Aewarith's Curse
Wrote this.. quite some time ago..
Aewarith's Curse By Morten B. Petersen AKA Damned
-Aewarith is the name of the hero in this one shot story-
Aewarith is your average human male teenager with a bit of a temper; he likes to fight and rarely is seen in clean clothes. He lives with his father the knight sir Adwin in the small village Kyr'sorta that surrounds the keep of their landlord the Duke of Kyr'sorta. The duke is named Pigator and as the first three letters of his name implies looks like an pig, Pigator is known all over the peaceful town of Kyr'sorta as an evil man that will stop at nothing to reach his goals. This story starts with Aewarith waking up in a dark alley..
I awoke by the feeling of the rain hitting my cheeks; I remembered that I had been fighting against the baker's son and that I had lost against him. It wasn't the first time I had lost a fight this week, first against the blacksmiths son and also the son of the captain of the keep guard. It is like everyone suddenly has grown stronger than me over the last few weeks, I'm afraid that I soon will lose to even the bookstore owner's son.
I got up and dried some mud off my face; I guessed that I had been out cold for at least an hour. My whole body was sore and I felt like just going home to sleep the day out, on my way home I met the local drunkard. He is known for being drunk most of the day and no one knows why he keeps getting drunk, it's only known that he have been involved in some sort of incident when he was younger.
I tried to walk past him but he blocked my path and started shouting with his alcohol filled breath blowing straight into my face "HEY you ugly little brat! Warn everyone! They are coming for us all! THEY WILL KILL US ALL!" then he ran away while screaming "they are coming" over and over until he ran into a wall and passed out.
I was a bit confused over what the drunkard had said but didn't think much about it since it didn't concern me; I continued walking towards my home noticing how many of the others around my age were starting to get a lot of muscle. and how pretty some of the girls was starting to get, I reached my home and stopped in front of the door. There was noise inside and it sounded like when my mother was throwing the furniture around, because my father had done something she didn't like again.
This happened a lot, my father would come home drunk or with a bruise and then my mother would get pissed and wreck out house. I just ignored the fight and turned around walking towards the city gate so I could walk out to the forest, I always walk out into the forest whenever my parents are fighting. It calms me down and allows me to train in peace without being disturbed by anyone, I reached the gate shortly and greeted the guards telling them I would be back before they closed the gate then I headed out towards the forest.
As I walked I didnt notice the sky getting darker, but one thing I did notice "the smell of blood?" I said to myself and took a look around. I couldn't see the source of the smell and decided it must be the remains of a dead animal, then I continued my walk towards my training area. As I got closer the skies got darker and it slowly started to rain again, I heard thunder nearby too.
I reached the spot in the forest I like to call my own, its a quiet place kept dry by the thick layer of leaves above. I made some training tools to practice with one day when I was bored and took them to this place. I walked over to the training dummy I had put up and started practicing on it for a bit before I stopped up, hearing something I never had heard before. "A howl? no something more like a roar" I said to myself and grabbed one of the swords i had taken from my fathers stash at home, I didn't have to wait for long before I saw what had made the roaring sound.
I almost shouted in fear as I saw the huge demonic beast that had set foot in my training area, the demon turned towards me and roared loudly making the training equipment around me shake violently I decided to draw the blade and ready myself for the beast that stood before. I was scared and a doubt in my mind rang through my head to run but it was too later and the beast charged, its glowing eyes filled me with more terror then I could ever imagine.
When I took a closer look I noticed that the beast is a big dark furred wolf like beast, its eyes are red with a hint of purple. It have a third eye on its forehead and it have razor like teeth in its maw. its about five men high and four men wide. its claws are like swords that dig into the ground under its paws and it have a long wolf tail with a hint of purple running through the fur.
As the beast got closer I swung my sword aiming for its legs, I only graced its left leg before it had pinned me to the ground with its other paw. I Screamed in pain as my ribs creaked under the force of its weight and its claws digging into my flesh, I tried stabbing the beast in the leg and it worked. The beast roared in pain and lifted its paw swinging it around to get the sword out, while it was occupied I started running away as fast as I could knowing that I soon would have the demon after me.
