Moonlight Chronicles
Chapter 2
“What is that, three to one?”
Duffy pressed his boot into the spine of his latest victim and gave the scythe a sharp yank. The honed blade ran through the decayed neck with a hardly a hitch. The head, reminiscent of a jack’o’lantern left to the elements for far too long, hit the ground with a thud and rolled a short distance before coming to a stop. The milky white eyes rolled in their sockets frantically before slowly going still. The body, like a decapitated roach, also took a minute before the news of its death caught up with it.
“Better make that four to one. Still, Keravnos – just a
lovely job finishing off that lost puppy. I was worried Mace was going to have to get tooth marks on his boots.”
Keravnos, whose eyes shared the same milky, distant stare as the freshly-slain monster currently twitching in the mud, simply shrugged. His twined axes, which doubled as shotguns, hooked to his belt with a single practiced move as he turned to examine a glittering puddle.
“Don’t talk much, huh?”
“Maybe you should take a page out of his book, Duff.” Mace was already riffling through the dead. His Hunters knife expertly prying a femur out of one of the re-deceased hell hounds, which made a greasy squelch as it popped free.
“Aw, but then who’ll fill those long, comfortable silences? Ochyrosi knows what I’m talking about, ain’t that right?”
Ochyrosi was currently occupied picking her ragged sleeve where the hell hound in question had nearly taken her hand off. It was now the only place where her skin was exposed to air, showing off the pearly calluses that covered her body. It had been a close call, but Keravnos had managed to intercept the pooch before things got nasty.
“You alright, pal? Didn’t seem like you managed to get a shot off.”
“Fuck off.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. Sure, everyone got a kill but you, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s not a competition, even if you
are losing.”
Ochyrosi looked up sharply. “The fuck did you just say?”
“Two for me, two for Mace, even Keravnos got one - no offense, Ker. Just pointing out that you’re a bit slow on the draw, Rosy, that’s all. It’s fine, some people just can’t get their spears up when they need to. Nothing to be ashamed of, maybe just lay off the grapefruit. I hear blood pressure is a big part of that. No judgement, though.”
Keravnos shrugged impassively, already picking a few glimmering shards of lunacite out of the puddle. Ochyrosi, however, was not prepared to let it go. Her hands, clad in simple leather gloves to hid the skin pock-marked with thick white scabs beneath, balled into fists. The tip of her riflespear lifted the scant few degrees needed to go from “at rest” to “at ready”.
“You think you’re funny?”
A moment of silence followed. The atmosphere chilled, as though her words had sucked the warmth right out of the air. Everyone here was a Hunter – their senses tuned to detect beyond the mundane. Such sense were not required to pick up the deadly intent behind Ochyrosi’s words. Mace, who’d grown used to Lord Duffy’s sense of humor over the past few months, paused mid-dissection.
“...hey, Duff – “
“No, it’s fine.” Duffy didn’t take his eyes off Ochyrosi, but waved a hand behind him to forestall whatever words of warning Mace had prepared. His face never lost the smile; if anything, it’d just taken on a sense of curious wonder. It was the same expression a wildlife expert might make while picking up a deadly snake by the tail, or hopping onto the back of a wild alligator.
“To answer your question, Rosy, I
do think I’m quite a chucklemeister. I’ll admit my humor isn’t much for broad appeal, but I’ve got a tight five and can hold a stage.”
“How about I give you a tight five to the teeth?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Fight me, asshole.”
Another moment of silence passed. Mace glanced uneasily from Duffy to Ochyrosi, and Keravnos paused his collection of lunacite chips to observe the commotion.
All at once, a laugh bubbled up from deep within Duffy, forcing its way between his lips. He leaned his head back and dropped his warscythe in the mud to hold his belly. It was pure mirth. Unadulterated, genuine mirth. Ochyrosi froze, confused, but no less angry.
“
What the fuck is so funny, asshole?”
“
Fight you? Oh my god, are you serious? I’m not going to
fight you, are you
nuts?”
The rage which had temporarily dropped to a low smolder now reignited, full burn. Ochyrosi screamed and threw her riflespear to the ground. In the blink of an eye, her feet were pounding in the mud as she leaped, full-force, straight at Duffy –
Keravnos caught her, arm across the gut. Mace, who just a moment ago had been kneeling next to a half-butchered dog in the mud, was suddenly standing in front of Duffy, arms outstretched to hold the two of them apart. The suddenly flurry of movement had cut through both Duffy’s laughter and Ochyrosi’s frosty words.
“Enough.”
They were the first words Keravnos had said for the entire Expedition. Ochyrosi, breathing heavily, shoved him away, but she didn’t leap for Duffy again. Silence reigned as the two groups took a moment to cool down, but Mace broke it before it stretched too long.
“Alright. Let’s just...let's just take a moment here. Duff is…funny. In a lot of ways.” He glanced over his shoulder at his companion, who was finally –
finally – done smiling. “He doesn’t mean any insult, it’s just…how he deals with
It.”
“It” was a curious word. The way It was said implied it was capitalized, or maybe italicized. Even more curiously, this was the first time the word had been mentioned between the two groups, and yet it was immediately understood by everyone involved. It didn’t matter which Order they came from, when they’d been brought back, or what they’d done after being inoculated. Every Hunter knew what “It” was.
“If Duff apologizes, would you let this go?”
Ochyrosi’s eyes, barely visible behind her mask, flicked over to Keravnos. Keravnos, predictably, remained silent. Her eyes focused back on Mace, and after a short pause gave a quick jerk of her head. Mace’s arms came down slowly. He stepped to the side and gave a hard look at Duffy, who at least
pretended to look embarrassed.
“Ah…right. Ochyrosi. I’m…sorry if I offended you. I was poking some fun at…all this.” Duffy gestured vaguely around. “I didn’t mean to get you riled up. Sorry about that.”
Ochyrosi narrowed her eyes, then promptly bent down to pick up her riflespear out of the mud. Everyone tensed at the sudden movement, but she simply shook the dirt off and pointed a finger at Duffy.
“You’re a fucking coward. And if you call me Rosy again, I’ll murder you in your sleep.”
“Fair enough.”
And just like that, the tension bled out of the group. The four of them resumed looting what little there was to loot this far into the outskirts, and then moved on. It was only as they were plodding through the mud further into the town did Mace sidle up next to Duffy and mutter to him under his breath.
“If you could
not get us killed in our sleep, I’d appreciate it greatly.”
It hadn’t taken long for Duffy to regain his good mood after their little scuffle, and he flashed a pearly grin at Mace. There was already a twinkle in his eye.
“No promises, my friend. No promises.”
Author
Topic: Ventures By Moonlight | A Semi-Cooperative Dark Fantasy | Always Recruiting (Read 37638 times)