Damnit. Ilon thought as he walked the dirt trail, created only by the coming and going of carriages and people. Weeds and long grass fighting the never ending war against it.

I just left him there. Even if it was necessary. He had run away from the village a half a day ago. His supplies had dwindled to pretty much nothing and his water canteen was empty. But that was fine as his destination was only a couple of days away and he was used to surviving off the land.

“Monster. A cowardly monster at that.” Ilon muttered out loud, thoughts such as this had been plaguing his mind the entire journey. He looked at his hands and at the alien veins that ran through him. He took a deep breath as he tried to calm his mind. He remembered the first time that he had to feast. It had been when he was only seven years old.

He remembered that day so vividly. It was the day that he had lost his first friend and the day he had fought against his first Horror. It was essentially just a big bug that today he would have been able to easily squash, yet back then it was a mountain of a challenge. It flew in the air with bat-like wings and had strong mandibles capable of crushing his bones easily.

The thought of the joy and guilt he experienced when he won against that bug cleared up his fogged thoughts a little. That was when it all ended. He had dreams of being a hero who would save the world from these Horrors that plagued it.

Yet the memory that he wished to repress flowed back into him. Long, beautiful red hair flowed out from her, her hands trailing with blood the same colour as her hair. She held out a still beating human heart in front of him.

“Feast.” A one word sentencing to his destiny as one of the monsters that plagued this corrupted world. He remembered how he widened his eyes at the sight, how his body was turning on him.

For with power, comes a cost. A cost that he would willingly choose again, even though he regretted it with all his heart every time he had to feast.

It had only been the fifth time he had feasted, with the last being over a year and a half ago. But he knew that if he continued down this path there would be many, many more. He suddenly remembered a sentence of a story she had once told him about one of his cursed ancestors. The stronger he got, the more he fought, any power he sought, would cause him greater distraught.

He would have to feast more and more, from once a year to once every 11 months, 10, 9. Until he reached a point where he would be feasting on more people than killing Horror’s saved. Most at that point either ended their own lives, were consumed by their power for not feasting, or had to be ‘put down’ as they leaned more and more into their power, uncaring of the lives it claimed.

It truly was a cursed life that wasn’t sustainable in the long run. That was why Ilon had decided to find the Master, for the knowledge she dropped on him about curing it before leaving, disappearing overnight to Ikiyoka knows where. She could be up to anything, anywhere, and trying to find her would take a long, long time.

But he couldn’t continue to dwell any longer, so he continued down the beaten dirt path. One foot in front of another, he continued on travelling. He caught a couple of wildlife here and there to stave off hunger and found small streams to quench his thirst, just as She had taught him.

The further he went, the more the path was travelled and the dirt roads eventually turned into gravel. He started to pass more and more people as the road connected with ones to other villages and towns, from groups to lone travelers just like him. The remaining trek quickly passed as his brooding thoughts had begun to fade, and eventually he arrived at his destination. A well known town in the Antoss Kingdom by the name of Mazual.

The walls were fairly tall, but they were made of wood, making the well known town an unimpressive sight to Ilon. From the stories he had heard this town was a hub of trade and crafts as it was close to a mountain range with several mines and a large forest that had high quality lumber, so he would have expected a grander sight.

Then again, walls wouldn’t do much when the higher tiers of monsters would shred through them in an instant. I guess they’re just there for show or to ward off small monsters and lowly trespassers. While Mazual didn’t have stone walls scaling the skies, what it did have was quality guards who were well trained against all sorts of threats.

As Ilon approached the gates he saw them manned and other guards patrolling. As he arrived at the line in front of the gate he saw the guards thoroughly checking all the items of all people and carriages. They were even documenting who and what came through meticulously. They greeted the people respectfully and in the 20 minutes of waiting under the overcast sky, not once did Ilon see any of the guards take bribes or lack any attentiveness. As he reached the front of the line one of the guards came up to greet him.

“Ho’ there boy. You’re pretty young to be travelling alone aren’t ya?” A girl who looked to be about mid twenties with long black hair strung up in a ponytail walked up to Ilon. “Well people have circumstances. Anyway, do you have a citizenship card?” She looked at him guardedly with her brown eyes.

