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Hejira: Sanguine Wave

By Mantrid Brizon

Episode 27: Red Claw

They search the edge of the stream, walking back and forth until dawn. Eventually finding Gareth’s faded trail, after having backtracked north for nearly a mile, Sarvah and Kelly pass the stream. Sarvah can hardly contain her excitement. She has gone nearly twenty hours with very little sleep, but feels invigorated regardless. Kelly struggles to keep up as they walk throughout the day, following his scent, and the faint trail that he’d left behind. To Kelly’s surprise, Sarvah seems to be as competent in the woods as she is at a merchant’s booth, or speaking with a chieftain.

They both know that Gareth has a considerable lead. Excluding the time until they left, it took them nearly the entire night just to find his trail and follow it; they are a half-day behind him, at best. They march until mid-afternoon, when Kelly can no longer hike. He is so tired and hungry that he struggles to stand. Sarvah considers abandoning him and moving ahead, but stops to make camp. Whenever she finds Gareth, he would be very unhappy that she lost Kelly; that’s the only reason she stops for him.

As soon as Kelly’s head rests against his pack, he passes out, succumbing to his incredible exhaustion. Sarvah takes the time to set a few snares and deadfalls for some wild game, blazing a short trail in the direction that Gareth had gone so that she can easily find it the next day. After cooking a small meal, she too falls asleep. She awakens while it’s still dark. Kelly has already awakened, eating a meal of dry food that he had stashed in his pack. They strike the camp as soon as he is finished, checking the snares and traps before moving on. She struggles to follow Gareth’s trail.

“I knew we shouldn’t have stopped…” She grumbles.

They follow his trail throughout the day; it snakes west until it crosses the main road that once lead directly to the Blue Feet village. Though time has passed and the scent is very faint, it seems to move south along the road. They try to keep up with his pace, walking well into the night. Soon, though, even Sarvah can barely discern his trail anymore. She reluctantly makes camp when Kelly voices his concerns. The next morning, there is nothing for her to follow except her gut. She looks for his trail, but it has gone cold.

Kelly watches as she looks frantically for the faintest sign of him. Though he dislikes her, he can’t help but be affected by the depressing sight of her crumbling under the strain and sorrow. She walks the road, softly weeping as she looks left and right, hoping to find any sign of Gareth. Her ears lower and she crosses her arms in front of her as she walks slowly down the path, whimpering like a lost and frightened puppy. Kelly has finally had enough.

“Stop your crying, damnit! We’re going to find him! He went south, so if we just pick up the fucking pace, we might catch a break!”

“You’re right…” She sniffles. “The slower we go, the farther away he gets.”

Kelly takes the lead, marching briskly down the road. Sarvah quickly follows behind him. Little did he know how right he actually was. After a few hours of walking, they see smoke in the distance. Believing that they may have found his campsite, they run towards the gray plume. As the rush over the crest of a hill, they stop in their tracks; Gareth was here, but no longer. They walk down a camp that once sheltered several human families, all of whom lay dead on the ground. They all have wounds from holy bolts. Some have strange marks carved into their foreheads.

“What is this symbol?” Sarvah asks him.

“I don’t know.” Kelly admits.

“You don’t?” She sounds surprised.

“I’m not religious like Gary is… Was… Besides, he might have just made that up, if he was even the one who made this.” He replies.

“It was Gare… I can smell him on their clothes. He was very close when he did this…” She laments.

She examines the symbol. It looks like an X superimposed to a P, which also has an elongated stem. The wound looks ragged, as though it was carved with his own claw, and not a sharp knife. She sees the remains of his victims, knows what he has done, but is only more determined to find him. He is in pain, and she cannot bring herself to judge him or his motives; she feels horrible for him. Kelly, however, quietly wonders if Gareth has slipped into insanity, not unlike Faye. Will he even recognize them? Is he worth saving?

It appears as though the camp was not looted; Gareth killed them purely for the sake of killing. Only a single sack that once held dried goods was torn open and emptied. Sarvah and Kelly search the camp, collecting large quantities of food, coins, and several valuables for trade. Sarvah finds a small brown pack made of stitched animal hide alongside a tent, quickly emptying the contents onto the ground. Kelly notes how very similar it is to the pack that Kahlera was wearing on the day they first met her.

After placing the valuables and food within their packs, Sarvah wears the small pack, claiming it as her own. They quickly continue moving, leaving the bodies where they lie, distancing themselves from the massacre. They hike until the daylight wanes, before setting up their own small camp just off of the road. They forgo a campfire, hoping not to attract any attention from whoever may pass the slaughtered camp, only to then discover them with stolen possessions.

They continue on the next day, repeating the cycle of trailing Gareth south; they hike until nightfall, make camp, then leave in the morning. Without his scent to follow, they walk blind, merely hoping that they will encounter him, or another sign of him. After a week of following him, they run low on supplies. They encounter a small nomadic village alongside the road; it is inhabited entirely by Sahvorai. Taking a risk, they approach the village peacefully. Though immediately suspicious of Kelly, the village allows trade with Sarvah, who quickly bribes them with the stolen valuables and coins.

“It is good that you came with a Sahvorai, or we never would have allowed you here.” A Sahvorai hunter says to Kelly.

“And why is that?” Sarvah asks.

“After what has happened to the humans nearby, we do not want to harbor any, lest Red Claw come upon us.” The hunter answers.

“Who’s Red Claw?” Kelly asks.

“Word must not have traveled that far yet…” The hunter thinks aloud.

The hunter begins explaining the story.

