A/N: Welcome back to my little corner of the Internet! So you may be asking: who is this (possibly) insane guy we met in the last chapter? Well he is going to be my favorite character and hopefully he can be yours too. Even though he's slightly insane he gets a bit calmer later on, don't worry. Oh, and after every season and right before episode one of the next season there's going to be a little recap of everything that has happened. So don't worry if you get confused.
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"Um…" Michael began as he slowly raised his hands, he watched as the man swung the arrow back and forth between the two. "I'm Michael.." he said slowly and then motioned towards Ben, "and that's Ben. Can I ask who you are?" Michael tried but the strange man seemed to ignore his question.
"Are you with the Black Hand?" he asked , raising an eyebrow. Michael and Ben both looked at each other before answering. Were they? They've never seen or have been in the Black Hand, whatever it was.
"No…" Ben tried and looked for Michael for support, nodding at him Ben continued, "why are you asking?" Looking at the man the two eased when they saw he lowered the bow and arrow.
"And what is the Black Hand?" Michael added, they watched as the man nodded and muttered to himself. Glancing briefly at them the man reached for the curtain and pulled it back showing a strange home. Both Ben and Michael could see that what was at once a bus stop was now made into a make-shift house. Over the bench were several dusty blankets, on the bench was a satchel and a few newspapers, a small chest was pushed into one corner, and a small package of apples and the remains of a loaf of bread was on the "bed."
"I don't know," the man said as he went to pick up a spilled water bottle, "but I do know that every month two strange men come from the city and ask for money. They say that as long as I can get more of it for them I can continue living here. The most they have told me is that they are a part of the Black Hand. I thought that those two men were you two and so I naturally panicked." After many months of having no contact with no one the man had started to degenerate, the way he spoke seemed to be broken and slurred.
"What do they ask for?" Ben tried and he watched as the man hung the bow on a peg and dust of the water bottle. The man eyed him for a second and then went to pushing the few morsels of food into the leather satchel he then swung over his shoulder. Looking at the two once again the man then picked up the chest in the corner and dragged it to face Michael and Ben.
"This is what they ask for," the man explained and opened the chest, revealing the dusty contents inside. In the chest there were at least seven grimy bottles filled with a strange red liquid with the letters NMTC labeled on the neck of the bottle. Not only that but small packages were also littered amongst the bottles, looking up the two the man then explained. "The bottles are Healing Drinks and the packages are Light Chunks, I found a large amount of them in a small chamber. When the two men found me they were about to kill me before they found those and I told them that I could get them more. So as long as I can give them these every month I can live here without disturbance."
"What do they do?" Michael asked as the man closed the chest but his question was ignored.
"My name is Kurt by the way," the man explained as he placed the chest back in the corner of the strange room, "to answer your earlier question, Michael. I-" he stopped when there was a sudden low beat coming from farther down the road, suddenly Kurt's head shot off to the road, "they're here."
"What do you-" Ben began but Kurt hushed him as he motioned for Michael and Ben to back away, closing the curtain as the odd beat continued from the forest. The beat started to grow stronger as the air seemed to take on a dark loathing tone, looking around for the source of the beating Kurt then grabbed three Healing Drinks and a handful of Light Chunks. "Should we hide?" Ben asked Kurt.
"If you want," Kurt answered and both Ben and Michael went behind the curtain as the beating grew louder. Kurt looked around in the forest as suddenly the beating stopped all together. There was a slight pause as two lights suddenly sprang to life in the forest trees, even in the day the lights seemed to be bright in the shadow of the trees. And then two men came from the trees, each carrying a blazing torch in pallid skeletal hands.
Behind the curtain Ben and Michael listened to the members of the Black Hand speak to Kurt. A very low voice began, "do you have more? We need at least a dozen Healing Drinks."
Another shrill voice continued, "we can accept no less than a dozen, Zachery demands so."
"I only have six Healing Drinks," Kurt's voice explained, "but I have more than enough Light Chunks-"
"We can accept no less than twelve," the shrill voice cut in.
"You know the penalty when our demands are not met," the low voice murmured.
"I'm sorry, I can get more, I promise I can," before Kurt could say anything else the low voice interrupted.
"Get to it, we need exactly twelve as Zachery has commanded," the low voice said and was soon followed by the shrill voice.
"We will return in one hour, if you do not have what we require you will be punished," the shrill voice followed and then, from behind the curtain, Michael and Ben heard the fading footsteps and then the crushing of underbrush.
Kurt watched as the two members of the Black Hand went back into the forest where the lights flashed out. He watched as the beats started again and then slowly faded out into the forest. A strange look passed over his face, crinkling his brow he turned back to the curtain and pulled it back revealing Michael and Benjamin.
"That's odd," Kurt murmured to himself as he went to the chest in the corner of the room, dropping the items he had in his hands into the chest. Closing the lid he turned to face Michael and Ben.
"What?" Michael asked as he watched Kurt go about the room.
"They seem weaker than usual, it almost looks like they are sick," Kurt explained as he tossed a handful of arrows into the satchel on his side. Taking the bow off the wall once again he looked at Michael and Ben, "I'm going to the chamber I was talking about, you can come along if you wish," and with that he set off, closing the curtain behind him.
For a few seconds Michael and Ben stared at each other as Kurt slipped into the forest. "Does this place have food?" Michael called after Kurt, both Ben and Michael had already started to follow Kurt as he made his way through the trees.
"There is some," Kurt answered without looking back, "I do not need any, but you will have to get it yourself."
Turning to Ben as they, too, made their way through the first line of trees Michael said in a low voice, "what do we have to lose?"
"Well, our lives for one thing," Ben answered, "or maybe we could get entirely lost and never find Grimdale."
"We could use the food; we don't know what's really in Grimdale do we?" Michael hissed and then the two sped up to tail Kurt deeper into the forest. Following Kurt the two swung through the forest until they could see a clearing, and what they saw in the middle of the clearing was something very out of place.
Trying to look at the top of the thing Ben bent his head up to see the very tip of the thing; it filled the entire clearing and was the biggest thing either of them had seen. "Uh…," Ben began as he looked at it, "how does something like that happen?" Looking at the base of the object he could see a strange sign that was plastered into the surface.
"How…?" Michael began but then he saw the sign that read: "A Product of the North Maine Trading Center"
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A/N: And so there's another one for you, I'm gonna try and pump as many as these out as I can. Considering that the big Season One finale is coming up soon I'm going to focus on the new story I'm thinking of. "And So It Begins" is the title I think I'm gonna use for it, so remember to look for it when it comes out. And really this isn't much of a cliff-hanger, the object in the middle of the field isn't all to special but it'll show you one of the many things the NMTC did in this world.
