Born from a quiet village in the mountains, he was a
good spirited young boy, still too young to stray too far by himself, much less
hold a sword, as would the older children. Of course, that wouldn’t stop him
from trying. His mother would always catch him playing with the older kids,
horsing around. She would never scold him, but take him in her harms, and tell
him to stop trying to grow up so soon, that he’ll miss the days when life was
simple. He wouldn’t fight, but rather snuggle close to his mother, feel her
soft, loving skin touch his, and look into her soft, warm hazel eyes. “Okay
mother.” “I’ll stay young for you.”
His village was small, but did well throughout
the seasons. Every day, he would help his family on the farmland and even
helped other families, with the day to day running of the village. The older
children and men would leave at times to work for other villages, bringing back
supplies and money to help the village foster. Life was simple. Life was…Right.
Then, They Came. One Night, a lone corpse
appeared in the center of town. No one knew who, or what it was, as it had been
battered and mutilated to the point of being unrecognizable. As the town began
to crowd around the corpse, it slowly began to twitch. Then, it gurgles out the
words “The Red Hood comes", then it resumes its death. As the villagers
stood wondering what this could mean, it is Maru’s mother that screams first. The
villagers turn to her only to freeze in fear as she stands before them, with a
colossal of a man clad in blood red garb looming behind her, Maru’s mother
being skewered through with a giant spear. The hooded figure stood still, its
seemingly metallic garb gently swaying in the wind. The hooded figure then
raises “his” spear, hoisting Maru’s mother into the air, then slamming her into
the ground, slowly pulling the spear out of her now lifeless body. In that instant, the entire village went to
war against The Red Hood. In that instant, the end of the village began.
Fast, and furious, was this Red Hood, striking
down each villager with not only brute strength, but of grace betraying years
of experience. Nearly every able-bodied villager joined the fight, and when it
seemed as if the Red Hood would finally be defeated, another Red Hood appeared,
then another. It was then the adults began to flee, only to be cut down with
impunity.
Crying
into the night, Maru ran, faster and faster, not looking back, even as he heard
the screams from his village, the sounds of blade hitting blade, blade hitting
flesh. Faster, faster he ran, the branches and bushes of the forest scraping
and clawing at him seemingly, ripping into his clothes: The soft cotton shirt
his mother spent days knitting; the comfortable shorts she sewn together, being
ripped and torn, just like his world at this moment. The forest was lit, from
the light of his village burning. Suddenly, something caught his eye, and he
averted his eyes slightly, to focus on that which he thought he saw...Nothing.
Then, when he refocused on the path in front of him, he stopped in his tracks. A
Red Hood stood before him. With tears in his eyes, he straightened up, and
stood ready to fight, most assuredly to die, the last of his village. And that
he did, impaled at the end of the spear, similar to the spear that killed his
mother. What happened next was most unexpected. The Red Hood was attacked from
behind, by Maru’s mother, who limped from the shadows, spear in hand. Maru’s
mother, still bleeding out, appeared different as she stood in front of the Red
Hood; gone was the hazel color in her eyes, for they were now a deep yellow.
Her once loving, caring hands that have held Maru, were now scaled and clawed.
With each labored breath, small embers emanated from her mouth, as she stepped
towards the Red Hood. As The Red Hood turned around, “he” seemingly paused, as
if contemplating “his” chances. The Red Hood raised “his” spear, ready to do
battle with Maru’s mother. Upon seeing this, a rage filled Maru, as he lay
dying, the spear wound pumping blood into the soft ground. His last sight would
be his mother fighting this…monster. Without realizing, he crawled to his feet.
With each clang of the spear-to-spear combat, he flinches, but keeps moving
towards the Red Hood. His hands begin to tingle, his back begins to burn. His eyes
begin to slightly blur, then re-focus as he lunges at the Red Hood’s back,
letting loose a roar not of a scared young boy, but of an otherworldly beast.
He attacks the Red Hood, swinging madly at “him”, catching him unawares. The
Red Hood stumbles, only to knock Maru’s mother away, so that “he” may focus his
attention on the boy. The Red Hood takes one hand and snatches Maru up by the
neck “He” raises Maru in the air, and readies his spear to impale Maru,
assuredly for the final time. It was at that moment, time seemed to slow down
for Maru. To his right, he sees his mother’s altered form lying on the ground,
likely succumbing to her wounds. He looks down at his hands, now the same
scaled and clawed hands as his mother. He looks at the Red Hood, trying to find
some semblance of a face, anything. All that stares hack is an angular hood,
and some sort of metallic-like cloth. Maru sees himself in the reflection of
the “armor”; he doesn’t recognize the image that stares back at him. The scales
reaching up to the crook of his elbow; His puncture wound, still bleeding out,
forming a pool under him; his clothes
that his mother made for him, shredded and torn, reflecting the state of his
life at that moment. His eyes, no longer the same soft brown as his mother, now
glow with an emerald hue, with a tint of gold. Nothing is as it were. At that
moment, he remembered his mother’s words, on missing the days where life was
simple. Rage grew within him. He snapped back to the reality of the moment, as
the Red Hood raises “his” spear to deliver his death blow. The rage, a fire within
him, began to grow. He screams at the Red Hood, but with that scream, fire
spewed from his mouth, blasting The Red Hood in “his” “face”. Immediately, the
Red Hood drops Maru, and staggers off, falling into the bushes, and spreading
the fire to the trees, setting the forest on fire. Maru laid on the floor,
reaching out for his mother. The forest is burning around him. He tries to
crawl towards his mother, but cannot find the strength he just has a moment
before. The last image he sees is his mother’s lifeless body, and the forest he’s
always wanted to explore, burning around him. Surely, this was the end of the short life of
Rikumaru Musaki…
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