Reborn

I hear a man banging at the door so I get out of bed still tired, with red eyes. I look at my chest where my scar is, I try to touch it but the pain still continues. Six months and it still hurts, it still bleeds. I put a pair of pants and a jacket on me and start walking through the empty house, looking at the old family photos while sluggishly reaching the front door. I look through the visor and see a tall black man in a blue uniform, the mailman. I open the door and give Richard my warmest welcome.

"It's 7 in the morning you bastard! I'm trying to sleep!" I scream at him with my best intentions.

"I'm sorry mister Salazar Ravenloan but I was told to give you this in person!" he hands me a black envelope with a red raven shaped seal on it.

"What?! Who in the hell gave you this?!"

"An old man gave it to me and paid me extra to give you in person. He told me, and I quote, "Give this letter to Salazar Ravenloan in person cause otherwise that lazy good for nothing will throw it with the rest of the letters!"."

"Oho! Is that so? Well if you see him you can tell it that..."

"Sorry Mr. Salazar but I had a lot of houses to go to! Hope you have a great morning!" Richard screamed while he ran to his car, he probably didn't want to hear my curse tirade.

A black envelope huh? That is weird but the seal...oho so that's what it is! And that old man is probably grandpa, bloody hells. No, I don't want to have anything to do with them. I threw the envelope in the garbage and walk away with the rest of the letters.

"Bill, bill, bill, you won blah blah blah...nothing good from what I can see." I mumble while walking to the kitchen. I throw off some dirty dishes from the table and start brewing some coffee.

While waiting for my coffee the scar starts acting again so I get off my jacket so the scars doesn't touch anything. What a nasty scar, shaped like a half moon, always itching, keeping me awake at night, covering my sheets with blood. Fuck. As I was expecting, the envelope was on my coffee machine. I take it and throw it back in the garbage.

I start to drink my coffee and after a couple of minutes the envelope appears on my table. Clean, not a single coffee stain.

"Fuck off!" I take the envelope and rip it to pieces, burn it and then throw in the garbage.

As expected it returned not even a minute later in my hand.

"Fine! You want to play like this, huh? Fucking bastards! After six months you just now send a bloody letter!?" I scream like anybody could hear me.

I reluctantly open the letter and take out the paper. The envelope vanishes in a puff of fire leaving behind a smell of sulfur and...shaving cream? I start reading the letter.

"Dear mister Salazar

We are once again sending you our deepest regrets for your parents untimely death but as you might know already the time has come for you to take their place!

You shall come to Heighnot Str. Nr. 324 and take your emblem and continue the good work your parents gladly did for over fifteen years. We hope to see you as soon as possible. Signed Ibus Ravenloan."

"You god damn old man! You think I will gladly come to lend my life for your stupid asses?!" I scream once again and gesture sporadically, hitting my cup making all of its content and the cup itself to splatter on the ground. "Well now I need a new cup..."

I can't believe the number of guts this bastard has. After five years of silence, he just sends me a letter and calls me for duty? I think he became senile with the age...that or it's something important for me to do? What should I care actually? Either way I'm not going anywhere.

I leap out of my seat and go to take an ice cold shower to cool down my scar. I take a fifteen minute shower maybe and go back to bed, enough effort for today.

I manage to get maybe an hour of sleep but I'm awakened by the sound of glass shattering.

I get out of the bed with a pain in my back and my sheets slightly covered in blood. I hear somebody walking, heavy steps, probably empty feet.

I slowly open the door and look around the corner, at the base of the staircase I see a big figure, seven maybe eight feet tall but with a crooked back. I can sense the stench of rotten meat and sewers. A troll...fantastic! Some weapons would be fantastic I must say! There are a bunch of them downstairs but how do I get past that bastard!

I try to walk quietly but I hear how he takes deep breaths and I realize it, he's trying to senses my smell. He starts running up the stairs, planks of wood shattering beneath his weight. I jump through the railings and clumsily fall ten feet on my back. I need to get to those weapons, I need my sword but my body feels heavy, the room is spinning and the scar starts opening covering me in blood.

