Ander - Part 4: Subchapter 41
41
The wind blew in his face and rippled his fur, working its way against his skin, so bitter cold, stinging his eyes, invading his nostrils. It was just... cold. Even the moonlight falling across the grass felt cold.
It's been too long since he's had a living, breathing thing between his teeth, too long since he's felt that hot, sticky taste of blood pour over his tongue. The desire has been building inside of him, growing stronger with every passing hour, and he did not know how much longer he could stand to be without it. Maybe just a few minutes more, and he'd be able to slake his thirst. Just a little bit further, and he'd be able to find his prey. It wasn't in the house, oh no. Little Valery, her brothers, her father, they were all still safe and sound in their beds, dreaming their little dreams. Tonight's prey was something different. It was their link to the outside world, and he would sever it with great pleasure.
The building with the tortoise shell roof was getting closer, but Banno could also feel himself slowing down. It was this blasted cold. He didn't like cold. He hated it. Most Wolves thought of cold as a thing, like wind or light, but Banno knew different. Cold wasn't a thing. It was the absence of a thing. Cold was the absence of heat. If you took heat away, then cold was what you had left. Heat was a thing and, just like all things, it was a part of him. That meant that, if cold was the absence of heat, then cold was also the absence of him, which meant that it wasn't a part of him. That's why he hated the cold. It didn't belong in this world.
He lunged his way across the grass, pushing off with his crutch as his breath puffed out of his nostrils in white plumes of steam. How far has he come?
Banno turned around and saw for the first time the home his injuries had imprisoned him in, much bigger than he would have thought. It was two levels, wood, with windows evenly spaced throughout. One of the ones at the top, looking down at him like the eye of a giant squatting spider, was her room. She was up there right now, probably still dreaming of her dead mother.
Banno turned away and growled in disgust, not bothering to keep quiet all the way out here with the wind gusting all around him, trying to work its way through his bandages and into his stump, not when there was nobody around to -
Wait...
Banno stopped, turned around in a full circle. There were some woods to the North and West, some fields to the East, some fenced off areas dotted here and there, the big building that smelled of animal dung, and the house to the South. He strafed to the left a little, trying to get a view of what was going on behind it. Just some more fields and grasslands. He strafed to the right, leaning his body as far as it would go without toppling. Same thing. Just vast open expanses of nothing.
They were all alone out here. In the middle of nowhere. They really were cut off from any other Foxes. Banno knew this would be the case, but actually seeing it with his own eye was still a relief. No matter what, there would be no interference.
As long as he could get rid of the thing they call 'Jitters'.
Banno continued towards the big building that smelled of animal dung. As much as he hated the crutch digging into his armpit, he understood now that the world had given it to him to make this task possible. What would happen if James were to find grass stains on his bandages tomorrow morning? The old 'scratch open the stump' trick wouldn't work for a second time.
But now he didn't have to worry about that. It was part of the flow of things. Everything just worked out for him. Always. Because he was the world, and the world wanted to continue. That's the way it was.
He looked down at the tip of the crutch, watched it sink a bit into the earth as his considerable weight pushed down on it. Was he leaving any tracks? He looked back the way he came, but the grass was nice and thick, despite the cold weather, and it was already starting to spring back up. That was good, but he should still avoid making any outright holes with this thing. So many things that could go wrong, so many things he needed to anticipate.
By the Cora, he needed to kill something so bad...
He finally reached the big double doors, his breath rushing out of his mouth in rapid bursts before being ripped away by the wind. Always so many doors. Doors, doors, doors, why were Foxes so obsessed with putting doors everywhere? Why not just keep an open hole there? It would save so much time. He knew from the smell that there must be animals in here, but why keep them alive? Why not just eat them right away?
He pushed against the wood, but it wouldn't budge. There was a little lock bolt thing underneath this one's handle, but it twisted out of the way without any problems.
"Let's try this again..." Banno grumbled and pushed against the doors with his free hand. It slowly started to swing inwards, and the animal aroma doubled. Not an entirely unpleasant smell, but he was used to wilder game, and these scents were just different enough to be slightly unsettling. There was something else, too. Dry grass? Some kind of plant?
He slipped inside and surveyed this newfound area.
The ground was just bare dirt. It was relatively hard dirt, though, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about leaving tracks as long as he was careful. There were some wooden supports spaced evenly along a path going down the middle, and along this path were little fenced off areas.
Odd. Banno was expecting to see cages like the one Wardo had built to hold their sacrifices. No matter.
He slowly walked down the path, not really sure what he was looking for, knowing only that this 'horse' creature must be big enough for a Fox to ride for at least one full day.
Beyond the first fence were some meaty pink creatures, grunting in their sleep. They looked a bit like boars, but without the tusks or the coarse coat of fur. Ander would have been fascinated, but Banno didn't give a damn. He's tasted the death of boars before and found them lacking, and these fat imitations would be even worse.
