Acheron's tale

By Tyler

(Do not distribute)

Chapter 2: Memories

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After much rummaging with little result, Acheron settled on some salted beef and a flask of strong-smelling alcohol.

In the years since he left his old life, he had become familiar with the strong taste and warm comfort of homebrew. He usually avoided being completely drunk, in case he ever needed to defend himself, as he often did. But on this night, he wanted to fall into the blissful realm of drunkenness; the realm in which emotions flow free, and even in the roughest of moments, it can seem like everything is all right.

He sobbed softly as he took his first sip, pushing it down with a chunk of meat. He didn't want to remember anything that had happened to him in the previous days. He wanted to start over, back in the day when the world was a wondrous place; But you can't forget some things. He saw the world now as a threat, in which people cheated and hurt each other just to pull themselves up to the top.

He curled into a ball in the corner, knees to his chest, and downed the rest of the alcohol. His last words before he slipped asleep were incoherent and raspy.

----

He was walking quietly through the town, looking for cheap food-any food. As he turned into a pub, the sound of scuffling roused him from his trance. Normally he would have turned-tail and headed for another place, but a sound caught him: The crying of a young one.

Rushing into the room, he found himself witness to the cruelest thing. Three large men had a boy pinned to the wall, and were taking turns smashing him to pieces. Never in his life had he witnessed something so beautiful being destroyed so completely.

His previous self-absorbed worries forgotten, Acheron let out an angry yell, and leapt at the nearest man, stabbing him quickly in the side with his blade.

The boy was dropped, and the two standing lunged towards Acheron. He leapt onto a table, then dove at the man on the left, raking his face with his claws. The man stumbled back, shrieking and clutching his mutilated face.

In response, the other man leapt back and picked up a club.

Acheron dove at the man's knees, only to be swept aside by a crushing blow to the ribs. Wheezing slightly, wind whistling between his teeth, Acheron picked up a nearby dinner knife, and flung it.

The blade flew straight and true, embedding itself into the man's gut.

The man's eyes widened in surprise, and he paused in midstep to look down and touch the red flowing down his shirt. He looked up just in time to see the crazed Da'kor's claws end his ability to see.

----

Blood dripping from his paws and limping slightly, Acheron gazed around the room for the boy.

He found him under a table, and gently pried him out before carrying him from the pub.

----

The boy awoke with a moan, rolling over in the piled straw and looking around the clearing. About 20 lengths away, A figure was crouched over a campfire, stirring a pot furiously. After trying to get up several times, and finally succeeding, he limped over to the person. Though he tried hard to make words, he found that his throat was swollen and could only utter a raspy, "Hey."

Startled, the cloaked figure spun, and the boy found himself face-to-face with a live Da'kor. Letting out a terrified shriek, he stumbled backwards and pitched over, laying on his back and staring between his knees at the monster.

----

Acheron blinked in surprise, trying not to feel hurt by the obvious terror in the boy's face.

Over the brief anger and sadness, he instead let out an amused chuff. "Quite a throttling you took back there, eh?"

Ashamed that a stranger had seen his weakness, the boy just averted his eyes.

"I was doing fine!" he snapped.

"Boy, I had to beat them off of you. You were not doing fine."

"Don't call me boy! I have a name.. Shane."

"Well, Shane, 'tis a pleasure to meet you." Acheron offered a paw, smiling.

Shane hesitated briefly, before allowing himself to be lifted to his feet.

Acheron looked over his shoulder at the pot, which was finally a nice brown that the teaseller said it would be. He sat the pot on a rock to cool, covered it with an old tunic and turned back to the boy.

"Let me take you to a good bathing spot, so you can get that dirt and gore off of you."

Confused, Shane looked down at himself, and saw the bloodstains and dirt smudged all over his body. To bloody, smeared handprints were on the front right of his chest.

"Christ! You carried me all the way here?"

Acheron nodded briefly. "Yeah, you were quite a mess. I also wrapped your wounds-We need to take those off before you can clean up."

The human noticed the torn cloth wrapped around his shins, and felt some wrapped around his upper torso. "Yeah, I guess.." He mumbled before reaching down and lift his tunic. But the moment he began to lift, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulders and back. "Ugh.. I can't get it off.."

Without further prompting, the da'kor grabbed the lower hem and pulled it up and off the boy's slim body.

Embarrassed at being without much clothing in a public place, Shane's face flushed a bright red.

Noticing the kid's discomfort, Acheron made small talk while he began the tedious task of unwrapping. Walking around the boy in circles, to remove the long sheet of fabric he had wound the previous night. "So, Shane? How many years do you have?"

"Er.. 16, why?"

"Curious."

"Do you have a name, yourself?"

"Acheron- But you can call me Ash for short."

"Nice to meet you."

Acheron finished unwrapping the cloth, pushing it into a sack. "Let's get you cleaned up." He wrapped an arm under the boy's shoulders, and helped him to the river.

----

The water was fairly warm where they washed, using the yucca paste that Acheron supplied from one of the many pouches in his pack.

Shane just kind of laid there, letting the clotted blood and scum be rinsed off of his body by the natural flow of the river. After several minutes however, Acheron moved over and helped him get the stuff he couldn't get on his own.

After their wash was completed, the newly friended fellows pulled themselves up onto the rock to sundry.

Shane looked over the dozing da'kor curiously, intrigued. The furred beast was nothing like what he heard around the town. Rather than being cruel and quick to violence, Acheron was kinder than any man he'd ever met. The anatomy of him was interesting as well. He had the mouth shape like a dog, but horns like a goat. His tail extended between his legs, twitching softly. And what had him most interested, was the feet. Rather than walking flat on his foot like man does, his foot seemed to be the front half of a normal foot, and then went to another bend The ankle, he guessed, before becoming more like a human shape.

He shifted onto his side, looking closer at the soft-looking fuzz that was the da'kor fur. He thought of how nice it would feel to rest his head on it.. Then stopped himself.

It was improper-It was a sin, for a man to fancy another male. His father would certainly disapprove.

Confused about how he felt, Shane rolled onto his chest, closer to Acheron before dozing off himself.

End Chapter 2.