I was right because very soon I heard the sound of heavy paws against the ground, I kept running without looking back and when I though I had lost the beast I stopped up to rest for a second. I leaned onto a boulder and took a few deep breaths then ripped a few strips of my pants off and used them to warped them around the wounds inflicted by the beast, I noticed that I was bleeding quite a bit and I tried to tighten the cloth a bit. When I was done tightening the cloth I started looking around for a place to hide, there were no hiding spots anywhere only trees all over the place.
I heard a roar and looked around seeing the beast not too far away from where I was, I started running again. Soon I reached a cliff with a river at the bottom, I looked behind me and saw the beast and I decided that I rather would drown than be torn to pieces by that thing. So I jumped and swiftly fell down towards the fast moving water below, I could feel the current pulling me from the moment I touched the water and soon I got knocked out by a rock in the water.
While I was out I was dreaming, a dream about my mother and father in one of their usual fights. But suddenly the dream disappeared and a bright light appeared showing me pictures of dead people all over the place, I then woke up screaming out in pain as my wounds had reopened.
I looked around to see where I was and the room looked like the hospital in the village, soon the doctor came as he had heard me scream. He was holding some bandages and some other stuff I didn't know about "well well, looks like you are awake" the doctor said and changed my bandages and gave me some herb tea. I drank the tea and then asked the doctor "how did i end up here?" I put down my cup.
"Well your father found you lying half dead at the shore of the river when he and the others were on a patrol" the doctor said, "you can go home later when I have found the medicine for infections.. its around here somewhere" he said and I chuckled before dozing off into sleep.
I didn't dream at all this time and when I awoke I was inside my own room, my arm not hurting anymore but still wounded "I see you are awake son" I heard someone say and when I looked towards the door where the voice had come from I saw my father, "so how are you son? you have been sleeping for the last few days.. its not that strange through you were in a pretty bad shape when I found you by the river" I yawned lightly as my father spoke and tried to get up but was too sore to do so.
"So.. tell me what happened son.. how did you end up in that bad shape?" my father asked and sat on a chair beside my bed, I wanted to tell him what happened but I realized that if I did my father would think I was going mad so I chose to tell a small white lie "I was out on a walk and fell down a cliff by accident.. im sorry if I have worried you father" I looked out the window and sighed.
My father nodded "it can happen for everyone. even me" he said and walked over to the door "now get some rest son. tomorrow we need to go to the church.. to the funeral of the drunkard.. he died a few hours after we brought you back.. He was found on the street.. He properly died from drinking too much" he headed out of my room and closed the door. I sat there in my bed a bit shocked I had met the drunkard a few days ago and there he was in a good shape, and now he is dead.
"I must have fallen asleep again" I said to myself "because what I see now clearly is a part of a dream" I said again because after I had blinked, something had appeared in front of me. It was something I never thought I would see in my life, a few feet away from my bed hovering about one feet over the floor was a young woman. Not looking like she was much older than me, on top of her head she had a pair of black animal ears hidden well by her short black hair.
"Are you.. Aewarith?" she said in a voice that sounded like hundred of voices speaking at the same time, I looked shocked at her for a moment before I finally talked "w-who asks?" I said slowly waiting for her answer.
"Do you remember the demonic beast that attacked you a few days ago? that's who asking" after she said this I saw her shadow on the wall, it was the same as that huge monster that had attacked me. I wanted to scream as I started to feel the fear "w-why are you here? Why did you attack me!?" I nearly shouted putting my hand on my sword which were lying on the chair beside my bed.
"I was testing you mortal. Testing if you are worthy" she said and hovered over to my bed, "what do you mean worthy!?" I said and looked at her. She looked cute up close even when I knew she was a demonic beast.