The next one had some fuzzy white creatures that looked even less appetizing than the pseudo-boars, but the ones next to them were slightly more interesting. Three large creatures with ridiculously oversized nostrils and odd hides sporting a random pattern of black and white splotches. But were these 'horses'? They looked so sleepy and dull. Even though Banno had never seen such creatures, he was already bored with them. They smelled quite nice, and he supposed their meat would be good for eating, but he didn't get a sense of life from them. Despite their size, he estimated their lives to be one the same level as that of a squirrel or a toad. He would have liked to test this theory, but he didn't have enough time. Also, killing something in here would be a very bad idea.
He moved on to the next fence and, lo and behold, this might be exactly what he was looking for.
The long face, hooves, and brown pelt reminded him of a doe, but this creature was much bigger and had a very weird tail, more like a clump of hair.
It grunted at his approach and stamped its fuzzy hooves on the ground, bobbing its head up and down, and already Banno could sense a greater presence of life than in all the previous pens combined. Maybe it was the sparkle in the eye, similar to that of a doe, but more intelligent. Yes, this animal would have more life than a doe, or even a stag. Probably not as much a bear, though. That big, strong, meaty neck was just begging to be torn open...
Oh, but something like this would bleed a merry river. Not smart.
It flicked its ears and snorted at the unwelcome interloper, but Banno didn't care. He was thinking.
As much as he liked trying new things, killing this horse might not be the wisest course of action, and the frequency with which that was happening was really starting to vex him. He hasn't killed anything since that stag back home, and it was starting to get very... bad. It wasn't like hunger or thirst, exactly, but it still manifested as a desperate need for nourishment, as if he were starving, not for food, but for life. He felt restless and agitated, and what happened in Valery's room only made it worse. He found himself reaching for the animal almost automatically, wanting to grab hold and...
He pulled his arm back and balled it into a fist. He was shaking. He ran his tongue over his teeth and looked at the horse, tapping its hoof against the ground nervously.
It was a stupid animal after all, penned up in a cage. A roomy cage, granted, but a cage nonetheless. Banno didn't have to kill it to get what he wanted, and what he really wanted, even more than the life of this animal, were the lives of the Foxes that had taken him into their home and cared for him, knowing on some buried level of their consciousness that he would someday fulfil their purpose in life. Why else would they have done it? Because he needed help? No, that was no reason to help someone. You only help someone to get something in return, and what they would get in return was to become a part of him. Yes...
He didn't need to kill this animal to get what he wanted. He only needed to set it free.
Banno grabbed the latch, slid it back, opened the little half-door and stood back.
Nothing happened.
The stupid animal just stood there, staring at him like a brainless lump.
"What?" Banno said, slightly louder than he had intended. He stood back further, thinking that maybe it was too scared to go past, but nothing. It just stood there with its stupid fringe of useless hair hanging down over its idiotic black eyes, making Banno want to -
He took a deep breath. Then another. Back home it was never a problem to vent anger. He'd just grab Garten or some other fool and rough him up a little when the urge to taste death got too high, but out here it was a different story. There was nothing to put this rage into!
"Just... you damn, fgh! Ah!" What the hell was wrong with this thing!? What kind of animal just stood around like this in the face of a predator!? Has it never been hunted!? Has it never fled for its life!? It didn't have any fangs or claws, so it must be a plant eater, and yet it was acting like a... like a... he didn't even know what!
Maybe he should just kill the thing and be done with it, like he wanted to from the start. Make it look like a bear attack.
But bears can't open doors, and even if they could, it was far more likely they'd go for the boars or the white puffy things, not this galumphing waste of space.
All right, new plan. Banno reached out and grabbed a tuft of the creature's mane. It made the weirdest noise, like some kind of gaspy scream, and reared up on its hind legs, kicking out with its hooves.
Banno jumped back as best he could on only one leg, narrowly avoiding a hoof to the face. This thing was bigger than a deer, and experience has taught him that those things can break bones with a well-placed kick, so this was no trifling matter.
It thudded back on all fours, making so much noise Banno was sure his family over the Cora must have heard it. He waited, every muscle tense, waiting for a door to bang open somewhere, or James's voice to come bellowing out of nowhere, demanding to know what was going on.
The seconds dragged by, but none of those things happened. He was lucky this time, but that might not be the case a second time round. He needed to get rid of this thing, and he needed to do it silently. This was a different kind of challenge, one he's never tackled before, with its own set of rules.
Banno stood back further and waited for the beast to calm down. Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way. James said this thing could be ridden, but that was out of the question for him with his crippled leg. But if the Foxes can ride it, then that must mean the Foxes can control it. Maybe he should try to act more like a Fox?
Urgh, the thought alone was enough to make him want to gag, but he'd try just about anything if it would allow him to further his goals.
"Hello there, Jitters," he whispered, feeling like an idiot. "Sorry I scared you."
Jitters snorted in response, steam issuing from its nostrils in twin collumns.
