Curse

Post date: Nov 21, 2014 5:18:41 PM

A short story by Sierra Schneggenburger

"You have no idea what you have done, have you?" the creature spoke as it stood on all its limbs, as if it were a lion ready to pounce on its prey. The man he spoke to did not respond, but instead held on to the hilt of his sword, tightening his grip, readying himself for any attack the thing might warrant. The creature frowned when the man did not reply. "Do you know of the sins you have done today, boy?” the beast growled to the man as its anger poured through his words, and the man was caught in the midst of this beast’s rage.

The soldier then responded to the creature, "What have I done, but only follow my orders?"

The deep grinding sound that came from the beast’s throat made the night go cold and still. "Orders! Orders!” he shouted incredulously towards the man, while he climbed down from the tree he was in and dropped to the forest floor. He then stood slowly as a growl emanated from his throat. The man stiffened as he watched this being look at him, his crossed pupils peering at the man with an angry scowl. “Are you a mongrel?” he said in a deep threatening voice. “Are you so low that you cannot think for yourself? You let someone else tell you what to do, someone you don't even respect! You’d set the world to tilt on the edge of death for orders!" he growled and hollered towards the man, who stayed in his place as he watched the creature prowl around him.

"It is the way of my people. If we do not follow them, chaos would erupt and more would die!"

"We all shall pay the price now," he started, mumbling curses underneath his breath as the man stood still in his place, fear planting him there as he thought of what to do next. "You are a prick in my side, a thorn sent to torment me, but I care not for that now because I must fix your mess. Not that you would care any ways if a thousand men or women had an unseemly burden thrust upon them."

The man glared at him as he heard the accusation, and took a step towards him. "Who says I wouldn't?" he questioned with a threatening tone, but the creature felt no fear for him, and he laughed at the man.

"You cannot fool me son of Ruin. I can see into your past and your future, and those two things tell me that you are one of the worst beings on earth," he explained with a chuckle, grinning at him in a predatory manner as he stalked around him, moving towards his ear where he whispered, "I see how you take whatever pleases you. How you plundered and killed for yourself. You must deserve a medal or an honor for what you did, am I right?"

The man remained silent as the beast smirked, moving away from him. But the man was not finished yet. "So what," the man grumbled, "I did what I did because I wanted to. Those women were our spoils of war, and those who stopped me from doing what I wanted were the unfortunate to meet my sword." The beast had his back turned to him, sighing in agitation of the man.

"You are despicable. No wonder the world is as it is if there are people like you in it."

The man growled at him, braving a step towards the turned beast as he glared daggers into his back. "And what have you to say, foul beast. I doubt that you would be of good origins either," he observed with a bitter tone and clear hate in his voice.

The creature turned to him, an eyebrow raised in irritation and a mind of knowledge. "If you must know, son of Chaos, I am from the mother. She is the one who granted us this world in the first place, but our father, yours too, took one of his children and bred with them to make you, you who are the son of destruction, mine brother and mine nephew, an abomination to us all. As for the individual I am, I can tell you this now, I have never taken a woman out of force nor have I bred with my own child, and never have I laid a hand on another creature's land, unless it was necessary or if that creature came to my territory. I do not kill because I like it, and I don't take what is not mine. I would not gloat for we all have chaos within us as he is our father, but you are worse than many I have seen. And that is of note, son of scourge." The man scoffed as he turned from the creature, shaking his head in anger.

He turned back though, taking his sword out and pointing it towards the being who snarled at him, hunching his shoulders and drawing out those treacherous claws. "Why did you come here? Is it so you may batter and belittle me to your satisfaction or is there a cause of your appearance?" he questioned with ire boiling at the back of his words. The being glared at him as he answered the inquiry, with cautious steps and deadly eyes.

"There is a cause, one that is of importance, but I fear that you are undeserving of it as of now."

"What do you speak of?"

"I speak of redemption, son of brutality."

"Redemption, for what?"

The beast looked at him incredulously as he heard the man's words. He then approached him, saying, "Are you a dimwitted fool or are you just so arrogant that you wish to continue in this fashion until someone knocks your pride down from the height it has ascended?"

