The lonely graves.

Chapter 6: The insight

"This is no time for games Conar" my voice was restrained. "Huh, don't you think I know that? I could be dead any second, might as well die having fun." Said the man who had shot the arrow. He was now leaning against a tall tree, lighting a long black pipe which had fangs carved on it. "Besides" he said glancing up. "I haven't eaten in two whole days, even I have my limits Van. I don't know if I could keep off you if I cross them." He said showing no feelings on his face but deep down he was concerned.

"Don't worry Conar, I can take care of myself" I replied checking him from time to time to see if he showed any signs of hostility. "It's not you whom I'm worried about" he said feeling uneasy, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. "Would you put me down if needed be?" He finished with a small choke, as if these words were all that he ever thought about but never spoke.

The air seemed to tense. I walked up to Conar, who was now showing symptoms of sorrow. "I would never hurt the people I love" I said placing my hand on his shoulder "you know that right?" "What about Dian" His expression shook at the name. "I loved her, Van." He whimpered and a tear slid down his cheek. "You could have saved her Van, but instead, you drove a spear through her head, burnt her corpse and threw her ashes into the sea!!!"

"THERE WAS AND STILL IS NO CURE FOR ZOMBIES!!!" I yelled. "She was in misery and I ended it. She died one of us, She carried honor, she knew the consequences of being a hunter, the risks but she fought alongside us anyway. She died a hunters death. She believed in the our purpose. She hunted to make this world a better place for her children and their children!!"

Memories started to leak in, dim, mostly dark figures but amoung those figures was a face. A women's face. Long red hair, Grey eyes, a sweet smile and long pretty face. And with her was Conar.

Dian. Her name was Dian. She was a cheerful one. Enjoyed the fruits of life. She was always with me and Conar. We usually spent our time out at The Drunken Bard near the town square. Drinking Ale and eating roasted beef with mushroom sauce.

Wait... how do I know all this? These weren't my memories, whose were these? This "Van" persons?

Conar who was now wiping away a tear which had found his way down his cheek, stood firm and cleared his throat "What about Selena?" He asked hesitantly. Almost as if he was threatening. "What if the same thing happened to her? Will you put her down as well?"

My heart sank like the rock it was. With grief filled in that rock I replied "No, I am far too weak for that, for that I have you." Conar, who now knew his new responsibility was surprised by my answer. He was about to say something but something else happened.

The air, it felt..... sticky, like glue between two fingers. The wind had stopped and the birds went quite. Everything was still. I heard a click. The click of Conars crossbow.

Then I saw it, The monstrous figure lurking in the shadows behind the trees. It smelled of death blood and bones. It crouched low as if it was stalking but it had already been found. Then came a roar. It was a roar of a hunter but the hunter was our prey.

I reached for one of the dozen pockets on the inside of my long leather jacket and I grabbed something. It felt like a stick. I took it out in one swift motion and it turned out to be an Axe almost 6 feet long and it's blade was black and on the edge of the blade these words were incrusted with silver "Shall it be in this life or the other, evil shall taste this blade"

How did it even fit in my pocket? Why didn't I feel it's weight before? I didn't get a chance to think more because just as I had taken it out, I had launched it at the lurking creature behind the trees, hidden in the shadows, in one swift motion.

Then came a painful cry followed by a THUCK! The sound of an Axe being struck at wood. I ran towards the cry and my Axe was stuck in a tree and at the foot of the tree laid, a hand. A hand not made of flesh and bone, but of wood and clay. With blood whiter than an egg but thicker than oil. But make no mistake, it was a human arm. A human destroyed centuries ago by the power of greed.

Conar came running up behind me as I crouched low, next to the hand dipping my fingers in it's white thick blood. Raised my fingers to mouth, and tasted it. Salty, meaning that it was in its youth before it... turned. If the blood would've been sweet it'd meant that it's in its middle age. Youth meant that it might have not caused much havoc. A village at most. I took out a small glass tube out from my "enchanted" pocket and filled it with a few drops of its blood. Wendigo blood has magical properties.
could be used to make Potions and poisons..... How do I know this?

"One of my kind eh? was thinking we'd see a goblin or a dwarf. A wolf offering it's warm pelt perhaps." Said Conar looking at the hand quite intrigued by the wooden bone structure. "But a wendigo" a tainted smile crossed his face "shall satisfy my hunger tonight"

"That he shall" I replied with excitement.
"Finally, a prey worth hunting" I dropped the glass tube back in my pocket and surprisingly it disappeared, losing what little weight it had.

I got up and dusted the dirt off my coat. The dirt covered me like a second skin. Then I spat on the ground to remove what little wendigo blood I had in my mouth. My saliva was now a blue glowing glittery substance. Like jello. Although the blood has healing properties, it also has poison. Fatal if left unattended. Wendigo blood is a common ingredient in alchemy but it's powers are nothing compared to Unicorn marrow, dragon heart and a hair from a winter fairy. They're rare but very powerful.

"We need a place to perform the exorcism. A clearing between the forest perhaps, find it for me Conar."

Conar whose hair were now standing straight like a threatened cat replied "With pleasure" with a voice as deep as a bears, maybe because of the excitement.

Conar raised his foot high off the ground and SLAMMED It on the ground hard. I saw images moving in my mind. These images weren't memories. Instead these images were somehow the present shown from afar. It was my surroundings. The trees, the birds, the moisture covering leaves. I saw everything even even the things I couldn't See before like the beehive hanging on a tree 75 meters to my south. Or the mosquito getting trapped inside the tree sap 145 meters to my right. I saw.... Everything....

The harder Conar stomped, The wider my vision sprawled. Maybe he was seeing it all just as well. The stomping was somehow acting like a sonar.

Then I saw it. A clearing in the forest. A perfect place for an exorcism. I looked at Conar, he looked like he was losing control over his humanity. He was becoming what he truly was, a wendigo.

He crouched low and took a stance of a stalking cat and for a second I heard his heart stop. Then I heard it beat faster than any normal man's should. His clothes slowly began to rip off him and Muscles began to came out from places where meat had no place to be. His entire body was now drenched with hair and his cloths were torn off and lying on the ground. He had doubled in size, almost
9 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

He slowly raised his face from the ground, covered in mud and hair alike. Took out a long deep breath as if exhaling for the first time. Opened his eyes, Grey, white and dead all the way to the core, no pupils just... empty.

Then came a rasp voice, a voice to make even the hardest men turn and cling to their mothers.

"Let the hunt begin"