First Day
#1 of Hunter Hunted
Series: Hunter Hunted
Thunk, the bolt slammed into the bookcase above Jimmy's head tearing out some fur from his ear "that fucking hurt asshole try aiming next time".
He swore at himself for believing that bloody enforcer, 'The lord of the house gone my ass' he thought. Jimmy was a thief and a bloody good one at that but if the most people don't know thieves aren't particularly good fighters and they most certainly steer clear of situations like these but Jimmy had the luck of the devil as well as his greed, so when he heard that a lord wasn't at his home he jumped at the chance to greatly increase his riches.
'I gonna kill that motherfucker' Jimmy promised himself but he did accept that he should have been more than a little suspicious of a tip from a enforcer whose daughter he regularly slept with against the enforcer's wishes and the enforcer wasn't shy about making his opinion felt, like last time when the enforcer walked in on Jimmy and the enforcer's daughter in the enforcer's own bed that turned out to be mildly unpleasant for all concerned especially Jimmy who had to run barefoot across the town's roofs with a psychotic enforcer after him.
Jimmy continued to run through the library he turned another corner 'how fucking big is this place I've been running for at least half an hour' he thought and then ran straight into the Lord of the house "But but but........ how the fuck did you get in front of me?" Jimmy stuttered.
"Come now Jimmy did you really think you could evade me in my house, in my place of power" The Lord sneered
"Come to think of it I really didn't think you'd be home and I didn't think you were a spell caster" Jimmy replied coolly
"Tsk Tsk Tsk Jimmy come now I've had this planned for quite some time and you have choice you can serve me or you can die, quite a simple choice even for a fool like you" the Lord spoke
"You know I think I'd just rather leave" Jimmy said getting up slowly
"Don't you get yet Jimmy you can't leave this place unless I say so and you won't unless you do as I say so" the Lord said
"Well it doesn't seem like I have a hell of a choice in this do I" Jimmy replied
"No you never really did, it was easy enough to get that enforcer to betray you. he really is quite attached to that daughter of his you know. All that you needed to do was swallow the bait and you did, surprise surprise. The Lord said mockingly
"So what do you want?" Jimmy said intrigued by the Lord's plan
"Quite simple Jimmy I want you to steal the Princess Helen from the Castle and bring her to me also I might add I will bind you to a spell if you don't bring the girl to me within the week you won't just be a fox human you will be a fox, full stop.
"Well that a bit of a bugger isn't it, so you want me to break into a heavily guarded castle and steal a girl that if she makes one sound could have at least two armies cutting me to bits" Jimmy replied
"What to hard for you Jimmy?" The Lord asked mockingly
"No I thought you'd have something harder" Jimmy said smugly
"Well just shake my hand and be of but remember one week from today or else you'll be hunted again this time for sport" Lord spoke
Jimmy reached over and took the Lord's hand and as he did the most incredible pain burst throughout his body "Remember seven days no more" and then he blacked out.
Jimmy awoke back in his home city "God dammit" he shouted the first thing he was going to do was kill the enforcer than he was going to steal the girl get her to the fucking house than he was going to the Lord and steal everything of value from his house.
Jimmy walked away from the Mockers base wiping blood from his dagger 'well at least that's one thing off the list' he thought as he left the body of the enforcer to be found.
Jimmy considered the castle as he walked towards the walls; well it can't be any more dangerous than being turned back into a fox and he rather enjoyed living so he didn't really have choice. The walls were very thick but Jimmy had no trouble scaling the walls, he slowly crept across the courtyard intensely aware that if a guard spotted him he was fucked, he had one shot and this was it. Jimmy heard a guard coming and climbed up onto a nearby roof, the guard moved on unaware of the intruder Jimmy let out a sigh of relief and step backwards.
Crack!!! "Ah fuc---"Jimmy started as the glass beneath his feet shattered and sent him falling. About 8 feet onto the princess's bed, The princess took and sharp breath and screamed.
"Shit!" Jimmy swore as he heard guards come sprinting down the hallway and burst into the princess's bedroom and leveled to crossbows at him. Jimmy dropped his dagger in a sign of defeat as they guards dragged Jimmy through the castle and threw him in front of the king. Jimmy realized at that point that he was most certainly in the shit.
