Flame of the Fateless

by Cryptic Keyboard

Chapter 13

Chapter 13
That First Hunt

"Its fine boyo." Yiang mused. "Totally fine and dandy,"

"You killed me best mates and impaled me to a tree. Yeah, dan-fuckin'-dee." I hissed.
Now if I had the choice I would be using my fire-vom to incinerate this creature to kingdom come, only its a tad difficult to incinerate an intangible force. So I settled for the occasional sly curse and bottled temper tantrum. The truth be told I just couldn't find myself to scream, shout and act like I had the moral high-ground to Yiang. She might be the most colossal bitch I can remember but I also remember she DID technically make my fire-vom possible. But just what the heck was that?

I tried to pose the question to the degenerate goddess but she continued to evade the point by saying things like 'in due time' and 'wait please.'

"Pyromancy." She said dully.

"What?" I replied deadpan.

"That is what it was kid, pyromancy. Your telekinesis and teleportation? Only the tip of the iceberg boyo." I felt an invisible arm drape across me and begin to lead me around. "Just think about it kid, fire in its most bare-knuckle form all at your disposal. A flame to be twisted and melded for your enjoyment and pleasure."

I gave the air a funny look.

"Just listen to what I'm saying." Yiang continued. "You were special from the start. Sure you can cast a few spells that need your own special little words to be effective but anything can lob a few incantations around with the right biology or know how. But pyromancy, while common in some circles of magic, is an art truly untapped. Your body is special kid. The very part of your system that makes some shiny rocks harmful grants you an immunity to a single element. In your case, fire."
Yiang's spectral grasp slackened around my neck, she was baiting me in.

"This little perk is as rarity found only in your biology and that of very few others. The advantage of course is that it allows for a depth to your respective element of magic that another creature could only dream of. Think of it boyo; you could become fire itself!"

I took a moment to absorb this information. If what this trickster ghost told me is even mildly true I am effectively a massive, furry walking bonfire, complete with witty attitude. The only question was how do I grasp this power? It had taken impalement and the murder of my two friends to get me to.... Ignite? Yeah, ignite the first time. Would it just come to me like my other skills? Come to think of it, where did the name Gabriel come from?
A haze. A strange hazy curtain swooped shut over my brain for a split second only the be swiped aside the next second. That name had always been there only it hadn't. Was I Gabriel? Did I name myself Gabriel?

"Did you ever think that you ask too many questions?" Yiang interjected; slashing into my train of thought.

"Fuck off will ya?" I muttered darkly.

"Or what? You'll realise your hungry?"
My belly rolled with thunderous intent. For what it was worth she was right, I was hungry. Only I had no food. I had eaten the last of the food from the caravan and the only other thing was the egg in my pack. Not desperate enough to eliminate the only ally I could have in this world before it was even born I decided I must do what all wolves do.

"Yiang, shut up for a minute. I'm going hunting."

*

Stupid nature with its elusive sources of food.
I had been trudging around the never-ending forest (this land seems to be sixty percent woodland) in search of sustenance. I had nibbled a few shrubs but they hardly qualified as a starter, I'm a big boy! I'm a wolf! I need meat!
But meat means I need to find a damned creature first.
The wildlife of this land seemed just as elusive as the tolerance for five foot crimson wolves. So far I hadn't even seen a bird fly overhead. So much for a wolf's natural urge to be to hunt.
Natural urge.
Wolf's are hunters, so I'm a hunter.
Wolf's have advanced senses.
I'm the biggest friggin' idiot.

Calming myself for a second I focused inwards on my thoughts. I centred all of my urges, desires and thoughts into one objective. Find food. Find food. I repeated that same mantra over and over inside my brain until it was held down with stakes.
The sudden clarity was breathtaking.
The world sighed away its old shell to reveal a brand new layer underneath. Every sight, sound and smell became amplified by hundreds. I could hear the wing-beat of a butterfly, see the smallest alteration in the earth, smell blood still inside the body.
I could hunt like a true predator this way. I could hunt like a wolf.

