I had finally fallen into a deep sleep at some point, because I awoke with a start from the exclamation of surprise and glee of the wife finding the dead buck next to the door of the shack. I did my best to feign surprise as I rose from the ground and walked over to where they were inspecting the carcass. The light was still dim from the rising sun and there did not seem to be any light coming from the house, so perhaps the bounty at the young family’s doorstep would go unnoticed for a bit. I did not trust the woman in the house to not try to take the bounty for her own.

“How did this happen?” the wife said, looking a bit sad, like she pitied the creature even though it meant her belly would be full for the first time in a long time. She had crouched down next to the buck and was gently touching it’s head, checking to make sure that it was really dead.

“Perhaps we are just lucky,” the husband said happily, “things might be turning around for us again and the gods are providing. We have surely had enough bad luck lately to be in line for some good instead.”

“That could be,” I agreed with a nod. “Let me help you get the animal dressed and cleaned so that we can start the process of getting the meat preserved.”

The couple looked between me and the buck with uncertainty in their eyes. Of course they had no idea what to do with it, they had been city folk up until now. To them meat just came in little bundles of brown paper from the butcher, they had probably never set eyes on a fresh carcass let alone ever see anyone take one apart.

“I will show you,” I offered and bent to grab one of the back legs to drag the beast away from the front door and beside the shack instead, just out of sight of anyone who stepped into the backyard of the house. Marcus jumped to action to help, but I could tell by the way he barely hung onto the creature enough to help me move it that he was squeamish about the idea of handling a dead animal. Hopefully he would learn to get over with a bit of exposure and the reward of having a full belly at the end of the day.

The wife followed, and both of them looked on in rapt interest as I explained all the different parts of the animal and what I would need to do to get it ready to butcher.

“Do you have a knife?” I asked.

The woman entered the shack and a few moments later returned with a very dull and old looking knife that was in bad need of a sharpening stone, but no matter, it would do well enough for now. With a single, sharp thrust of the blade into the body of the beast, I made a long cut just deep enough to penetrate the hide and layer of tissue and muscle that held the organs of the belly inside. As soon as the interior of the deer started to be revealed, the woman paled and shook her head, stumbling back away from the scene and we could hear her retching up the bile in her stomach.

“It is fine, it is you as her husband who will do this part then,” I instructed.

He was pale as well, but he was holding up well enough for me to continue.

Once the incision was fully made from the apex of the chest down to the reproductive organ, I began to peel back the layers of flesh and muscle to reveal the glistening intestines and other major organs of the deer. It was difficult to do with one hand, but I found that staking open one side of the incision to the ground with the knife while I was not using it worked well enough and I was able to maneuver well enough to get by. I pointed out the organs that were good for eating and which needed to be removed and discarded as I worked my way through slowly pulling apart the sinewy muscles of the abdomen, then pinning a bit farther down and continuing the process until the whole inner abdomen was exposed. I carefully showed the man how to remove the intestines without spilling their foul contents all over the rest of the organs and the meat. It was incredibly awkward with one hand and at several points I thought it was going to be impossible, but through sheer willpower I managed to pull the last of the ropey intestines free, plugging both cut ends by pinching them together with my hand while the length was wrapped around my stump of an arm. Once they were carried off a distance away from the shack, there really was no way to discard them without their contents being emptied. I held it away from my body as far as I could and pointed the ends away, then let go of the tight grip on them and hoped for the best. I was largely successful except for my hand which ended up thickly coated in the buck’s final digested meal. The sight made the man sway on his feet, but he held upright, holding his nose tightly.

“Survival is messy and not always pleasant, but if you can do this on your own your family will never starve again,” I assured him. “It is not really so bad once you get used to it. Nothing a good wash will not take care of.”

“Thank you for showing me how to do this,” Marcus said, even though his voice wavered, “I want to be able to help us survive. I know I have not been doing very well with keeping my family fed so far, I just have never had to know how to do any of this before.”

“You had no reason to before, but that is okay, because you can learn and now your family will flourish,” I assured him as confidently as I could manage. “Besides you did keep them alive in your own way, you made money as a tailor and that put food in their bellies and roof over their heads. Just as you learned that trade, you will learn this one.”

I kept my hands far in front of me as we walked over to the well and he drew up water for me to clean my hand and arms from all the blood, mucus, and excrement that coated me. Just as I had finally got them clean enough for me to consider them safe to return working with the rest of the meat on the animal, the older woman who owned the house stepped out of her back door and raised her eyebrows in surprise at me. I was very glad that she had missed what I had looked like prior, I did not want her asking too many questions then getting it in her head that it was in her best interests in taking the windfall away from the family.

