In a forest, as day turns to night, a boy flees into the dark. His father’s wagon, fallen prey to the native inhabitants of these woods, Runethropes. An age old rival of man for dominance over this land, or at least one of them. But few other rival races would feed on their kills in this battle. The only reason the boy still lives and has time to run is due to the fact that his father and uncle made for a fuller course. Perhaps, for dessert, they will resume their hunt for the child, but for now he had time to run.

   Through the darkness, the boy spots a faint light. He goes to it, hoping it’ll be a camp of United Colonialists or bandits or anything human to help him escape. But instead of sanctuary, the boy finds a graveyard. Skulls and bones, decorating huts if not laid out across the ground. Gnawed limbs tossed to the side and unfinished as carcasses of men are skewered over an open flame. The boy had found the campsite of the Runethropes. Though it was not the ravaged bodies of men that frightened him the most, but the one left whole.

A man, dressed in a black fork-tailed coat and slouch hat, hanged in the middle of the camp. Bound to a tree and over an open flame. His body had no visible signs of damage, scrapes or bruises even, but it had clear signs of malnutrition. A starved and dehydrated corpse. What made it so important to have earned such a display? Well during this time, this choice in clothing was a universal sign that he had belonged to an order. An order of cursed men, as vile as the beasts they hunted and as feared if not more. These men would be known as Purifier’s.

For the Runethropes to take pride in and wish to display their slaying of one made sense. Similar to a scarecrow, it could even discourage other tribes from invading territory. The boys situation seemingly growing all the more hopeless as a result f it even. He took a seat near one of the fires and readied to face his fate. His only question being, by hand or claw?

"Boyo..." A voice uttered through the silence. "Up here." The boy looked up and saw the Purifier glaring at him. His head tilted up, revealing tired eyes with bags under them, and grungy brown hair over his youthful face.

"Ta yer right, there be a hatchet. Take it n’ cut me down." The Purifier directed the boy, an accent trailing his words. The boy simply looked up to him, more amazed than anything.

"Today!" The Puifier commanded. The boy, frightened by the snap, reels back a bit.

"*Sigh*, I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been up here fer many days, weeks maybe, and these fellas imagination fer tryin’ ta find ways ta put me down don’t seem ta be runnin’ thin. If it be all te same ta ya, I’d like to settle the score." The Purifier calmly explained while gritting his teeth together. The boy then looked around and found the hatchet, taking it in hand. Pausing to ponder his options while facing away from the Purifier.

"I know what yer tinkin’. "Why trust ta kid chained to a tree? He don’t got much time left already." Right?" The Purifier guessed correctly. "Well I can’t give ya reason ta trust me, other then I’m all ya got. And yer all I got." The boy then heard a howl in the night. "Do ya really wanna die a boy or live ta be a man?"

The boy approaches the tree and cuts the chains base, freeing the Purifier as he flops to the ground. The Purifier rises back up, patting the kid on the head, then forcibly snatching the hatchet out of his hands. The two look across and see the face of one of the Runethropes peering out from the woods at them.

"Rex!..." It spoke. "Get back up there!"

"Ya really wanna do tis? There were five of ya fer our first go. I don’t tink the three of ya will have any better luck." The Purifier they called Rex answered back.

"You had your chance." The Runethrope retorts. The two others sounding off behind the scenes of the forest. Rex nudges the boy behind him.

"Cover yer eyes n’ don’t move from tis spot." He whispers to him.

The boy abides. The Runethrope than charges, revealing its massive bear-like physique as it storms through the camp at the two. Rex charges back, holding the hatchet out to the side and low enough to catch fire from one of the burning pyres in the camp. As he and the Bear drew closer toward each other, Rex tightened both hands grip around the handle of the hatchet and swung towards the Bears face as it snapped at him.

The Bear veers off to the side, taking not just a slash across the face but a wave of burning embers at the same time. While stunned, Rex drives the hatchet into the top of the Bears skull, lodging it in enough to drag the Bears still snapping head back into the air before slamming it back into the ground to force the hatchet in even deeper. One of the Bears eyes popped out with the sound of the skull crunching.

Rex presses a heel down on the Runethropes thick neck, giving him support to pull the hatchet out. He then spins in a one-hundred and eighty degree angle and tosses the weapon across the site, embedding it into the log he was previously chained upon and only a few inches away from the boy. The boy parted his fingers in front of his eyes just enough to see an elongated hand, talon-like in appearance, missing some of its digits and only a few inches away from grabbing onto him.

The raptor Runethrope had perched atop of the log, going for the boy while he was alone. He now analyzed his wounded hand, it slowly dawning on him the odd mixture of pain and rage as the raptor glared up to Rex.

"Try finishin’ yer dinner first." Rex tells it. The raptor spread his wings and let out a banshee like cry. Leaping off the log and soaring towards the man that had severed his fingers from his body. Before Rex could react, the raptor had caught him, driving him into a tree on the edge of the campsite. The raptor then holds its nubby fingers up to Rex’s face.

"My CLAWWWWWWW-" It shouts with a deafening cry in Rex’s face. Stopping only when Rex locks both his legs around it’s bottom jaws and presses both of his hands against it’s top beak.

"You ate people in front of me!" Rex shouts back.

A struggle then ensues. The raptor tightening its remaining claw around Rex’s throat as Rex pushes back on the Runethropes bottom jaw. The sounds of flesh pulling and bones snapping fills the silent night as Rex’s now red face illuminates the scene. Another ghastly whale fills the air following a loud snap as the bottom of the raptors jaw finally presses off and out of socket.

The Runethrope reels back and releases Rex as it falls to the ground before going silent. Rex takes the moment to catch his breath and flip off the body of the predatory bird. The moment of peace is short lived, however, as Rex perks back up upon hearing the low grumble of the final Runethrope rogue coming from behind him. The rat.

Using it’s lengthier limbs, the rat was able to bind Rex’s arms behind his back in one palm and slam his face into the dirt with the other. It then begins to gnaw at the back of his neck, trying to chew into him for a clean kill, only for it to fail as his skin does not tear.

"Slowest o’ ta bunch, ain’t ya?" Rex says while gritting through the dirt and pain, close to blacking out.

The rat was unamused by his claims and looked towards the camp. Spotting a caldron of boiling water and growing an insidious grin as what little brain it did have came up with a cruel idea to enact upon the man that mocked him. With a forceful push over the rim, and while holding his arms behind him, the rat dunked Rex, headfirst, into the pot to boil.

"Drowning didn’t work. Burning didn’t work. Let’s try both together. How’s that for brains to ya, Purifier!" the rat shouted.

The rat then reeled back and screamed in pain as a solid thud could be heard. He turned and found the hatchet dug into his thigh, and the boy a few feet behind him. It turned, releasing Rex, and plucked the hatchet out from its side. It then loomed over the boy.

"I believe this belongs to you." He said, readying to drive the tool down on the child.

Then, in an instant the rat found Rex on his back. Locking an arm around his throat and dragging him down to the ground. The rat struggled as Rex locked his legs around his and continued to pull at his head, stopping only once he heard a crack and felt the body atop of him go limp. Rex shoved the Runethrope aside and sprawled out onto the ground. Exhausted and panting heavily. The Purifier only opened an eye when the shadow of the boy was cast over him.

"... Thanks." Rex said before letting his head fall back to the hard ground. The boy then sat down next to him.

"Just give me... A moment ta... Get some shut eye. We’ll head out afterwards..." Rex told the boy as he fell asleep. Leaving him waiting for Rex to awaken. Waiting for them to head back out into the world. Waiting, for what was next.

Next Chapter: Sullen