May 6, 2020
It has been a day since Waldo has raided the town of Abilene. The smell of the human corpses in the wagon never left Mara’s nose after they continued to venture further west. She frankly recalls the moment when Waldo returned from his massacre. The scent of the dead flesh and the sight of so much blood made Mara vomit quite a bit. Waldo punished her for this action and then everything went dark. She assumes that Waldo hit her and she got knocked unconscious.
Mara follows behind Waldo as she is pulling the wagon with her. She turns around slightly to look at the rotting corpses on the wagon. She quickly turns away in disgust, trying not to nauseate herself. She looks back up at Waldo, who carelessly munches on an arm as they walk. Mara’s face grimaces with slight disgust and discomfort.
(He does it so naturally, and it’s not right with me. But he’s a curse, so of course he eats humans, duh. I just wonder if he knows where we’re supposed to go. We’ve been walking a long time.)
“Mister…?”
Waldo takes another bite into the arm. He stops walking and glares over at Mara. Mara is still not used to his intense gaze and shivers a bit.
“What do you need, child?”
“Uhm… do you know where we’re going?”
“We’re going in this direction. What does it matter if we go this way or another?”
(So, we’re not going anywhere at all?)
Mara can’t seem to understand Waldo’s motive with all of this traveling. It doesn’t seem like he even has a concrete location he wants to visit. They really are just wandering around aimlessly.
“Well… what is one place that you would like to go?”
Waldo chews the human flesh inside of his mouth as her ponders that question. Really, any place that has a lot of humans is an excellent choice. However, a location that has a strong opponent awaiting the challenge also sounds enticing. Now, this was a tough decision to make.
“If I were forced to make a decision, I would select a location that has the strongest opponent I could ever hope to encounter. Even if I were to die during the battle, at least I would disappear in a thrill. Hold on… why’re you inquiring such a thing in the first place?”
“Oh! No reason… I was just wondering.”
“Behave yourself. Don’t mess with me. Get back to pulling the wagon, child.”
“Yes sir.”
3 hours soon pass, and Waldo suddenly decides to stop the wagon. He puts his hand out behind him and Mara stops the wagon.
“I can sense some curses lurking in the area up ahead. It’s been some time since you’ve fought, and so, you are to immediately exorcise those curses.”
“Uhm… could I finish my piece of steak first please?”
Waldo’s gaze suddenly intensifies. This made it clear to Mara that Waldo wasn’t requesting, but was ordering Mara to go out there and defeat the curses. Left with no other choice, Mara sighs and reluctantly leaves her slice of steak on a nearby rock. She lets go of the wagon and runs out towards the presence of cursed energy. Once Waldo sees that she has run off far enough, he stares down at the slice of flesh that she cooked. He picks it up from the rock and inspects the slice, dangling it around and touching it. He then proceeds to devour it whole. He’s caught slightly off guard by the taste of cooked meat.
“Oh? This is quite a different taste. Although it is lacking in some blood, the overall quality and flavor has changed. If I can get the child to do this cooking on human corpses that I find, they will turn out to be an even more delectable snack. Yes, that I shall do.”
However, the fact that Waldo ate Mara’s slice of steak still remained. Of course, being who he is, Waldo doesn’t care in the slightest. He walks back to the wagon and proceeds to tear off a leg from one of the human corpses that are laying on top of it in the back.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
(After the child returns from her exorcism, I will put her through some training myself. I can feel her power slowly rising the more she continues to practice her abilities.)
There was one problem with Waldo’s expectations, however. Now that Mara has found a rare occasion in which she is away from Waldo, she has the opportunity to do something that would restore her freedom: Escape from the curse. She was certain that she has ran a good amount of distance. If she can continue to move at this rate, Waldo wouldn’t be able to find her. But, when she looks forward and continues to run, the curses that Waldo told her about appear from the shadows. They snarl at the child and inch closer. Mara stands her ground and assumes a stance.
“I have to go. I need you all out of my way!”
.
.
Waldo finishes eating the rest of the meat that stuck onto the bone of the leg. He then bites into the bone itself and begins to chew. With the power of his jaws, the hard bone was reduced to nothing but small pieces and eventually swallowed. Mara still hasn’t returned and he begins to ask questions.
(This child… It's taking them quite some time to deal with the curses. The curses aren’t strong at all, though. She shouldn’t encounter any difficulties whilst in battle.)
