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Ch. 06: Hope

Silence, at long last. Such peace was all Hatchet had ever wanted. It was quiet, it was dark, and he was left alone; of no concern to the world. He hated it….

He hated that he ever wanted such a thing. He was cold, he was bare, and he was kneeling on filthy stone. His hand was against the ground; a furless, pale-skinned hand with the most thin and pathetic looking claws the wolf had ever seen. This was the hand of the summoned.

The wolf kept staring down, the silence consuming. His breathing was measured, purposely kept low enough to remain alert; to keep feeling for the creak of the wooden steps beneath his fingertips. The air felt stagnant and suffocating; his bound and thick collar squeezing tighter than it should be, but still not nearly as stifling as the heavy anticipation was. The thoughts and feelings were not his own, but the wolf felt them anyway.

‘The master will come soon.’ He was waiting… and waiting… and waiting….

Relentless silence. Ceaseless darkness. Inescapable loneliness…. It was all Hatchet had ever wanted, yet the wolf hated it so vastly. The sell-sword had been wrong. Peace required far more than mere solitude.

He kept kneeling there on achy knees; endlessly, it would seem. He wanted to stand, but something prevented him from moving at all. He was merely a passenger in that place; a prisoner. He would not move…. He knew better.

‘I know better?’ A thought that was Hatchet’s own. Being forced into this perspective was strange for him.

The other mind confirmed as much. ‘I know better…. The gospel demands it.’

‘Gospel?’ The wolf didn’t even have time to ask for clarification before he was assaulted by a heavy thought, one that crushed him beneath the weight of such hard-learned lessons as his answer was recited forcibly.

‘Do not look them in the eye. From their touch you do not shy. Always follow each command. Never try to bite the hand. Don’t be tempted by the bread. Wake to kneel or wake to dread. Dare not fight and dare not run. Dare not think a drink to shun. Make no move without a leash. Do not hope for death nor peace.’

Hatchet was mortified by the poem, feeling himself fall further into despair with every line. He was struggling to differentiate which emotions were his own, but desperate to take each of the warnings to heart. The gospel of the masters was important, it was needed, it was the only thing that kept him from the master’s pain… it was the only thing that seemed to sate the sadistic wolves.

‘The wolves?’ He mumbled to himself.

‘ALL wolves are masters. All masters are equally cruel.’ The answer came firmly. This was a fact as far as the human was concerned.

‘I don’t-‘ Hatchet’s thought was immediately silenced by the slightest vibration against his throbbing knees and wary palm.

‘The master approaches. We must be ready to obey. We must fade. We must hide within. We must please him.’ The vision began to blur with the warning, the wolf’s sights getting hazy as the human demanded they retreat. The overwhelming need to listen; to avoid pain, drowned out all else. His breathing became even more scarce. An ivory paw stepped into his gaze just before he was cast out of the memory entirely.

His scenery soon shifted to somewhere even stranger.

~

The Master had been hurt. The Master had fallen. The Master was dying, and all the human could do was sit there and watch as he allowed a cruel master to rob him of joy yet again. The white wolf hurt him many times, but what the brown wolf had done seemed even more crushing in ways. He had finally belonged to a kind master. He had finally found a master that wasn’t so hard to please; one that wouldn’t hurt him, and the brown wolf had taken it away. There was little doubt….

The new Master was the best bread he’d ever let himself cave to. The new Master made his collar feel a little less tight; his leash like a lead-rope rather than a binding tether. The new Master was the only peace he’d known in a life of shit between not one, but two cruel worlds….

‘And yet, I am powerless to stop him from being taken from me. The cruel masters demand more and more. Always, they demand more. ALWAYS, I must give it to them….’ The human was clasping his Master’s hand so tightly between his own, even as the wolf faded off. The human’s tears were unstoppable. To think he would ever weep for any master….

‘Make no move without a leash. Do not hope for death nor peace.’ The gospel was as invasive as ever in a crisis.

The human let his heart crumble, accepting his remorse for what it was. It was the same as it had always been; it was punishment.

He had wished death on many a master before, and that was why his would be taken from him. The new master gave him hope. He gave him peace, and the gospel was clear on both. This may have been the cruelest lesson yet.