There were many reasons for someone young to be travelling alone, either because they had lost their family or because they were a servant for someone powerful. The guard wore a full suit of metal armor, bar the helmet, and had a fancy looking scabbarded sword strapped to her side. Even with all the weight of her equipment she seemed used to it and moved around fluidly.

“Yea.” He reached into his cloak and took a small palm sized card that was made out of a material that he didn’t recognize, but was slightly flexible yet hard. It was indented with a special signet that was designed to look like a bird of some kind, one which Ilon didn’t recognize, as well as his name and date of birth. He had received a ‘parting gift’ of citizenship cards to pretty much all the empires and kingdoms on the continent and a bag filled with enough gold to last for a lifetime from the Master before She went and disappeared on him.

“Looks to be in order. Ilon. 16, you really are young.” She handed the card back before continuing. “Unfortunately, due to some circumstances we’ll be checking your belongings and asking some questions, is that alright?”

“That’s fine. May I ask what the circumstances are?” Ilon kept a polite and respectful tone. After all, what better way was there to get information from the authorities, besides less scrupulous manners of course.

“There’s been some, how do I put it? Odd… cases of people acting strangely and then forgetting that it happened. There are also some people trying to smuggle in illegal items and claiming that they knew nothing about it, but they might just be taking advantage of the situation.. It might be a drug of some kind or maybe even an experienced fallen shaman. If someone offers to sell you something, report it to the guard station.” Her lips scrunched together after she finished.

“Hmm, when did it start happening? Have your shamans looked into it yet?” Ilon curiously inquired. It might be people just goofing around, but he had a feeling that there was more than it seemed here.

“About a tenday ago. At first it started off with only a couple people here and there, but now it’s a couple of people out of every dozen. Worse is that none of the Shamans or guards have found anything.” She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Well anyways back to it. Do you have any weapons on you?”

“A whip and two daggers, as well as a carving knife in my pack if you consider that a weapon.” Ilon said as he handed over his pack. His cards and money were in a hidden place on his person so he wasn’t worried that they would be found. The guard in front of him gave a sort of squint eyed look as she took his pack and searched it. As she searched it another guard came up to her and waved her down.

“Hey Lysa, boss said that he needed you in his office as soon as possible.” The man had blond hair that was swept back and brown eyes. He had a soft looking face as he smiled at the guard whose name was apparently Lysa.

“Jeraz, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. I’ll be there in a sec, just gotta finish this. How’s the wife and kids doing?” Ilon sort of spaced out the rest of the conversation while Lysa finished checking his bag and confirming his weapons, before he got the approval to enter.

The inside of the town was far more impressive than the bland outside walls. People had taken it upon themselves to spruce up the town. Ilon stared at the interesting blend of architecture that gave this place a unique look as he wandered around. Some places flowed together with harmony while others clashed with their architectural might, which he assumed was the cultural influence of the Killian Empire colliding with the Duhnovo Emprie..

The town was abuzz with life as some people loitered and chatted while others hurried to their destination. This place surely would have been an interesting place for him to live, yet Ilon decided that it was too loud for his liking. He could hear the calls of merchants the next street over and from the opposite side the clanging of metal from the crafters. It certainly had its own kind of unique charm, if one loved an energetic flow.

As Ilon wandered, the first thing he decided to do was to finally get some good food in him considering it was lunch. After asking a couple of passersby for their recommendations and directions to a decent restaurant he ended up at the Bronze Cudgel, which doubled as both inn and restaurant. As he entered the first thing that caught his eye was a massive cudgel mounted on the wall that looked as if it would take five grown men to even lift.

“Welcome to the Bronze Cudgel. I’m Fessal, would you like a room at our inn or maybe some lunch?” A young girl looking to be around thirteen asked him as she fixed her shoulder length brown hair. She blinked her light green eyes at him as he took a moment to survey the inside further.

It seemed to be a well kept place that was split into two sections. On the right was a greeting desk with a wall of shelves that held keys to the rooms that seemed to be up the staircase there. On the left was the restaurant portion of the inn. The room seemed like it could hold a couple dozen people and was nearly filled up besides a couple of single seated tables here and there.

