The Beast Must Die: chapter 6
WARNING: The following chapter contains scenes of violence that may not be suitable for younger readers. Reader discretion is advised (I'd give this chapter a "T" rating.)
Varco could hear talking by the time he reached the overhang. The trail appeared and continued about 20 feet directly below the cliff on which he now crouched. From his perch Varco got down on all fours and peeked around an overhanging bush to see two centaurs standing in front of two small faun boys, the centaurs blocked the boy's way.
"I'm sorry children, but rules are rules. A simple toll is a small price to pay for having Aslan and The Four protecting us again."
"But sir, please we just want to go to the fair, and it's an awful long trip back home, may we please pay you on our return?" the young faun boy pleaded, his companion, cowed into silence, slouched behind his pleading friend, just staring at his hooves.
"I'm sorry boys, but rules are rules, and what would become of Narnia if nobody was fair…" From his perch above them, Varco listened, slowly gritting his teeth…
"Fair…Hmph, centaurs talking of fairness…was it fair when you torched my village? Was it? Was it fair to kill Mommy when Daddy left? Was it? Who will answer for that? Murderers like you? Your precious lion? Curse you all! Curse you!" Almost before he knew what he was doing, Varco gripped the closest branch he could find, and broke it from its tree with a loud snap. The centaurs looked up in time to see a dark, slightly glowing form come screaming down from out of nowhere! Varco landed on the one Centaur's back and with a seething roar of pure unadulterated rage drove the freshly broken end of his branch into the Centaur's unarmored back.
"Arrogant fools, centaurs never armor their backs, do they?" with a hard twist, there came a sickening crack from somewhere inside the Centaur's chest, and with a look of pain mixed with shock frozen on his face, the centaur's hooves buckled and he fell forward. The other centaur had pulled out both his scimitars by the time his comrade hit the ground, but Varco was nowhere to be seen.
As his enemy fell, Varco dove for the forest floor, grabbing the dead centaur's scimitar on the way down. He landed just under the other centaur while it was backing up. Dark fire blazed in Varco's eyes as he swung his scimitar upwards, and horse-man blood rained down on him.
The centaur cried out in surprise, and leapt forward, giving Varco a hard kick to the head as his flank passed over. The centaur swung around to meet his assailant, both blades raised; no trace of pain could be detected in his gaze, only concentration and anger.
"You dare attack a guardian of Aslan's roadway? You will surely stand trial for this, little Racomine!"
Varco stood up to his full height, (barely to his opponent's chestplate). The Centaur's blood had spattered Varco's chainmailed back, his own blood flowed from a deep gash across his jawline. Slowly the cut was engulfed in dark reddish light, and the bleeding slowed as Varco faced his slashed enemy. "Don't you recognize me, little horseman? Or has the pain of an opened underbelly clouded your vision?"
The centaur's eyes opened wide in horror now. "How…we buried you!" With a scream Varco charged the stunned centaur. The rattled horseman could only block, parry, and back up until he was pressed against the edge of the forest trail. Finally, Varco dove for his legs, rolled under an already bleeding chest, and with one final warrior yell drove his scimitar straight up deep into the horse's ribcage. The horse's legs locked into place, and the centaur died still standing up beside the thick wall of trees. Varco brushed away the blood from his face as best he could and crawled out from underneath his "fallen" opponent. It was then he realized the two young fauns were still standing there.
Varco hesitated, then slowly, cautiously approached the boys. Both of them hadn't moved the whole time, now they both stared at him wide-eyed, pure fear written across their faces. Finally Varco spoke to them softly, as kindly as he could:
"It's okay, it's okay, they're gone now…they can't hurt you… they can't stop you, go on…" A drop of centaur blood ran down his forehead into his eye, Varco put his arm up to wipe it away. His arm raised over the boys, both began to whimper, then one started to sob loudly.
"No, it's okay, look, you're free now, run along to the fair! Go on!" Varco pulled his hand away from his face and realized it was now covered in blood. Centaur blood covered him, it ran down his neck, through his hair, he could taste it, sweet and metallic in his mouth." The boys just stared at him and kept crying. Varco tried being stern:
"Stop it, both of you!"
They kept screaming.
"Both of you stop it!" Varco took a step forward; both children didn't move, just kept sobbing and wailing and screaming…
"Shut up! Just shut up now!"
Now both were screaming, Varco couldn't make it stop.
"Shut up! Shut up! Stop it now!" Everything blurred as his vision was engulfed in a dark purplish haze. Varco went blind, went numb, all he heard was whimpering, sobbing screaming, screaming! … then silence.
Dead silence.
A second later Varco looked up and both the faun children weren't screaming, weren't even breathing. One was thrown against a tree, his body broken and battered almost in half; the other one was lying face-up in a widening pool of crimson. Varco couldn't breathe, and he stumbled back, bumping into the standing centaur, who toppled and fell with a dull thud on the forest floor. Suddenly all was quiet, the deafening silence overwhelmed the racomine. No birds, no wind, only the sound of his own erratic breathing echoed in his head…suddenly Varco spun around at the sound of someone else! A low seething voice engulfed his ears and mind…
"murderer…"