Hi everyone,
Average Joe here. This was my original idea that got me into writing, I started it in June of 2018. Firstly, it's far from perfect, I know that, and I'm working on it. Secondly, feedback is always appreciated, flick me an email, drop a comment, let me know how I'm doing. Lastly, this is a fantasy, it does contain sex, but there's 53k words before you get to it. If you're still interested at this point, please see point 2.
Cheers
Average Joe
Rage
Nestled in a valley, buried deep within the Golden forest, lay a hovel, made from the Oaks, that give the forest its name. Built of one room, with a shingle roof, the window flaps drawn tight to keep in the heat and light, lives a farmer, his wife and his, now, three children.
Gritting her teeth, Elise moaned into a sodden rag, the taste of her sweat is the only thing she can comprehend as she passes in and out of consciousness, Kross, her husband stooping because of his tall, slender frame, is wiping mucous from the face of his newborn son. Amara runs into the room carrying fresh cleaned rags, the tips of her blonde hair, still tinged red from the gore of a difficult birth. Only Ashlard isn't present, he left shortly after his mother began contractions, the sight of blood makes him violently ill, and his twin sister Amara, gave him leave, that he wouldn't burden his family in such a time.
While he didn't mind being alone in the forest, he worried for his parents, his mother did not have an easy pregnancy, and his father seemed to feel the burden as well. Grabbing a branch and snapping it free, Ashlard quickly stripped the leaves away and using a small knife he always carried, and began carving ornate swirls into the hard wood. This he thought would be his contribution, a beautiful staff, to give to his mother, to help her move about more easily. So he propped himself against the trunk of a tree, and began his work, carving away the wood until the shadows became longer than they were tall, and the fireflies began to dance amongst the wood, satisfied with his work, Ashlard closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the forest. CRACK, he spun around, there was his sister hurrying towards him.
"Ashlard!" she called, "Ashlard, he's here, he's here, come see your little brother!"
"He's here?" Ashlard cried as he ran towards her, "he's okay?"
"Yes, he's fine, mother's feeding him now, come on!"
Elise had finished feeding the baby by the time the twins burst through the entrance, Amara immediately embracing her father, while Ashlard slowly made his way towards his mother. Her eyes were closed, but had a slight smile, while she hummed and gently swayed side to side on the bed, cradling a small bundle.
"Would you like to meet your baby brother?" she said softly, turning to look at him. She shifted to the side and Ashlard sat beside her.
"Here," she whispered handing him the small bundle, "hold him like this." In that moment, the cloth fell away, and he saw a little face, small nose, rosy cheeks and just the thinnest covering of light brown hair.
"He's perfect... My little brother," Ashlard mused, "we're going to have so much fun when you get older." Suddenly stiffening, he remembered, "mother, I have a gift for you, I was in such a hurry, I left it behind, I'll go fetch it for you."
"No no... leave it till tomorrow, just enjoy our little family for the time," Elise said, with a small smile. She always loved his gifts, his carvings were strewn about their home, small birds and even a howling wolf carved from blocks of firewood, in the firelight, they were realistic enough she sometimes thought they could move.
"But-"
"No buts, I'm not going anywhere, it will be fine until morning." Elise said firmly, before kissing his cheek and gently taking the baby from his arms. "Now, what should we name him?"
"How about Darthe?" said Kross, his deep but gentle voice, cast from across the room, "It was my grandfathers name."
"Darthe..." Elise murmured, "what do you think little one?" The baby coughed and Elise thought she saw a flash of a smile on his face. "Darthe it is then," turning to look at her husband with a smile.
"Amara," Kross softly beckoned, "could you stoke the fire and put on some tea, I don't want our new arrival getting cold through the night."
"Yes father... wait, I need more wood I'll be-"
"I'll get some," Ashlard called, he quickly got up and headed on out into the night, it was a good excuse to make a quick detour to grab the staff along the way. He quickly made his way into the woods, following his and Amara's hurried footprints from earlier, he made it to the tree.
"Gotcha" He said, snatching it off the ground before spinning around to make his way back.
CRACK!
The sound was sharp and close, "Amara?!" he called, thinking she may have followed him. The only sound was the slight rustle of leaves as a gentle breeze rolled through. Taking one more quick look he decided to jog back towards home. As he jogged, he could swear he heard footsteps behind him, but every time he turned to look, there was nothing.