"Worthy.. Of being infused.. With an immortal soul!" she said and then the next instant went by frighteningly fast. I was about to pull my sword when I felt a sharp pain and saw the girls hand buried in my chest, I could feel her small hand tighten around my heart as she spoke in a strange language and I felt a burning feeling fill my chest.
I screamed out in pain as she pulled her hand out of my chest holding my heart in her hand still speaking in that strange language. I started feeling hot all over as if my whole body was full if fire so I kept screaming in pain and wiggling around in my bed as the pain was getting unbearable. I felt the darkness sweep in over my mind and taking over as I was about to faint "y-your name.. let me hear.. your name.." I mumbled as I felt the darkness slowly take over. The last thing I heard was the girls voice saying "Mizu" and the last thing I felt were her cold lips against mine.
When I woke up I screamed as if I just woke up from the worst nightmare ever, the first thing I did when I stopped screaming was putting my hand on my chest and coughing loudly. My heart was beating "I-it was all a dream?" I said to myself and quickly sat up as I heard footsteps coming closer, the door opened and my father entered "why are you screaming son?" he said and looked at me.
He were wearing his funeral clothes "j-just a nightmare father.. Nothing to worry about" I said and got out of my bed "im gonna get dressed for the funeral.. Give me a minute" I said and walked over to my closet grabbing my funeral clothes while my father closed the door and walked downstairs.
As I got dressed I thought back at my dream, had it been real or just a dream? I touched my lips and could still feel the cold feeling of the demons lips against mine. "must have been a nightmare.. After all she took my heart and I can still feel it beating" I said to myself and got dressed.
When I was dressed I walked downstairs and entered the kitchen where my mother were standing and talking to my father "Our son have been having a lot of nightmares lately hun" my mother said and my father nodded "must be because of the fall.. a fall like that can make even the hardest of all men have nightmares for the rest of their life" he said and turned around looking at me "when speaking of the devil. How are you son?" he said and put a hand on my shoulder.
"im fine father.. Just a bit tired and sore" I said and smiled softly at my mother "so when is the funeral?" I asked and sat down at the dining table looking at both of them.
"We have to go soon" my mother said and my father nodded "in fact we should go now, it starts soon" my father said and we all headed out of our home and headed for the church. When we arrived we saw that only a few had showed up for the funeral, my family, the lord of the town, the priests family and the barkeeper and his oldest son. My father as well as the lord of the town were to attend to any funeral due to their ranks.
The priest appeared from behind the alter, he was holding the holy bible in one hand and in the other a blessed crucifix with jewels attached to it. "Dear friends.. We are collected here today. To honor a fellow man that have drawn his last breath.. As you all know he died all of a sudden a few days ago just outside the bar when he was about to go home.. Many of us witnessed this and will never forget it" The priest said and opened his bible and started talking about how great life is and how we should pay our respect to it by donating some money on the way out.
When the funeral was over the coffin got lifted outside and buried in the field of the forgotten where all the other nameless humans were buried. Afterwards we all went home and the rest of the day went on quietly just until nighttime.
When the sound of the church bells filled the air at midnight I woke up, feeling that something was wrong. I put my hand on my chest and felt it, my heart had stopped beating. I got out of bed and got dressed before I headed out towards the town gate, when I reached it I met the two guards in front of it and of course they stopped me "Hey where are you going? You know that the gates are locked after the sun have set" the oldest one of them said "go home and sleep like all the others" said the younger guard.
"L-Let me through" I said clenching my hand over my heart "h-hurry before something bad happens" I said and looked at the guards "what you mean bad you little runt? The only bad thing that can happen here is you getting your ass kicked back home!" the older one said and shoved me back with his spear. I fell onto my butt and felt something spread all over my body, it felt like I was shivering but at the same time it felt so hot. I stood up and glared at the now laughing guards and spoke while I walked closer to them "MOVE!" I shouted with a voice I didn't recognize as my own.
