Jackal

Needing to report what happened in the village, Dimitry insisted that Rhea take him to the nearest town.

After a two-hour walk along a path made of stones that had fallen from the heights and surrounded by mountains hiding the horizon, the newly formed group entered a small town enclosed by high natural rock walls, known by the infamous name of Vinos.

The town, isolated from the trade routes, has nothing in common with those in the centre of Visgon.

In this dirty and poor place, live mostly families without money, forgotten by all and unable to find accommodation in the too expensive cities of the Kingdom.

One can also cross in these places where every morning corpses lie under piles of feathers of nocturnal birds of prey, many mercenaries who come to sell the products of their unofficial missions.

But more than these groups of people, it is the criminals who have come to hide in this city where no one will bother to come and get them who are the most numerous.

In the middle of the street where the rubbish attracts the rats who don"t hesitate to go out in broad daylight, Rhea already regrets having listened to the young monk who, coming out of his village for the first time, seems to be discovering the world.

All these vicious eyes that land on her, make her uncomfortable. Ever since she crossed the small rotten wooden gate of this ruined city, she has had the unpleasant impression that all these rude men want to devour her.

As a perfect monk discovering the world, Dimitry is anything but reliable. With an astonished expression written on his face, he runs from shop front to shop front to observe what he considers to be wonders.

Fortunately, unlike the young monk, Louis doesn"t look like a crazy young puppy.

Little rea.s.sured by the various men with their patibular faces, he doesn"t hesitate, however, to go towards the women to ask for the way to the house of the town chief.

"We are very close to our destination. All we have to do is turn right and a big red stone house should be on our left."

Always extremely wary of possible aggressors her group might face, Rhea"s footsteps lead her to a corner of the city that looks more like a narrow dark dead end than a street in the true sense of the word.

The three men in leather armour who are greedily emptying a large bottle of low quality alcohol merge wonderfully in this place with an atmosphere as unhealthy as it is frightening.

Although she is a woman, knowing that she is accompanied by a crazy young puppy and a simple smelly villager, Rhea decides to start a dialogue with these three brutes whose wide unhealthy smile lets her appreciate the sight of their many missing teeth.

"h.e.l.lo, we come from a small village further up the mountain. We absolutely have to talk to the town chief about an incident that happened there. Could you let him know that travelers want to meet him?"

Rhea looks with suspicion at these three hilar idiots a.s.signed to guard the chief"s house.

What kind of local official would surround himself with muscle-brained thugs whose head seems emptier than that of the soldiers of this kingdom?

Still not getting the answer she is waiting for, her eyes are now directed towards the ground on which rest a dozen bottles identical to the one these men are currently enjoying drinking.

One of the guards, who is only in name, advances laughing towards Rhea. Arriving less than 3ft from her, he bends over to study the two enormous b.r.e.a.s.t.s that threaten to tear the tissue of her cleavage.

"To get in, you have to pay the visitor"s tax, my beautiful."

This tall, toothless bald guy with beady eyes has such jackal breath that Rhea is repulsed.

It"s difficult for the young woman to get rid of the stench of the man who for every step she takes backwards, seems to be dancing with her, doing one forward.

Fighting against her nausea, Rhea, who is not in the habit of contributing to the well-being of those who are already privileged, clenches her teeth.

"And can you tell me why we"re supposed to pay a fee to meet a simple little campaign official?"

The tall, bald man squints for a split second, but certainly used to such remarks, he turns to his two colleagues who take great pleasure in watching the show being played, elbowing each other in the ribs.

"Actually, it"s a custom in the region. To prove their good faith and respect for those who work very hard to uphold the law in Vinos, travellers like you must thank these great men without whom anarchy would reign."

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d, he dares to talk such nonsense while keeping such a serious expression on his hideous face?

"In spite of your att.i.tude close to that of filthy pig, I wanted to be polite. However, as I see that you allow yourself to take me for a fool, so forgive me for acting accordingly."

The three guards in charge of the security of this big red building on three floors want to laugh, yet the two extremely fast swords that slit their throats don"t give them time.

All three of them are still standing on their own two legs. Just a moment ago, they felt a light breeze caressing their skin, but apart from a very brief red flash, their drunken eyes could not distinguish what just happened.

Still unaware of their fate, the sense of pain deceived by the cut of the swords so clear that the blood has not yet spurted, the tall bald man, who no longer sees the beautiful young woman, turns his head back.

It is precisely by making this simple rotational movement that he unconsciously puts an end to his own life.

Their boss, their comrade, the one with whom they committed the worst misdeeds, just separated from his head and like a simple leather ball, it rolls slowly to their feet.

In their youth, these men who roamed the countryside saw their share of corpses hanging from the branches of trees by their own viscera.

They abused many women in front of the tearful eyes of their own children.

The two monsters in human form often had fun giving their prey a head start, then like virtuoso hunters, they made a game of tracking them down before murdering them after torturing them for a long time.

Both are no novices, but the blood spurting from the neck of this still standing corpse so terrorizes them that with intending to exorcise their fear with a scream, they open their mouths of pathetic alcoholics.

Tetanized by the terror that the horrible vision inspires in them, they didn"t move.

Yet, as was the case for their friend divided in two halves, stretching the last muscle connecting their head to their body is enough to be fatal to them.

In the centre of the pool of blood, Rhea watches without emotion as the three bodies, one after the other, collapse to the ground.

"Now that we"ve made our contribution to this bandit city, we can go in."