All right, talking to it wasn't working out, even though the Foxes never do anything _but_talk. What else did the Foxes do? Well, they took in crippled Wolves and nursed them back to health. They gave away food for no good reason. The children tried to murder him in his sleep. They build needlessly complicated homes out of wood, even for their slave animals. They -
Wait, maybe he was overthinking this. If they kept their animals in here, and cared for them, then this would also be the logical place to keep their food, wouldn't it? He looked around, sniffed the air, trying to pick up any scents other than that of prey. It was difficult. He's never tried to smell out _plants_before. That was for herbivores.
There was a giant pile of what looked like dried up grass in the back, but Banno didn't think any animal would want to eat that. But then what was it doing there? More Fox craziness, he guessed.
He kept looking, and it didn't take him long to find a bucket secreted away in a corner with some greens stuffed inside. He pulled one out and examined it. Some kind of leafy clump with an oversized orange root. Maybe this is what horses eat? No harm in trying.
He went back and offered it to what must be the stupidest animal to ever walk the earth, because it immediately forgot its fear and chomped the whole thing between its oversized buck-teeth.
"Yeah, that's it, you moron. Nice root for Jitters." Banno backed up and Jitters came after, clomping along on those big, fuzzy hooves. He would have liked to just carry the bucket with him outside, but its absence might get noticed, so he clamped the roots between his teeth and put the bucket down on the floor, thinking what a massive hassle this was, having only one foot and one free arm. But it looked out of place out here in the middle of the path, so he tipped it over with his crutch.
Good. If the world didn't throw anything more at him to make things 'interesting', then it should look like Jitters had gotten out of her pen, scarfed down all the roots, and then pranced off into the night to find her freedom.
"Come hoon, hoo hitch..." he whispered through a mouthful of roots, holding one out with his free hand.
Jitters still seemed reluctant to approach him, but evidently the roots were too delicious to resist. This resulted in a funny little four legged lean, where she stuck her head out as far as it would go, then tried to grab the tip of the root with her protruding lips.
By the Cora, he hated this thing so much...
He backed up all the way to the door, pulling the root back every time she got a good nibble (he only had a limited number of these to work with), then paused. What was he going to do about the door? It was locked before he got here, and the only explanation for it to not be locked after he left (besides the truth) would be for one of the Foxes to have forgotten to lock it. If it was just one door Banno might have risked it, but the pen inside was locked, too. Would they believe that someone had forgotten to lock both doors, and then Jitters just happened to escape the very same night? Hell, even if he did get this sleepy piece of crap to run away for real (doubtful), it might just come back. What then? He'd be right back at square one, that's what. No, he'd have to lure this waste of meat all the way out into the woods and dispatch it there, but what if they find the corpse? He wouldn't be able to make it very far in, so it's definitely a possibility. James might not look like much of a hunter or a tracker, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have any of those skills. What if he's able to follow the tracks, or the scent, or the flies, or any number of things?
Banno stood frozen while Jitters happily munched the root in his hand, completely unaware that this generous stranger was trying his very best to plot her murder.
It was just too unlikely. Even the best case scenario was too unlikely by far. They'd know it was him, even without any proof. What else were they supposed to believe? That the one in charge of this place had forgotten to lock not just one, but two doors, and then this pitiful creature (which it was now clear to him wouldn't so much as jump even if its tail was on fire) had fled for the hills? No... No no NO!! It all seemed so stupid now!
Banno spat the roots out of his mouth. The red haze was starting to creep back in, that mindless fury. If this was the end of the game, maybe he should just go back and kill them all, kill everybody! Who cares if he might starve afterward, or die of infection, stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with only one foot and nobody to take care of him? He should just go back in there and take them in their sleep, one by one, until he was -
His eye suddenly stopped on an odd-looking device hanging from a little hook next to the door. It looked a bit like a see-through box, apparently made from the same stuff as the house's windows. Ander would have been fascinated by this material, but Banno didn't give a damn. The only thing he was interested in was what he could see through the blackish, hazy surface. Inside this dirty looking box thing was a small candle, and judging by the sooty smell coming off of it, it had been burning very recently.
Burning...
It wouldn't so much as jump even if its tail was on fire...
Fire.
Banno smiled. He just had a great idea.
"Come on, Jitters," he said, his voice practically dripping with honey. "Let's get you back in your cage..."
Everybody told me today: "Contrast, you work too hard! Take some time off! It's your birthday, FFS!!" to which I replied, "No! My people need me! Must... write... Ander..." I think I passed out after that, but here's today's update anyway! Yay! Seriously though, this is going to be the last update of 2014. It's my birthday, then it's Christmas, then it's New Year's, tons of family coming and going, lots of road trips to make, and loads of peppermint tarts to scarf. Updates will resume in January. Thank you, and enjoy your holidays! ^_^
Been a while since I added a note to one of my subchapters, but I'd like to share some of my thoughts on this one. I was worried that it might be a bit too long, but I really wanted to show how different Ander and Banno are when it comes to problem solving. When Ander saved Kiana, he thought everything out in advance (getting her out of the cage, carrying her over the wall, the route they'd take, crossing the river, etc), but Banno is very different. He goes at his problems head-on, assuming that if any difficulties pop up he'll just be able to deal with them on the fly. Not really that important, but I found it rather interesting.
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