The guards looked at me with a bit fear but then they both glared at me "shut up ya wimp. We aint letting anyone out tonight. And that means you too!" the younger one said and pushed me back. I let out a growl as I was pushed and the younger guard stepped back "what now? Are you some kind of mutt?" he chuckled and they started laughing again.
I felt it again, the shivering heat crawling along the underside of my skin scorching my flesh and then I spoke out once more "if you don't move. You will die" I said in a serious voice. -An evil voice- The guards stopped laughing and the older one stepped closer "threatening a guard on duty means prison you little twerp!" he said and grabbed my arm twisting it onto my back.
"so im afraid that you will end up down there for tonight" he said and pressed me up against the gate. "You are making a grave mistake human!" I growled and then I felt something painful fill my body. "h-hurts.. T-the pain!" I screamed as my arm got broken by the guard "what the?" the guard said and looked at the other guard "I didn't even use much force?" he said and let go of my arm.
I fell onto the ground and held my arm while screaming in pain "my arm!!" I screamed out and soon lights near the gate started getting turned on and a few people walked outside to meet a usual view. A teenager lying on the ground screaming in pain with his bone sticking out of his arm by his shoulder while the guards are arguing about if this counts as assault.
I was just lying there screaming for all what my lungs could bear until I suddenly stopped and my eyes rolled back showing the whites of my eyes "is he dead?" I head someone say before I fainted.
When I woke up again I wasn't in the medics house or my own, I didn't recognize this house. The insides was filled with pelts and strange looking potions, and it was so cold that I could feel it all the way into my bones. I sat up in the bed I was in and looked around I then recognized the house. It was the witch living in the forests.
"how badly injured was I?" I mumbled and looked down at myself. Beside from bandages covering my whole arm nothing looked odd or damaged. "So.. You are awake" I heard a voice say and I looked towards the door where I saw an ugly old witch "took some time fixing you up" she said with a chuckle "you were almost dead dear boy" she chuckled and gave me some water "its all thanks to the healing by me that you are alive" she said and stirred in the big cauldron in the middle of the room.
"when your father came here with you, you were almost completely dead.. Even if it only were your arm that was broken.. But I discovered after examining you closer" she said and paused "that you are cursed. I cant tell you which kind of curse it is.. Since I don't know.. But you are cursed.. I can feel it" she said and offered me a bowl of whatever was in the cauldron "eat. Its for your broken bones" she said and waited for me to finish eating before she walked over to a table and grabbed a letter and handed it over to me "its from your father.. read it and go home afterwards" she said before she walked out of the room leaving me alone. I opened the letter and started reading "Dear son, im afraid I have some grave news for you. Me and the lord of the town have had a talk about your little curse problem and have come to the decision that if any of the villagers discovers this curse you will be banished from the town" I looked shocked at the letter and read it once more before I ran home and entered my home.
In the living room was my father, sitting in front of the fireplace "welcome home son" he said without looking at me "so you have gotten better eh?" I could hear a small chuckle from him and then it got silent. I didn't say anything and so did my father, after a few seconds had passed I headed out of the house and walked the streets. I headed over to the small lake in the middle of the town and sat down on the bridge staring down into the deep dark water.
I think a few hours passed because when I looked up again the sun was about to set and the local gangs had started to meet on the small island in the middle of the lake, inside the rundown old church that was closed due to a mass suicide that happened in there a few decades ago.
I was about to leave when I heard a scream from a woman, it came from the church and it was loud. So I headed towards the church as fast I could but also as silently as I could, when I arrived I looked through one of the windows and saw something I would have expected from the gang. They were in the middle of beating up a young female, properly because she was wearing clothes that only very rich people would. Somehow she looked familiar and when I took a closer look she was identical to Mizu, the demon that had taken my heart and cursed me.
I wanted to leave and let her get beaten to death, but no matter what I could not walk away. My sense of justice was to great for that, so I grabbed a thick branch from the ground and headed for the door noticing the two guards in front of the door. I though for a bit and quickly came up with a plan on how to beat them, I grabbed the biggest rock I could and threw it at the guard farthest away.
