In Huck's Hands

BUTCHERS BEGINNINGS PART 2 of 3(or 4 i think)

Aygu made little attempt to break the line once the initial charge split past the minimal defenses of the Muave Palace's outer walls. At the time of his respite to rip the metallic pin of a stolen Vascan grenade, the man's ears had already fallen deaf to the sounds of his kin being peeled back by the Vascan's only weapon that could turn back the 10-to-1 odds the rebels boasted. "Dhira's light"; An entirely unholy weapon of mass destruction that was not fully understood by the scientists who wielded it nor the priests who brought it from the Old World.

The sound of wails and lungs sputtering out splurts of misplaced blood took over without the warlord being truly aware of the real threat. Ebony-scaled appendages reached deep into the minds of all that entered the inner walls of the Vascan's fortress. The barriers themselves echoed the screams of those who tried to enter within seconds, causing many to flee headfirst into oncoming bombardment from Vascan reinforcement.

Aygu saw the filmy fog that coated the siege for only a few moments before feeling the hard crack of his son slamming into his side which sent him careening into a half-ruined merchant stall. Just as Aygu went to strike his son for the disobedience of his word and for putting him off his path the young man began to writhe with agony, his eyes bulging with fear and pulsing red veins. "FATHER!"

The mud-colored eyes of Aygu's beloved son popped from the socket without another second, the words barely escaping his agape mouth. The black tundra of death took him. Each escaping gasp from the young warrior's ripping lungs and raving mind made him more feral. Each struggling second against the onslaught of near-invisible black ink that plagued the grounds they meant to storm only forced more agony into both the young boy's psyche and body.

The mist also quickly took hold of the warlord's every thought without any warning, the stall he had crashed into morphed into the tentacled cups of the Kraken that took him from his mother as a boy. All his thoughts became consumed in the ever-locking weave of the salty ocean's grasp on his body from decades ago.

Aygu made extreme efforts since losing his biological family to push them to the back burner of the furnace that blazed behind his brown eyes, but now; He could not escape the cracking beaked maw of the once-believed mythical beast that left extremely real scars all over his body.

The stench of burning flesh and the clangor of battle faded into the background as Aygu's world narrowed to the horrifying sight before him. His son, Au'te, lay convulsing on the ground, eyes jutting grotesquely from their sockets clearer than any pseudo scene.

The boy's final, choked gasp tore through Aygu's heart like a serrated blade as he violently spasmed limp.

Aygu's mind reeled. Saltwater once again filled his lungs, choking him, dragging him down into the depths of memory he'd fought so hard to suppress in the dark waters of western Buriti shores known as Black-Water Bay.

Through the haze of panic and remembered grief, a small part of Aygu's battle-hardened mind clung to rationality. This was no natural phenomenon, it reeked of dark Vascan sorcery, Aygu hurriedly reasoned. With monumental exertion, he forced himself to focus on the burning present, on the cool metal of his blade against his palm as he tore into his own flesh.

"Illusions," he growled through gritted teeth. "Nothing but tricks and shadows! I will not stop until every last Vascan is buried!"Gripping his sword tightly, Aygu stumbled forward.

The mist swirled around him, conjuring phantoms of past horrors; the faces of those he'd brutally obliterated almost daily, the burning villages he'd left in his simmering wake. But with each step, his resolve hardened further. He'd come too far to even slightly falter now.