“Very recently, several human villages were attacked, destroyed during the night. They’d been wiped out by a lone Sahvorai male. At first, they were small camps with no survivors, three of them in total. Everyone assumed that it was raiders, but a village we often traded with suddenly failed to bring a scheduled convoy with salt and fabric. We often traded pelts and dried meat with them. We sent scouts to find them. I was among them. The village was ablaze, and only one had survived, at least for a while…”

The hunter kneels down, drawing something into the ground with his claw.

“We found this symbol carved into the heads of many of the village elders, some of whom were found hanging from trees like a perverse decoration. They all had strange wounds, as though hit with tiny smoldering rocks, but nothing was left behind. We found a single girl, barely alive. She described the man as about my height, with smoke grey fur, wearing a brown leather vest, strange green fabric pants, and wearing an orange and black cloth tied around his face, covering his nose and mouth, with long, flowing black hair. We gave him the nickname because she said he carved the symbol with his claw.”

Sarvah and Kelly look to each other, then back at the hunter, who has just perfectly described Gareth.

“Did she say anything else?” Kelly asks.

“Like where he was headed?” Sarvah adds.

“Why would you want to find that monster?! He slaughtered innocents!” The hunter exclaims in shock.

“Oh, we do not want to find him. We just want to know where it’s safe to walk through. My companion and I are heading south.” Sarvah quickly and casually lies.

“I see. Unfortunately, she did not, or we would have found and killed him ourselves. He only seems interested in killing humans, and we lost many of our friends at that village. If you see other human villages, it would be wise to avoid them, if you are worried about accidentally meeting Red Claw. Possibly find a hood and thick hide clothes to mask your companion’s race.” The hunter continues.

He motions for them to follow, leading them towards his own tent. Stepping inside, the hunter quickly returns with a large roll. Setting it down atop a nearby workbench beside another tent, he unrolls a map.

“As one of the primary scouts for the village, I often map areas of interest.” He says proudly.

His map is exceptionally detailed, and includes the site of Wildwood, though it is marked as unused territory. Sarvah points at the location.

“We came from here. A large tribe is settling there and constructing a permanent village.” She says to the hunter.

“Really?! Interesting!” He scratches his chin with his claw. “Well, these are human settlements. These are smaller, permanent villages.”

The hunter points to several large symbols, then to smaller symbols. Sarvah carefully studies the map, running her finger along it in a southernly direction. She is clearly misleading the hunter.

“I see… Thank you for this.” She nods.

“You’re welcome. I will update my map to include the new settlement… Wait. Is it human, or Sahvorai?” He suddenly asks.

“Both. Sahvorai have settled, though all humans are welcome there.” She replies.

He pauses to think, then marks the location on his map with a quill and dye regardless. Sarvah and Kelly quickly barter for the extra supplies they need before leaving, following the road south. Once they are away from the nomadic village, Sarvah leads Kelly away from the road and into the woods.

“Where are we going?” He asks.

“To the nearest human village. We may have to check them all.” She answers.

“And you can remember that map? You only saw it for a minute.” Kelly raises an eyebrow in surprise.

“A minute was all I needed.” She retorts.

They march all day, camp just after dark, and then continue in the morning. Sarvah did not lie; she leads Kelly directly to the nearest of almost a dozen mapped villages. Sadly, this village has already been destroyed. Rotting corpses of humans litter the area, some hanging from trees. The symbol is carved into the heads of who can only be presumed to be village elders. Kelly is appalled by the brutality. He finds it difficult to search for clues. Sarvah makes a point to gather more valuables and coinage, in case they need them for bartering. After searching the village, they move on to the next one.

They continue moving, repeating the same pattern, day after day. Sarvah and Kelly are constantly a day or two behind Gareth, following as he moves from village to village, tribe to tribe. After several days, they encounter another village, which he had single-handedly massacred. This village, however, still has charred buildings that are warm to the touch; they are very close now. Many bodies bear the mark of Red Claw, though this time it is also carved onto three trees, formed into a triangle and which seem to point in a specific direction.

Sarvah’s zeal in unwavering, and only increases in potency as they march through the woods towards another mapped village. Kelly can’t help but feel as though she is hiding something from him, but he isn’t sure what. She seems to expect to find Gareth at any moment. As the sun begins to fade, she promptly stops.

“What is it?” He asks.

“We should make camp. The village is too far to reach before dark.” She replies.

He finds this strange; she often desires to walk well into the night. Kelly is the one who has to voice his desires to stop for the night. He is in no position to argue with her; he knows full well that she may abandon him at any time, and he can’t find his way back on his own. He has no idea how far away the village is from them. Including the small camp on the road, and the village that they were told of from the hunter, this would be the fourth human village that Gareth has gone too, that they know of.

Sarvah sits patiently, watching the woods as Kelly drifts off to sleep. She waits until she hears him snoring. She stands and looks at him for a moment. She breaks a small twig, but he doesn’t shift. Confident that he won’t wake up anytime soon, she quickly abandons Kelly, heading into the woods alone. After walking several kilometers, she sees a light in the distance. Picking up speed, she traverses the dark woods, exiting into a clearing that contains a tiny village.

She looks on, amazed that the village in intact. A human male whistles a tune as he walks through the darkness with a torch in hand, casually entering one of only five log cabins. Sarvah walks around the village of the, searching for Gareth.

“Gare.” She softly calls out, again and again.

“Sarvah…” Gareth’s voice replies.

Spinning around, Gareth stands a few meters behind her, his hair fluttering in the wind as his tail sways. An orange and black keffiyeh cover his face like a bandit’s mask. Vetra sits in his holster as he sits on a log that sits just behind her, facing toward the village as if he were watching it.