When the rock hit him he turned to the other guard and said something I could not hear before he punched the other one hard in the face knocking him down, when he had done this I charged at him and hit him with the branch before he could react.
When the two guards where out of the way I silently entered the church and took a peek out from behind the broken door I was using as a hideout. The gang members was done beating up the girl which were lying lifelessly on the floor while they were in the middle of splitting the loot that were in her purse.
I did a quick counting and counted that there was ten of them, I knew that this would be a hard task but I had to do it unless I wanted to have more nightmares. I made my plan simple, rush in beat them all then rush out again with the girl.
When I was about to charge in I heard something and was about to turn around when I was hit by something hard in my head, then everything went black.
When I woke up again I had a massive headache and I was tied to a broken crucifix stuck in the ground, and for some reason my back and my arms felt like they were on fire. "So.. Is the little hero awake" I heard a voice say and looked up to see who it was, it was the smiths son. He was the one of the gang members with the largest pouch so I guessed he must be the big boss. "so is the small weak Aewarith trying to play hero and save the royal bitch here?" he said and kicked the girl in the stomach, she were lying on the floor tied tightly with robes and she were in a bad shape too.
She were bleeding from her mouth and a few cuts in her skin, "the bitch didn't even have much cash on her.. Only enough to a few breads and a few beers" he said and glared at me "so what the hell do you think you are doing here about to attack us out of the clear sky huh!?" he said and punched me in the stomach, I coughed and felt a sharp pain shoot through my upper body. "see that's what I mean. you are WEAK!" he said and punched me again, this time harder and a little higher hitting me in my solar plexus making my eyes roll up so the white in my eyes showed while I felt unbearable pain fill my body as blood started flowing from my mouth and I stopped breathing. "weakling" the smiths son said and one of his underlings walked up to me and checked my pulse "boss.. We have a problem.. He is.. Dead" the underling said and took a few steps away "what dead? I didn't even punch that hard" he said and felt after my pulse too "damn.. You are right the bastard is dead" he said and looked at his underlings.
I felt like laughing but I was unable too since I could not breathe and my lungs were out of air. Yet I didn't feel like I was choking, actually it felt like I was still breathing and I moved my eyes a bit down so I could see what they were doing. "what should we do boss?" the underling said and poked at my "corpse" to see if I would react, "we get rid of the body of course.. Unless we want his father running around sniffing up glues on our crimes" the smiths son said and cut me loose.
Then the moment I had been waiting for came, instead of falling like they hoped for I kept standing. The air had returned to my lungs and I chuckled lightly, the chuckle then turned into a small laugh and the laugh turned into a loud laughing filled with all my hate "did you thing I were dead?" I said in the very same voice I had spoken with at the city gate.
The smiths son and his underlings all jumped back in shock when they had heard my chuckle. The smiths son was the last of course, he jumped away when I had started laughing. "what the hell! I though you were dead man!" he shouted and pointed at me with a shaking finger, "oh I'm not dead.. In fact I think I'm quite alive" I laughed and glared at the smiths son.
The smiths son grabbed a sword " you wont be for long. None of us want go to jail.. So im afraid I will have to kill you!" he said and charged at me stabbing the sword into my chest where my heart should have been and further into the crucifix behind me.
"There.. He wont be talking to anyone anymore" he said and only managed to pull the sword out of the crucifix before I grabbed his arm "I feel fantastic and I'm still alive" I said and smirked as I glared at him. He let go of the sword and tried to pulls his arm away from me "l-let go you monster!" he shouted and punched me in the face so I stumbled back letting go of his arm.
"w-what the hell are you!" he shouted and pointed at me, I glared over at him and then I spoke in the same kind of voice as Mizu had spoken to me the night she had taken my heart from me "I am Aewarith.. Aewarith the weak.. Aewarith the cursed.. Aewarith the demon" I pointed at the smiths son "and you.. Are my prey!" I nearly growled as I felt my flesh burn from inside. Flames licking out of the wound in my chest when I pulled out the sword and threw it on the ground.
