Rend Hope (2 page)

             
The ghoul struck out with his left hand, seeking to crush the stranger's skull.  The stranger leapt to his right to avoid the blow.  The undead man wasn't finished and grabbed the stranger by the neck in mid-air with his right hand.  He smiled his ghastly smile and then threw the stranger with all his might to the ground.  Unfortunately, the hooded outsider landed right inside the cloud of poison.  The ghoulish cannibal let out a frustrated grunt.

             
"Damn it! Look what you made me do you little shit! Now I’ve spoiled a good meal!." He then turned to face Marie, who reflexively took a step backwards.  He grinned a malicious smile at her, the glowing dark red glyph in his left eye glowing brightly.  "Now I’ll have to settle for the appetizer." he finished, licking his lips in anticipation.  He took one step toward the teenage magi when a sudden loud noise stopped them both.

             
Ghoul and magi both turned towards the source of the noise.  It was a typhoon, the strong twisting winds were carrying the poison cloud into the sky and safely away.  In the eye of the typhoon stood the stranger, who besides having his flannel jacket a little dirtied was fine.  He looked up towards the ghoulish cannibal, eyes glowing yellow beneath the hood.  He then stretched out his right hand, palm facing the undead creature.

             
"Let's test how well you can heal." He said emotionlessly.  The ghoul didn't even have time to react, all of a sudden he was engulfed in a blast of wind so strong it literally tore him into pieces.  The blast of wind ended up covering over a fifty meter area.

             
Everything was silent among the now-destroyed camp.  Moments later, pieces of the ghoulish cannibal leader began raining down.  The last piece was his head, the top right portion of his skull was blown clear off.  Amazingly the head and pieces of the ghoul began to glow dark red and start to put itself back together.  However the look on the undead man's bodiless head was full of outrage.

             
"Damn you magi scum!  When I put myself back together I am going to tear your heart out from your chest and eat it in front of you as you die!" He threatened.  The stranger responded by putting his hands in the front pockets of his flannel jacket.

             
"Not likely." He replied, calmly walking towards Marie.  The ghoul was not pleased.

             
"Don't walk away from me kid!  This isn't over!  You'd better hope I don't catch up to you because when I do I'll...!"  The undead cannibal stopped suddenly, the glyph in its left eye winked out of existence.  The dark red glow around its regenerating parts vanished and the pieces sank back into motionlessness on the ground.  Marie couldn't detect any more magic energy coming from the ghoul.  What in the hell happened?

             
"He used too much power." The stranger answered her unspoken question.  "The glyph in his left eye was strong, but he ended up overtaxing it.  The stress of trying to regenerate his body from that extent of damage drained the rest of the power from the glyph.  This included the power that was keeping him animated."  He explained.  Marie nodded in understanding.  How the hell did he know this?

             
"Ok.  I get it now." She replied, hesitating as she tried to get her brain to overcome the shock of what it just seen to ask some questions.  "Um, don't take this the wrong way.  I mean I'm grateful that you helped saved my life and all, but who are you?"  The teenage girl asked, finally voicing the question that was bothering her since the stranger started tearing apart the cannibals.  The hooded figure chuckled.

             
"That's right, haven't really gotten the chance to introduce myself." He replied, grabbing his hood and pulling it down.  Revealing the face of a young man in his mid-to-late twenties with short blonde hair and green eyes.  "I'm Markus, just an ordinary wandering magi." He announced, holding out his right hand for Marie to shake.  Marie smiled and let out a small laugh, it felt good to do that after being held captive for more than a day.

             
"I hate to break it to you Markus." Marie replied, shaking his hand and gesturing to the destroyed camp with her free hand.  "But I get the feeling that you are far from ordinary."

Chapter 2

              "Sorry I don't have much in the way of food." Markus apologized, throwing Marie a small bundle of meat wrapped in paper.  The sixteen year old girl eyed the bundle warily.  Markus snickered, "Don't worry, it's not human meat." He told her, she threw him a skeptical look.

             
After killing the ghoul.  Marie and Markus had foraged through the remains of the cannibals' camp.  Unfortunately, thanks to the ghoul's poison cloud and Markus' typhoon spell, there really wasn't anything left to salvage.  So now the teenage girl was stuck with whatever Markus had that was edible. 

             
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" She asked, the young man shrugged and returned his attention to tending the small campfire they'd made. 

             
"You don't I guess, but don't blame me if you go hungry tonight." He responded.  She once again examined the meat.  She hadn't eaten since she was captured by the group of cannibals.  That had been a few days ago and her stomach was now growling at the thought of nourishment.  Still, the thought that this meat might have come from a fellow human gave her pause.  The internal debate continued for a little bit until her stomach growled again.  Finally deciding that some food in her stomach, no matter what it was, would be better than nothing, she stuck the small portion of meat on a stick and put it near the fire.