“Who are you?” she demanded to know. “I have not seen you before and you are not a part of their family.”

“A friend,” the man said, clapping his hand on my shoulder, “a poor soul like us who needed a place to stay for the night. We have housed him so that he could have a warmer place to sleep than out on the cold ground.”

“I am just passing through,” I added. I did not want her thinking that I was helping them after what I had read the night prior. “I will be gone before you know it.”

“I see,” she grunted, “see that you are.” She looked uncertain about my presence, the look in her eye gave away that she thought that maybe those in charge of paying her might think my presence might count against her.

I signaled for the man to stay put, then crossed the yard between myself and the old lady. Her eyes narrowed as I approached as she tried to judge if she could trust me, but she did not move from her spot.

“Of course, but before I do end up taking my leave, would you happen to have anything to eat?” I asked quietly enough so that the man would not overhear. I wanted to test her, see if she had any redeeming qualities. I was not a part of her dark deal with the Church and therefore she had no reason not to feed me. “I have had no food in days and I am feeling weaker by the moment. The family does not have food enough to feed me and I will not take from their already hungry mouth. Surely you must have something, even just a small morsel for me to sate a tiny part of my gnawing hunger.”

“I do not run a charity shop, I barely have enough to fill my own mouth,” she said with a yawn and waved away my request with her hand. “You will make do, I’m sure. You all will, learning to survive is an essential life skill.”

“Then I hope the fortune you deserve comes on swift wings to you,” I said with a warm smile that did not extend to my eyes..

As if she knew I meant it to be a curse, her lips curled into a worried expression, but I did not give her time to say anything before turning and returning to the man. I signaled him to follow and we returned to the carcass. I would deal with her later once I fully decided what her punishment would be.

Without any further interruptions, I showed him how to section off large primal muscle groups, then explained which parts should be eaten soon and which were suitable for hanging to dry. Once I was certain the old woman was gone, we carried the pieces of the deer and placed the perishable bits to be cooked into the dented and beaten up pot the woman had next to the fire and while she happily added in fresh water and began to cook everything into a rich stew, we hung up thin strips of the remaining meat using old nails that had begun to work their way out of the slats of the shack walls.

“Give this a week or two and they will be dry enough to take down and then stored however you want. They are good for traveling or adding to water to re hydrate for soups or stews,” I explained after we finished hanging up the rest of the meat and were wiping our hands clean of the remaining blood.

My stomach was begging me to eat something as the air filled with the smell of the simmering meat. It was bound to be a bland, plain meal with no spices or even salt at their disposal, but my body would have gladly loved for me at that point to devour some of the raw meat, anything to get sustenance into me. It would just have to wait a little longer though, I did not want to show how desperate I had been for food all along after turning down their offer to share their pitiful supper with me the evening prior.

“You are so knowledgeable,” the wife said with a beaming smile as she fed her baby with one arm and stirred her pot with the other, “where did you learn how to do all this?”

I smiled and went to answer, then realized that I had no answer. It was all just another big blank where I could not call to mind a single memory or reason as to why I seemed to know exactly what to do to butcher and preserve the animal. It had been second nature, so surely I had done it quite often, but all of the facts outside of how to accomplish the tasks were gone.

“I have had to learn to survive, it is something you tend to pick up when you have no other options.” It was a complete non-answer to her question, but it was all I could offer. I supposed I could have made something up, but I felt so confused about my past that even the idea of making something up seemed strange. It was like I knew what I would make up would be wrong and that the right reasons were on the tip of my tongue but refused to make themselves known. “You will both be quick studies I’m sure and just be as much of an expert as I am in no time.”

“I hope so,” the woman sighed, “I am afraid I am not good at this yet. Without you my pot would still be empty and who knows what would have come of us.”

“Now Frannie my beloved, you know we would have figured out something,” he said, moving to her side to stroke her hair comfortingly. “We do not have to worry about it anymore anyway. This stroke of good luck and our good friend here teaching us how to do all this is going to keep us afloat and alive, maybe even well fed for a bit.”

