Why the Fates Don’t Smile on Me.

Chapter 3

My wanderings in the street led me around our old neighborhood.  Our entire town was under the protection of our gang and, we now realized, the local Fairy court as well.  We were a part of this.  The only thing was, it was falling apart again.  The Barony had lost many of it’s fighters.  The seat of the Duchy was here as well.  The surrounding Barons and Counts were seeing the complacency of our situation.  Seems now that we were a part of them, our local court felt that they could finally relax their patrols.  We were safe, now they would be kept safe.  Little did they know that all those surrounding us were gathering and banding together.  I began seeing it.  Along the edges of town, there were raids, skirmishes.  It was nothing out of the ordinary, but to me it seemed to be increasing in frequency.  I began patrolling again with my boys; some kithain came along as well.  We beat them back on one front, but another would become stronger.  I had grown impatient with the nobles.  The felt nothing was wrong.  Their damn seelie minds didn’t allow them to realize the dreaming would protect those who protected themselves.  They were stubborn in their complacency.  It scared them though, when I threw their food back at them.  I was tired of their pampering me.  I told them I didn’t want food.  The hunger inside me was for revenge.  They knew who had ordered my parents death.  It surprised them that I had learned this fact.

My parents had once in their early years been enchanted.  They had dreams of the beauty of the dreaming.  They had attended court, if only for a few months.  It also turns out that our paternal grandfather had been a Troll Knight, a famous Hero of the area.  That’s why we had been watched and cared for.  If we had never Chrysalised, the court would have fought to protect us, aiding us in our own struggles, and as long as we lived under their protection, and our descendants would be cared for.  Seems though that the Duke had decided that since we were now among their ranks, we could care for ourselves.  

It had been another county, working through the Browns gang.  They had been destroyed, but the Count and his court had continued.  And now they and the others surrounding this seat of the Duchy were threatening.  Our court refused to believe what was staring them right in the face.  We needed to prepare for war.  Their Seelie minds refused to understand.  They thought the traditions should hold true.  I was able to convince my brother, and a few of the other fighters to assist in our campaign, but  we were too late.  The other Nobles had gathered, and were about to rage war on the Duke’s court.  It was late winter, the middle of February when war finally broke out.  The Duke and his men were unprepared.  The only thing that kept the others at bay was Justin and myself.  We were the fighters, we knew the streets, dreaming and mundane.  They were our streets.  We weren’t fighting just kids, and teens anymore.  We were fighting against the mindless slaughter that would come.  I didn’t care a rat’s liver about the Duke himself, but I didn’t want my town being overrun again.

After a few months, towards the end of May, my life took another heavy blow.  There was court intrigue, and I began learning that it was only our motley that was keeping the town from changing control.  The Duke wanted to give in.  He was tired and didn’t do his duty like he should.  It was only our motley that kept that from happening.  Now Justin didn’t want these bastards taking control of our town and allowing it to sink back to the chaos that we had fought hard to avoid.  Also, I had the desire to support my brother and fight for his views.  I may be labeled the evil twin, but I was his twin, I would fight by his side before I gave into my other urges.

It’s not a night I’ll ever forget, and it’s not something I wish to dwell on much.  What I will tell you is that he died.  My brother was killed.  They were after me, but he gave his life, in the middle of a battle, he charged forward, raging against what he had fought against for the last ten years, and his troll mind had sought to uphold these last ten months.  I charged after him, but there was not much battle left in anyone I ran past.  Tearing off limbs to feed my rage and hunger I ran on.  As Justin reached the Count who was leading these others, the Count that was seeking control of the Duchy, I saw a blade grow out the back of Justin’s chest.  I could see right then that it was a cold iron blade.  The damn Count was a Balor.  He had stabbed my brother, not just his changeling self, but his mortal self as well.  He was dead.  With a twist, I saw my brother slump, his troll body fading as a wisp, dead.  His mortal body slid off the blade, landing with a thump on the ground.  I began throwing men at the Count, his own men.  Not caring, not containing the rage I felt.  The Count fled, the coward that he was.  I destroyed nearly all the men there that night.  Feeding my rage, my hunger for revenge, feeding my appetite.

