The Jester's Crown

The Gods were always at war with one another. No one new if they did it because of a dispute, an old grudge or just for fun but the humans below suffered the worst of it; they could only push forward because of their fate towards the God they venerated.

It was in their darkest era that it happened. In one day, just like in any other, something very bizarre happened. The skies turned blood red, the soil turned dark and the ground started to rumble and rumble and rumble. Every single human thought that the Gods were angry. But why?

It was at this moment that cracks started appearing out of thin air and from those cracks, a foul black air came through. This foul black air then turned into unimaginable monstrosities. From one day to another, pestas, witches, grifons, and more, monsters out of the worse of human nightmares plagued the land.

These monsters were all hostile towards the humans of Riarath.

Seeing these, the Gods threw their differences aside and ordered the humans to do the same.

With this, an alliance was formed and although some sacrifices were made, the humans were able to push the monsters out of Riarath.

Nowadays, the continent of Riarath is completely surrounded by a holy barrier formed with the cooperation of the 4 Gods. This barrier ensures that no cracks form inside the continent of Riarath.

This though, does not avoid those monstrosities from appearing on the planet. With time, they formed land that completely surrounded Riarath. The humans call that land the Dark Frontier.

Every now and then, the monsters would orchestrate an attack on Riarath.

Monsters are normally hard pressed to enter the continent of Riarath as they first need to get through the Great Coral Barrier. The Great Coral Barrier is a structure located in the sea which is surrounding Riarath and like the sea it surrounds it. The structure serves as a foothold for humanity to defend against the beasts.

Even with all these defences, the holy barrier is not without its flaws. Every now and then a small crack will appear. Even though it might only allow the lowliest of monsters to pass through, if not closed on time, it might grow big enough to allow the passage of an army of monsters. The low rank monster also if given time might grow into one of the high ranked monsters.

It's for this same reason that they exist. The ones known as Monster Hunters. Experts in tracking and dealing with monsters and sealing cracks.

********

3:00 pm. Gand Region. In the outskirts of Lancaster.

A small monster had been spotted recently near Lancaster and an order had been dispatched to exterminate it.

The monster had been described as a small bipedal goat with red eyes. A goatling. Something that if left alone might turn into an intelligent Minotaur.

When the 2 monster hunters arrived at the site, they tracked the goatling and arrived to its den.

Small monsters liked to hide themselves as they waited for the crack to open further or for them to evolve; caves were their speciality. These caves sometimes turned into dungeons, places were different monsters congregate if the monsters were left to their own devices. Strangely enough, the treasures stolen by and hoarded by the monsters inside the dungeon sometimes transformed into magical objects or objects that were of a higher grade than before.

This phenomenon baffled scholars. They couldn't comprehend the cause of it.

The 2 monster hunters knew that confronting the goatling in the cave would be a hard task so they decided to smoke the cave.

They knew for certain that the monster was inside the cave as the footprints leading inside it were fresh.

They draped cloths around their mouths and drenched their blades with extract of Priscilla, a flower known to be poisonous to goatlings and Minotaurs alike. One of them, the oldest looking one then produced a flame with his right hand and lit a packet up. He then proceeded by throwing this packet as far away as possible inside the cave.

The next step was waiting. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes. The tension was high.

Suddenly, they heard someone coming out from the cave. They readied their swords.

But, when they saw the monster they were surprised. It was already a half Minotaur. They knew the monster had to be exterminated immediately.

The oldest monster hunter gave his orders to the youngest one. They were to split up. The oldest one would act as a decoy whilst the other would sneak behind the Half Minotaur to slash at its legs and immobilise it.

Minotaur fur was hard and thick so one would need to attack the same area over and over again for the blade to go deep enough to kill the Minotaur. There were other ways to take care of a Minotaur, but these were very inefficient and would damage the Minotaur's fur to a high degree.

Minotaur fur could be sold at a high price.

Slowly but surely, the 2 monster hunters assumed their positions.

The oldest one then left his hiding in the thickets and shouted:

- Yoooooo Half Minotaur! You look uglier in person - the old man guffawed.

The Minotaur was clearly enraged. He charged with all this power towards the old person. This left its back totally exposed.

The younger monster hunter used this opening to jump from the thickets and slash at the monsters leg joints. This made the monster tumble and with the force of his charge, he precipitated towards the older monster hunter.

The older monster hunter then drew his sword from his waist, fiery red started coating the sword, and lashed towards the Half Minotaur's neck.

This was then followed by a horizontal slash from the younger monster hunter into the same place the older one slashed into.

This was enough to cut the monster's fur and behead it.

It was a successful hunt.

********

Long after the 2 monster hunters received the bounty for the Minotaur and sold the fur. In a pub in Lancaster.

- So what are we going to do now Old man? - asked the younger one.

These 2 were parent and son.

The parent thought about something at first but rapidly made up his mind.

- You are to return to the central regions, to Treat.

- And what about you Old man? The 2 kids are going to be sad without you - the son sighed.

- I know... but there is something that I must do.

His dad wore a serious and grave look on his face. This was a face that he only showed when the matter was about something really urgent.

The son could not avoid asking.

- What is the job? You could use a helping hand. With the both of us, it will be done in just a couple of days.

The dad gazed into his son's eyes. The son could not avoid gulping saliva.

- Sorry, I need to do this alone - the parent sighed - It's about a promise I made to an old friend.

- What is it about?

- ...

There was a long silence. But then the parent's next words shocked the son.

- I'm going to become a teacher for a couple of months. A teacher for children.