The Dredd Tales: Hunters and Slayers

Chapter 1

"The Dreddhunters were an organization dedicated entirely to the tracking, and slaying of Dredd. Considering that, it's almost a wonder they didn't die out sooner."

A Brief History of the Dredd

By Marcan of Karthas

(~)

Due to the nature of their occupation, Dreddhunters traveled a lot. Any kind of Dredd could show up anywhere on the map, so that meant going anywhere on the map. This in turn meant long, long, long rides on wagons on a routine basis. Even for adults that could become tedious, to say nothing of people Varrad's age.

Varrad couldn't see the city anymore, rather, all he could really see were trees on all sides, which he figured must've meant they had been riding for a while. When he tried to look through the trees, he found the woods too dense to really see anything. The most that one could really see were the Gray Peaks to the East. The boy just sighed to himself, as he leaned, his gaze shifted to the road passing beneath them.

Being a child on a wagon trip was difficult; there wasn't much one could do to pass the time. Varrad tried to think of things he could do: count the animals he saw (that got boring after the fourth deer or fifth rabbit), watch the clouds (that was boring by nature), or maybe try reading (he forgot to bring any books he actually liked), but nothing really seemed to do it. So he resigned himself to just leaning on the railing of the wagon, watching the world go by.

"If you keep squirming back there, you're going to fall off the wagon." Varrad looked over at the voice of the woman sitting in the driver's seat.

"But there's nothing to do," Varrad whined.

"I'm sure you can find something to do if you set your mind to it," Larra answered. She had lightly tanned skin, alongside short, dark hair with light blue eyes, and on her cheek was a small, but visible scar. She was wearing a leather jerkin, leather vambraces, with a brown trousers, under leather leg-braces. Around her neck was a simple leather necklace with a bronze amulet, which was of two swords piercing an eye, the symbol of the Dreddhunters.

Varrad's attire, while similar, was considerably less well armored; it just consisted of some brown trousers, and an equally brown shirt; as an apprentice, he hadn't earned the right to wear the amulet yet. His hair was light brown, and short like hers, though his eyes were a brilliant green. The most armor he wore was a leather undershirt, which was more hot than anything else, especially with the weather as it was.

As summer set in, the weather was nice and warm, and the day was a clear one; arcing brilliantly over the clear blue sky were the Rings, massive streaks that were said to circle across the whole of Ruak, glowing white in the light of the late morning. It all would've been perfect to play in, but Varrad wasn't so fortunate. Rather, he had been pulled along by Larra on one of her missions; apparently there were some Dreddwings in a small village to the Northeast of Dredd's End. Varrad had been enticed to go partly with his master's idea that they might see the dragons that were known to live in the mountains North of the city.

"Dragons like this weather too," she had said, "Maybe one'll come out of its cave, and we'll catch a glimpse of it." Well, so far, there were no dragons to be seen.

"Anyway, we should be in Green Branch soon," Larra said, "We're going to need to get to work as soon as we arrive." Varrad nodded in understand, before he glanced over into the wagon. The most noticeable thing in the wagon was the iron cage, with a crossbow and a saber lying beside it, along with a small trunk.

"Master?" Varrad asked, as he crawled over to the weapons, "Which weapon are you going to use?" Larra looked back at him, and opened her mouth, before a thought seemed to come to her, pursing her lips slightly, before smiling.