05-10-2008, 09:45 PM
24. Want
The whole situation made my insides quiver with anxiety. This could be the grand finale, the final part of this torture that Totsu had enacted on me in the past few months.
Slowly, oh so slowly my rations of food had been deminished. I was taken away from the servant kitchens where meals were given out to us loyal workers. They had deminished to nothing. I Had watched that terrible master eat his meals in his room and had salivated like a dog on the hard wood floors. I felt like a dog; a beaten down stubborn dog starved into obedience and him laughing all the time. If it had not been for cutlery he ate it with I would have stolen it from him; resorting to the tactics of the beast I had become.
And yet I did not die. My body did not diminish into the dying state. It was a trait of my kind. The Shieto who feed upon the flesh of mortals of our own kind. It could be a damned long time before we could feed again, and as I had tasted it...it preserved me.
But it weakened me. Despite myself I leaned upon the arm of the most hated man in my life and he bore me down the flights of stairs where the horses we saddled for a spare few cavalry members, his lordship and I.
Into the village we walked, I leaning heavily on my horse trained to follow the others save its life was in danger. A trot would have thrown me and I dared in my mind Totsu to order so that I could fall and suffer the peaceful dreams of a conclusion. But all we did was walk, and slowly at that.
A few times I lifted my head to see Totsu check to see that I was still there. When I was tired of it I worked up the nerve to spit at his horses feet. He laughed at the gesture.
"Believe you me," he said, laughter writ into his voice, "Do as expected of you and you'll never have to endure the prelude again, though I must say I rather enjoyed it,"
"I'd rather die than do anything you request of me," I said lividly.
He turned away from me then but I still heard him say, "You say that now, but I do think you'll change your mind."
"Never!" I shouted back.
My answer was replied to with laughter.
We traveled down into the town that had grown since I had left it as a child. The trees no longer sheltered the small cottages and market had formed in the center. And yet there were no people about. With the sunlight shining through the trees in a golden light it was utterly abandoned.
They had expected us.
My uneasiness grew. The soldiers led the way down to a segregated cottage, as if the others had moved away in anticipation of this moment.
"Apparently the father came down with some illness," One of the men explained, "He's recovered since then, but the mother and daughter are convinced that his condition will return if he continues working in the fields. They've barricaded the doors and windows, nothing we can't handle, but you wanted to do something?" He asked, looking back at Totsu.
"Yes," he said, "Do they have any weapons?"
"No, they meant to protest through endurance," The soldier replied.
"All I need from you is to break one of the windows open, draw blood from either of the women and stand back in case things become violent." Totsu said.
"What are you planning sir?"
"I'm sending in a Shieto" He said simply with a glance at me.
It was with growing unease that I stood outside the window. The glass was shattered and the smell of blood emanated from the room. With a flash of pain I lost my consciousness and became the blind beast the Totsu had anticipated.
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