Information
Feed the Nightmare
Reaped
Legacy Name: Reaped
The
Nightmare HarvesterOwner:
MeguAge: 8 years, 5 months, 3 weeks
Born: November 1st, 2015
Adopted: 8 years, 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Adopted: November 1st, 2015
Statistics
- Level: 280
- Strength: 711
- Defense: 705
- Speed: 612
- Health: 640
- HP: 640/640
- Intelligence: 613
- Books Read: 565
- Food Eaten: 0
- Job: Battle Master
”Mama tell us a story!”, the child exclaimed exuberantly while bouncing on the bed.
”A story?”, the woman asked, a tone of amusement in her voice. “Which one you want to hear this time munchkin?”
The child stopped bouncing and shared a sly look with her sister who nodded her encouragement. “We wanna hear about papa,” he said with a shy smile.
The woman’s own smile faltered a little but she firmed it up. “Again? You’ve must’ve heard it a thousand times now honey,” she said, not unkindly.
Her children looked up at her hopefully while saying “Pleaseeeee?” and she rolled her eyes, strictly for form's sake, and relented. “Alright, alright! Settle down and get ready for an adventure,” she told them pulling the rocking chair she kept in their room closer to the bed as the children did as instructed. Once they settled in she took a deep breath and began.
”Now your daddy, he was a hard man to figure. He was stubborn as ten mules and as kind and gentle as Ferdinand the Bull. He had rough start in life but it wasn’t til he hit about fourteen that things changed drastically for him-”
”Is that because he met you mama?” asked the second girl timidly.
”Now shh you know not to interrupt the story,” chided the mother. “And no, it’s not because he met me, that didn’t come until later.
Your daddy had just lost his brother, never an easy thing losing someone you love and look up to. He didn’t know how to handle it so he left to live on his own, out in the woods of all things where he found the most unusual set of beings you’d ever encounter…”
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With his bag packed and his determination set, Marlowe set out from the town; he never looked back. Nothing held him to this place anymore. The only person he’d really given two shits about was gone, the cops were useless in finding out the whys and whats and rock bottom was looking more and more like hell every day. What was the point in staying?
None.
So he packed his bag and left it all behind. He sought out the solitude of the forest just outside of town at the base of the mountain. He and his brother had camped there numerous times in their lives and he sought the familiar scents and sounds of the woods.
He hiked until he hit the stream that ran parallel to the grounds he and his brother had staked as their “Zone” and took a deep breath. He hadn’t been out here in about three years but it still looked the same to him. The same circle of rocks, the same hole in the ground they dug out for a campfire, hell even the tree they set on fire one year and had to use their canvas tent to haul water to put out the fire stood half charred and weather worn. He took a deep breath and made his way across the makeshift bridge they had built, surprised it didn’t give with his weight. Once to the proper side, he pulled off his bag and started unpacking it. He had brought only the necessities he felt would hold him over for a few weeks including a large tent and plenty of MRE’s he’d found at the local surplus store. After building the tent he went into the deeper woods to collect firewood and that was when he noticed subtle changes to the area, the biggest being the hoof prints he found, larger hoof prints than he’d ever seen. A mutant goat? No, upon closer inspection, multiple mutant goats. Marlowe paused in his efforts of wood finding, bending down in a crouch to investigate, and wondered how a goat got that big and why would they continually come back to the same spot. Didn’t goats live farther in the mountains?
Shrugging it off, he stood once more and began to turn to go back to camp only to come face to face with 3 rather large mountain goats. With a start, he dropped most of his wood and started to back up. They advanced slowly towards him with threatening red eyes, their large bodies built more like a small tractor than an actual goat and the horns, my god, the horns! Sharper than any blade he’d ever seen and twice as large as any normal goats and pointed at a dangerous angle should anyone happen to have their jugular nearby at the time of penetration.
Marlowe kept backing up and heard an echo from the rocks falling off the cliff behind him. He found his balance and paused with his hands in front of him.