With shaky movement, the human slowly released his hold, quickly snatching the end of his leash and looping it around the wolf’s limp hand. He returned one of his own after, clasping the leather strap tightly between them as his smaller fingers interwove with the wolf’s larger ones. The Master’s hand swallowed his own; a final touch of reassurance. He would not leave his side….

The human leaned forward, placing his head against the wolf’s rapidly-slowing chest. He could feel his Master’s heartbeat growing weaker with every pump. Fresh tears came with the realization that he would be cursed with such a countdown for the wolf’s demise.

His free hand deliberately passed over the wolf’s soft underbelly, coming to rest over the mortal wound at the base of the beast’s ribs. The fur was matted with blood that still flowed from the injury, painting the human’s hand a bright red as it quivered there. He buried his face further into the dark pelt, the fur clinging to his damp cheeks as he silently screamed out in sheer agony. Of all the things that had been taken from him by the masters; of all the things he had endured… this was the one he wished would kill him the most, at least where his heart was concerned.

The familiarity of hopelessness began sinking its claws deep beneath his skin, making the human squeeze his own fists in response.

The despair was easy to give in to. However… something greater began to quickly take it’s place as that heartbeat slowed more and more.

Anger. In every fiber of his being, in every single cell of his broken body, he felt anger. His body lit up beneath that blistering fire, his silent shrieks of agony slowly giving way to screams of hushed denial. He felt hotter, his flesh sweltering. He writhed in overstimulation, like he was feeling every part of himself at once. His heart, his bones, his hair, his muscles, his skin, his very blood. He could feel that heat building within his brain, swarming the complex structure to map even that piece of him. Each part of his build was so different, yet still so similar…. All the vast cells that comprised him were all still a part of something bigger; something alive.

Still, his fist clenched over his Master’s wound in rage and refusal to be taken from again. He was tired of being pillaged of all peace. He was tired of useless hope without action. He was tired of wishing for death…. He would wish for life instead. He would act to preserve life, in all its smallest and most complex forms. He would let no part of his master’s kindness die, for the kindness the black wolf had shown him was the true gospel. THAT was true life… that life was true peace. That life was precious to him. He did not want to surrender it.

Then suddenly, he could feel that wolf’s sacred life as well as he could now feel his own….

By his own hand, life would be his to shape.

~

Hatchet had never been in such a clean building before. There were no visible supports anywhere, the walls appeared to be made of the strangest colored brick, and illumination magic seemed to be perpetually cast by the ceilings themselves. The walls were covered with some of the strangest, yet most colorful parchment Hatchet could fathom, with long lists of words that he would struggle to read even if they were written in his own language. The floors were shiny, and appeared to be some type of extremely flimsy and thin marble, evident by tiny chips giving way to a solid grey stone underneath. Row upon row of small tables with a single chair were arranged in this room. Hatchet was sitting atop one such table with a human standing across from him.

Hatchet’s face was hurting, his nose stuffed with two pieces of a strange cloth to stop the blood. He was holding a transparent bag of ice cut into squares against his knee, which had just been wrapped and tended to. He had been crying, unable to hear even his own assured sniffling. He was the human again, but he felt even smaller.

A movement caught his eye, a pair of hands with thin, painted claws. The hands of the woman began moving through a few very peculiar gestures, leaving Hatchet quite confused as to what was happening at first.

‘I don’t care!’ Hatchet felt those thoughts from before, his hands involuntarily moving through a few gestures of their own. ‘None of them know what it’s like! They get moms! They get dads! They get to hear, and now I don’t even get to play?’

‘WAIT!’ The realization was enlightening for Hatchet. ‘HE’S TALKING WITH HIS HANDS?’

The older woman replied, more gestures Hatchet had no hopes of deciphering yet. It seemed she was hesitant.

‘It’s not fair though! They all think I’m stupid, but I read better than any of them! I can do most math in my head, I got second place in the science fair last year WITHOUT my parents doing it for me, and you have read my poetry…. I’m not stupid…. I just need help sometimes. They could have changed the rules, I can not change this….’ Fresh waves of tears burst forth as the human finished his tirade. Hatchet was fairly certain he was crying with him by this point.