After an extremely welcomed meal, they seemed to be in far better spirits and they were even able to encourage the baby to suckle some of the nutritious meat broth from their fingers and the child seemed more alert and responsive. It was not enough to make me feel comfortable leaving the family just yet, but it was progress and that contented me for now. My own stomach was full and my body felt like it would melt into the floor and go to sleep at any moment, desperate to have time to digest and recuperate. At first I was annoyed with how sleepy I was because it felt like I was going to waste precious time I could be spending trying to figure out their situation, then I realized that sleeping through the rest of the day so I could then be awake during the night might actually play into a plan that had been forming in my head. I did not know if it was possible, but if I did not try I would never know.

I made a big show of stretching and yawning after taking another small chunk of meat from the broth. I probably could have eaten the entire rest of the pot myself if I were given the remainder of the day to do so and my body would have been grateful for it, but I was not going to take anymore food from their mouths than I had to. I had only taken any of it at all since I had provided it.

“You are tired my friend,” Marcus said, voice much happier than it had been when I first encountered him, “why don’t you lay down and rest? You have done so very much for us, the least we can do is offer for you to stay as long as you wish. It does not seem like you have had much time to recover since your wolf attack.”

“That is very true,” I agreed, “I have been hesitant to stop on the road to sleep ever since that happened. The wilds are a dangerous place. For now I will sleep while I can, thank you for allowing me to stay. Perhaps you should check on your potatoes at some point today. Yesterday they seemed to already be taking well, maybe they will look even more promising today,” I suggested.

The man’s grin widened and he excitedly told his wife all about the potatoes that seemed to magically take to the soil in an instant and start sending off health, green tendrils into the soil and bright, new leaves stretching up to the sun. Lowering myself to the floor, I smiled at his excitement and nodded as he pointed to me to verify that it was indeed true and had not just been a trick of his eyes from being out and toiling under the sun for too long. I leaned my head back on the wall of the shack for just a moment, intending to rest my eyes for just a moment then join back in talking with them before he left, but the next time I opened my eyes it was the dead of night.

My neck was terribly stiff and my shoulders felt locked in the position I had been in. With a soft groan I cracked my neck as I brought it back forward and I stretched my arms out wide to try to get some blood flowing through them. Even my legs had still been curled up when I fell asleep and I had rested so deeply that I had not budged an inch and my feet were terribly asleep. With jerky, awkward motions I unfurled them from beneath me and gritted my death when a few moments later the intense feeling of pins and needles prickling up and down from my knees all the way down to the soles of my feet took over as the blood began to flow and have free access to those areas again. While I waited for the terrible feeling to subside, I blinked the sleep from my eyes and settled my eyes on the sleeping family. They seemed much more at peace and though it was likely mostly my eyes playing tricks on me to see what I wanted to see I could swear that their faces already looked a little less sunken and hollow. The fire was burning low, but still going, Marcus seemed to have taken my suggestion of keeping the shack a bit warmer than they might otherwise to help hasten along the drying of the meat hung up around the walls.

Feeling better and my feet no longer screaming, I stood quietly and took one more bit of meat from the pot. I did not feel so bad taking it when I lifted the lid and saw that they must have been at it and eaten themselves into a much deserved rest on overly full stomachs. If things went the way I was planning tonight, they would have many more nights sleeping without having to worry about their basic needs. The night air was humid and it felt that there might be rain on the way and I welcomed the smell of the moisture in the air as I stepped out into the dark night. The promise of rain was a good omen for the further growth of the potatoes and the clouds overhead making things a bit extra dark to obscure my movements was even more fortuitous.

How I had led the deer through the woods and directly to the door had kept my mind busy with possibilities. The fact it had been so easy for me to do, even while dangerously close to starving, injured, and exhausted, made me excitedly wonder just what exactly I was capable of at full health and rest. While I was certainly not at my top form just yet, I was much better than I was at this same time yesterday, so I had high hopes for the plan that had blossomed into existence in my mind. I opened the back door to the house, making sure to tiptoe past the sleeping chickens so I did not accidentally wake the noisy birds, and then did not bother lighting the candle and instead walked through the small house to where I knew the woman was asleep.

Pushing open her bedroom door gently, I peeked into her room and found her still fast asleep. Another jolt of anger washed through me as I saw her snuggled into a comfortable down mattress. She was sleeping soundly and carefree in complete luxury while she rested while she kept a mother with a small baby on the floor of a shack in her backyard, that fact was enough to cement what I wanted her ultimate outcome to be. There was no way I was going to feel like having pity on her, regardless of what her background was or how tied she thought her hands were in the situation.

