Chapter Eight:

What's a Taint?

Eyes turned towards the two of us as I stood dumbfounded. There's no way a demon would be this far north, you'd have to travel the entire length of the Ronandt Empire. There is the very obvious point that this boy is recoiling from me though.

As I look around people gasp and avert their eyes. This is bad. Real bad. I'm the demon apparently. A growing unease settles in my stomach. Run. Or don't. If I run now, I imagine there will be no turning back.

Take a few deep breaths. This is easy, not nearly as deadly as facing down some giant bat monstrosity. I just need to convince the less than a dozen villagers here, that I barely know, that I am not a demon. Without knowing why, they think I am one. As the local hermit, that should be no problem.

“Nathaniel.” An old, gravelly voice calls out to me. It's the chief. Nolan? I'm bad with names.

“What have you done, boy?” He stares me down, a maul in his hand. Having my head split open like firewood seems an oddly appropriate ending for my life in a logging town.

“I'm not sure what you mean, I just came to buy a few supplies. Didn't expect to be called some sort of demon.”

“You're as human as your parents that birthed you, but you come here now. On the very eve of our town's destruction, you come bearing a demon's taint.” He cries, shaking his tool at me.

Things are not going well, to put things lightly. Nolan really enjoys hamming things up apparently.

“It's hardly the eve, the quakes came days ago, and I had no hand in them. And what even is a demon's taint?” The town doesn't look destroyed so much as damaged either, but I'll just keep that to myself.

“You look at me with those eyes and deny it?” He scoffs at me.

As if I can look at my own eyes, you showboating old git. Still, I can't help but wish for a mirror so I knew what he was talking about.

Nolan turns to the growing crowd of maybe two dozen now, making a very inspired speech about purging the corrupted or some other nonsense. Time to make myself scarce, breaking into a full-on sprint I flee town. I run deep into the forest, away from both town and my home.

No one bothered with me enough to visit my hut, so hopefully with this I can divert their inevitable manhunt. Paying attention to leave no tracks, I round back to my home.

Hmm. Negotiations having failed, my options are fairly limited. Staying here is not viable, I'm sure the good people of Himalpoint won't rest until they've found my hut and driven the demon threat from their lands. Wonderful. Diving deeper into the mountains and evolving into a true hermit is not something I'm particularly interested in, and moving south seems suicidal. Sure, theoretically the demons might take me in. I'd just have to cross all of the empire with people increasingly wearier of demons and cross the well protected border.

The only other option is to head north. Elves really hate the beast-kin, but I'm not sure about demons. They don't share any borders, at least that I've heard of. There was also that distinctly elven shaped statue in the palace, so maybe an elf would know more about the abandoned city?

Should I feel more torn up about leaving home? The prospect of leaving feels like casting off some shackles. Freeing I would say. I was already planning to leave once I got rich enough from my treasure hunting. The town really stopped being home after the pox took my parents and everyone turned a blind eye to the orphan child.

So sure, let's go find some elves. The border crossing is a bit north of Truring to the west, but that would mean being around more people and also finding a way to cross the border without making a scene. Dangerous. The other option is to just go north through the mountains. Rumor has it that there are monsters deeper in the mountains to the east, but not much is known of the north. How do elves deal with monsters?

I'd never given monsters much of a thought before. They don't exist in the Emperor's land, but my underground expedition proved you didn't have to go that far to find them. The demons and elves seem to be doing fine, so maybe I'm just particularly unlucky. I did survive and am sitting on a hoard of magical items, so you could say I'm luck too. Apparently, I have some demon taint, my body hair fell out, and my blood's turned black so I could be dying. Life is a bit strange right now.

Time doesn't stop for my musings, and neither do I. This entire time I'm packing up my belongings. Everything of value. I can't take everything with me, but I can toss anything I'm not taking deeper in the woods where it isn't likely to be found. Call me spiteful, I don't want these vultures taking anything of value from me after driving me from my own home. It's not a double standard, I liberated my goods from the long dead.

It's also not a double standard when I sneak into town in the dead of night and liberate some supplies for myself. I left a generous amount coin afterward, let's just call it indirect purchasing. I'm no thief, I'm just good at moving supplies around quietly. Yeah, let's go with that. In this case, supplies mostly meant preserved food. Not sure how long it will take me to successfully trek north, but I wasn't going to take chances.

Ironically money was one of the few things I left behind. Sure, I kept a few coins in case, but I wasn't sure how useful the empire's currency would be in elven lands. What did I take with me? Just about everything I could fit in my largest pack and then some. I was sweating under a thick winter coat and pants because I didn't want to waste space on clothes. The invisibility enchanted bracelet was on my wrist, though it wouldn't do much to hide my presence with all the noise I was bound to be making. A beautiful sword and dagger were strapped to my waist.

Hmm. I imagine I looked absurd as I set out from home for the last time. It was still dark, but I wanted to be long gone by the time people restarted their manhunt in the morning.

Copacetic_Emu

Short chapter. Is this the first time I've mentioned the main character's name outside of the story description? I was going to do more with Nate getting angry with the villagers rejecting him, but I decided it wasn't really in his character. He is more comfortable in trying to avoid conflict. Nate's blood turned black pretty quickly because it only takes a few days for blood to replenish, other changes will be more gradual. In terms of body hair, I based it more along the lines of when someone gets irradiated. And yes, I am aware most women have body hair that they manually remove. I am also aware most women don't have black blood.