The teacher responded once more with something that made the summoned jump up in anger.

‘They won’t even learn the basics to signing. How am I supposed to keep trying to make friends when they keep laughing at me? When they beat me up just because I misunderstood their stupid rules to their stupid game!’ The human cracked again, a sharp and throbbing pain right at his heart.

‘I wanted a friend so badly, but that’s something else I’ll accept I don’t get to have.’ The young human stormed off, taking Hatchet with him.

A touch at his shoulder made the summoned turn around. The teacher signed one last thing to him.

As the human replied; his thoughts conveying his actions yet again, Hatchet studied those hands as closely as possible. ‘I do not need a friend. I am strong enough alone.’

The wolf stared at those hands, repeating to himself as he memorized the movement. ‘Friend.’

The human’s left hand began to suddenly shift, commanding the wolf’s attention as the skin and muscle seemed to wither away, crumbing into tiny particles of light.

The beast began to panic at the sudden development, but that same mind reassured him with a thought. ‘Don’t worry. It’s for the Master.’

‘Sure… like that explains it….’ Hatchet retorted.

All began to shift again. The scenery was changing. The memory was changing.

~

The human’s hand was burning beneath his skin set ablaze, but something about the Master’s body felt immensely hotter. The human could still feel himself in the strangest way, like he was scanning his own body, identifying each piece. Where his touch met the Master’s wound an even more blistering heat reacted to his fingertips.

As the human ignored the pain of that fiery burn, he kept pushing harder against the wound, desperately trying to delay the inevitable. He kept screaming, his throat hoarse and dry as it forced the hushed effort passed his peeled lips.

He ran through each part of himself again, noting the feel of each; ‘Hair, skin, fat, muscle, blood, nerves, bone.…’ He shifted through them quickly, delving back to knowledge from before that he had long since written off as useless. ‘Brain, heart, stomach, lungs….’

He gasped suddenly, his left hand feeling as if it were about to explode; as if someone was running a current through it. His body tingled, prickling at his most recent focus.

‘Lungs?’ He repeated it in wonder. An arc of power shot like lightning from his fingertips, burying itself into the wolf as it surged through the injury.

‘Fur… skin… fat… muscle… nerves….’ His own thoughts were barely a whisper as he called off the parts of the wolf now, feeling them as intimately as he could feel his own body. ‘Blood, bone, heart, stomach, lun—’

He winced, finding the source of his Master’s raging fire at last. His lung was inflamed, deflated, and quickly drowning the wolf as it filled with his own blood.

The human’s body latched on. The connection between him and the damaged parts of his Master were stabilizing, focusing. In a way, it felt like he was reaching inside of his Master.

‘Skin, fat, muscle, nerves, blood, bone, lungs. That’s what the Master needs repaired.’ He was letting that feeling take over, trusting whatever power was consuming him. It could take whatever it needed if it meant that wolf could live. He would offer it freely….

A tugging sensation became noticeable in his fingers, as if someone were pulling on the tips of them. His wrist was creaking, and his muscles tensed and twitched erratically, making his hand dance in spasms for a moment. His blood felt like it was being trapped within his veins; like there was a force pressing it out, pushing on his skin in consistent and throbbing agony… until finally….

Splat.

He huffed out at the intensity of the sting when the flesh of his hand split open without warning. His eyes widened in disbelief as his skin peeled away, curling back before the ribbons of carapace seemed to detach entirely. They hovered in the air around the injury, circling it in a spiral; just as the rapidly pooling blood was floating up in scarlet globs, adding to the mix. It was as if his hand was undressing itself layer by layer. His muscles unraveled next, bunching up tightly as they too detached from the main body to join in the air of loose parts. The nerves pulling apart was easily the worst part of it all. As even his ligaments and sinew finally tore themselves free, so did his bones. He watched in excruciating disbelief as even his phalanges and carpals were rattled free of his arm and tossed into the fray.

The appendage just kept unraveling from there, moving up his forearm, even dismantling his elbow. When it had nearly reached halfway up his bicep; when he was just starting to question if the agonizing process would ever stop tearing him apart, the sacrifice finally seemed adequate.

