Rough Landing
A tonic for what ails thee.
*****
His body bounced downward for thousands of feet. He landed in some scraggly brush at the foot of the mountain. He should have been torn to pieces, battered to a pulp, dead the instant he crashed the first time into the sheer rock wall.
He blinked, and his vision cleared. A hand reached to his forehead, snagging a lock of jet black hair. The hand was young and unblemished. The hair lacked one strand of gray.
The vial had worked. Perdix was young again, his powers returned to full strength and more.
As he lay on the ground, laughter bubbled up and overflowed from his soul.
"What are you doing, stranger? Are you overcome with madness?"
It was a shepherd.
"No," said Perdix. "I was just enjoying the beauty of your little valley. And thinking how great it is to be alive."
"You speak as the madman," said the shepherd. "Come. I will fix you some vittles by my fire. I will fill your stomach; perhaps, your words will make more sense."
Perdix got up. His legs were strong, and the muscles rippled on the back of his shins.
"Thank you for your kind offer," the alchemist said. "But I must be on my way."
"Where to?" asked the shepherd. "There's nothing here but scrub brush and rocks."
"And demons that haunt your days and nights."
"Aye," said the shepherd. "Those we've plenty of."
The shepherd turned to look at one of his bleating sheep.
"What do you smell, lass? A wolf? A bear?"
Looking back, he saw the tiny silhouette of a man disappearing over the crest of a faraway hill.
THE END
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Vampyre: Desire Immortal
HorrorThe ancient village of Megara is getting ready for a wedding, and the bride is a vampire. Let the Blood Plague begin. As her thirteenth birthday approaches, Ava, Princess of Megara, knows her upcoming marriage to Wolfstan will plunge her into hell...