I sense that stench again and I jump forward towards my basement door as that six hundred pound beast falls behind me on his feet.

"Salazar child of raven! I, Grugnag, shall claim your head as a trophy and token of might!" yells the beast with his mouth drooling with a viscous green liquid that he would call saliva.

"I'm not a good trophy big guy! I heard there are betters trophies in hell!" I bravely scream while running like a coward to my basement while the room is spinning.

"In hell I will go not! I will go to paradise covered in my trophies, forever adored!"

I open the door and dash down the stairs rolling being careful to hit every stair on the way down, did I say I'm not very agile? The ice cold cement floor took all by dizziness away...and a couple of ribs.

Hearing the thumping of the troll was bad enough as it was but the door being thrown in front of me was even worse. I manage to get up and go to the old cabinet and pull out a rusty blacked out sword. I try to take the proper stand but a shockwave of pain puts me down on my knees.

Grugnag hits me right in the chest with his enormous fists, I feel and hear my ribs braking. I spit some blood on the troll's arm and my world starts spinning and going black.

"I told you puny human! I, Grugnag, will take your head and lavish in respect! A sword of such unrightful state would never pier..." I interrupt him by shoving my blade in his liver.

"By the gods of old let the ravens take your flesh, creature!" I scream and the rust on my sword starts to disappear and blood starts to ooze from Grugnag's body. "When your gonna meet The Raven Master tell him that I say hi and to take care of his own crap!" saying that I pull out the sword and the blood dripping from the trolls wound takes form of little ravens and begin to tear his flesh apart.

I laugh while seeing him being devoured until I feel a wave of pain all over my body. My wounds open, I start to spit blood and my vision blackens. The last thing I remember are the raven becoming blood puddles once again and the troll getting up.

"God, I'm screwed" I whisper with my last breath.

•

A sharp pain woke me up from...my sleep? I almost jumped out of the bed but again pain kept me in place. Where was I? A white room with a weird bed, devices and tubes running in my hand, I'm in a hospital?

"Hello Mister Salazar!" I heard a feminine voice from the door, scared I searched for something to defend myself when I observed that my left arm is broken. "Are you filling alright?"

"What?! No! For god's sake I'm covered in...bandages? I woke up in a hospital!? Why am I here?!" I scream panicked as to who might've brought me here.

"You were brought here by your grandfather. He told us you fell from your roof while working to repair a leak."

"What? I-I don't remember...how bad was I?"

"Let me check a second." She told me while looking on some papers. I looked better at her now, she was quite young, maybe thirty years old, with black hair and a nice smile. "Here it is! You were brought here two weeks ago..."

"Two weeks?!" I was in a fucking coma?

"Yes! You had six broken ribs, a broken arm, internal bleeding and a contusion. On top of that your...scar opened so we needed to treat that too."

"Right...so my grandfather brought me here? Where is he? I want to talk with him!" Did that old bastard really save my life?

"I will call him as soon as possible!" she told me while changing the bags with...actually I don't want to know.

I try to look around, to look at my wounds, to move my arm...hmm bad idea! The room is small, it seems like a private room. Outside I can hear the usual sounds of the hospital, doctors being called, shoes on the hard floor, people talking, arguing, sometimes screaming about some nonsense.

It's been twenty minutes and nothing from the assistant. I might as well go to the bathroom. I start to move and I could already feel my stiches rupturing, bad idea. Well, I suppose this bag with yellow liquid is for a reason there.

I wait maybe an hour when I see entering thru the door, Ibus Ravenloan, my dear grandfather. A small man with silvery hair and a thick mustache clearly waxed. He was wearing his usual custom, a pair of jeans, a blue shirt and brown jacket with elbow patches making him look like some kind of college professor. At first glance you would think he's a fat old man but looking more carefully you would see that he has the physique of a heavyweight boxer, small indeed but still.

