Book 1 Chapter 2: A secret burning in the pocket
Chapter 2: A secret burning in the pocket
Jaeger puffed up his collar, looking up through the mist and rain to the lightshow of neon signs that stuck out from thick old grey stone. The nighttime was sometimes the most vibrant, but not many were ever on the streets. The real life was in the places those neon signs were attached to.
Like calling cards to particular events, if you wanted to do something you looked up high into the sky or low to the ground for a sign showing you what you needed.
Jaeger tried to light up another smoke, but every time he did it went out.
"Damnit"
He moved off under an overhang following a wide building, as he lit his smoke and looked through its flame to the street. Several burly men were walking in his direction. Jaeger flicked his light, stuffing the smoke back into his mouth for a long puff.
As he breathed out, the burly men passed right by him continuing down the street.
After a second or two he flicked his ashes, and they danced back towards his shoulder which he casually brushed at and took the moment to look over his shoulder. The men went into the old man's place, but soon came tumbling out patting their bodies down. They cursed, and behind them a fire began to roar to life.
Although it tried to claim the house, several other men came racing in to the scene covered in blue garb. One of them lifted his hands, and rain changed directions shooting into open windows in a stream. Another man waved his hands, causing the smoke to isolate and stagnate from leaving the windows choking the fire further. Several minutes later the fire was out; the two burly men came back over to the blue garbed men and held up two badges before walking back into the old man's dwelling.
Jaeger didn't stick around much longer after that and left, keeping his hand as a shield to the rain as he smoked inbetween his two protruding collars.
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Jaeger looked over to his jacket that was dripping into a drain set next to the coat rack. A subtle change a long time ago for people to hang their wet clothes. His eye's lingered before moving over to a table where a book sat.
"Hmm…" It wasn't a dilemma; he could dump the book easily and not have the trouble of it with him. Yet, the old man's words left him curious. What would it give him? He was dying to know.
"Fuck it…What do I have to lose" Jaeger thought back over his life in this city even as he cut his hand. Blood dripped from his palm, a smear seconds later appeared over the book.
Jaeger slowly sat down in his leather chair, the only furniture he had apart from a bed.
For some reason, today felt like a long day. It struck him silently, taking over his muscles and with it came a deep sleep.
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Jaegers father was a merchant ranger. A person who travelled between cities doing odd jobs but most importantly Investigation as well as protection.
Rangers excelled in certain weapons, and were great scouts as well as solo carriers of battle or hunting. It's what payed the bills when the group needed it, and kept him fed most of his life.
Investigation gathered him information, whether from cities and knowledge or about creatures out in the wilderness.
One cold night, he was drinking away in a bar with his closest friends when he looked up from his glass to see a beautiful woman scrubbing away at the counter. She had just replaced the bar tender for the day time, and of course must be the night time tender.
Soon, hours passed but unlike his friends who became hammered he was enamored. She was gorgeous, and had noticed with a smirk his views but was both delighted and yet sad to find he stayed seated and unspoken.
He was respectful it seemed.
However, several men across the bar on the other side drinking away weren't as such. They goaded her to come over and ride them at the same time, they would even throw in a good amount of coin if she did. She politely said no, and yet through her words was a dominant air that put the men at bay. They cussed silently and left as the night fell late.
As she left, so did the man and his comrades. She turned going down an alley home, and he left in the opposite direction to where they were staying.
He noticed those same men from before walk past him, bumping into his friends in a drunken stupor. They, hammered as well, were about to protest when a finger was brought to their mouths in quick succession. They looked at their friend strangely, signaling with their eyes 'What you don't like to brawl anymore?' but he gave them a silent glare and nodded over to the men who passed and walked down the alley the girl had gone down.
They had noticed his looks at her all night, but never said a thing about it. They all knew it wasn't easy to have a family on the road, and was an unspoken rule to not bother with staying for someone. They freely had sex, but they always knew their friend was the romantic type and seeing him like a girl was quite the profound development.
They followed his nod, and understood that those men were going after the girl.
Drunk? Yes? Any less capable with their skills inebriated? Hell no. They were very astute.
He nodded to them, and left turning around the corner. They eyed each other and sighed. The next morning, their friend left with some flowers and a wave.
Some of them cursed, but everyone understood that when your time came you might very well be caught off guard and settle down after a long life. Fuck it, they could always visit.
The three men from last night? Buried somewhere.
Several years later, a son was born. The two adored their son but sadly these thoughts were cut short when the man's old friends came back to the city in a rush.
'Zombie hoard'
A phrase the man knew well, they had come across many of such occurrences. This time as he looked around only few of his friends had come back to the city…the rest deceased. The world outside the cities had countless horizons worth of terrain, mountains, dungeon like places, old cities, and ancient grounds. Countless wonders and yet with them, danger and disease, creatures and undead.
However, the place they were in right now wasn't one of those cities protected by divine mystic powers or scientifically bound magic's. It was an auxiliary city. A village, and with that title came no protection what so ever but the strongest men of the town.
The man cursed, but still the woman packed their belongings with him and bundled their child running off through the opposite direction of the city. People scattered in countless directions.
