explained as they walked.
“’round five years back or so we had one at Naustya-Pae. After that any folk from there were prepared it if it came back.”
“You’re from Naustya-Pae?”
“No but it’s not far from my birth place.”
“Where’s that?”
“Ley-Corla.”
“Ah there. Pretty place that isn’t it?”
“Wouldn’t know. Haven’t been their since I was too young to remember.”
“Ah. Would you go back?”
“Can’t. It is part of the Stollaral treaty.”
“Oh I see.” Ejiav sighed and gave Epdemise a gently pat. The Stollaral treaty prohibits all magical beings or users to enter. Being a ‘talking animal’ definitely came under the restrictions.
They walked in an awkward silence after that.
Dusk drew close. The heat and flies abated, promising to be back when morning rose. They had been walking for many hours and had seen no sign of people other than the dead lying on the great plane. Hunger and thirst prompted Ejiav to speak.
“Where are we going?”
Epdemise didn’t answer other than to slow to a halt.
“We need to get back. Kaa will be wondering what…” But he didn’t finish. It had been too dark to see it at first but a few meters in front of them, there stood a figure. Epdemise trembled beneath him and backed away a few paces. In the moonlight Ejiav could tell by its broad form that it was a man. Ejiiav called out in to the darkness.
“Hello?” When the figure remained still, he drew his sword and clumsily, for he had been riding for many hours, dismounted.
“Don’t. Please don’t! Let’s just be away from here. Please. Something isn’t right. We have to leave…”
Ejiav hesitated and stroked Epdemise in an attempt to calm his mount.
Epdemise would have none of it. He reeled in horror, turning circles, weeling, braying, crying out at the unnatural.
“Must go. Leave this fateful place. Can’t stay, must go!” Epdemise poured the blood soak ground with his hoof.
“Pull yourself to sense!” Ejiav turned away raising his sword and pointing it in front of him, not as a threat but merely as a warning for the man he was about to face. The man did not respond other than to let an estranged moan escape his lips. Ejiav heard Epdemise gasp behind him.
As he moved forward, Ejiav became aware of something strange, something that no matter how hard he tried, he could not put a finger upon what it was. It left him at a loss. The closer he moved towards the man, the stronger his oppression grew. It took him until he was only a few paces away to realise that he had not been moving by his free will alone. Some unknown force was worming its way into the very fibres of his being, drawing him towards his doom. He knew from the fear that clutched at his chest that this man, this being would end his life unless he could stop it…
“Help me Epdemise!”
“Cant… move, I…”
Ejiav fought to escape but to no avail, for the monster before him had snared his mind upon a hook and was reeling him in. Closer… Closer…
A scream split the night apart. The invisible bonds fell away. No longer bound to his fate, Ejiavstae’s head whipped round to find his savoir. A blow from behind sent him sprawling to the ground, his head ringing. A sword sliced the air where a mere second before, he had been standing. Wasting no time, he reached for his own sword that he had dropped after falling. He whipped it up through the air to parry a volley of blows sent by his assailant. Sparks flew as metal collided. The strikes were coming thick and fast and with his position on the ground, he had little hope of defeating his attacker who’s first clumsy thrusts now rang with a new found precision that seemed to only get better. If he could not kill the man soon, Ejiav would quickly become overwhelmed. He twisted his body and rolled in to a crouch. Seeing off multiple strikes, he rose to his feet. His adversary paused for a moment and once again Ejiav felt that terrible unseen force, luring him to his grave. Instead of walking forward, he charged and thrust his sword through his enemy’s unprotected chest.
A series of rasping shrieks came from the mans mouth. It took Ejiav several seconds to recognise it as laughter. He watched in horror as the man grasped hold of the pummel of his sword and, with a sickening splattering and cracking sound, he pulled it free of his body. Now he had two swords. With one held in each hand he swung them round and round with deadly intent. Ejiav knew with mounting fear that this man was a festerling not just from his injuries that would have killed any mortal in an instant or from the terrible stench on decay that filled the air around him, no. It was his strength and fearless drive that secured Ejiav’s theories to knowledge. The swords that swung in each of his arms were so long and heavy that it would have been hard for any normal man to lift them let alone strike blow after blow with deadly precision.
Ejiav was out matched and he knew it. Soon he would be cut down by the terrible force he was fighting and there was nothing he could do to save himself. Resigning to his fate, he allowed his shoulders to slump somewhat and his head to droop, but not sow low that he missed the knife. He heard it at first, whizzing through the air mere inches off his head, so close that he felt its wind on his ear as it passed by. Then he saw it clout the festerling between the eyes and he heard the crunch it made on impact. This time the creature did fall, its body buckling and curling up the best it could within the chain mail it wore.