"Hello, Salazar! How are you d..."

"You old fuck! What did you?! No, actually why haven't you spoked to me for six bloody months?!" I screamed as loud as I could, probably waking up a lot of people.

"Calm down now. I know it's frustrating but you have to understand the situation..."

"The situation!? My father and mother were killed in front of me! I was what? Nineteen? They were tortured and killed and you managed to came just after they did this to me and left me to die!" I pointed at my scar. "You show your face only now, six months after the incident! For what reason!?"

"My dear..." He stopped and came closer, I could see how tired he actually looked. "I wanted to see you again with a proud face, my boy! I wanted to come to you with your parent's killer...but I couldn't!" He told me with a red face full of anger and shame. "Now I come here for other reasons."

I couldn't say anything else about what happened, I was tired of this. I wanted answers first, anger can go afterwards.

"How did I get here? What happened with the troll?"

"I was keeping an eye on your house and I saw the troll coming in. I went as fast as I could. When I reached the house, the bastard was wounded and was sharpening a knife to slice your head off." He told me everything calmly almost like the discussion from a moment ago never happened. "At that moment I pulled out my trench knife and cut of his throat before he could react. I got rid of the body and got you here!"

"But why? Why did the troll attack now! Why did you send that letter now?" I asked confused.

"Because, my dear, the family is in a bad shape. It's not only your parents, other five members were killed in the last six months. In total seven people and no clue on how and why. You were contacted now because of two reasons, firstly because I tried to exclude you from the family, that's why you weren't called sooner and because we need more hunters." He said all of that with that straight bloody face.

"Are you expecting me to be one of you? A shadow walking in the dark killing things like that troll? After all this time? Why would I ever want to do this?"

"There is no want, you were solicitated by The Gray Raven and whatever he desires he gets so get ready to finally meet him!" He told me calmly.

"T-the Gray Raven? He's actually real? I thought it was just another none sense fed up to us!" I start to sweat, if he's real I'm in a bad situation.

"He is real my dear nephew. He led us for over two hundred years and is the main connection to The Raven Master."

I didn't know what to say. That fearsome man I heard so many things about, the man who was guided by a god and gave our family power. How could I meet this kind of a creature?

"When am I going to meet him?"

"After you recover enough to stand on your own, I suppose." He was startled for a second and looked around. "Boy, I think more have come for you, maybe even for me."

He handed me a trench knife with a dark blade. I took it and tried once again to stand up, I am in great danger.

"Boy I'll go and look around! This thing is pretty good, I know he's here but I can't sense where..."

I stand with great effort using the wall and take a stand with the knife in my only good hand. I hear steps down the hall, I'm sweaty and my breath is all over the place. Ready to fight I lift the blade and I only see that assistant entering.

"Aaagh! Mr. Salazar what are you doing? Are you feeling alright? How did you get that dagger?" She asked with a terrified look on her face.

"Oh...I taught I heard something. You can go I'm just going to go to pee." I move to the bathroom hoping she would leave.

"Sir please you're not in a state to walk! Put the dagger down and let me help you go back into bed!"

"No! Sorry but I can't do this!"

"I said put down you dagger, boy!" She screamed with veins showing all over her face now looking more like a beast than a woman.

"Well miss I start to wonder if you have a real medicine diploma!" I lift again my weapon and start chanting. "By the clear nights of..."

She jumps and catches my mouth not letting me to finish. I start swinging that damn blade with all the strength I had left doing some minor cuts.

"Now now! You shouldn't be so hasty you little shit!" She opened her mouth wider than possible and her free hand became a blade. "We can't be disturbed this time boy, your granddaddy is busy with my sisters!"

I bite her hand with all my strength and she lets me go for a second, enough to dash on the other part of the room.

"You damn witch! Go and visit the pits of hell!" I scream and stab myself in my left arm. The blade absorbs into it and reinforces by broken bones. "Now that we are on even grounds it's time for the real fight begins!"