97mg
Explorer
The lonely halforc exhaled a misty cold breath and stood still for a moment. He would be forgiven for considering himself cursed, given the current predicament. Actually, the thought wasn't so ridiculous given the circumstances and what he'd seen during recent hours, perhaps bleeding into days. A good thing that the curdle of interracial blood and his unusual profession meant that Shan Whey... would not be one to admit defeat. Not here. Not like this.
Far away on the northern coasts of Solov Isle, people were waiting for this rough-around-the-edges, tough yet generally kind, man to come home. He wondered what the Miller family might be up to right this moment? Cilov town thus far, had not suffered the afflictions of the more southern villages and settled lands. The Korrud hadn't yet got their greedy fingers into the peaceful farming community. Oh, the time would come no doubt, as the imposters swept northwards to take everything as their own. But for now, the Millers were likely safe... the Millers that were left that is.
Shan reached a hand into his pocket, and yet again ran his fingers around a tooth. Yes, the tooth of a human man.
* * *
With the firm thud of an oversized boot's sole against timber planking, the wood splintered, sending small slithers flying in all manner of directions. A second well-placed impact, and the trapdoor had all but been obliterated. Behind him and leaking warm flickering light, the hearth seemed to flare for a moment, as a cool rush of air brushed over him from below. The flames were fueled by air. His heart was fueled by rage. Rage painted in colors of unrequited love, a complex anger that had been sucking at him, determined as a leech, for well over a year.
He was down there somewhere. The liar and adulterer. The undeserving. The one soon to receive a lesson he'd not soon forget!
In truth, the victim of this altercation did soon forget. Arolakos Miller was stood behind a table when Shan had burst like a towering wave of hatred, down the ramshackle steps and into the room. Getting some help from a few friends, and entrusting several of Cilov's more "shady" folk had really sped things up. This was where Arolakos did his dodgy deals. Gold coins were neatly stacked in coins upon the desk, placed centered in a room which was possibly once a cellar. Shan's victim was a bastard of bastard's if ever there was one. Back home, his wife and children lived on the poverty-line, hand-to-mouth, laboring on farms and subsisting as best they could. The perfect front for a launderer and manipulator.
"Hey!" Arolakos had called out in shock.
Like a rolling boulder, the halforc had come smashing across the table, hand reaching for the elderly human's throat, the other smashing firmly against Miller's skull. Memories, life and teeth were lost as one, as Arolakos's form slid bloody and beaten to the floor.
* * *
Shan awoke with a jolt, wiping beads of cold sweat from his brow. So much for a moment's rest.
To be continued...