Nightfall came, a journey seemingly without end.
His friends died, he took a bite for his wife.
They ran close to a city, but as he slowly succumbed he kissed her goodbye and ran back drawing the hoard to save her time.
She was merely a mile from the city when guards slowly poured out, they shot straight towards her and into the zombies. She thought she was safe when she tripped, and with it came a bite. She crawled through the carnage and rain of metal before leaving her son with a soldier. He knew she wouldn't make it, and she didn't protest as he left with her son.
She didn't know how it had turned out this way, and was only briefly able to tell him of a man her husband was friends with. She told the soldier what to tell the man, and he took in each word sincerely. She told him, the group his father had been a part of, his occupation, and a name she had chosen.
Jaeger, or in other terms or translations meant sharp shooter. Just like his father's profession.
Then, she turned…and a roaming soldier shot her.
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The city was 'Abyss', a new moniker after it was left without a soul outside its walls and structures after that rogue wave of undead 18 years ago. The next several cities were hundreds of miles east or west, and the countless others beyond that several thousand miles, or tens of thousands of miles, out dotting the landscape of the world. In tow with no surrounding cities to reach out their hands, people with mystical 'powers' had come to the city and taken over it as their own. Since then they ruled it.
Jaeger woke up from his dream, a replaying of the stories he was told when he was young. His parent's faces were always vague, hard to see because of course he had never met them past when he was born.
Jaeger stood up, walked over and made coffee and awaited its brewing. When it finished, he cracked the window to the room and stood next to it as he smoked and drank his joe.
Spilling a little on his hand, he brushed it off and walked over setting the cup down on the table. Without thinking about it he walked back to the window and looked out. However, the more awake he became the more he noticed the reflection of the lone cup behind him.
The book wasn't there.
"What the…" Turning around, indeed it wasn't some illusion.
"Where the…" He reached his hand out to grab the cup when his arm stopped, he stared at the back of his hand that had 3 little lines on them. They looked like a tattoo, and yet he KNEW he hadn't got one last night.
"The book…it has to be that, but…did it disappear along with giving me the lines?" That was the only conclusion he could make based on the lines and the fact it was gone.
He didn't feel any different? He didn't feel lighter or faster nor had red glowing eye's that could shoot death rays. What had it given him?
"That it? It gave me the power to create three little lines on my hand hahahaha" Jaeger laughed, the anticipated super power hadn't come, and yet his laughter slowly died out.
Jaeger mulled over the lines as he finished his smoke, touching it with his hand the lines didn't feel sore or different then skin. "Of course", it had to do with his frog right? He summoned it, causing a light mist to form on the table and out popped a frog.
"Alright little guy…fly" He watched it leap off the table and whap onto the ground. It looked up at him expectedly, he picked it up and set it back on the table.
Hours passed, and yet no matter what he told it to do nothing changed. He had stuck it out the window, and as rain fell on it the rain turned to a mist that cascaded lightly to the street below as usual. After feeding it, it changed into the materials it ate but in no way differently seemed 'greater'.
"Sigh"
Jaeger looked at his frog; he wasn't disappointed in it he merely felt dumb himself.
However, the frog indeed looked a little different? Before it had a sleek body, and was green like a tree frog. Now however as he scrutinized it more he could see just slightly different and albeit BARELY faint darker green circles surrounding each of its limbs at the joint to the toes.
"Huh…hmm…i…huh…" He didn't know what to make of it for now, but if he got 3 lines well I guess it would make sense his frog got something too? He scratched his head in thought.
The more frustrated he became the more he thought back to that old man and all the words he had told him, they couldn't have been false? A frail old man not far from death wouldn't need to lie, his sincerity was obvious.
Either way, he had to go give his report to his client.
Jaeger meditated, clearing his mind and readying himself for the day. As he reached down to the ground he felt a strange tug as if his arm was stuck to something.
"EH?" The wood that made up the floor was covering his hands, in fact it was crawling up his hands!
"What the fu…" Instead of freaking out, Jaegers mind wandered to the book. He watched on as the wood covered his hands, moving over his body until he was incased in the wood. Looking at his right hand with the lines, one line had disappeared. Instead, in its place was a strange symbol.
He didn't know what it meant, but it was a triangle. In the middle was the wood except it didn't follow the flow of the wood itself, it almost looked like it was a piece of a puzzle set in his hand.
"Hmm…does this mean I have abilities like Frog? To take in material?" The flow of wood stopped, Jaeger got up and looked in the mirror and was astounded to find everything that was skin on his body had changed to that wood.
Inside his mouth was normal, as well as his eyes, but everywhere else was his floor. Jaeger sat back down on the ground, clearing his mind as he touched the floor. As he peeked through his eyes he could see the wood flowing off into the floor!
"Okay…okay…okay…a clear mind, and contact. That's what I know so far. Covers skin, or become it like Frog…the floor looked thinner too so thus, I am guessing an equal amount of material is needed to become like that" Jaeger remembered these points, and hopped up grabbing his jacket before pocketing Frog.