Sure the process continued for another ten minutes but it was a vast improvement from my previous blundering. With ferocious intentions I crept through the undergrowth on the tail of something. Peeking over the leaves I caught sight of my prey. Stag, fully grown by the look of it compared to the rest of the herd. Dinner time kids.
Still moving on the breath of a ghost I crept over to the clueless creature. The wind was in my favour, they didn't know I was coming. This would go perfectly.
That is if I hadn't fucked up at the last moment and tripped over a root.
The sound of a wolf hitting the dirt ten feet from a herd of deer is none too quiet so it was hardly a wonder that the entire friggin' lot of them turned their heads in synchronisation to stare.

"Uuuuh.... Hi?"

They freaked out and ran. I cursed my idiocy while getting back onto my feet to give chase. That stag was mine. Keeping my eyes trained on it I ran full speed ahead. While in a flat-out sprint I would no doubt win this thing had the necessary grace to navigate through the trees without too many issues, big wolf on the other hand bumped into far too many trees and bushes. That was not going to deter me from getting my dinner!
Keeping the pace of the chase constant I worked my legs overtime to stay in the running. We burst from the trees and landed in a clearing, now or never wolfy.
I ran faster and faster until my legs were burning from over-exertion. It was the best-worst feeling ever. Giving one final push I launched myself at the stag.
Body hit body and the clearing became a chamber of squeals and shredding. Fang met flesh as I bit over and over into its body, probably making it far more drawn out than I needed to. After an age of struggle the stag lay still.

I still had my jaws clamped into its side as it breathed its last to become nothing more than a meal for its killer. Now how do I cook this thing?

"You don't boyo." Yiang simpered in my ear.

"What do you mean I don't?" I growled. "I'm a pyromancer right? What's stopping me from cooking this thing?"

"Apart from you not knowing how to tap into the energy inside you required for pyromancy?"
Bitch had me in a corner.

"Besides boyo." Yiang sighed. "Don't all animals eat their food raw?"

"But that's disgusting!" I moaned.

"Man up and dig in boyo." With that she was gone once more.

So, it was a very hungry me versus a very dead stag. I couldn't let a corpse upstage me.
But eating cooked food was one of the few strings I had left that connected to the world I once knew, the life of a little boy in Ireland who may or may not have been called Gabriel. That life was gone was it not? I was no longer Gabriel of Ireland but Lycan of Equestria. A wolf that could cast spells and crack wise at the most inappropriate of times.
This would just be the next step in my detachment from humanity.

Allowing both curiosity and hunger to drive me; I stripped away a long line of meat as I brought my jaw away from the corpse. Giving a few nibbles I managed to grind it down and swallow the......
Tasteless but bloody meat.
That was all I had to say, it was like when it was cooked only uncooked. Keeping my new found confidence brewing I began to strip away more and more hunks of meat from the stag. I must have become frenzied because the next I knew I had all but cleared the midsection of the stag including (don't know I felt about this) the organs. Alas my belly was full and my mind clear enough to continue on my journey.

Only I had no journey to continue.

My fairy friends had been the only guides in this world and now they were gone. For the first time since death, I was lost for meaning to go on. Sure there was the egg, but it wasn't even close to hatching as far as I could tell.
So what harm would there be in a little while of living rough? So long as Yiang doesn't poke her metaphorical finger back into my arse to cause trouble then it shouldn't be too hard.
Just livin' life like a normal (enough) Irish lad should.
What's the worst that could happen?

Comments

[lolz anonymous]

i still would have cooked it... i have magic... it's possible.

[Xaratos]

if you ask this question my friend things get worse

[Hard-Pressed Scribe]

Make contact with ponies!

[Cryptic Keyboard]

1524257 But he did, and they sort of didn't like him

[Glassed]

What's the worst that could happen?

I'll just sit back and watch as you just triggered the endgame prematurely.
-Glassed

[Cryptic Keyboard]

1529283 Ah god dammit, here I was hoping to at least do something else before I cocked up on that scale