This one continues off part 2, which I haven't yet decided to change to part one (because as was pointed out, this one and the previous actually take place before part 1). In fact a head's up, parts 2-4 will all be chronologically before part 1.
Also, the character formerly known as Sech is now Sedura (Sech just didn't sound like a woman's name).
Chapter Three
The day was getting warmer, my heavy blouse and long, blue sarong weren’t helping either. Mattek offered to carry my blouse in the brown leather sack that hung from his shoulder. I had a lighter undergarment on that I still would have been modest in, but his sack looked mostly full so I declined. That and I didn’t like that he had asked it.
I wasn’t glad where we were going, but at least the wooded canopy provided shade. Morav and Mattek walked ahead, Geor and Frit were in the back, and I was sandwiched in the middle. The boys talked amongst themselves, neither ignoring nor inviting me to join them. I wasn’t exuding warmth so I didn’t blame them.
Ahead of me, Morav and Mattek talked like we were on some grand adventure.
I guess it is an adventure though, doing something unexpected, a bit dangerous has to count as one. I guess adventure is one of those things that is enjoyable when it happens to someone else, or at least after you’ve already gone through it unhurt.
I couldn’t help but think how terribly wrong this might go. They were right, D never fought four people at once, but then just four people never went to his cabin. A slab of meat was hardly worth the risk.
Why did I agree to this?
No one really knew what D was capable of. He stole food whenever it pleased him. He’d killed at least three men—two were woodsman from Cidot and one was a traveler from the Northern Empire. The last of the three had almost brought imperial troops down on us. He had drowned the Wilhem’s oldest boy last summer. He’d even violated women that had wandered off alone.
Why did I agree to this?
The only reason he was tolerated was because the village men couldn’t catch him. They’d set traps for him, but he moved like a demon. He
was a demon. Even when he was caught in one, he’d find a way out. There was just no way to hold what you couldn’t see. They’d burned his cabin
twice—affording them a month or two of peace—but he rebuilt it each time.
It was after the second time that the last two murders happened. Then the village finally conceded the hilltop to D. They would not harass him, and they hoped he would leave them in peace.
With each remembered crime, my heart pounded a little faster. I tried to be brave, but I found my steps falling just a little closer to Morav’s. I was relieved when we reached the end of the beaten trail. Though it meant we had come to D’s clearing, the afternoon sun shining down from a clear sky put me at ease.
The five of us crept to the edge of the shade that bordered between the forest and the open. Across the weedy green was a cabin of gray, dried and rotting wood. It leaned slightly, the work of unskilled hands. For a minute or two we watched it from the back, I wasn’t sure why. If D was there, he would spot us long before we were aware of him.
“Alright,” Mattek declared in a voice expecting allegiance. “Let’s go!” He sprinted out with Morav moving quickly after. Geor and Frit ran behind them. Hiking up my skirt, I followed—bounding more than running to keep my skirt from snagging.
Circling around the cabin, the boys went straight in through the unlocked front door. I held back staying outside. Probably, I would have been safer inside with four young men, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the sunlight for the shadows of D’s cabin.
Instead I looked in through a window. The first thing I noticed was that there were curtains; I didn’t think of it immediately, but then—
what does an invisible demon need with privacy? I guess they say he was born like a human, I suppose even the most wretched thing needs rest. When you don’t have friends, you don’t want anyone to see your weakness.
The boys were searching cupboards and taking turns ducking into a back room, probably a closet or something. My own search also continued from through the glass. In the corner nearest me on my right, was a stack of animal furs that looked like they’d been used for a bed. On the floor near it was a bowl of lentils or beans or something.
Against the wall was a small chest; of all the things in the room it was the most detailed. I couldn’t see very well from my vantage point, but I could make out figures carved into the top and sides. One of its corners was burned to black, but it was still the only thing I could see that had any craftsmanship to it. At that moment, Morav descended on it. It opened away from me so I couldn’t make out the contents. “What is it? What’s inside?” I asked aloud. I was about to ask louder when a breeze came by and kissed my cheek.
Combing back a handful of rogue strands, I turned from the portal and looked out over the meadow. In front of the cabin were three trees, two on my left and one on my right. All of them were charred and nothing more than black pillars with branches. As I looked between them, the breeze brushed past again; it wasn’t cold and the sun was bright, but I felt suddenly chilled to the bone. There was something out there, but no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t see it. The wind bent the grass.
What if it’s him? My eyes darted to where the weeds split,
what if it’s not the wind moving through the field?
