A Slayer's Tales

The Butcher and His Bride

The road from the Winterrian capital to The Crossroads was long and at this time of year, dangerous too.

    With summer well underway, people become desperate. Kind men – good men – do awful things to ensure their family's survival in the blistering heat; and awful men do even worse things to make sure they survive. Crops sometimes struggle to grow and animals have died from the heat before. The world is a cruel place, and the people who live in it have just adapted to survive it.

    Nicholas' horse cantered down the road. The heat distorted the path ahead of them. The road became a beige river with grass on either side. As he rode, Nicholas couldn't stop thinking about his dream. Several days had passed but he was still certain of the message he had received. He needed to find the Taylor boy and train him to be a Slayer. Would this prevent the fall of Winterria? He didn't know. The fall may be inevitable. Nicholas knew though that Leo Taylor was a special individual and he needed training for a special purpose. He was chosen.

    As Nicholas continued steadily down the road, he noticed something ahead. It looked like a dead sheep, bloody and a few days old. Upon closer inspection, Nicholas realised it was much worse. In the middle of the road was a dead man, skinned and bloody. He nearly threw up at the sight. "May the Gods be with him." Nicholas whispered quietly as he pulled his horse to a stop and dismounted.

    He got a closer look at the corpse. He'd never seen such a sight. He'd seen men eaten alive, he'd seen children's mutilated corpses, but this was something else. All of those were results of daemons: this wasn't. This was the work of men.

    Just under an hour away, a quiet village sat amidst trees. It was off the road but noticeable. Noticeable enough for Nicholas to find his way there. He found no identification of the naked, skinned corpse. There were no clothes, no family crest, nothing. As his horse trotted through the eerily quiet village, Nicholas began to feel as though this place had something to do with the dead man. He rode himself to the village's inn and tied his horse outside.

    "Hello?" Nicholas' voice echoed in the empty room. "Innkeeper?" The greaves on his boots clanked as he entered. It was dark inside. There was no-one there.

Nicholas headed back outside and decided to check on locals. If anyone knew anything, it'd be the locals. He wandered the streets for a few minutes and no-one was there. It was a ghost town. Unsure whether no-one lived here or they were just hiding from a stranger, Nicholas went to the nearest house and knocked on the oak door.

    "Please." A voice begged from inside. It was quiet and croaky, as if they hadn't had a drink in a day or two. "Please what?" Nicholas asked back. "I'm not here to hurt you, if that's what you think. I'm Nicholas. I'm a Slayer. I don't hurt innocent people." He watched the door, waiting for it to open but it didn't. As he looked closer, he did notice an eye. Through a small gap in the wooden planks, an eye watched him. "I promise you, I am not here to hurt anyone." The door slowly opened and inside was a red-haired woman. She was stunning. It caught Nicholas off-guard. As he stared at her, in awe, he noticed bruises and cuts. "Is everything okay?" He asked, worried for the village people. The woman looked past Nicholas and around. She made sure it was just them and then looked at him with tearful eyes. "No. There's a man," she was on the verge of breaking down as she spoke, "he comes and collects people. He... because there's no food in the summer, he kills people." Nicholas had a sick feeling grow in his stomach. The skinned man made sense now. Everything made sense now. He cut the woman off with a kind smile as he could see the pain it was causing her. "It's the only way we can survive."

    "Have you not asked the King for supplies?" Nicholas queried, knowing King Harmut would gladly help his people. "The King wouldn't care. He only cares about the people who live in the capital and the nobles." Nicholas was taken back by her opinion of the King. Ever since he was a boy, he'd never seen the King this way. Then again, he'd never lived this far from the capital. He thought to himself, were things really this different just a short ride from home?