”Nice goat, niiiice goat, stop! Now please!”, he said loud enough to get the goats to stop for a moment to consider what he was doing. “Come on guys, I’m not bothering you,you’re not bothering me. Can we please part ways without death happening?”, he used his soft, pleading voice to try to get through to them somehow. He figured goats this big were, of course, mutants and thus possibly had some form of intelligence and could comprehend him. The goats seemed to consider him for about two seconds before making their way forward again, heads down and horns at the ready. “Oh for crying out loud!” Marlowe exclaimed, while trying to keep his footing. He grabbed hold of a rock and threw it at the closest goat to warn him off but the goat just charged forward faster, effectively making Marlowe lose his footing completely and fall off the side of the cliff.
Marlowe hoped the fall would just kill him quickly but instead he banged against numerous outer cliffs and boulders on the way down. He thought he was supposed to see his life flash before his eyes but all he saw was the sky with it beautiful blue and felt immense pains as his body continued hitting things. When the final resting place came it was with a pain in his leg that felt like it was on fire and followed by his passing out.
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”Shep, I don’t like this at all,” the wolf told his Alpha. The other wolves looked at him with a mixture of respect and repulsion at his forwardness to express an opinion not asked of him to begin with. The Alpha in question stared him down until he lowered his head in a submissive gesture.
”Brogan, the day I want your opinion is the day hell freezes over. This child is wounded and needs help; we may not get on with the humans but he’s a child. We’re not leaving him,” The Alpha made this statement as fact that left no room for challenge. When Shepherd made up his mind, there was no changing it and they all knew what happened when any of them tried to change it. ”Emery, sniff him out. Check for infection first and report back”, Shep told the youngest of the bunch.
Emery wasn’t one who needed to be told twice. She nodded his assent and made her way towards the boy they had come across with the sharp rock sticking out of his leg. Emery sniffed his face first to get her senses used to the boys smell first so she wouldn’t confuse it with other scents. Once she had her nose filled with him, she sniffed to the leg next. She could sense rather than see that the bone was shattered and there must be nerve damage due to the angle of the wound. Sniffing closer she thought she felt a hint of green but she couldn’t be sure until they moved him. She returned to her master to tell him of her findings.
”He needs to be moved before we can assess the full damage. Brogan, Stream help me out,” with a step away from the pack, Shep began to change from his lupine form to human, something he only did in desperate situations. The pack preferred to stay wolf at all times but there were rare occurrences when human for was necessary. The transition tended to be on the epically painful side and only the oldest of the pack could fully transform without permanent damage done. Once the transition was complete, Shep turned his attention back to the human they had found; Brogan and Stream made their way to the human as well.
”This looks pretty deep, Shep,” Stream observed. “I’m not sure if he’ll make it if we move him.”
”Don’t count him out yet. I’m not sensing an arterial bleed, it looks like it went straight through muscle.”
”I don’t like it,” Brogan complained once more, keeping his distance from the kid. “For all we know, there could be others looking for him and what will happen if they find the Pack? “
”As I said before, Brogan, shut up,” Shep bent to examine the leg further. “Stream, get two thick sticks; Brogan get to the front of him and hold him steady. Emery, stay close. You may need to lay on him.”
The others did as bidden and Shep took his own shirt off his back and began ripping it to long shreds. Once Stream came back with the sticks, Shep subtly shook the child to try to wake him. At first nothing happened but then Emery started licking his face and his eyes started to open and he emitted a moan of pain. He seem to try to shift and started breathing rapidly at the unfamiliar faces around him; Shep put his large hand on the boy’s shoulder to try to calm him.
”Please, you need to be still. You’ve fallen a great height and injured yourself. We are here to help,however this is going to hurt very much. Do you understand?” Shep spoke to the boy in a calm manner so as not to panic him further. When he got a nod of understanding from he nodded himself. “Okay, I’m going to give you this stick to bite onto and then I’m going to remove your leg from this spike. Do not hold your breath, clench as hard as you need to on the stick, understood?”
Another nod and Shep took a stick he found that would suffice as a clencher and put it between the boys teeth.