             
They sat in awkward silence as they waited for the campfire to warm their meals. 

             
"Okay, so if it's not human meat what is it?" Marie asked him, Markus extracted his portion of meat from the fire and poked it hesitantly.  He smiled in satisfaction at the meat's temperature and took a big bite out of it.  The short blonde-haired man chewed a few times before swallowing.

             
"It's cat." He said with a smile that was very mischievous.  The black-haired girl almost dropped her meal in the fire.

             
"C-cat?" she said hesitantly.  Markus' grin grew wider.

             
"Oh yes he was pretty plump too.  Caught him in the last village I was at.  Damn thing was eating a bunch of rats in a wine cellar." The "Ordinary" magi chuckled.  "I think that cat was eating better than I was."

             
Marie nervously laughed, even though cat meat was better than human.  She only felt a little better, she rather liked cats.  In her thoughts she pictured a cute and fluffy black cat, the feline mewed at her before bursting into flame.  When the fire subsided it revealed the small portion of meat she was currently cooking.  The color drained from her face.

             
"You okay over there?  You look like you’re about to puke." Markus questioned.  The teenage magi laughed and rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand nervously.

             
"Me? Oh I'm just fine!  Never better!  Can't wait to dig in!" She exclaimed overexcitedly.  Markus leaned back, clearly perplexed.

             
"Er, okay.  If you say so." He replied, turning his attention back to his meal.  Marie looked at the cooked meat impaled on a stick before her.  She said a silent prayer, asking for forgiveness of the dead cat's soul she was about to devour.  When she was finished with the prayer, she took a small bite out of the meat.

             
It tasted like chicken.

**********

              Ebrim Thrave's eyes roamed dismally over the destroyed cannibal's camp, the sun just barely peaking over the horizon, shedding some much needed light on the scene.  Finally, his gaze rested on the severed head of the ghoul he had created several weeks ago.  He frowned at the state the ghoul was in, sliced into pieces and strewn about all over the ground.  Whoever had done this was either one hell of a swordsman or a powerful wielder of sorcery.  His lips peeled back from his whiskered chin and lips, forming a snarl.  He had put a lot of time, effort and magic energy into that damn ghoul and now it was gone!

             
He put a hand to his chin in thought.  Ebrim was a tall man, with short dark hair.  His face was decorated with a dark mustache and goatee.  He wore a blue scarf around his neck, black shirt with some elbow length dark brown leather gloves, worn denim jeans and brown boots.  A brown pouch rested on his left hip. It was hardly the look you would generally expect from a necromancer.  In this dark age of humanity however, well-tailored clothes were pretty hard to find.

             
Whoever had destroyed his ghoul had hidden their trail well.  There weren't even any tracks in the sand to follow, the work of sorcery no doubt.  Ebrim shook his head in disgust.  He had used his ghoul to infiltrate that band of cannibals in order eventually have more fuel for his necromantic experiments.  Unfortunately, the stupid undead idiot had not only got himself destroyed, he had used his poison to destroy all the bodies during his battle with whoever killed him.  Ebrim was effectively back at square one.  Given enough time he could probably pick up the trail of whoever had done this, but it would take him awhile, how bothersome.

             
The sound of coughing drew the necromancer's attention, Ebrim shifted his gaze to a cloud of dust that appeared slightly to his left.  He saw a thin man with chin-length blonde hair start to crawl slowly toward him.  The scrawny man had definitely seen better days.

             
"Help! Help me please! Some bandits came by and killed my entire family!  I'm the only one left, but I'm wounded."  The thin man said, Ebrim smiled and made his way over to the thin man.  "Please, I know you must not have much, being in this Savior-forsaken desert and all, but if you could spare some water or clean bandages for my wounds, I'd be eternally grateful!"  The necromancer stopped in front of the prone thin man. 

The wounded cannibal felt there was something a little off with his gaze, but it didn't matter.  All he had to do was let this idiot get a little closer and he'd lop off his head.  The thin cannibal
reckoned the dark-haired traveler would make a decent meal.

             
"Sure thing stranger, here let me grab some water from my pack."  Ebrim said, diverting his attention from the skinny cannibal to the pack on his left hip.  The thin cannibal smiled, this was his chance.  With surprising quickness, the skinny man brought his right hand up from its buried position in the sand.  His hatchet clutched tightly in his right hand, the skinny cannibal brought it forward in a vicious arc.  The slash was aimed at Ebrim's neck, intending to decapitate him.  When the sharp edge of the hatchet was inches away from the necromancer's throat, it met heavy resistance and was stopped completely.  The skinny man was so sure of his swing, its sudden stoppage jarred every bone in his body.  He looked at what stopped his hatchet and found a hand made of bone holding his weapon.