“Hurry!” A voice cried behind him. When he spun round he saw two things. Firstly was Epdemise, human formed and still poised to throw. It was from him the knife had come but clearly not the voice for that had been female. Then, he saw what he took at the distance to be a woman, running down a nearby slope towards him. She stopped a little way off, seemingly reluctant to come closer but yet again her voice reached him.
“Quick! No time to waste hurry. It will not be long before the thing you think you’ve slain will be back and ready to bite you. You can flee but if you do many may suffer at its hand or you can…”
“Tell me what I have to do to kill it.” Ejiav was surprised by how calm his voice had sounded after being so close to death.”
In the passing of ten minuets, a small fire was burning nicely, fuelled by the two hands Ejiav had been made to remove and burn from the corpse. He had been briefly informed by Epdemise, horse formed once more, that it was in fact the woman that had screamed to distract him from death, and so Ejiav was in her dept as well as Epdemise who he still hadn’t finished thanking.
“Leave it Ji, if you really want to thank me, then rid the memory from my mind or cease to remind me off it.” He paused.
“So basically ‘shut up’ then?”
“Mmm.”
Ejiav had tried to show his gratitude to the woman but she just waved away his praise and continued to stare into the fire, or at least he assumed she did so for a black strip of cloth hid her face from view. It reminded him painfully of the corpse waif’s but he knew better than to comment. She had not spoken since he had set alight the hands whose blackened fingers curled to firsts as they burnt. A silence grew, broken only as Epdemise paused to whisper.
“She’s not right.”
He hushed his horse with a frown but he could not deny the words. Finally, when polite etiquette lapsed into awkwardness, Ejiav stoked the fire one more time before rising and hurling the stick he had used in to the nearby foliage. He turned to the woman.
“We’re leaving now. There is only so long we can stay in this fateful place. I’m sure there are many other things a’lurking in the murk that would by quite happy to tear me to pieces. So we leave but you saved my life and if that was all you cared for then you may have left by now. We could take you with us but… Pardon me for asking m’lady, but you want something don’t y’?”
“Yes. Something that once you know what I am, you will be glad to give.”
She raised her hands to her veil and, with trembling fingers, she revealed her face. The moon came out from behind the clouds and pale beams of light revealed the truth. It was then that Epdemise noticed the smell…
He shrieked as Ejiav had never heard before. Rearing and shifting shape as he did so but so frightened that his shape was neither man nor horse but some where in between. He could still wield a knife and drew a long dagger from his pouch, the same knife that had struck the other festerling’s skull…
“You one of… them?” Said Ejiav, more surprised that anything else. Behind him, Epdemise was braying and cursing in the tongue of man and horse.
“Wretch! Abomination! Soul destroying wrath seeking PARACITE! We will cut you down oh yes we will! Like you would have killed us, MURDERED us in our SLEEP! Well no longer!” And with that he ran forward, grasping the thing be the hair as he drew the sword to its neck.
“STOP!” With both hands, Ejiav grabbed and pulled Epdemise back and threw him to the ground where he placed one boot on his stomach. The horse-man’s eyes rolled back into his head as he fainted dead away.
He raised a sword of his own to the Festerling’s midriff and held it poised around a foot from striking.
“You’re one of them.” He repeated, but this time it was a statement, not a question. “You’re like him?” This time it was a question and he indicated to the fire with his sword before bringing it back to it.
“Yes and no.”
“What do you mean?”
“I am like him as we both are yet to taste blood, we are both made to kill not to change, so no festerling would be created by strike, only death and…”-
“Wait! You haven’t killed anyone?”
“Well, he has been newly turned and I… Well... When you do what I wish then that toll shall never rise.”
“What do you want that I will give?”
“Death.”
“Death?” He replied, quite taken aback by the turn of events.
“While the fire is still hot. You could have me burning before your friend wakes. Isn’t that what you want?”
“I… why would you…?”
“Why would I want to die?”
Ejiav couldn’t speak for shock and so he just nodded.
“Wouldn’t you if you were… This?” She indicated to herself. “Wouldn’t you long for death if every second in life was filled with the torment and disgust that you were this?!”
“So you’re… you are not festerling…”
“Oh no I am festerling alright; there is part of me that craves for your blood even as we speak. Have you any idea how loud you heart beat is when we are so so hungry…?” She shrieked in alarm before continuing hurriedly before he had a chance to strike.