”Emery, lay on top of him, Brogan keep a firm hold on his head and shoulders; Stream I need you over here ready with the sticks to make a splint.” Stream made her way to his side and nodded to him. “Okay on the count of three! One-” thus saying, Shep pulled the leg up quickly and shifted over, doing his best to ignore the anguished sounds emitting from the boy. Stream placed the two sticks on either side of the leg and Shep wrapped them together with the shirt strings. When he was finished he looked at the boy who looked on the verge of passing out from pain. “We’re going to need to find a way to disinfect the wound but for right now, this should work. We’re going to bring you with us now, you’ll be safe, you have my word.”
With those words heard, the boy let the blackness take over him.
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Marlowe stayed with the pack for a few months while he continued to heal. Shep would come by every day to check on him and Emery was set as his guard. Emery couldn’t change into a human so she essentially became a glorified pet for him but they never spoke of it aloud for fear of what some of the pack would think. Not all had been welcoming to the idea of having a human amongst them and were very vocal about what they would do to him if Shep hadn’t been there. Marlowe wasn’t sure if the old guy knew about the whispers and felt it wasn’t it his place to bring them up. This pack had taken him in and made sure he hadn’t died, the last thing he wanted to do was be a problem.
Within two months time, Marlowe was able to be on his feet somewhat with the help of Emery. He found a large stick to lean on for walking and would do what he could to earn his keep around the pack. Whether it was organising logs for the fire or making traps to help their hunting go easier, he tried to help. After awhile it seemed his efforts were in vain however; at every chance Brogan would growl at him and tell Shep lies about things he hadn’t done. When he was walking back with a water bucket, a few of the other dogs surrounded him, teeth bared and closed in on him. It wasn’t until Emery rushed in and bared her own teeth that they backed off.
Later that night there was a meeting called for the Pack to call a vote of what should be done. Marlowe was allowed to attend even though he wouldn’t know what was said until Shep changed human to talk to him. Marlowe made his way to the back of the pack and settled down while they decided his fate.
”Shep, he has to go,” Brogan was unsurprisingly the first to speak out.
Many others growled their agreement
”Brogan, I can't help but feel you have harbored resentment for this child since the day he came here. Why is that?” Shep wanted to know.
”Humans do not belong among us and there’s nothing trustworthy about him,” Brogan claimed. ”None of us should have to feel on edge in our own home because of an unwelcome stranger who is butting in. The oldest rule in our Pack is Pack First; not humans first. Since he’s been here, the Pack has been put on the back burner and you’ve grown far too sentimental over him. This needs to end. The Pack needs to be what’s important; not the life of one human.”
Voices raised and joined Brogan’s in agreement; there seemed to be chaos reigning. On a heavy sigh Shep stood up to speak and silence fell.
”You are wrong that you think I do not put the Pack first; I have and always will. However I may see the innocence in this child, I can see I am one of few. For the good of this pack, to keep the peace, let us take a vote on whether he stays or goes.”
When the vote was taken up, Shep sighed once more and shaking his head changed his form. He made his way to Marlowe and gestured for the boy to walk to the edges with him; the pack followed at a small distance.
”They wish me to leave, it’s okay,” Marlowe said before Shep could speak. “I anticipated it and I’m ready to go.”
”I am sorry, child. I wish I could sway them but ultimately I must do what is best for the pack and this will keep the peace,” Shep placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder in solidarity.
”I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Shep. You and Emery and Stream. Thank you for saving my life; I hope that your Pack finds peace once more,” he held out his hand for Shep; Shep took it and shook. He watched Marlowe turn his back on them and make his way towards a small path that lead to the city when he caught a small blur in the corner of his eye.
”Emery! Where are you going?” Shep demanded; Emery kept up a steady pace until she reached Marlowe. They both stopped and looked back at the pack; some of them growled; others let loose a small howl. Shep’s eyes softened as he said “You are always welcome back here. Be safe.”
Emery gave a small bow of her head then looked up at Marlowe, waiting for her new Master to tell her which way they were going. Together they made their way into the forest, down the winding path back to civilization.
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