“Hello?” The girl before him asked as she impatiently scrunched up her freckled face. His bad habit of ignoring people to observe his surroundings had flared up again, something that he would have to fix now that he would be places with more people more often.

“Ah, sorry. One room for two nights and some lunch please.” Her eyes shifted focus from him to the person who was manning the counter in front of the keys. He seemed bulky and portly, having a build that suggested he was probably a fighter in the past before he retired.

“Pa! Room for one, two nights.” She shouted at him over the loud background noise of the conversations being held in the restaurant. “After you’re done setting up with Pa, come and order whatever you’d like from the menu. Thanks for your patronage.” She took off towards a room in the restaurant portion of the inn, her long pale green sun dress that matched her eyes flowing behind her.

“A bundle of energy that one is.” The man at the counter had a big goofy grin on his face as Ilon walked over to him. He had the same green eyes as his daughter with short hair that was a slightly darker shade of brown. “One room for two nights, right? That’ll be 8 copper, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner included. Make sure to eat lots, you need some meat on your bones.” The man let out a belly-full laugh.

“Thanks, I will. Could I get your name?” Ilon handed over the eight copper as the man traded a key numbered 12 over to him.

“Cudlin, people call me Big Cud.” And true to his name, Ilon noticed just how tall he was as he properly looked at him instead of the previous passing glance he gave him. He must have been close to seven feet tall. Perhaps in his prime, he really would have been able to use the massive cudgel that was hanging up. “Your rooms number 12, sixth on the right just up that staircase there. If you want a private bath we can bring up some heated water, otherwise there's a public bath a couple of streets up that’s run by a relative of mine. You can get a discount if you mention you're staying here.”

“I appreciate it. Oh, by the way. When I was entering town a guard told me that there were a couple of strange things going on, got any news about it?” As soon as Ilon mentioned that, Big Cud’s grin dropped into a frown. A hint of worry appeared on his face as he sort of leaned closer to him.

“Recently people have been acting strange all of a sudden, either forgetting things that they did or doing things mighty unusual. I’ve heard rumours of all sorts from people playing pranks, to a fallen shaman. Heck, I even heard that it might be a Horror. Who knows how many people would die if a Horror appeared here. Hopefully it’s just the wild imagination of people and baseless rumours.”

“So the town mayor and guards don’t know what's causing it? The Guard said that not even the shamans found anything useful.”

“No one knows anything for certain. It’s happened to all sorts of people at all sorts of different times. Shamans can’t find anything out and if the cause is mystical then most the guards are regular people who are mostly useless when it comes to that kind of nonsense.” He leaned back and looked over to the restaurant portion of the inn where people were chatting happily. “Not like we can do anything about it but hope it’s nothing serious and trust in our leaders. Anyway, lunch is about to end so you better hurry up. Ah, Welcome!” He shouted out to another customer that was coming this way, his goofy grin plastered on his face once again.

“Thanks for the info, take care.” Ilon said as he made his way up the stairs to his room to drop off his pack. The inside of the room was cozy with a nice fur carpet in front of the bed, a wooden cabinet and a safe to store things, a tub that could be used for bathing, and most importantly a comfortable looking bed. A bed. After travelling for weeks he would finally be able to sleep on a real bed again, the need was so tempting that he almost blew off lunch before his stomach decided to rudely interrupt his desire for comfort.

He put away his pack, but kept his weapons on him. A person could never be too careful and who knows what would happen if there was a Horror and he were without weapons. Ilon thought about the current situation happening in Mazual, but he didn’t think it to be a Horror. The Cursed were able to sense Horror’s who were within a certain area, yet they weren’t able to tell exactly where they were.

Ilon locked his door and made his way down the stairs to the restaurant. He sat at one of the free tables near the corner of the room and order some pork sausage and cream soup from a waitress that came to take his order. He let out a sigh as he felt the tension from the past couple of days release. Fighting Horrors was never a pleasant experience. He was lucky that the Horror he had faced was one that was one that wasn’t too strong on the scale of Horrors.

As his thoughts drifted he was too slow to react when he felt an arm wrap around his neck from behind him.

“Ilon! It really is you.” A familiar loud voice rang in his ears as he felt a fist descend onto his head and decimate his hair.