“I… I’m sorry! I did not mean that! It meant that. My other… Well my head is crowded. I’m sorry…”
“Is the human you once were fighting inside you? Is she there?”
“No.”
“Did she break you before she… Died is that why you are like…”
“No far from it. She was vain and conceited and wished for things she could not have. She did not love the world, and in turn, was not loved by it. Her conscience went out like a light. It must have been because I was weak not that she was strong.”
“So you do not lust to kill?”
“No I hate it.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t, for I have nothing I believe worth swearing for.”
“Swear by every festerling on this planet.”
“Gladly for I care for none.”
“Swear by your death.”
“Ah! Now you have me! Very well… I swear. I swear that I do not wish to kill, I loath death bringers, I loath my origins, but beware, I swear that there is a part of me that however weak, still fills my heart with darkness and if it took over, It would fight to its death.”
Ejiav bowed his head and removed his sword, hurling it across the dirt with disgust. He knew right then that he would not kill this strange creature…
“What are you doing? I kept up my side of the bargain…”
“And I made no other. There would have been a time when I would gladly swing my sword to cut you down but today I have seen so much death, more than enough to curdle my blood. I would feel sick at heart to end another life.”
“Death would be a kindness, a mercy.”
“Maybe so but it is one I cannot give… my previous offer still stands. You can come with us, or you can stay…”
“There’s nothing for me here…”
“Good. That’s settled then. I am glad to leave; this place gives me the creeps…” He shuddered and rubbed his arms in an attempt to bring back some warmth to his body for the fire had died down to cinders.
“No it is not settled.”
“Oh?”
“I mean… How would you take me back…. Your friend will never carry me nor should he if it is not what he wants.”
Ejiav smiled grimly. He produced a glass flask from a bag round his neck.
“When he wakes up, he will remember nothing and see you as nothing more than a traveller we are taking back to the army.”
“You would drug your friend for a monster?”
“Despicable isn’t it? Now come on before we freeze.” He bent over Epdemise just as the horse was beginning to stir. He tipped a few drops of the liquid into the Horse-man’s parted lips. He mumbled for a few seconds then fell silent as he opened his eyes.
“Where is it?” He asked, his eyes bleary and his voice raw as he pulled himself to his knees.
“Who?”
“The…” He appeared puzzled for a few moments before shrugging, fully human now in form.
“No I can’t remember.”
“You were having a nice dream.”
“More of a nightmare really.”
“Well up you get sleepy bones.”
“Why didn’t you wake me before?”
“What? And have you moaning at me all the way back.”
Epdemise grunted and his form shifted back in to a horse. He rose to his feet, stretching his aching muscles.
“Who’s this then?” He asked, indicating to the festering with a swing of his head.
“Oh just a fellow traveller…” Ejiav mumbled, his answer vague upon realising that he had not caught her-Its name and was not sure if she even had one…
“And I suppose you invited her along to join our crusade? No don’t answer that I can see by your face I’m right. Guilty as sin you are. Just remember you ain’t the one carrying the extra load.”
Ejiav held up his hands in mock submission even as a grin spread over his face.
“What?”
“Your halo slipped that’s all…”
“My halo?”
“Well more your accent. Haughty bugger as always you are, just not quite as well spoken.” To Epdemise’s look of confusion he continued. “You’re sounding like me.”
“Ugh how abominable! End your tarry and let us be upon the road.”
Ejiav laughed. “You ain’t wrong there, its freezing. I for one won’t be sorry to leave.”
“Well then you should grow fir!”
“Oh! Let us be off!”
Epdemise shook the condensing mist off his golden brown hide, his black mane invisible in the darkness. Ejiav mounted, and when he was in position, with one hand he pulled the festerling up beside him. Though he had tried to hide it, he still shivered on contact with the monster. It sensed it too.
“I can still leave if that is what you w…”
“No, no your fine I… I’m cold that’s all” They both knew he was lying.
“All present and correct? Then away we go!”
As Epdemise fell in to a gallop, the festerling had to wrap her arms around Ejiav’s middle to keep from falling off. He flinched and stiffened in the saddle but other wise didn’t react although bile was tempting his mouth to gag…
Through her veil Dhoulren watched as the last embers of the dying fire faded in to the night. She turned to the East where the first stars twinkled, feeling nothing but relief for the life she was about to leave. Her second existence as a festerling was about to begin…