MaCayver's quest: Curse of the blood followers

chapter8: the story and the note

Chapter 8: the story and the note

"You must please excuse Vince and some of the men, they have lost a lot of people since we got here", said Captain Brooks with a sigh and holding his fingers to his closed eyes.

"We have been stuck here for almost five days". Said Captain Brooks pouring himself a drink.

"We were responsible for protecting the princess". He then sat down and continued drinking."When I left Saints, I had 120 of my best men, the princess was on her way to negotiate an alliance with King Sebastian and Queen Olivier, the rulers of Cravensfall". He stood silent for a moment looking down on the table, he had an angry look on his face, then he looked up and continued.

"On the what there, the men where tired and so Princess Samantha insisted we rest on the shore for two days. Everything was fine the first night. In the morning the Princess wanted to take a stroll and admire the scenery. But what I did not take much concern in, was the fact that eleven of my men went missing last night, I just assumed they must have gone sight seeing too, I took 50 men with me and left 59, I then ordered four sailors to go look for the missing men. The rest of us went with the Princess deeper and deeper into the forest, she was a young healthy girl, so it was not surprising that we walked such a long distance in the forest. When at a bridged cliff she decided we go back, it was now night fall as we decided to take a different route that looked like a short cut back to camp. There was a half crescent moon when they appeared, it initially began with men at the back screaming and being pulled into the forests darkness. I looked back and immediately told everyone to get into defense formation. We pulled out our swords and stood in a circle formation, in the middle of us stood the princess. I had the men sit in two circles. Then the creatures came, creatures with disturbing screams and growls, they had human bodies but their faces were truly terrifying and deformed, their hands had very sharp claws and they were covered in dirt and smelled like death. We fought with them as hard as we could but their numbers were just great, plus I noticed something during the epic encounter."

"What did you notice?" I asked with a very keen look on my face.

"They did not die every time we stabbed them, by the time I finally figured out that cutting their heads of or piercing through their heart is the only way to kill them we had lost almost 20 men." He took a deep breath and then exhaled.

"We were lucky during the attack the creatures did not kill everybody just a few, but the princess remained unharmed not even a scratch on her". Said Captain Brooks holding back the tears in his eyes. "There is no greater pain than watching people you know die". He wiped what ever little tears he had left in his eyes.

"We fought till dawn appeared and the creatures fled into the forests darkness. As we quickly walked trying to get to safety,the giants came and attacked us, we jumped into a river that led to a waterfall that almost drowned us but we made it to this place and we have been here ever since. We finally stumbled across this village and found it empty. Everyday we send someone, but they all ended up dying killed by they giants who seem to be hunting and roaming around the forest during day. They smashed and kicked and stumped so many of my men. We were about to give up when two men named Henry and Charlie came to the village one day. They had both claimed they knew shortcuts in this god forsaken forest." Said captain Brooks getting a refill our cups and his cup as well.

"Did you say Henry, as in Henry Berginton?" Isaac asked.

"Yes". Said the captain.

"With short brown hair and an un warrior like stature?" I asked shocked and also mad at the same time. He was the sole reason Mejia and I are in this mess, not to mention the fact that Peter is dead. My biggest concern was the person he was walking with. Charlie was a very intellectual young boy who was raised by philosophers and prophets. He knew a lot of things, that he never said to anybody, unless you asked him. The fact that lying and cheating bastard was with him scared me, because that would mean he was after something very, very important, something of Larsgrave treasure, something that must be ancient and lost. Henry was after all a thief minded person I know. A rebel and a relic hunter, who sold anything in the black market to be highest bidder, then drink himself half dead and sleep around with the most expensive women of Golldorn's brothels.

"Yes that very Henry". Said captain Brooks throwing his cup to the wooden wall. "This Charlie wrote us a riddle that had the ancient Golldorn language and drew a map he kept to himself, he claimed it was some sort of leverage, so that we didn't use them as bait during our dangerous escape. But three days before we left, we woke up in the morning to find Henry, Charlie and Princess Samantha gone. The only thing left behind was a note". Captain Brook gave me the note and I read it

The note wrote:

'We took the princess with us to the ship, we left you behind because we felt it would be safer to walk as less of a group, but what I can assure you is that come the night of the half crescent moon again, the blood followers will come back '

"The blood followers..hmmm" said Mejia, grabbing the note from my hand as if he did not believe what I read.

"What madness is this?" Mejia asked looking up at Brooks while also throwing the paper on the table. Captain Brooks looked at him.

"I would have never believed it too had I not ran into them myself" said Captain Brooks taking a sip out of one of the cups on the table. We were left with only two days before the crescent moon returned and our plan for escape depended on the story and the note.