The Stableboy's shadow (BL)

Chapter 5

After what had happened the first night we got out of town, Percevin started asking a lot of questions. Not personal questions, rather about creatures, the forest, and how to survive outside a town's walls. He was always watching everything around us as if he was discovering the world for the very first time, asking about pretty much everything he could see that he didn't know about. He questioned everything, plants, trees, animals. Most of them I didn't even have an answer for.

It always took him a long time to take in the information before another question would surprise me. The sound of his voice sounding so casually around us was still unsettling as we were nearing the end of the second week of our... quest. I tried many times to take the opportunity to ask back, to get to know him, but he would always fall back into being mute for about an hour in lieu of answering anything before curiosity would kill the heaviness of the silence with his hundreds of questions again.

After a few days, as the scenery was barely changing and he was mostly satisfied about it, he started asking about things he had heard about in tales and legends. He wondered about myths creatures, which were or weren't real, the ones I had encountered, dangerous creatures we could come across on the way to Castletown. This time, I was a bit more into the conversation, as the subject was way more familiar and interesting, responding with the real versions of tales, previous experiences and drunkenly shared stories.

I thought I was making progress through a few of his reactions; a smile there, a small cough, a shaking of his head, so I risked asking my questions again, but to no avail. I then promised myself I wouldn't recall any events, nor add any fun facts to his subject of question anymore unless he specifically asked for it. Even though the subjects were still interesting, as I bit back my enthusiasm, the conversation became dry and soulless.

He had been silent for a few hours when he asked the question he had been leading to, that had been burning his lips, and, judging from the way his shadow swayed, had almost scared him. heard him gulped before speaking, which I now knew was a his tell of nervousness.

- The creature from last time, what did you say it was called?

- A WraithDog.

- You mentioned something about creating this creature, but what did you mean?

- Before, this beast was a blackdog. They're a bit like common wolves, but bigger, more intelligent and vicious. They are scarier too, from them being shadow creatures, but what creates a Wraith is when hunters or anyone kills a creature without any respect, out of pleasure or greed, and most of the time, leaves them there to rot. That leaves traces, anger, need for vengeance. This resentment is what creates it.

It took a second for the information to sink in. I was used to these pauses in conversation, as he really took time to think about it, linking the newly acquired facts to what he already knew and gathered. But this pause was, for once, short-lived.

- Can any animal become a wraith?

- Every living thing, yes, even though some are more frequent than others. With animals, it's mostly predators, but sometimes, we can come across more passive creatures. And those are the most terrifying.

- How so?

- They are given a particularly strong power. Maybe the gods of shadow take pity on them. They are stronger than predator Wraiths.

He stopped talking for a moment and contemplated what I had just said. I had only once encountered a Wraith-mouse and my group almost didn't survive to tell the tale. They are truly terrifying. But I didn't feel like telling another story so I kept my mouth shut for now, true to my silent promise.

- So, we can't kill them.

- No one can kill a ghost; we can only seal it away, I answered. And some species are more powerful than others. Prayers addressed to the gods of light are more effective than those made to the shadows. So, what I did back then was mostly to seal this dog for a few days.