7 Chapter 7: Lifeld

When Jake awoke again the throbbing of his head had died down, and instead of in the warm comfort of the bed he found himself situated before the hearth of the house.

When he tried to sit up, he noticed his arm had been wrapped tightly in cloth and a large piece of wood held it in place. He made to remove it, but a voice called out to stop him.

“Gale had to re-break your arm and set it in place properly,” the woman before, Mimi, spoke to him as she came into the house, “I don’t know how you manage to fend off a wolf with an arm as badly bruised as your one was, you’re completely mad.”

She was a tall woman, but not as tall as the huntsman from before, Gale. And she seemed to emit a bright aura from herself as she spoke to him in a soft voice; he wondered how the two could even get along with opposing personalities as they had.

“Oh,” Jake said as he held his arm closer to his face, “well, you’ll have to tell you husband thank you for me.”

At that remark Mimi let out a loud and boisterous laugh as she stared at him, her teeth were on display as she gave a large smile and shook her head, “Gale is my brother,” she informed him, “it’s just the two of us living here anyway, so it isn’t like you were a bother.”

“He seemed to think otherwise.” Jake grumbled, then his eyes turned wide and he turned to Mimi quickly, “And why the hell did he have to hit me on the back of my head!”

“Oh, that- well Gale isn’t particularly fond of strangers you see, and with the beasts running around lately he had to make sure you didn’t know how to enter the village-“

“I’m not some ravaged beast! Clearly…” Jake found himself mumbling the last part, but Mimi’s ears seemed to have picked it up as she spoke again.

“Clearly,” she said as she eyed Jake with a raised brow, “but still. We can never be too careful these days, it’s not like help will come from the town even if the entire village burnt down.”

Just as Jake was about to ask about the town she referred to, a piercing scream sounded out from outside of the house and Mimi was outside before he could even process it. He quickly stood up from the makeshift bed on the floor and followed her outside.

Once outside he saw the frantic movement of villagers as they ran around trying to gather children and get inside. A loud crashing sounded a few ways away and he heard Mimi’s yells in the same direction, he pushed himself further as he came upon the scene.

In the middle of the village square a large group of hunters had gathered, torches in their hand and swords in the other. Jake noticed some archers far off had their arrows all pointed at one singular target. It was a beast unlike anything Jake had seen before.

Thick hind legs stood planted deep into the ground, it led onto a long snake-like body that was pushed to the ground and slithering slowly around the circle it had been caged in. Jake saw from its thin-lipped mouth small sharp teeth protruding from the skin, and many horn adorned the thick skin of its head.

Snake-like eyes shot to him, and the neon sign before him appeared again.

COMMUNICATE WITH BEAST?

YES or NO

Slower than the first time something like this happened, Jake’s hand hovered over the first option. Once his response was registered the beast’s voice filtered through the air.

“Lovely, lovely little mouses,” it sneered, “I’m going to eats you all and gobbles you down!”

Jake narrowed his eyes at the beast, and noticed long black veins protruding from the underbelly of its raised torso. He tilted his head and stepped forward, curious as to what exactly was happening with the creature.

Amoux had told him there were creatures he would not want to meet in the forest, creatures like the maddened wolf they were forced to hunt down and the savage unicorn that had attacked him. What was happening to these creatures that made them turn mad?

“Hello?” Jake heard himself speak out, and all heads turned to him, including the beast before him, “Can you… can you understand me?” He pushed through the line of the crowd, and the creature halted its movements as it stared up at him.

“What is he doing!”

“Get him out of there!”

Jake heard the protests of the village men, but he ignored them and pushed closer to the beast.

“My name is Jake, can you understand me?”

The beast blinked up at him, and then replied, “Yess, we can understands the little humans, why can we understands?”

“It’s um… it’s my system?”

“Ah, ah,” the beast bobbed its head up and down in understanding, “yes very good, very good. What does it wants with Lifeld? Does it wants to hurt him?” The creature’s voice rose at the accusation and slithered closer to Jake threateningly.

“No! No, I don’t. Is that your name? Lifeld?” The creature nodded again, “I think you’re sick Lifeld, I think you need help.”

“Help!” It barked in amusement, “No helps come from the mouses, no helps when the forests fells sick!”

“Please Lifeld, you’re going to become very sick very soon, please don’t hurt these people.”

“These people hurts Lifeld! They hack and scratch and burrow their sicknesses in the ground! They hides their secretses deep in the forest so no one finds it, but Lifeld finds it, Lifeld and many others…”

“What secrets Lifeld? What do you mean? Who hurt you?”

“The man with two faces, he-“

Before Lifeld could finish his sentence, an arrow whizzed from far off and imbedded itself into his neck. Jake watched in horror as thick black blood spurted from the beast’s neck and it hissed in rage. It raised its body on its hind legs and towered over Jake.

Before it could attack him, Jake fell to the ground as a body slammed into him and Lifeld’s long neck fell onto the place Jake had been, creating a dent in the earth with its size and horns.

“Hurry up!” Mimi’s voice called out to him as she pulled him away from the circle of men that charged on the creature.

As they stood on the side, Jake watched in horror as the hunters descended onto Lifeld, hacking and stabbing at its body and its sorrowful, pained screams rang out into the night. He shut his eyes from the sight and turned away, but the noises could not go unnoticed.

“Just what exactly were you thinking?” Mimi screamed at him as she rose from the ground, “that monster could have killed you!”

“I… I…”

“You… you what? Speak!”

“It was sick, it told me it was sick-“

“It told you?” Mimi asked incredulously, “that’s impossible.”

“Why is that impossible? It did!”

“No, it didn’t. Because no one can do that!"

“Mimi,” Gale’s harsh voiced called out. He was soaked in blood from head to toe and a harsh grip was on his bow, Jake gritted his teeth as he stared at the instigator of this bloodshed. “Not here. Go home.”

Mimi gave out a grunt of frustration, and dragged Jake up from the ground and back towards their home.