“Oh well. I cannot watch over her like some protector if she wishes to grow into a strong sorcerer. She will have to learn to overcome her own walls using her own methods. So is the way of a warrior.”
Waldo extends his arms outward and several shockwaves come out from his body. Those shockwaves morph themselves into several clones and soldiers that surround him in all directions. Since Mara has taken all of the opponents that have shown up, this simply means Waldo will have to create his own enemies.
“I’m not so patient that I’ll sit still and wait for her to stroll on back. After all, I am the War Spirit. It’s time to make some noise!”
Meanwhile, a curse begins lashing out at Mara, showing its long and sharp teeth as it attempts to grab her with its jaws. However, Mara has more speed than the curse, allowing her to dodge all the attacks and bites with some ease. She reinforces her body with cursed energy and begins to combo the curse with punches and kicks mid air. Then, once that curse is exorcised, another curse comes into the fray and slashes their claws at Mara. Mara manages to narrowly get out of the way, only receiving a small scratch on her face. She jumps back and activates her technique. The curse charges forward towards Mara but quickly becomes engulfed in a flame and gradually burns into nothingness.
“I don’t have the time to deal with curses. I have to get away! This could be my only chance.”
After checking her surroundings for any more curses, Mara picks up the pace and starts to sprint. Knowing Waldo, he’s definitely keeping himself occupied doing god knows what while he waits for her. If that’s the case, she can take further advantage of this and get farther away. She continues to run, moving her little legs as fast and hard as she can possibly make them.
(If he finds me, I don’t want to know about what he would do to me. That’s why I have to keep going! I’ll find a way to stay alive or find another place of people that can help me. I’m not alone in this world!)
Suddenly, Mara seems to run into some sort of wall. She wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of her, but it couldn’t have been a tree. She rubs her forehead from the sudden collision and opens up an eye only to be met face to face with the radiant blue eye of Waldo. The outcome that Mara was wishing to not happen just appeared in front of her very own eyes. She looks up from her spot on the ground, laying witness to the War Spirit’s full wrath. Mara never knew that his eye could become that intense. He must be incredibly pissed off at the moment.
(No, I can’t think about that right now. I have to find some way to escape or he’ll kill me!)
Mara quickly makes a decision and opens her hands, aiming them at Waldo. Maybe she can distract him in some way. In the blink of an eye, however, small wooden stakes appear from seemingly nowhere and pierce through her hands. Waldo takes these wooden stakes and nails her to a large tree. Mara yells from the pain and looks at her hands. She can’t move them a single inch, and resisting only makes it much worse. She’s put in a position in which she has to watch as Waldo makes his way towards her in such an intimidating and threatening manner. His hair almost appears to stand up from how much rage he feels.
“I didn’t believe you were foolish enough to attempt it, but what else could I expect from a disgusting human? It runs in your species.”
Once Waldo is in front of Mara, he throws a punch, the strike landing just beside Mara’s head. It makes a large impact on the tree, leaving behind a great circular dent. Mara looks up at Waldo’s radiant eye with fear and begins to sob. The amount of fear she feels for Waldo right now is completely muffling the pain from her hands. She wails out, trying to apologize to him
“I’m sorry! I won’t run away again! I promise! Please, let me go!“
“Do you think you're in a position to bargain?”
Mara’s apology is suddenly cut short as she receives a devastating kick to her ribs. Several of her ribs shatter to pieces and Mara releases a waterfall of blood from her mouth. One or two fractures of her ribs can be seen sticking out from her body. Waldo forcefully puts his hand on Mara’s neck
“Silence your own filthy mouth, or I’ll silence it for you! If you weren’t a useful tool to me I would have thrown you away the instant I saw you!”
Waldo then moves his hand to Mara’s face, his thumb resting on her left eye. His grip suddenly begins to tighten and his thumb applies more and more pressure. Mara’s vision begins to blur away and she screams violently.
“You’ve acted with quite the amount of audacity today. Perhaps you don’t need all of your body parts. Consider this a symbol of your idiotic rebellion against me.”
Squelch
Waldo’s thumb punctures its journey. Mara’s screams are instantly deafened. The amount of shock that she just experienced was enough to kill her, but Waldo is using some of his cursed energy to keep her just on the brink of living. He removes his thumb from the once healthy eye socket and licks off the blood. The wooden stakes that held up her hands are removed and Mara rag dolls onto the ground. She ever so slowly looks up at Waldo again, not knowing that she can’t really see anymore.