"Who might I ask is this?" the King questioned the guards
"This is the boy who broke into your daughter's room" said one of the guards
"So what were you doing in my daughter's room?" the king asked inquisitively
"Well that's kinda hard to answer" Jimmy said slowly
"Well I think to Captain of the guard could get the answer out you but I'd prefer you to be in intact for later" the King said
"Ah, well that makes the situation difficult, either way I'm fucked. So I might as well tell you" Jimmy replied
The captain hit Jimmy on the back of the head "Watch your language in the King's court scum or I'll make your life more miserable that it will be already"
"Well the reason I was in your daughter's room was that I was screwed if I didn't steal her for the Mage Lord of the fifth house" Jimmy said "He would have turned me back into a fox, so I'd rather not be next thing on the hunt. So my choice was to steal her."
"Those Lord's have no power over you unless you're in their house" the captain spoke
"Well where do you think I was then idiot, I was told that Lord wasn't home so I mean what a chance", Jimmy continued, "I'm a thief so...."
"Well what will we do with you, isn't the royal army undermanned Captain? What if we remove the enchantment off this little fellow and send him to the frontline" the King laughed. Jimmy sank to the floor, being sent to the frontline was practically a death sentence for one thing and the frontline soldiers were kept there for a long fucking time because most were pardoned murders who now were getting paid to kill the enemy. So he was dead from both sides, on his side murderers on the other fucking flesh-formed monsters, yep he was fucked.
"If I may suggest, Sir, what if we put him in the Sergeant's group" the Captain put in "They need some new recruits."
"Yes that might work, they need someone with fast hands don't they?" the King asked
"Yes Sir I do believe the Sergeant requested some more men" the man nearest to the King said
"Alright so boy you have a choice, our mages will remove the enchantment, but you have to go to the frontlines or the Sergeant's group" the King said
'Well' Jimmy thought 'the Sergeant's group has to be better than the frontline'. "Well I guess I'll go with the Sergeant's group".
"Alright then your coming with me" spoke a man approaching from behind the King's throne
"Sergeant you're early" said the King a hint of approval in his voice
"Well so this is the latest addition to my group, get the mages in here; I want this to be trained as soon as possible. My men leave in three weeks, and you are coming with us whether you're ready or not."
So with this Jimmy was dragged in front of the most formidable man he had every seen who merely concentrated for a moment and pronounced the curse gone. Then Jimmy was dragged outside and slammed into the back of a wagon and the Sergeant jumped into wagon next to him "Did the Captain or King actually tell you what my group does?" the Sergeant asked bemusedly.
"No they actually didn't. So what do we do in your group?" Jimmy asked hesitantly
"To put to you bluntly, we go behind enemy lines and kill the real enemy, the Alhations." The Sergeant said annoyance clear in his voice
"Who or what are the Alhations?" Jimmy asked
"They are men who have come from the void where they have been trapped for centuries and should have remained there for the rest of time but one the Mage Lords and I believe one you are familiar with is thought to have unleashed them back on our world." The Sergeant spoke
"So how long is it going to take to get to your base?" Jimmy inquired
"About a day and don't think of escaping, I'll show you the reason when we get to the base" the sergeant said darkly
Jimmy thought that he probably didn't want to see the reason from the tone of the sergeant's voice, but wherever and whatever they would fight it was a hell of a lot better than being on the frontline, anyone knew that.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful when they arrived Jimmy saw what appeared to be the most formidable military buildings he had ever seen, not that he had seen that many.
"Welcome to the rest of your life soldier" the Sergeant shouted "When you are here I own you are we clear, you will accept my orders or I will have one of the other recruits kill you."
Jimmy surmised at that point that, that this was probably the reason that the Sergeant spoke about, the walls of the fortress were covered with archers carrying longbows with clothyard shaft capable of piercing even the thickest armor from around three hundred paces.
Jimmy looked around and saw about two other recruits "Where are the others?" Jimmy asked
"They haven't arrived yet, you are all recruits, the last group is dead" the Sergeant said simply