A Great War. Great civilizations fell beneath the fires of hell itself, nothing but rubble and ash remained as the billowing clouds of black smoke finally dissipated.
The world changed forever. New, or rather, ancient, energies flowed through the lands, and born were the Sorcerers; immortal, powerful individuals to whom survivors flocked in droves, for only within their influence could the land repair.
Great towers arose, and oases of fertility flourished within these new kingdoms.
Though they were rarely benevolent rulers.
Through this barren Wilderness strode Kormax.
THE BURNED ONE
I was less than a day's walk to a city, its energy prickling my skin.
I couldn't see it yet so it must have been a big one for me to feel it so soon.
It's not unusual to find pockets of primitive settlements this close to cities; close enough to flee when things get bad, but far enough away to retain a level of independence.
Homesteaders would build shacks and keep livestock of the hardy creatures that can subsist on the tough shoots and leathery plants that valiantly grew out here in the wastes.
It wasn't a good life.
The sky was gray, and rain lazily fell as I came to the settlement; a half-dozen homesteads, grouped in a way I could tell this was no community, this was simply the best place to graze the animals.
It was on the edge of a dead forest, where underground would be just enough water for plants to cling to life.
I passed a windowless shack, then another, the skinny animals paying me little mind as they ground leathery leaves between their teeth.
As I reached the sixth, last one, the shack door opened and out ran a young couple.
I carried on walking as they ran out onto the path in front of me.
"Are you a hunter?" the man asked, looking at the sword and ax I wore and my armor.
I regarded the young man; a skinny young farmer with a mop of blonde hair, then his wife, bright copper hair, contrasting nicely with a green dress that hugged her figure, cut to her upper thigh. Full breasts swelled beneath, with a slight slit allowing her cleavage to peer through. She gazed at me with desperate eyes and her full lips pleading.
"When I'm hungry or being paid." I replied, stopping a few paces from them.
A little relief joined the already-cluttered emotions their weary faces bore.
"Please help us," the man began, "I am Erik and this is my wife Gwen. something has been terrorizing us and our children for the past few weeks, please help us get rid of it."
"Can't your neighbors help?" I asked, glancing back toward the other houses.
"It isn't bothering them. Just us. They don't want to risk injury or worse protecting another family out here." he said sadly. "Times are hard for all of us."
"This creature, what is it?" I asked. He shrugged.
"I don't know. It's shaped like a skinny, deformed man, and it keeps attacking our animals. I daren't go out and confront it in case it gets past me and decides it would prefer the taste of human rather than wastebeast. It comes when it's dark otherwise I'd have a better description for you." he said.
A skinny, deformed man. Lots of things that prowl in the night look like that.
"I said I hunted when I was hungry or paid. I doubt you have anything to pay me." I observed.
The woman lowered her eyes sheepishly.
"We can feed you as best as I can, although that isn't much." the man offered desperately.
I looked at their livestock; a half-dozen underweight wastebeasts.
"Doesn't look like you get much milk or meat from them." I observed.
Hope faded a little from the poor man's eyes, his wife's eyes pleading.
I glanced her up and down again. My cock twitched in my pants. It had been a while.
"Your wife." I said.
"I... I'm sorry?" Erik stuttered. His wife's expression turned to dismay.
"I'll take the meal and your wife will warm my bed while I am hunting this creature for you." I offered.
The pair looked desperately to each other then Erik replied. "Absolutely not!"
I shrugged and set off walking again, passing between them.
I heard them frantically whispering to each other before Erik finally called after me.
"Fine! We'll starve to death if this creature isn't slain." he said.
I stopped and turned.
"We will feed you, and you may come to my bed at night." Gwen said defeatedly.
I glanced her up and down again. Damn. I hadn't expected that. I could ill afford to work for free, and whatever I ate here was going to be barely edible, but the thrill of the hunt and a place to warm my cock for a few nights?
"You'd better show me inside then." I said.
It was little more than a hovel; a large room with a firepit, seating and shelving, then two doors leading to the bedrooms.
Two young children played with poorly-carved wooden toys on the floor; a boy and girl old enough to walk but not quite ready for chores.
"Go play in your bedroom, children." Erik said, and they got up and left the living room.
We sat around the firepit and Gwen brought a pan of milk and a slab of meat, hanging them over the fire.
"You've given me the short version, now tell me everything you know about this creature." I said.
Erik shrugged. "It comes at least twice a week. I've seen it drinking milk straight from our wastebeasts, that's what it usually does, but about once a month it will kill one and start eating it right out there in the pen, raw. I yell at it from the shutter and I have fired at it with my crossbow and that frightened it off but I can't hit the damn thing in the dark."
I turned to see Erik's crossbow hung on the wall. It was a shoddy piece of equipment, I doubt it could even wound a man.
These fools had no business being out here.
"If it's just a skinny man, can you not go out and kill it?" I asked.
"I'm a farmer, not a fighter." Erik said. "I will not risk it getting past me and into the house, or making Gwen a widow and my children orphans."