I opened myself up to the depths of power I stored within the deepest recesses of my soul and felt my magic swell in response, rising and filling my body, then spilling out into the room around me. Tendrils of intent wormed their way towards the sleeping woman, crawling up the bed towards her and encircling her before pushing inside her body and working their way up to her mind. A jolt of information rushed through me as all of her life memories played through my mind at supersonic speeds, in a single moment I knew the entirety of her life and the things she had seen and experienced. The first half of her life she was the one to be pitied, she had not been lying in her journal about having a terrible start to her life and the struggle she had to endure to survive. It was clear to me, even if she was not able to admit to herself just yet, that she had been completely manipulated by the Church and its members to become one of their greatest recruitment tools. They had worn her down and broken her until she gave herself and her destiny over to them and in turn the Church used her to now do the same to anyone else they sent her way. Marcus and Frannie were not by far the first family to end up staying with her, in fact there had been about fifty different instances of this arrangement since she had been living in this house and at least five children, three women, and four men were buried in her backyard in unmarked graves from her failure to push through the conditioning and be a decent human being.

Thoroughly disgusted, I pushed away her memories and searched instead for a way to do what I was planning. The woman moaned softly in her sleep and rolled her head from side to side like she was trying to get rid of the intrusion, but she did not wake up and quickly returned to a deep sleep. Sweeping my magical senses through her mind, I finally got a sense of how to do what I was thinking and sent a sharp spike of intent directly where I thought I could gain control. Her eyes fluttered open and the woman sat up in bed, looking at me with a blank and vapid expression. With complete control of her mind, I was able to get her to stand and move to her desk, where she looked at me blankly for instruction. I knew exactly where she kept the deed to her home and I instructed her to pull it from the secret drawer in her writing desk, cross out her name on the line of ownership, then I had her write the names of the family in the backyard, then sign it with her own unique signature. While she was already at the desk, I ordered her to write a letter to her local bishop telling him that she was leaving and would leave the house to a family friend for safe keeping. I hesitated a moment as I considered what exactly to say what happened to the family she was supposed to be keeping and went with a story about how they had caught fevers and died too quickly for her to reach out for help and that she had buried all three next to the the little boy who died of starvation the past summer. With the first letter written, I had her address it and then she started on another, this one was to the family, explaining that she was giving them the house and that she wanted them to keep everything in it since she was going to go live with her daughter. Her daughter and the people in her community were going to be a problem with keeping the story from getting out of control, but I would have to deal with the problems as they arose. If they got too nosey and loud I would just do to them what I was planning on doing to her. That letter finished, I had her write one last one to her daughter about how guilty she felt for all she had done and that she was leaving for another town where the Church might not find her and that she would look for her one day to reconnect when she felt it was safe. It was still going to be messy and require me to tie up loose ends, but it would do.

Letters in my hands to be delivered to their respective parties, I walked the old woman through the house and out the back door. I knew from my walk into the area that there was a river nearby that eventually opened up into an impressive waterfall. That was my destination and I knew what my intent was, but I did give myself the time to walk slowly and really consider what I was about to do. As far as I could recall I had never harmed another person and I certainly had not been interested in it before becoming angry with the situation. This seemed like a slippery slope towards becoming a rogue vigilante, though I supposed maybe the world needed one if this was the kind of thing the Church was into doing to make money and gain control over people. By the time the twenty minute walk was over my mind had not changed. Though I did on some level feel bad that the woman had never really had a chance given the level of manipulation she was put through, she still had sat by and watched people suffer and die when she could have stepped in and that alone was a crime worthy of death. Though perhaps I would be lenient enough to make it as swift and painless as possible.

I commanded the woman to walk to the edge of the cliff where the waterfall crashed over and briefly considered if I wanted to let go of her consciousness while she was falling to let her live her final seconds in terror and pain, but ultimately that felt a touch too cruel. I still felt like maybe she deserved it, but her pain and anguish might make me feel like all the people she had helped hurt might be a touch more vindicated, it would not actually bring them back, nor would any of them ever know what happened to her anyway. I walked up behind her and without letting go of the control I had on her mind, I shoved her as hard as I could off the cliff and into the crashing waves. She fell, thudding hard against a rocky outgrowth part way down the waterfall and my grip on her mind was immediately severed. In the darkness I could not see her body tumble to the waves below, nor could I hear the splash she made over the crashing water, but I could no longer seek out her life force so I knew she was dead and that was enough for me.