The man retaliated, yelling, "I did nothing wrong!" The beast stalked closer, almost making the man back up a step that if it weren't for his years of battle ridden mind, he would not have had the courage to stay put. But war had made him strong, made him tough and he could withstand this entity's anger, an anger that made him chilled to the bone.

"You did do something wrong, and you know it, which is that most appalling part. You know what you did is wrong and yet you stand there and you give me this excuse of orders and not knowing. Even a babe knows that you do not kill an innocent woman, one you know nothing of because she was being difficult in letting you take her child to die!" he roared, scattering animals that had been listening. They became stilled with fear and shaken with terror, and many scurried off from the sound of the creature. The being seemed not to care or hear as he eyed the man and pointed an accusing finger towards him, his eye fixated on him, with those double crossed pupils glaring past their hellish irises. "You killed her and you killed that child, you fool. I don't care whose orders gave you that. I don't care if it was chaos himself. You did this. And only you can want this redemption. If you do not, then I am afraid that every beast, creature, critter, insect and being will be after you for your blood until they have feasted on every bit for the ruin and destruction you have brought upon them!" He poured these words from his mouth, holding back no scathing phrases for him to miss. The beast's fur seemed to stand on end as his dark skin glowed under the hovering moon light and foreboding trees that loomed above them.

"Enough!" the man hissed, and he turned towards him, "I understand."

"Do you wish this course of redemption?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

The beast then closed his eyes for but a moment and reopened them, for those eyes still held the same expression in them and the same hellish orange and red that surrounded the double crossed pupils. But his fur seemed to calm, his claws relax and his teeth were not as threatening as before, and on some level, that made it worse.

"What was that?" The beast narrowed his gaze, telling him, “From now on you will never sleep, eat, drink, age, die or reproduce. You may never hurt a being with your own hands. But most of all, there will be a boy, a boy that you will raise up. And it is he who shall be your true curse, for he will be your undoing and the undoing of all who stand behind you. He will become the bane of your people, all for your sins! He will be the most powerful of the land and the most terrifying of it, all because of you! You shall see your women shed tears, your children die in ten folds, and your men cry in agony of defeat. And this will be all because of you, you who are the son of utter Ruin!” The beast then smiled, widely with joy and amusement thick in his expression.

The soldier raised his sword, placing it on the creature’s neck. "You can't do that to me. I will not be bound to a boy, a mere child nor shall I let this boy control me," he expressed as the blade shimmered in the white light of the lonely moon. The beast chuckled to himself as he lifted his head, his dark skin showing as the man let the blade move upwards, with his laughter.

"Oh, you will and you shall. Tis your fate now, you will get to see your country burn and you will get to see the boy you raised become what you are! A murder, scoundrel and the lowest of the low, all because of what you did. Let that weigh upon your mind son of desolation!" he said with such conviction and utter enjoyment. The man furrowed his eyebrows in anger as he took his sword and raised it up, ready to kill the creature, only for the beast to make swift, unseen moves away from him, out of sight of him.

"No!” the man yelled into the night. “You foul beast!” He roared in animosity. “I shall make sure they hunt your kind down! I will make sure you get to see your brethren bathed in blood as I shall see mine!"

The beast did not show himself as he shouted back to the man, who darted around, trying to find the hidden creature, "Mine kin are dead because of you! You can do no more to harm me then you already have! You, who are the eldest son of murder, violence, and cowards, cannot even do anything to harm me for my heart is as barren as stone and desert. I am the last of mine kind because of your hypocrisy, your orders, and your wars. I despise you like none other!"

"I shall get my kith to hunt you down!" he retorted as his eyes searched to no avail.

Then, with a voice that echoed, the beast responded, "So be it." And the night went quiet, no sound of an oppressing and almighty being rang in the night, and no signs showed of the beast that had stood before him. Though he searched through the night and looked into the morning, there was no sign of this being.

"Curse you,” the man grumbled out, “Curse you!” He declared with all his might. “Curse you to the far edges of the earth you demon!”

Student Written features work written by LHS students. The views portrayed in these written works are not the views of The Leopard's Roar, as it is an unbiased news publication source.

Student Written is edited by Debra Fabian, Student Activities Editor. Fabian can be reached at dramagirl319@hotmail.com.