"It's probably some breed of jumani." Grengor and I were out in the wild once again, I had of course over my five years of employment learned a thing or two about hunting really small easy to kill monsters (Grengor's toughest job is staying sober), a Jumani in this case is a small ape like creature that hunts solo, at most they kill local domestic animals, but recently some townsfolk had gone missing and Grengor the brave and wise had decided this was his moment to show how grand a hunter he was.
"Don't remember asking your opinion boy." His usual happy go lucky response. Grengor had let me carry more of the stuff as time had gone on (I say let more like forced), on this particular trip he'd left Buddy back at the stable because he didn't want him in the way and getting killed (if that doesn't tell you where I sat on the "Do I care about this kid or not scale" nothing would). Most of it was his usual useless crap, nets, random baits, but I did have one of his swords, a large bone bladed beast that had to weigh about a third of what I did (and while I had bulked up since I had become his go to servant, that was still quite the weight), he never used the damn thing due to its size and weight, but I had to lug it along everytime (I swear it was just some kind of toughening up bs he liked to do, once he had me carry his supplies to the top of a hill only to realize it was the wrong hill).
"Sorry sir I'll make sure to ask for permission to make an observation." That got a smack, I'd taken to being more of a smart ass in the intervening years (Grengor had proven to me he was a useless drunk and any respect I showed was wasted, so I took his physical violence as a sign my mockery had hurt his shallow ego). We had gone further then normal this time, I think this is as far as I'd been from Regor in the five years since we'd arrived. He had been "stalking" (read following a really obvious blood trail) the beast for a couple days, its last kill had been one of a traveling merchants slave girls, her rather large midsection had been removed viciously (I tried to point out that maybe we should call one of the actual hunter guilds when I had seen it, but Grengor had hit me at the suggestion saying no gang of idiots could match his skill). My suggestion of it being a Jumani was more about my own fear of what could do the damage to a person, then any actual belief it was one of the small apes. Grengor shushed me and we slowed our pace, we were coming up on a rather large amount of sound for a small creature (again I kept hoping it was just a really loud small thing). Up ahead there was a rather large cave/hole that looked recently dug, the blood trail went inside of it. The "cave" was about nine feet wide and appeared to go down at an angle, no beast I'd ever seen dug a hole in the ground, let alone quite so large of one.
"I vote we wait it out, eventually its got to come out and then we got it!" It was a sound plan, which meant Grengor would not use it.
"Drop your stuff, take a torch and get that thing out here." Of course why wait for a tactical advantage and surprise attack when you can just send in your slave to do that for you.
"Can I at least bring a weapon?"
"No, don't want you trying to be a hero and stealing my glory." Grengor ladies and gentleman, if he wasn't already long dead I'd kill him! I put my considerable pack down and thought for a moment to grab that long heavy useless sword, but decided he wouldn't let me take it and its not like I could hide it. I snatched a torch out and made a fake showing of trying to ignite it with rocks before just using magic (look I'm no trail scout or any such nonesense, I have an easy way to light things and I use it). With a final look at Grengor for a "Really please sir can't we just wait out here?" I went into the cave/hole. The blood was more plentiful inside and coated the walls as it went. Whatever it had drug in here was a large bleeder, with each step I felt my confidence shaking more and more. The noise got closer as the entrance light faded behind me, I really felt disarmed underneath the earth down there. The cave took a turn to the left and I could see what looked like a gnawed off arm sitting there pointing back the way I came (as if the person that had lost it attempted to leave something behind to find his way back out). As I turned the corner I saw the creature.
The first thing that jumped out to me was red it was, at first I thought it might have been natural skin tone until I saw the bodies it was happily gnawing away at and figured that the red was not its natural color. The body was thick armor plates, with what appeared to be three legs (in a triangle foundation two in the front one in the rear to anchor it). I couldn't see its face but from the carnage and the crunching I figured lots of ugly teeth. Size wise it was about the size of large bull, but clearly more dangerous. I was tempted to just run away (well I was supposed to run away, but was tempted to do so before getting the beasts attention), but like all things in my life I was too stupid not to do the really stupid thing.
"Hey ugly come catch me!" I didn't turn and see if it was following, I could feel the rapid thumping coming from behind me. I figured I wasn't going to make it and I'd die all alone down there under the earth (I'm sure Grengor wouldn't even bother to tell anyone I did die). But my fast feet, or perhaps just pity from the whatever the hell it was caused me to fly out of that cave like no man has ever run before (I'd say since, but I've escaped more than my fair share of evil since then). I didn't even see Grengor when I exited, I figured maybe he was waiting or hiding nearby, I turned to look at the beast and could see it was just about on me. Figuring my awesome boss had gotten drunk or just left me anyway I made peace with my makers (read screamed like a little girl startled in the dark). Oddly that seemed to stop the beast for a half second, and then Grengor got his lazy ass in gear. He emerged and shouted at the creature, and then shouted again in utter surprise at what the damn thing was. I couldn't make out what he screamed, but the end result was fleeing in the other direction as fast as he could while shedding armor to allow for speed. Now in a sane world the beast would have chased down and eaten Grengor and I could have escaped, unfortunately I was apparently the more appetizing snack as instead of chasing Grengor, it once again turned toward me.
So there I was standing opposite a large beast I'd seen eating people and seen the after effect of what it had done to people. By all accounts I should have run. Any other day I probably would have, but I had hate on my side. Five years of walled up hate, from what Grengor had done to me, had let happen to me, and then in a moment that would symoblize the relationship had left me to die. All I had was my torch and the hate, but when you're a young pyromancer with no one around to see you, you do something funny, you let loose. The bull creature indeed had a vicious mouth, a double row of jaws that clacked together when it turned to stare me down. I could make out a piece of its last victim hanging inside. With the hate raging inside and a "Screw it I'm going to die" within me I called up all the flame I could muster, using the torch as a focal point I unleashed the attack. At first I saw nothing, I thought all my years of hoping I was stronger, that one day I would show them, was all bluster, and then I felt the air get sucked out of my lungs, the torch flared a massive fire ball three times the bull creature and became a wall of flame the scorched the very ground in front of me for several feet. The bull creature tried to scream, but it was enveloped in the flame and its cries fell silent as the unnatural fire burned it every which way. I was about to cheer at my own ability when a shooting pain stabbed me in the stomach, it arced through me like a lightning bolt, as I hit the ground I worried the creature had some kind of poison in death that I was now covered in and would slowly die to. With gasping breath I hoped someone would at least cheer the last moment of Trezlan should they come across the scene.
I know now that was the corruption, that the pain was it spreading across my insides for using too much power too quickly, honestly its amazing I survived such a stupid maneuver, and survived with my sanity. Years later I would discover the blackness that I had damaged myself with. Back then however I awoke hours later, the creature was still very dead, the pain was just a dull buzzing in my ears. I managed to get to my feet, and stumbled over to the stuff Grengor had me drop before I went into the tunnel. I took up the large bone sword with a look I'm sure that screamed murder and set out to find my former employer and notify him of my desire to no longer be his servant. Thankfully he had left me a trail of armor to track down. With a smile on my face I stalked off in the dark, my "hunt" was on.
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