FRAGMENTS OF SILVER

The moon’s beauty and light attracts many things, 

but beauty always attracts one thing, the opposite of it. 

-The Rites

Prologue

Descending

My name is Fred, Freddrick Falcifer. 

      The scent of the woods creep in as night approaches, I could barely feel my feet as I ran across the plain aimlessly; the horrid stench of carcasses dug its way into my nostrils as i entered in to the forest. I caught my breath calmly as I came to a halt and rested my body on a tree and ripping out my left sleeve right after. Then I searched nearby for a stick or some sort like it. It’s a forest, what else would you expect to find besides sticks and stones and…creatures of the night?

   “Found one” I whispered. Darkness was upon me before I knew it. I wrapped the piece of cloth I torn out earlier on the tip of the stick and lighted it with a match.

    “Bloody hell, I swear Cocytus isn’t as cold as this”, I complained as it was freezing cold at this point of the night. The heat from the torch was barely helping and it was constantly being blown off by the wind. I adjusted my hat as I took slow steps. If anyone is reading this I’d want you to know I’m not your ordinary type of guy or person or whatever you want to call it. Some people would refer to us as hunters, others as mercenaries or assassins, but I’d personally call myself a problem solver. You see, it’s not every day you get to see a person dressed all enigmatic walking into your town and being hired to take down something that doesn’t exist, at least not during the day. Anyhow, here I am. I was “hired” to take down something that is responsible for the disappearance of a few of the townspeople nearby.

     I’m not the nicest of people to work with so I’d work alone when it comes to these sorts of matters. It’s complicated, like life, such as mine. Cutting to the chase, well it was literally a chase. Though I’m not sure who is chasing who or what. I heard a sudden rustle a few meters away from me in a nearby bush. I unsheathed a silver blade that shined in the moons light as it was radiating its rays over the darkness, I positioned myself to a combat stance as the rustling became louder and closer towards me. A black figure rose up from it and the light; ever so bright from the moon revealed a tremendous lycan. I could see its breath as it was growling in hunger, eyes as red as blood and drool   pouring out from its mouth.

    “This is going to be a hard one”, I sighed. As I said earlier, I’m not your normal type of person, I deal with these unnatural things that cause problems to people and they just can’t stop whining about it. I was trained to face these creatures, and true enough it was right in front of me. I’ve gotten so used to it I’m barely surprised. However, this big guy here seems to be an alpha type, not the strongest of all the types but reasonably powerful enough to lift a car. It suddenly charged towards me at full force without any warning. A direct hit from that would’ve sent me flying back to where I was born. Its claws were bare it sliced its way towards my direction. I parried the assault with my blade. I used whatever remaining strength I had to take cover behind a tree, though it won’t help much but a few seconds is all I need to do what I need to do next. Humans are weak beings and they are never able to fight against any creature on this planet that has defensive mechanisms such as claws, teeth, etc. I quickly grabbed a small bottle containing a mixture that enhances every physical aspect of a human.

     “Looks like I owe the Prof. another for this one”. I gulped the liquid within the few seconds I had before the lycan uprooted the tree I was behind. A surge of energy flowed throughout my body and before I knew it, I had all the attributes of that furry abomination, except I wasn’t furry. It’s not the first time I’ve used that elixir of wonders, but I can never get used to it. The lycan and I exchanged countless blows before it started to slow down. Silver always does the trick. As I was about to give the final blow, the werewolf settled down as if it gave up and wanted me to kill it. Time froze, for a moment I felt as if I was so insignificant compared to that thing as a cold chill went down my spine.

Before I knew it, shattered pieces of silver were flying everywhere. The blade I had in my hand had broken to pieces as I struck the beast. “What?!”. The beast had hardened its skin and its wounds were healed instantly. I leaped back, and defenseless I scurried towards the town. Running as fast as I could, I saw the lycan catching up to me at a pace that will soon outrun mine, crawling through the woods, eyes fixed on the trail that is not seen through mere vision.  

I could see a dim light coming from the direction I was heading. I grabbed my crossbow placed behind me and leaped out of the forest to a small town. I needed something to pierce through the lycan’s hard skin, and there’s only one thing that can do that, a silver needle. Now you’re probably thinking, “What good would that do?” It’s a last resort, the only thing I could think of at this moment is to bring down that thing, and I’m taking a wild guess that it’ll be effective against it. If not, well it’ll probably a buffet tonight.

“Jake! We got a big one here!”, I shouted towards the monastery where a man was waiting outside there.

 “You can’t be serious mate”, he moaned, grabbed the crossbow out of the carriage he was on and flung it to me. Shortly after that he threw a cartridge of needles that I fixed in to the crossbow instantly. The lycan caught up and the people were running away in horror. With a burst of speed, I taunted it by shooting a few of the needles at it and rushed in to the forest again. It followed me, excellent. Those few shots didn’t even scratch it, time for plan C. I led the lycan to an open area in the forest. Taking out the few needles, with the remaining strength I have left from the vial, I propelled myself towards it. It swiped it arms, I was able to dodge it and then countered it by inserting the needle into it with the monstrous force I had. The crossbows force was not enough to penetrate its skin, sometimes, you got to do things manually. It flinched as the silver works it ways through its blood stream like poison. I stabbed a few more in it back and arms, slowing its movements. I could see that it was starting to get exhausted, and a final blow to its neck brought it to its knees, and it collapsed after that.

“You can rest now”, I made my peace with it as it took its last breath and reverted back to a human. I investigated the body and it was one of the villagers who had disappeared recently. Somebody has been infecting the people around here. Needless to say, my job is done here and I travelled back carrying the body on my shoulder.

I met up with Jake at the monastery again and ask him to send the body to the professor to analyze, after I got the permission from the mayor of the town of course.

“All in a day’s work. Fighting those things can be really tiring at times” I told Jake

“When am I going to join in the action Fred?” Jake asked. Jake was still a novice hunter, where they would support the elite hunters backing them up with items and information. Something like a sidekick but not really.

“When you’re ready Jake, and you aren’t just yet”. He was around the age of 20, still really young if you asked me. Hunters are often promoted as an elite around the age of 30, if they have enough experience and training. I gave him a pat on his head and we headed back to base. There’s one thing I could say for sure, these creatures of the night aren’t going to stop hunting us as we hunt them.

                                                                 

                                                                       End