The Curse of Undying

The Tainted Road

Strolling down the path whistling a happy tune, knowing the grave situation has no song to it. I know for a fact, it's been a whole night. I started yesterday afternoon, and the town diplomats have probably arrived. Every week they head down from the capital and check for anything that's gone wrong. Heck, their probably falling of their horse speeding back to the capital now. Then, what's gonna happen is they're gonna find the bodies and decipher out who's dead, then pin down me as the person who is still alive. Which to them either means there was an attack of some sort and I ran, or that I was the murderer. Both ways mean wanted posters across the whole country. I take out my map, this map is a really recent one, though parched and has become brown in color it still has the exact locations of everywhere. 

So if I'm gonna find this warrior that will finally kill me, I'm gonna head North. That's where all the barbaric towns are anyway. All the scavengers, warriors, bounty hunters, and criminals all head back up there. To the famous center of the north. The hub of all fighters, The Red Moon bar. I start walking where I think is north according to my compass. And I already know where I'm gonna have to go, the Tainted road. 

Little bit of history here, there was a huge civil war a century ago, between the whole of the country. Every village was on it's own, they formed alliances and truces. And eventually two sides came to fight. It was two very secretive people. There was one side, their leader was a dark knight with two horns on his helmet and a blood red cape. And then there was a a knight with a light blue plume on his helmet and both stayed silent. The whole battle. Eventually the blue plumed knight overcame the dark knight. But he was severely injured and died of blood loss. Two hours later. This threw the kingdom back into chaos. But it was a smaller ruckus than before. Then one day seven priests came all in golden embroidered robes and created the Unity. They built a central government. And they were seriously powerful in magic. No one could defeat them.

Now that I think of it, I should probably head there. But that's also in the north. Anyway, the Tainted Road is where both of the original people, the red cape and blue plume, had the biggest fight in history. In fact, it was so cruel and deadly, no one came to salvage the bodies. Except the two leaders. The priests took them and chained their coffins in what they call the church of war. Let me explain, my dad used to tell me this all the time. The priests have seven powers, they have war, health, Light,dark, death, life, and the last one is reality. The king of the world today. The priest of reality.

As I walk along the road, I think about this. How can someone control reality? huh. As I'm thinking of this I literally say what I see.

"holy hell."

There is dead people everywhere! Skeletons, armor, the grass is STILL red! the road. It's literally tainted! Red everywhere, old blood! And even.....

New blood....

Wolves are howling. Night is rolling in. I gotta get going. I can't camp here, it's impossible! Every movement is skittish. The snap of a branch in the distance. The feeling of being watched from everywhere. But it's just an open plain! Nothing could sneak up on me. But there is tall grass from not being maintained in a century. Nothing has set foot off of the road since the war. More howling. The night was rushing in. The moon rises as hungry eyes seem to appear from the brush. padded footing. I took out my sword. You know. This would be a good time as hell to go into demon mode brain. My brain did not reply. I held my sword ready.  And then they came at me. They came in packs, packs of twelve. Gnashing their teeth and sheathing their claws. They looked like they had some serious blood lust. Well, I can always try and get out of this... I don't know if they'll listen to reason? Well here's my reason. "You guys hungry for pancakes? I got some really good pancakes. No? Alright then." I lunge forward, though the wolves were on their guard they side stepped left and came at my side. I quickly shifted in position. The Wolves were in the air, not very stable. I pose with my sword high ready in a stabbing position. shiiiiink. Right down it's throat. I slide his dead corpse off my sword. The others lean back a little and lie down looking like they could pounce at any moment. There was a series of barks that seemed to be from the leader.  One wolf ran backward another came right where the one I killed just came and another pounced forward and one tried to sneakily crouch behind me and pounce. The one in front I whack with the side of my sword. I swing around and slice the dog on the side, I swivel and stab the one that sneaked up on me. turning around, I see the other one is starting to get up. I stab it through the one I just stabbed. I look at the pack once more. Then suddenly the wolf that ran backward came back with a whole of three more packs. They formed a circle around me and all pounced. Or two packs the other packs either circled and pounce after an interval or just made sure I couldn't get away. I couldn't keep up. I kept slashing though, one bit my leg I was on one knee they didn't let me get my bearings straight though because they dog piled me as some of them clamped onto my limbs, and my chest and then one leaped for my head but I had just enough energy to doge it. And suddenly, I had a flaring anger. Some kind of rage.

Alright then. Let me help you some.

 What is this? I emitted a murderous essence and aura that all the surrounding wolves backed up. They then all erupted off my body. I was seeing red. Every living walking thing around me was a target. I suddenly leaped and with my sword I somehow killed 7 of them in a second. I turned around, there were more behind me, after seeing me kill 7 of their comrades they decided to get out. I wouldn't let that, One by one I seemed to kill stab and slash each one of them. And then my brain calmed down. And I fell to the ground. I was asleep for about half an hour. And then I woke up again. There were dead wolves all around me. My sword lay beside me covered in blood. I laid there. I was in so much peace. I was in that perfect position that you would never want to leave. The grass was nice and I was perfectly fit inside the grooves of the ground. Then I noticed there were about four dozen dead wolves around me. I sat up and immediately regretted it. Well then I should get a move on. I picked up my sword, washed it in a nearby stream that was red the past war and people doing this all the time probably. Nonetheless it was clean and I sheathed it. Then after that I picked up about five wolves washed them and either stuffed them in my bag or slung them over my shoulder and used the strap from my bag to keep them there. I started walking out. The tainted road would go on for about another two days. If this keep happening I'll have to keep low and be careful. I walked along with a few wolves on me. And followed the Tainted Road. I need to find the warrior that kills me, if I die to a bunch of wolves I will have scarred my honor as a swordsman and my shame will be high. That should be all I think. With all the bloodshed, I had just added a new layer of paint to the Tainted Road. I will Die.

But not to the likes of you.