"time to accept the gift of Mizu, the demonic wolf that caused my accident!" I shouted as my whole body suddenly burned away in an instant leaving only my bones behind. Then the "curse" did its work and the flames collected around the bones changing their shape into that of an large animal, then the remaining flames turned into the flesh that surrounded the bones taking shape and forming a mix of a human and a large wolf
When the transformation had worn off my soul returned to my new body and I howled out as I felt the overflowing power that filled my now immortal body "feels good~~!" I said and looked down at the smiths son whom were just standing there staring up at me, I leaned down and finger kicked him between his eyes making him fall over since he had passed out from the shock.
I looked over at Mizu whom were lying on the floor "for how long are you gonna keep up the act?" I said and she laughed "m-man you should have seen his face when he saw you burn away" she said and stood up, "he was all like 'what the hell just happened' and then he fainted while standing" she said and walked over to me.
"I think we should get out of the town" Mizu said and reached out a hand to me "good idea" I said and transformed back and took her hand as we walked out of the church in silence.
When we walked out we met a group of armed guards that were standing with their spears pointed at us "Aewarith what the hell is going on" I heard my fathers voice say as he stepped out between some guards. "Oh hello father.. I have some good news and some bad news, the good news is that inside the church the local gang is lying -alive- they have been caught in the act of beating up this girl and stealing her money" I said and smiles at my father whom looked at me and asked "then what is the bad news?".
I sighed and took a small breath before speaking "the bad news is that I properly have scared the sanity out of those poor boys.. They seem to have noticed that I'm.. cursed" I put a creepy tone on the last word and smiled at my father whom had a look of disappointment on his face "I see.. Son please tell me.. The curse.. What is it?.. Is it dangerous?" he said and put his hand on his sword as all the guards had started mumbling back and forth to each other.
"dangerous? Oh don't be silly.. Its not dangerous.. Its life threatening towards any mortal man!" I said and held out my hand as it started burning in the same way it had done as I transformed "here let me demonstrate!" I said as my father and the entire squad of guards stepped back as the flame spread, at first only to my whole arm. Then to the other arm and then it burnt away my flesh from the bones and the transformation happened, my bones changing shape and the flames turning into flesh around them this time forming two huge wings.
"demon" the entire squad of guards said at the same time and held up their spears only waiting for my fathers order to attack "I'm sorry that it had to end like this Aewarith. He said and lifted his hand to signal that the guards could attack at will.
I smirked "no father.. I'm sorry that I have to leave you all so suddenly.. But as the letter said.. If anyone found out about the curse I had to leave!" I shouted as I had used my two wings to send myself high into the air "hope I can see you again another time father!" I shouted and flew away from the town.
When I reached the city wall I saw bowmen all over the walls, some of them started to fire arrows at me too. A few hit me through my wings but it didn't matter as I didn't feel any pain at the moment due to the large amount of natural painkiller my body had been filled with when I was stabbed.
I passed the wall and landed at the edge of the forest where I transformed back and fell over as the pain returned to my body "damn.. It hurts so much all over.. So immortals feel pain too huh?" I chuckled and looked at Mizu whom had been holding onto my back when we had been flying.
"yes Aewarith.. We feel the same as any normal human being.. But we are different.. We are the controllers of fate, we keep an eye on the humans and lead them in the right direction when they are close to destroying themselves" she said and touched my cheek softly "we are the immortal species of "Overseers" whom have been living for longer than any human. We are what the humans call their god. And the devil. We created the humans and gave them free will while we hid in the background of time and watched them" she said softly and sat beside me leaning onto me "and until now I have been the only one of my kind.. Until now" she smiled and kissed my cheek softly as we both faded away into slumber.
To be continued. Or do it? that's your choice. Tell me if you want a sequel. (though it's a lousy story xD)