Kindred Of Seth
Next Chapter
i) Seth
Seth moppped the sweat of his brow and leant on his pitchfork. He took a moment to gain his breathe and admire the landscape around him. From the tiny hill, just a few hundred feet from his home, he could see all over the valley, from his home, at the entrance, to the distant village of Grensa. He looked adoringly. Seth had made a good choice, taking his family out from the village and making them a new home out here. It was peaceful and the sun was brighter at this side of the valley. His son, Enosh, had acres upon acres of land to play in and his wife, at last, was at peace. No longer need they worry about jobs and earnings.
It had been hard work for Seth being a blacksmith, it had gotten competitive. The only way to make money was to spend full weeks on each weapon to make them so impressive that people would buy them as ornementation, which got very tiring for Seth. In this valley there was no immediate need for weaponry.
Now, he was free from that. He had saved and saved until he could afford to set up a home here, living off his own land, with no need for any income anymore. He still missed the days of work, however, so he would spend the brighter days, like today, gardening, churning over tracks of land and planting new trees and plants. He had turned his land into a paradise, in the few years they had spent here.
Of course, peace and quiet were not the only reasons Seth had wanted away from the village. There was something there.
Just beyond the village was the Forest Of Nod, one of the largest in the kingdom. It was greatly untracked and so many rumours and myths had started around it. Rumours of great monsters, goblins and so on. The rumours, unfortunately, were not completely unfounded, for, once in a while, someone would "go missing" while wandering close to the forest. Seth honestly believed that the missing people probbaly just wandered so far into the dense forest that they couldnt find their way back out, he had been in the forest once and discovered that no matter how close to the edge of the forest you were it was so dense it felt like you were miles from the end.
There were, as with all myths, alleged "sightings" too. Many people claimed to have seen the "Beast Of Nod" as they called it, as they had been watching the forest. The "Beast" alleged looked like a tall man, with glowing red eyes, who moved swiftly and silently through the forest, leaving no tracks and waiting for someone to wander just close enough so he could feast on them. Once, this "beast" had been just outside the forest and many people, including seth had seen it. It spread panic umong alot of people, including Seths wife. Seth had been ever-sceptical and said it probably was just a man, living in a hideaway from the world in the forest but his Wife had gotten scared, mainly for Enosh, their son.
So, rather than just stubbornly tell them over and over that there was no Beast, he moved here.
He glanced over to the Forest as his thoughts strayed, from this distance the forest looked even bigger, it stretched over a hillside and around almost half the valley, with the Village of Grensa, almost engulfed in its size, looking like a tiny wooden spot.
"Seth... dear..." his wife called
Seth turned around, there was his wife standing a few feet from their home looking beautiful as ever, a smile edged its way onto seths face.
"Yes?" he called out
"I'm cooking us some dinner, can you call Enosh?"
"He went to the village to see Herdan, i'll go over"
Seth left his pitchfork in the ground and headed towards his stable where his horse, Nona, was kept. He saddled her up opened up the stable door and jumped on, and started on his way to Grensa.
He was barely a hundred yards from the stables when he spotted another rider coming, at full pelt, towards him. He stopped Nona and stared. WIthin a few seconds he could tell it looked very much like Herdan, Enosh's friend. Back in the village Herdan had been like an older brother to Enosh. He was now, almost 16 and always looked out for Enosh. As he got closer Seth could tell that Enosh was not on the steed as he had first assumed. He frowned a little. He waited for Herdan to get closer.
"SIRE!" Herdan screamed.....
"Herdan? are you ok?" Seth shouted out....
Herdan got closer and stopped his horse just short of Seth's.
"Sire! it's Enosh...."
Seth began to look extremely panicked "What about him?"
"Sire, he ran off when i told him it was time we ought to get him home, I tried to find him but...." Herdan's head sank.
"Where did he go?"
Herdan looked up with a look of fear...
"The Forest?" asked Seth, with a look to equal Herdan's.
"Y-yes sire..."
Seth stared, almost blankly, at the forest for a second or two and without warning set Nona into a full blown sprint. Herdan quickly followed.
Within only a few minutes they were in the Village, Seth jumped off his steed, being watched by many concerened faces. Seth headed straight for the Blacksmiths he used to own, which he had given to an old friend. He opened the door and there was his friend. Without words he handed Seth a Sword and Shield, smiled a look of sympathy and good luck all in one, and watched as Seth ran towards the forest, followed by an out of breathe Herdan.