"Ashlard!" He grimaced... Turning towards his sister.
"Ashlard what are you yelling about? What are you doing with that? Mum told you... ASHLARD RUN!"
In that moment, a large creature tore out of the forest knocking Ashlard to the ground and pouncing on Amara, a wolf, fur like coal, eyes glowing yellow in the moonlight and with Amara's piercing scream, it bit, snarling into her left shoulder, narrowly missing her neck.
Amara was still screaming as she hit pathetically on it's head. She wasn't strong enough to kick it off. There was blood everywhere and Ashlard couldn't help but stare in horror at the scene, blood always made him ill, so he avoided it, and there is his sister, being torn apart in front of his eyes. Something came over him, he picked himself up, and using the staff as a club, ran over and hit the wolf over the head with all his might. But for all his intentions, the wolf barely flinched, this time he used the butt of the staff to jab it in the eye, that got the wolfs attention.
Dropping his sister, the wolf began pacing towards him, emanating a low growl. His every sense was heightened, he heard every heartbeat like a drum, felt the beads of sweat forming on his scalp, watched the blood dripping from the maw of the beast in front of him and in that moment, he knew he was dead. The wolf pounced, knocking him to the ground, but keeping his grip on the staff, he managed to wedge it between him and the wolf, and pinned it into the beasts mouth.
"Ashlard," Amara called softly, she was bleeding heavily but had managed to roll onto all fours.
The wolf snarled again, displeased at having its meal put up this much of a fight, placed a paw on its prey to pin it down, gripped the staff in it's jaws and shook violently. Ashlard, feeling the immense pressure on his chest, gasped in pain as the wolf ripped the staff from his hands. He was sprayed with his sisters blood, getting in his eyes and mouth, the wolf bent down and with hard fangs gripping his throat, the last thing he remembered while blind and choking, was the burning agony of his shoulder and the sound of his sisters voice laughing while shrieking his name...
Nightmares, such horrible nightmares. Ashlard dreamt of wolves, he dreamt about blood, he dreamt about a town, people screaming, a fire. He dreamt about being stabbed, and chased, flying above the clouds and most of all he dreamt about killing... Men, women, children, his dreams spared nobody, in his dreams, he was a monster, with a singular purpose, to rage against the world, and all those who reside in it.
"Ash."
He woke with a start, sitting up, blind, restrained, in terrible pain, only to have several people grab him and throw him back down onto a soft mattress.
"Ashlard stop," he heard his mothers voice, "please stop, it's okay, everything is okay." He felt tugging on his head and felt a bandage being removed, as his mother came into view, he realised he wasn't blind and restrained, he was bandaged from various wounds across his body.
As he adjusted to the light, he remembered the wolf attack. "Where's Amara? Is she okay," he cried, beginning to tremble.
"I'm okay," said a voice from behind him.
Amara slowly walked into view, her eyes red and puffy, her arm bandaged and in a sling. With a forced smile she looked at her brother. "I'm okay, really... it's you we need to worry about now."
Amara wobbled on the spot, grabbing her father and he gently helped her over to the end of the bed so she could sit down.
"What happened," Ashlard asked, "who saved us?"
Everyone looked uncomfortable. "There's things we've never told you before," said Elise, sitting beside him, "Things that I had hoped would never be important, what do you remember?"
He thought for a moment. "I remember the wolf, it attacked Amara, I hit it with the staff I was going to give you," he looked down.
"Don't worry about the staff," Elise chided, "what else?"
"I remember jabbing it in the eye, it went after me instead," whispering those last words, he felt hot stinging tears rolling down his cheeks.
"I remember thinking I was going to die, I remember it standing on my chest... I remember Amara's voice, she was calling my name while laughing," turning towards his sister, "why were you laughing?"
"Ashlard..." His mother said stroking his hair, "she wasn't laughing-"
"Then who was?!" He cried, "Who was laughing at me while I was-"
"A memory..." Elise said quietly.
"Ashlard, calm down," said his father, "we can explain everything, your mother is-"
"A curse," said Elise, "I'm Demi-human, one of the last, you are too, your sister seams lucky so far."
"What? What are you talking about? Demi-humans don't exist-"
