Memories of the Reaper

Chapter Sixteen

The night carried a certain eeriness that seemed ancient; once again, Derek found himself thinking that the camp belonged in Greece, in a city-state like Sparta. He could imagine the Spartan warriors preparing for battle as wisps of fog rolled off of the land. With the faintly glowing Lazarus stones, the buildings shone brightly like stars, a ward against darkness and evil.

Still following Victor, Derek glanced at the far end of the camp, staring intently at the woods that bordered the edge of the land. The forest hadn't been intimidating during the day, but the trees were nightmarish in the dead attitude of the night, contrasting the white moon like yin and yang. There were several sets of eyes at the edge of the tree line, and they all seemed to be following Derek. Not wanting to fall behind under the cover of darkness, Derek quickened his stride and walked next to Victor, shoulder to shoulder.

"Hey, Victor, what's in those woods over there?" Derek asked him. He kept looking back at the woods, and each time he swore more eyes were there following him.

Victor glanced to the side. "Over there? Those are probably lupines."

"Lupines?" Derek asked, not really understanding what he meant. "Like wolves?"

Victor looked at him for a second. "You see, those little buggers love nothing more than to tear the flesh from the living." He paused and looked nowhere in particular. "We trap lupines and often put them in our woods for training and hunting exercises. But, before we can do that, you'll have to get in a shitload of conditioning. A lupine's stamina is nothing short of amazing. They are one of the few animals that can rival our ability in long distance running."

"I didn't know we could do long-distance running," Derek said, watching the lupines as they lurked at the edge of the woods.

"Reapers can do anything they put their minds to. You just have to be willing to sacrifice the blood, sweat, and tears to get to that point. It's the only way to get results."

They kept walking.

"Do you ever go back to visit Earth?" Derek asked.

"Yes, I do. The others rarely go back to Earth."

"Why not?"

"As reapers, it is our duty to protect the realms that the spirits have chosen us for. I go back to Earth because Earth is the realm I'm sworn to protect. You will visit Sora from time to time to ensure its safety," Victor told him. "When we visit it, we talk to our spies and acolytes, learn about current events, and, in extreme cases, track down rogue voiders who came through the shadow gates."

Derek hadn't been listening to the last sentence. He was trying too hard to focus a casual sentence. "Do you enjoy going back?" he asked.

"I used to, but not anymore," he growled.

"What changed?"

"People became complacent and stopped being alpha predators. Now, they stay indoors. Kids these days live with cell phones, TVs, automobiles, and God-only-knows what else. They're all fat, lazy, and boring... Like cows but a lot softer. None of them learned how to fight with their hands, set traps, or even the process for purifying water—the basic necessities of survival. I'll never understand it." With each word, Victor's mixed Southern-and-African accent became more pronounced and tiny spicks of spittle formed on his mouth. "It was better living back in my day, when kids worked from the time they could walk and learned how to take a punch. I—" Victor stopped suddenly. He turned to Derek with eyes filled with embarrassment. "I-I seem to have gotten off-topic. All you need to know is that laziness and ignorance are diseases of the mind that affect the body. Like diseases, laziness and ignorance can be contracted if you associate with them. As long as you learn and train at a rate that I find acceptable, then we won't have a problem. Understood?"