They had been walking down the riverbank on their way into town. They were on a new mission, searching for some kind of mystical scroll wich was going to help Big Momma in her quest to save the world. Big Momma had sent them to the town of Restor because it was the last place on the Spooner Continet where the scrool had supposedly been heard of. A lunatic had come through the village a matter of months ago, claiming that he had said scroll. Or, rather, alluding to it. According to Big Momma, no direct mention of the scroll had been made in some hundred years. No one even knew the name of it anymore. It was called the Saving Scroll, or sometimes the Savior’s Scroll.
Anyhow, they had been on the way to Restor because people had heard this lunatic talk about something that sounded like the Savior’s Scroll. As they had walked, a man appeared far down the riverbank, but stood on the same side as they stood. As they approached each other, the Sorcerer Hunters became aware that the man was horribly disfigured. It seemed that his nose had been broken in several places at various times, and worse than that, the tip of it had been at one point cut off. The man’s left eye had been gouged out, and the right eye rolled out to the right, as though he had originally been wall-eyed. His arms were much too long for his body, his legs too short, and his back was hunched, so that his hands nearly scraped the ground.
Chocolate had gasped. “Darling, let’s get out of here,” she said, grabbing hold of Carrot’s arm. “That guy gives me the creeps.”
“Do I?” the man called out in a very strange voice.
“No, she was just kidding,” Carrot replied, and shook Chocolate off. “She’s actually attracted to hunchback monsters.”
The man was within a yard or two of them. He no longer seemed the size of a normal man, but about three and a half feet too tall to even pass as an average human. “Would you like to know how I got this way?” the man asked. “I wasn’t always this repulsive. Fact, I looked a lot like you, pretty boy.” This comment was, of course, directed at Marron. Marron made no real response. His face remained a pale stone mask.
“Look, why don’t you buzz off?” asked Gateau. “We aren’t giving you any trouble.”
“Do you want to know?” the man pursued. He was about two feet away from Carrot and Chocolate now. Marron realized why his voice sounded so strange. Behind the several row of sharp teeth, the tip of his overthick tongue had been cut off. Marron wondered whether this man was really a man at all.
“Not really,” Carrot said.
“Brother...” Marron began.
Carrot tried to push the thing away. The thing pushed back, infinitely harder than Carrot had pushed. Carrot went reeling, and fell back onto the tree under which Marron was now sitting. Tira ran over to make sure he was all right, while the other Hunters stood stone still, watching Marron. Marron had sprung into action the moment the thing had touched Carrot, his face no longer a placid bone mask, but a rather fearsome expression of rage.
He had the thing around the neck, and was trying to snap its head back. It reached its head down and bit Marron deep in the shoulder.
“You taste good, prety boy,” it had growled. It threw Marron on the ground with a heavy thud.
Marron jumped up again, almost immediately, and grabbed hold of its thick neck again. Hanging a few feet off the ground, Marron grabbed at the monster’s windpipe and ripped it out. The thing let out one final gasp and realed backwards. Into the icy water it fell, with Marron still hanging on, windpipe in hand. A collective gasp went through the groups.
As Marron surfaced, someone else did as well. Only that someone wasn’t the monster Marron had killed. A girl with long, sea green hair and a blue gown floated downriver.
Chocolate out a gasp. “Her wind pipe is - gone!”
* * *
Marron struggled to the riverbank and pulled himself ashore. His teeth chattered as he tried to control the violent shaking of his body. Water streamed off his clothing and made pools under his body. The frigid water had numbed his shoulder, but from the red color spreading over his shirt, he could tell that is wound was still bleeding. His back arched, and he rolled over, coughing water out from his lungs. Falling back down, he lay sprawled on the ground for a moment.
It came into his head to wonder where his fellow Sorcerer Hunters were, and why they had not come to his aide. Presently, Tira’s face peered into his own.
“Carrot... is he alright?” Marron asked, trying to lift himself on his elbow so as to look around. Freezing cold air pained his lungs with each inhalation.
Tira didn’t answer. “That wasn’t a monster you killed, Marron - it was a girl.”
Marron collasped back onto the ground. The other Hunters turned, and walked away. Marron remained, weak on the cold earth, for some time.
* * *
When the far-away winter sun had reached its apex, Marron found the strength to lift himself from the ground, and walk the remaining distance to town. As he walked, he thought.
‘Why would they leave me?’ he wondered. ‘Even if it was in fact an innocent girl...’ But he couldn’t bring himself to believe it. The thing had turned some final trick. He didn’t know, but he didn’t trust it.
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