Living on Borealis-9: The Story Of A Reincarnated Human

Chapter 3.1, Part 1: The Stranger

A few weeks later, Luna and I were cooking together, with her overseeing the stew, and I cutting and gathering the ingredients. We had been making...Onion stew, I believe, with boiled cuts of mutton that we got from one of the goats Luna had been raising. That, and also a species of kind of legume, called 'Kingstalk', which was like celery, but with a sharper taste and a much more easy-to-consume form.

"Matt, could you throw me a knife?" Luna asked, mixing around the soup. Contrary to the VERY DANGEROUS idea of throwing a knife, I took one and handed it to her. She stabbed a smaller cut of meat, then pulled it out to taste.

"Gross." I commented, while wiping my hands on my kilt.

"Not much better than me."

"No, the whole...Knife part. You run a risk of cutting open your mouth, and it's...Nah." I explained.

Luna huffed slightly. "Werewolf, remember? Healing! Super fast! Wow!"

"The taste of blood, Luna."

"...I like it? What's your point?"

Creepy. And gross.

As we sat down to enjoy our stew a few minutes later, I could faintly hear someone coming up to the area. Based on what I heard, they were heavy walker, wearing...chainmail, based on the clink-clink-clinking that followed their motions. The person was breathing very calmly and normally, indicating either physical fitness or that they were just coming out into the wilds now.

"You hear that too?" Luna said, starting to get up from her seat. "You got that knife of yours?"

"Woah, that's kind of drastic. Let's try to see who they are first. We will only attack if the time comes for it."

"They can be a threat! I'd rather kill and be wrong than have you die because we tried to be right." Luna said with a surprising amount of emotion.

"We'll be fine. Trust me."

We both walked out and down a rope of woven vines that Luna made, then looked out towards an old ruinous street. There, I saw a rat-like person, who looked like a 'Skaven' from 'WH40K'. They wore a cloak that seemed to be made from people's skin, with various stretched out faces and stitching between the sections of leather. Their hood was separated from their cloak by a necklace of crow skulls, which still seemed to be trying to caw as the person walked towards us. Under the hood, they had a blindfold on, which covered two bleeding eye sockets. Where had I seen this person before?

"So...I tracked you down to out here, she-wolf, only to find that you have an old friend in your company. I'm impressed. Two birds, one stone." The rat-person said. "You know what happened when you disappeared, Matteus? Mario was disappointed. Astrid left us. Esther stopped speaking. You took EVERYTHING from me, everything but my faith. I have been repaid, however. I track a Werewolf down for her blood, and then I find you here? Perfect."

"I do not know you." I said. But...I kinda felt like I had met them before. Another sense of Deja-vu. "You do not want this fight."

"Oh...Pretty sure I do. It's only fair, after all, that I take back some. You had the nerve to run off, not even saying goodbye. You ruined everything. I was abandoned by everyone when you left! Do you know how that feels? You don't."

"The hell is he talking about? Have you not been telling me things?" Luna asked.

"I don't know either. I'd remember a mug like his."

The rat-person snarled.

"Go. I'll get rid of this guy." I said. I wasn't going to let Luna get hurt because of my (alleged) wrongdoings.

"No. We fight together."

"Luna, I don't-"

"Oh man! Don't tell me, she has you under her spell?" The rat-person suddenly laughed. "You've got no idea of the nature of the trap you have fallen into, Matteus. I have a score to settle."

He drew a rusty-looking dagger from his belt and took a step forward.

"And I don't think your little werewolf friend is going to be much help."

I had just enough time to take out my own dagger when the rat-person had turned into a shadow. I could see it running towards us on the ground, knife out. I tried to run away, throwing a crumbling column to slow the shadow, but it simply jumped over the obstacle. I guess whatever weird magic had been cast expired, as the rat returned with a puff of smoke. He thrust the knife towards my head, but I shoved my hand in the way of the blade and tore it away. The rusty knife in my hand burned, like having a sunburn and taking an ice bath. But I just got angry. Who the hell was this guy?! Who was he to come here and try to kill me?! For something that I didn't even do at that! Bah! I would show him!

"What?" The rat-person said as I clutched the handle of the knife buried in my hand. "You...You weren't like this..."

"People change." I simply replied. I then ripped it out and threw it to the side. "Now. Forfeit or die."

"Brother! Kill him!" The rat-person yelled. I looked behind me, primed to see another person, but I instead found a shadow twisting up my arm and around my neck. I tried to reach up and grab it, to make the dark noose around my neck loosen, but it was incorporeal. I felt myself being strangled by the shadow, falling to my knees.

"Impressive, isn't he? That is my brother. He protects me from danger. And he cannot be felt by people like you. He will simply wrap and tighten and squeeeeezzzeeeee the life out of you, until you are completely dead. He protects me until death. There is no way you can break out either."

"Cheater..." I choked out. Vision's getting a little fuzzy...

"I don't cheat. I just do what I have to. I stand up to my morals. Though, I guess I should thank you a little bit. When you left, and I was abandoned, I was taught who my REAL friends and mentors were. All of them. This world, it is sick," The rat-person said, leaning down in front of me. "And when every heretic is purged from this world, every blight, every untrue soul, every person who has no cause but for themselves...Then, it will be better. Consider it as a sort of...sterilisation."

"Generic...Villain...Prick..." I said with the last bits of air in my lungs. It had worked in a lot of other stories before, where the hero aggravates the antagonist, who gets sloppy and lets the bonds loosen, and for the hero to get out. Not that I'm a hero. I'm just reusing what I think can work.

"You don't understand this world, Matteus. Do you know what my ancestors have done? The glory they almost achieved? We, alongside the Kneavll, almost came upon a precipice. We had killed off the false Ratborn! Then, we fell, as my ancestors turned on our benefactors. I will not make that mistake. I'm a villain in your eyes, but...ask yourself what you really know. Am I generic? Or am I actually doing some good? Not like you'll have much time to ask, since I can see you dying."

He was right. I could feel the life slipping away from me. In another few moments, I would be dead. But suddenly, I had a rally. My vision came back, somewhat, and I saw something important-looking: An amulet, made from a severed hand. It was dangling from Jacob's neck...just ready to be taken.

I thrust my hand forth and grabbed the amulet, ripping it from his neck.

"NO!" He suddenly yelled. But I just felt angry at that moment. I squeezed my hand as hard as I could on the dusty dried-out hand, causing it to crumble to dust. The shadow that bound my neck subsided, turning into evil-smelling smoke. I saw Luna behind me, also gasping for air, surrounded by even more of the evil smoke. Jeez...How bad was it for her?

"You...You...You destroyed it...Brother..." The rat-person said. He clutched the pieces of the ruined amulet that fell to the ground, looking truly mournful at the pieces. "You killed him."

"I did not kill anyone. Forfeit, whoever you are. I don't want to hurt you."

"You don't...DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?! You don't want to hurt me?! You have...No! I won't fucking stand for this! Die! Die! Die!" He said, running at me with a brick he grabbed from the ground.

Luna charged for the Rat-person as well, with great hairy hands that ended with talons.

"No!" I yelled, trying to run between them. But, even if Werewolves had greater muscular endurance, they can't run any faster. "STOP!"