The pain of coming undone was one of the worst he’d ever experienced. The steady burn after was easy to ignore. The human exhaled, hoping that the worst was over. He wouldn’t be stopping the sensation from doing what it had set out to do.

The circling pieces of his own discarded body began to shift; to morph. They molded themselves after the muse of the wolf’s composition. The feeling of his cells changed to feel more like his Master’s; like what his master needed them to be. It was impossible for the human to deny: His flesh would be the fodder for the wolf’s restoration. He had never been so grateful to have a master take from him….

The materials surged forward, piercing the wolf’s wound, still not quite through settling into their new roles after the transmutation. As the pieces patched the damage to the beast’s nervous system, the human’s touch extended far further than the physical.

The human managed a single thought before all strength faded from him. ‘Do not hope for death nor peace, my Master.’

~

‘It’s the same dream as always.’ Hatchet heard that mind yet again, but there was something a little different about this scene. The wolf wasn’t part of the summoned this time. He was standing a few paces behind the kneeling human, watching as a past version of the summoned bustled about another strange setting.

Hatchet tried to move; to inquire more about what was happening, but it seemed his thoughts were isolated from the human's own in this final sequence. His paws would not move yet. He could hear the commentary; he could see both versions of the summoned, but he could no longer contribute. The wolf found being voiceless quite a frustrating circumstance. The distance between them seemed far greater than it truly was.

Still, he heard the thoughts of the summoned. ‘I was a person then. A real person. This was the last time I was truly human.’

Hatchet tore his eyes from the kneeling summoned, the one bearing those scars and wearing that collar. He turned to the younger man, the one that seemed far less-reserved. The one that was smiling. The human appeared to be readying for a mission of some kind, gathering all manner of supplies and gear in preparation for the task. It reminded Hatchet of his own younger, adventuring days; before he had landed his arrangement with the palace.

Just as the summoned was about to depart, an enticing light appeared behind him. The light was warm and golden. It was divinely magical in every right.

It fostered a sense of peace for the wolf, so Hatchet was quite surprised to hear the human express otherwise. ‘Please… don’t go. The first master is there. The cruel master is there….’

‘The white wolf.’ Hatchet found at least this easy enough to piece together. ‘So, he was the one that hurt the human after all, but was he really the one that summoned him? Seeing the magic firsthand leaves little doubt that it’s a pretty major spell…. Wait, also, if the white wolf was the FIRST master and the cruel master, then… does that mean?’

The scarred human simply kept on kneeling and kept on staring towards his other self as tears flowed silently down his somber face. He was apparently as trapped as Hatchet was in this scene.

‘Please….’ A weak and desperate plea of finality before the younger human stepped through that doorway and flashed out of sight, taking the light with him. The damaged human and the wolf remained, but the summoned still couldn’t see Hatchet standing behind him. He thought he was alone.

The wolf felt the restrictions on him began to weaken at last. It took a lot of effort, but he was just barely able to move, allowed a hint of freedom. He forced himself to take a step toward the summoned, edging himself closer and closer as he struggled to reach him.

‘It’s alright… it’s over now.’ The human exhaled, clenching his fists as they trembled against his thighs. He was licking his wounds now that his nightmare was finished. ‘The first master was the cruel master, but he is my master no more…. There is bread now. I get to rest more. I even get to have clean pants… I just wish I could remember how.’

The human sniffled one more time as he comforted himself. ‘I know I should not hope for it to last forever, just as this perpetual dream always has its eventual end, but I only want to know that kindness a little longer. I want… I want….’

A large hand coated in the darkest fur clasped itself firmly over his shoulder. The human turned in fear at the new development. He blinked, catching a glimpse of the one watching him at last. It was a striking gaze of red peering down, one set into a coat of ebony darkness. It was….

‘A master?’ The human froze in temporary panic, pausing before more of his fuzzy memories returned to him. ‘No… he is the new master…. He is MY Master, the kind master.’ The human’s smile was instantaneous.

‘So… it’s true…. You call me master?’ Hatchet was both alarmed and disheartened by his confirmed hunch.

‘The new Master is the true Master. He is the kind Master, and only he do I need to serve… only you. He is the master with a new gospel; a gospel of benevolence… of mercy. I WANT to stay with the Master. I- I want to stay with you…. Please, just take my hand. Take my leash. Take my body if you wish to…. Just please… no other masters, only you.’

