SIN EATER

Chapter 16. The first scuffle. Its Aftermath.

It flapped.

Over the dark trees which just looked like a mass of intense lumpy blackness against an only very slightly less black sky, it flapped.

The flapping was both erratic, clumsy, and loud.

The thing was struggling desperately to stay aloft yet starting to fail.

Each bust of panicked flapping would boost its hight for a very short while but then, as exhaustion and pain took over, the overall hight got lower to the tree line.

The unforgiving tree line full of hard wooden branches and preditors.

It just needed to get that little bit further and in desperate hope, the hight now lowered just as the deadly tree line fell away beneath it.

But now its heart sank as instead there was an unexpected large lake stretch out before it.

For the briefest of instants, the flapping bird considered letting itself fall into the dark fluid pool and letting death take it.

Rebuking itself and trying to regain resolve it pushed itself into another gauntlet of flapping. With each burst, as it did the tree line, the failing vertical angle of the flight was bringing it ever lower towards the deep cold lakes surface.

Occasionally, a drip-drop of blood from fresh wounds would create pretty circles on the surface of the water that reflected slightly.

As it reached the other side, the bird's effort buckled as a limp wing skimmed the surface before crashing to semi safely into a bush on the water's edge.

The bird tried to right itself but one of its legs was broken.

It lay there still awhile breathing heavily.

Closing its eyes it tried to centre itself.

Years of training came into play as is tried to remember who or what it really was.

“The pain!” it thought,

“Use this pain.”

“Use this pain to make you focus.”

Then just as it started to remember,

Remember something about a titanic battle that It lost,

The owl's body gave way,

And the Owl agent then passed out!

Lyal Tooker, Little finger of the Sunite Sinister Hand gritted his teeth in pain as expert medical wizards worked on his wounds, trying to remove the various curses.

Layal would normally shrug off most attack spells now he was soul bound to his Seal of the Sinister Hand, But his opponent has also been soul bound to a high seal of the enemy.

Layal had faced his equal and nearly lost!

Despite having the home ground and a having a ready small army the Owl agent had not just almost kicked his arse but had also managed to escape.

He knew that he had severely wounded him.

On top of which he had managed to get a curse thrown on the Owl Agent binding him to his bird form.

With a decent amount of luck, the enemy would forget that he was ever human and spend his life hunting vermin.

But Lyal knew only too well, how powerful these legendary soul bound seals were.

His thought then briefly scaped him as Lyal vomited out some acid black bile that sizzled on the floor.

“What are my chances” Lyal grimaced as the choked on the words he spoke.

A nearby doctor said

“If you make it through the night, my lord, then your chances are fifty per cent for the next three days.”

Lyal looked sharply at the doctor,

“And what ARE my chance of making it through the night?” Lyal growled.

The doctor looked away in embarrassed, terrified abashment,

“That bad? Huh!” Said Layle as he passed out.

Rats Stars opened his two normal eyes.

That Granny that has hit him in the Blacksmiths was there and on her lap she had a child.

Rats Stars, the Sin-Eater recognised Tug Phug, the bully he had first met in the playground.

“Sorry for hitting young man,” said the Grammy joylessly.

“I am sorry for hitting you too,”

“From before…” Said Tug,

“If that is really you,” Tug continued.

“Yes, It is me,” Said Rats.

“Your much older now,” Said Tug flatly.

“I know,” said Rats as equally, flatly back.

“Why?” Asked Rats,

“I did not….” Started Tug,

“He meant me, dear,” Interrupted Granny.

“I needed to save your life, And that was the way to do it” She answered.

“A few seconds taken to explain would have had us both dead.” She went on.

Rats rubbed the large bruise on the side of his tender face.

“I take it then, that rumours of your invincibility are a bit full of porky pie lies,” Said Granny Phug.

“I guess so” Said Rats Stars,

“That was me!” Said Tug, “I did that! I fibbed to the guards!”

“If you thought I was invincible then why even try to hit me?” Asked Rats

“Let us just call it an automatic survival instinct mixed with a touch of luck,” Granny Said smiling, for the first time.

It was a near-perfect smile.

A smile any modern dentist would be proud of.

Every tooth was real!

Rats knew that for her to have all her own teeth at her age and be yet still have the life experience to be able to punch like that must mean that she was not just very good at fighting.

She was an expert!

Possibly even a master at material skills.

He could bet that there was a very interesting back story there…

Rats could also sense past her smile to the recent grief and loss behind the eyes.

But Rats was polite enough not to ask at this stage.

“Now what?” Said Rats

“That is up to you,” Said Grammy Phug.

“Apparently…”

“… You have been chosen as our leader…” she said darkly.

The owl awoke

However,

The man inside did not.

The seal had saved and healed the soul bound bird

The memories of humanity, were, for now, gone.

But the seal was not finished yet.

It was still busy healing the Owl Agent in the background of his mind,

And eventually,

The man would also awaken!

Lyal Tooker made a full recovery.

His seal had automatically adapted him on both a base subatomic and the base magical level.

He would not be so easy to fight, next time!

But nearly two hundred of his men had died fighting for him against the Owl agent.

And so did a lot more civilian bystanders of the town!

The two seals, Both each, Constantly listened to their masters.

Their true masters were not the humans that their deluded host served.

Their True master was NOT the mortal waring Empires!

Their True master, was the Lord of All Evil Chaos.

Their first loyalty was to It and It alone.

And each seal made secret plans to please ‘It’.

Each seal had full disclosure of what was needed of them.

Each seal would gently pull the subconscious strings of their host towards those ends.

It was not a perfect control of the agents, but the seals could and would subtlety sway and guide them, as and when any of the opportunities arrived.

Unlike their respective host,

The seals never slept and always constantly observed, listened and reported for their true Master!