fic: etherworld | work

Slice of life, sort of. Methis is just so--practical. I was looking forward to writing an exciting fight scene, but as it happens, Methis is the sort of warrior who wouldn't do well in action movies because he'd kill all his opponents off too fast, and then everyone in the audience would be all what happened? and wishing for a slow-motion replay.

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Work

Methis hated surprises. As a mercenary, he'd come to understand that they were usually unpleasant.

This surprise was five feet tall, hulking, with four-inch claws that Methis noted only because he had to very suddenly dodge them. He dropped his shoulders and rolled--to the left, because that way he didn't have an arm getting in the way.

It was only in stories that the monsters of the wood would viciously attacking unsuspecting travellers. People didn't make for good prey.

This one, though.

Hm.

The man in the village had blabbered about beast and gray before he died--rather messily, as people tended not to function once their guts were outside of their body. Maybe--this, whatever it was, was it. It certainly seemed beastly enough.

Maybe. It wasn't enough of a definitive answer to make Methis particularly want to kill the thing. He was a mercenary, not the altruistic killer of any poor creature born ugly enough to make humans twitch with suspicion.

Besides, it was injured.

Methis leaned on his spear, studying the thing. Not five feet at all, he gathered, but taller. It hunched like a taller human might. There were ears on what was probably a head, and the mangled stump of what might have been a tail. Methis sniffed, and smelled burnt fur and the faint hint of ceywood.

In the back of his mind, a voice suspiciously like Ise's told him the uses of ceywood: As a ward, against others of harmful intent, if burnt correctly. It was otherwise a poor wood for building, and too kind to fashion into tools or weapons.

Finally, the thing turned around. Methis saw the gray eyes and thought, ah, that is my prey alright, and this time when the creature lunged Methis easily drew back his arm and threw.

Then he dodged, because an object in motion will not suddenly stop just because its eye and brain has been impaled on a well-thrown spear.

There was a thud, heavy and suitably dramatic. Methis brushed the dirt from his pants, rolling his shoulder absently. You had to put everything behind a good throw, and Methis hadn't had time to set his form properly. He'd nearly dislocated his arm. It twinged.

He still wasn't used to fighting with just one arm. It was a bitter thought. Methis turned around and kicked at the creature until it turned around.

He grasped the spear and wriggled it until it finally slid free with a slick, wet sound. Not all of it, though; the tip, and a good foot of wood, was still embedded. Methis lacked the patience to work it free, and the spear was ruined, anyway. A quick glance up told him the sun was getting ready to fall. He'd been hunting the whole day, and now that he was about to return to the village--and to Ise--his body was reminding him that he hadn't eaten.

First, though, he had to see if he could drag this mass of flesh back.

He bent, slid his torso under as if he were preparing to wear the thing like a massive, deformed cloak. Then he hefted, grunting as he took on its weight.

Two hundred pounds at least. Maybe more. Probably more, Methis thought, and staggered slightly.

Because of certain... sacrifices Methis had made, this was not an impossible weight for him to carry. That did not make it pleasant. Methis grunted again as he shrugged, trying to settle the weight of the beast better across his back. Then he set off for the village.

Food, he thought as the sun set. Then Ise. And then he would ask for his payment--2,500 ryun. And they would move on, to find more work.

Labels: _fiction, c: ise, c: methis, verse: etherworld

i like :) but its your vampire stories with sam and allie that keep me on the edge the most :)They're easy to indetify with, and yet so elusive =P

by  samalin, at May 17, 2009 7:55 PM