‘I do not want to be the master of anyone! I do not want you to have any masters at all. I just want you to be safe.’ Hatchet thought it all defensively, apparent that the human could hear him again. He would reject any such twisted logic.

The human clasped the larger hands of the wolf desperately in his own. He peered deep into those soothing eyes as he begged the beast. ‘I feel safe with you. I am warm. I am fed. I will learn, I will learn to do whatever you want me to do, just please… stay. Let ME stay. Let me serve you, so I have to serve no other master.’

‘I AM NO MASTER!’ Hatchet barked back, feeling uncomfortable about all of this. He was unsettled by the human’s perspective; unsettled by the very title.

The human flinched at the infallible ferocity behind the rejection.

Hatchet rushed to explain with a more gentle thought. ‘I am no master…. I am merely a sell-sword. I am a fighter, a loner. I am….’

He sighed heavily, gathering himself as he straightened up, taking the human’s hands more securely into his own. He peered down at the sorrowful summoned, gazing deeply into those darker eyes as a flash of fangs crept across his muzzle.

‘I am Hatchet. You don’t need to serve me, or please me, or think to repay me in any way. I merely want you safe…. I- I want you to be happy, because when you smile, something inside of me smiles along with you. I enjoy being around you; being surprised by you. I enjoy helping you become more than whatever bad stuff that monster did to you. I find your well-being has quickly become a priority for me. It’s… startling… scary…. But to see a small peek at who you really are resurfacing these last few days has brought me more fulfillment than I’ve had in a long time.’

Hatchet scoffed endearingly as fresh tears fell from the summoned. He finished with a gentle squeeze of his larger hands before he released his hold. He moved his hands to face each other, extending the index finger on each. He crossed those fingers, one clasping the other before swapping positions and doing it again. The summoned stared in pure bewilderment. The Master had signed to him.

“Friend.”

‘I’d like to be your friend more than your master. I’ll need you to teach me how to speak with you, but I promise I will learn in time.’ The wolf chimed the thought.

‘If… if I am your friend, then would you be my master in return? I don’t want to do it alone again…. I cannot do it alone. I want to be yours, because you have been a master worth belonging to. You being in control is the most reassuring thing I’ve felt in a long time. I know it sounds terrible… but I also know I am too afraid to walk without a leash anymore. I'd rather it be you to hold it. I just want to follow you… Master Hatchet.’ The human held his breath, holding perfectly still as he made his desperate request, testing out the title cautiously.

The wolf peered down for a while longer, really studying the human, trying to weigh his perspective after surviving such an ordeal. The summoned needed this… it wasn’t a comfort he could surrender just yet. Hatchet sighed quietly, yielding in compromise.

‘I suppose Master Hatchet is alright for now… but… what about you? What is your name?’ The wolf asked in genuine curiosity. He desperately wanted to know….

‘I… don’t remember….’ The human thought deeply, pushing harder and harder to recall what his Master had asked him to. His head felt foggy, like he was getting sleepy again, but he was so close…. He could feel his name forming just at the edges of his mind.

‘My name....’ It was coming to him at last, ‘It was… I remember… I REMEMBER! MY NAME IS—‘

Hatchet awoke with a startled jolt.

~ ~ ~

:P Hating me just a little for that is fair, lmao.

This closes off act 1. Ch. 7-12 will be the second arc (given all goes as planned) I know this was a weird and kinda trope-y chapter, but I do still hope I was able to entertain you some. I was very wary on what this final scene should comprise of. This is the one “cheat” moment they get early on, as I needed to establish a baseline for them. They needed a clear starting point, which is why ultimately I wasn’t too upset with how this unfolded. Not quite as I expected even.

Anyway, thank you for your views so far. I really do appreciate it, and would love to hear your thoughts or any feedback. (votes/ratings and more so, comments go a long way for me, varying by site.) I’m assembling a beta/early access team for this story on discord, so if that’s your thing, please lmk! (Can jump in regardless if you want.)

https://discord.com/invite/J9AKh3CPvw

Thanks for reading! See y’all next chapter.

~ Red Bayou