"Is this where he went in?" Seth got to the point of the forest closest to the village.
"Yes sire."
"You wait here, I'll be back with Enosh within the hour"
Herdan nodded.
It was strange how Seth's beliefs of the forest sudenly changed. In his mind, he still knew the "beast" could be nothing more than a man, but now that his son was in here, he began questioning that.
Seth wandered into the forest, cutting at branches and bush that lay in his way.
"Enosh?!" he called out
He continued wandering, and calling, and wandering. For a full hour he had been hopelessly searching.
It seemed to be getting futile, a tear welled up in Seths eyes as he continued slashing at branches, as if they were to blame, and staggered like an old drunk through the forest. Then he heard something. He stopped and stood silent and listened.
There was a faint, very faint shouting. He listened again.
"dad..." it said.
His eyes lit up as he ran through the forest towards it yelling "Enosh" all the way. Suddenly he fell to his knees. He looked up, there were no trees around him anymore, it was a clearing. That's why he had fallen, he had gotten used to pushing against the growth of the forest. This certainly was odd though, a clearing this big, maybe twenty metres in diametre in the forest.
"Dad!" a voice to his side called.
Seth looked up and there was Enosh, he smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked suddenly puzzled when he saw ENosh had been tied to a tree though. He began untying him.
"Enosh, what happened? who did this?"
"A tall scary man, daddy...He kept saying that i sholdnt worry"
"Why did he tie you here?" Seth asked
"I don't know" Enosh wiped a tear from his eye "He said that this is the only way he could get what he wanted"
"Well it's ok now, we just need to get out of here"
"The village is only a few metres that way daddy" Enosh pointed, and sure enough Seth could hear the faint murmers of the village, "they didn't seem to be able to hear me here though daddy"
Seth looked a little puzzled, "ok then, let's just get out of here, you never come in here again, you hear?"
Enosh sighed, "Of course, father... sorry"
Sudenly there was a noise behind them, They both turned to see a tall stranger standing in a long dark robe. He was a clear 7ft tall with only tufts of hair and deep reddened eyes that stared deep into them.
"Run back to the village Enosh" Seth said quietly.
"yes, Father." Enosh said before belting through the undergrowth
Seth heard the people in the village talking to Enosh, so he knew he was safe.
"Who are you?" Seth demanded from the starnger.
"My name is Caine" the man said with little excitement.
"What do you want? why did you do this to my son?" Seth raised his sword.
"Only a very brave man would come in here. I've captured many before, but no-one came. They just let them go missing in here and accepted their death. Then i saw you. You and your son. I knew you wouldnt let him stay in here, so i beckoned him here, so that i could have, at last, a strong one."
Seth began to feel very scared and clenched his fist around the sword even tighter, "What...why do you need me?"
Caine smiled, "You will be the first, Seth. I can make you like me."
"like you?"
"No need for questions dear Seth, just give in, and you can have all the power in the world" Caine smiled, revealing a jaw full of sharp fangs and raised his claw-like hands from his robe.
Seth raised his sword and stepped towards Caine.
"I don't think you need that." Caine said, with a darkened chill.
For reasons unknown to Seth he suddenly felt like he didnt need the sword, he dropped it, and the shield, to the ground and stood looking at Caine. Suddenly Seth felt blank, he fell to his knees and looked up at Caine.
Caine sat on one knee next to him. Seth tried to turn, but found he couldnt move. He couldnt even think. he felt a hand pull down the neck of his tunic and a sharp stab into his shoulder and neck. Seth yelped, the pain was unbareable, he tried to get away ftrom the pain but a hand pulled his head closer. Seth could feel the blood leaving his body, then the pain in his neck stopped, he looked down, there was blood now trickling down his clothes. he suddenly felt a drip on his head, he looked up. There was Caine, with a cut in his wrist, holding it over Seth.
"You're going to die, Seth, No doubt about that. What you need to ask is, what happens after that?" Caine spoke "Drink my blood, and live forever."
Seth couldnt resist, the dark feeling of death was upon him, and his mind was grasping at any chance to live even another few minutes. He leant forward and took a drip of Caine's blood on to his tongue. It felt cool and refreshing, he continued to drink drop after drop after drop. Then Caine stepped away... He said something that Seth couldnt really hear, his ears were clogging up and everything was blurring, he felt his head hit the ground, he lay on the ground in the pure pain of death, clutching himself, trying to stop it.
And then it stopped.
And Seth was dead.