When I think more on what happened, my mind draws a blank.  The next day though, I remember being brought before the court.  They explained that the time for my fostering was nearly over, and in two months they would no longer have to take care of me.  For what that was worth, they had done next to nothing to care for me, other than provide me with food I didn’t need.  I was tired of their drivel.  I was tired of their whining.  I was tired of relying on incompetence.  I was torn apart.  My soul had shattered.  My brother had gone.  My closest friend and confidant.  I didn’t hear their words, I was sinking into a despair.

At work, I did my job without saying anything.  I avoided people, I just wanted to be left alone.  Even Steve, the boggan manager that had helped me, he tried to help ease my suffering, my hunger.  Nothing would satisfy.  He was still afraid, they all were.  Heck, Steve had even moved me out of the meat department that week after I chrysalised.  Told others it was to avoid any more injury, and keep me safer.  I knew better, he thought I’d eat all the meat.  Maybe I would have, the way I was now, I just might have done that.  Steve said I was a great employee, I got the work done, and didn’t complain.  He tried cheering me up.  All I did all day was push carts around the parking lot.  I growled or glared at anyone who tried talking to me.  The other employees learned to just let me be during that month.  Few of them even realized what had happened.  At night I just wandered the streets.  I was hunting.  Searching for clues to where the Count was hiding.  I came across more cowards.  I could smell their fear.  If they didn’t run, I feasted.  I thrust more Kithain out into the mundane world that month that I think had been lost to the forgetting that entire year.  

Eventually things started happening again.  The Count had been sighted, and he had with him an army.  There was no way I could take them all, not at once.  The Count seemed to realize this.  He always had enough men around him.  The Duke had no desire to help me, even now.  I was still under his court’s fostering, but he was too lazy of a Duke.  Kept talking about other matters that he felt to be more important.  I was done.  Tired of his incompetence, I made a plan.  I had only one week left before I would be shut out of his court.  I arranged my own death.  I worked it out with Steve.  He found a new warehouse for me to transfer to.  He would cover up the paper trail.  Of course he was getting old and slipping into forgetting himself.  The way we had it planned out, in the eyes of all the kithain of the area, I was dead.  The end of my fostering arrived.  My Saining went well, Steve was the Namer, and everything else went well.  There was a banquet.  They pretended to celebrate my happy event, but I knew they were celebrating that I would no longer be around.  I boarded the bus to leave the area early that morning.  The bus I was supposed to be was blown up.  I was dead.  My bus headed the other direction, south.

I arrived in San Diego County two days later.  The arrangements had been made, and my apartment was ready.  I greeted my roommates, not really talking to them.  They were both just normal and mundane.  I definitely scared them though.  When you’re six foot eight inches tall and weigh in around 260, you’re gonna look like you don’t want to be messed with.  I knew this, and I used it.  They let me have a room to myself, not like I wouldn’t have made that happen.  

The day after I arrived, when I got back from work and there was an envelope on my bed.  All it said was, “from Steve” I knew exactly what it was.  It was his final communication to me.  I opened it and read the letter over, not really paying attention to what I read.  The Count had overrun the Duchy and the Duke had been killed.  Many of the kithain of that court had fled.  Steve even mentioned that when I was not found, the Duke seemed to nearly rage, but contained himself.  He told me not to respond, that he was also slipping into the Forgetting.  I didn’t really care about that.  It was the last part of his words that worried me.  He told me that there were investigations at work.  Investigations into the accidents of that week a year ago when I had learned my nature.  Investigations that were leading to him.  He didn’t know what to do, and couldn’t hold onto his dreams much longer.  He also said that I should be careful if the new Duke tried to investigate whether I had actually died in that bus wreck.  This man was devious and cunning enough.  

I began asking around, looking for other kithain.  I saw some out of the corner of my eye, but when they saw me, they usually avoided me.  Work was going all right, but even kithain customers that noticed me would avoid me.  Finally, I heard wind of where some meeting places were.  I decided to check out the first lead.  A hotel.  Rumor was going around about it being destroyed, but being rebuilt.  I would go there on Friday after work.  Head down and see if there was anything to this.

It was that night, for the fourth time in my life, that the fates frowned on me.