             
The thin cannibal stared in shock at the hand holding his hatchet by its sharp edge.  It was not one of the dark-haired man's hands, both of those were still rummaging through his pack.  The skeleton hand had come from the ground itself.  The skinny man began to feel the same fear that took hold of him when the hooded stranger killed his fellow cannibals.  It permeated his entire body and paralyzed him.  He could only stare as the man he had tried to kill kept rummaging through his pack nonchalantly.

             
"So sorry stranger, I didn't find any water, but take heart...." Ebrim said, pulling a six inch long knife out of his pack and gripping the handle with his right hand.  "...You'll no longer need it." The necromancer finished casually.  The thin cannibal only had time to scream before the knife plunged into his skull.

**********

              "You lied to me!" Marie fumed, walking side by side with Markus.  The mid-day sun blazing in the sky above them.  The "Ordinary" magi looked at her, feigning confusion.

             
"About what?" he asked.  She grit her teeth and jabbed a finger at his backpack.

             
"You said that meat was cat, but it was really chicken wasn't it?" She questioned, Markus shrugged in response.

             
"Everything supposedly tastes like chicken.  I had some alligator once and that tasted sort of like chicken." was his answer, Marie glared at him.

             
"So was that chicken or not?" She asked, He threw her another mischievous smile.

             
"I'll never tell."  He replied, Marie growled in frustration.

             
"Why not?" She asked through gritted teeth, the short blonde magi laughed loudly.

             
"Because it's fun keeping you in the dark." He answered, Marie's glare intensified.

             
"You're evil, you know that?" She told him, the smile never wavered from his face.

             
"You aren't the first person to tell me that." He replied.  She crossed her arms and snorted, the action caused Markus to start laughing again.

             
"Probably won't be the last either, stupid smart ass." She muttered under her breath, Markus laughed again.

             
"I had a friend named Erik, great guy, taught me how to hunt for food and how to properly search buildings for supplies.  Necessary things if you're out on your own let me tell you.” Markus paused for a moment, scanning the desert surroundings for any threats, finding none, the aeromancer continued, “He used to tell me that the meat we were eating was dog when I was first learning the ropes, bastard knew I liked dogs and wanted to see the look on my face." Markus revealed, shaking his head and chuckling at the memory, Marie raised a questioning eyebrow.

             
"So how did you know I was a cat person?" She asked him, he shrugged.

             
"Honestly I just guessed." The "Ordinary" magi answered.

             
"Okay, makes sense." Marie admitted.  They walked in silence for a few more moments before Markus broke it.

             
"You sure this is the right way to your city?" He asked his traveling companion, Marie sighed in frustration.

             
"Don't you know how to read a compass?" She questioned.  Markus rubbed the back of his head nervously.

             
"Not really." Was his answer. 

             
"Why didn't your buddy Erik show you how to use one?" The teenage magi inquired, Markus frowned.

             
"Because Erik had a natural sense of direction, he never got lost, so he never used a compass and therefore, never showed me how to use one.  Damn things are confusing anyway." The blonde magi answered, Marie threw her hands up in exasperation.

             
"How the hell did you expect to get from...wherever you came from to the west coast with no idea how to read a compass!?" She exclaimed, he shrugged.

             
"Some guy just pointed in this direction and I started walking." He told her, Marie eyed him suspiciously.

             
"And just how long have you been walking in this direction?" The teenage magi inquired, Markus smiled.

             
"Oh that's hard to say, probably around a couple of months give or take a day." He answered.  Marie stopped walking, her eyebrow twitching.

             
"Two whole months you've been walking in this direction!?!  Where the hell did you come from anyway? The east coast!?" Marie shouted, in shock at the news she just absorbed. Markus kept smiling.

             
"Actually yes." He replied, Marie got over her shock and looked at him seriously

             
"And you never deviated from your path?" she asked.

             
"Nope." came his simple answer.

             
"Not even once?" She asked once again.

             
"Not even once." He stated, repeating her words.  Marie rubbed the bridge of her nose with her right thumb and index finger.

             
"That has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard." She announced, Markus shrugged.

             
"It led me to you didn't it?" He said, Marie crossed her arms with an angry look on her face.

             
"I guess it did." she grudgingly admitted.

**********

              Marie was elated, the pair of magi were only an hour's walk from Midas City, her home.  Despite her being annoyed with Markus' simple-mindedness and his teasing of her, she found his company to be enjoyable.  For a man who has been on his own for few months, he really seemed light-hearted and dangerously nonchalant about the savage world around him.  As friendly as he was however, Markus didn't like to talk about himself much, only relaying some stories about some of the adventures that his friend Erik and him had.  Whenever she would ask who had trained him in sorcery or why he was journeying to the west coast.  He'd gently steer the conversation to another topic or pick fun with her to switch her attention.  She wondered what it was that would have someone like Markus, who seemed very approachable, close up like a book.