Cursed Heart Cpt. 17

They set off into the desert, the city growing smaller and smaller behind them before the stark, hazy horizon line swallowed it out of sight. Ferreus looked out of the back of the wagon at the empty scenery, staring at the crags of rock and dry sand with a strange sort of intensity. Mary, who was sitting next to him on the bench, almost asked him what he was thinking about; but something in his demeanor warned her that some questions were best left unasked. Instead she kept quiet, arranging her pack on her lap and trying to keep her knees out of everybody’s way. The space in the back of the wagon was very narrow indeed, and though it was only Violet and Slav sitting across from them, she still didn’t want to be bothersome. The businessman was sitting next to her, and he offered her a faint smile when she glanced over. On the bench across from him sat the shifty-eyed man and his burly son. They didn’t smile, and she shifted closer to Ferreus almost subconsciously when they stared at her.

The sound of the two drivers up front, the feet of the mules on the hard path, and the wagon ahead of them filled the silence. Most of the people in the cart seemed perfectly satisfied to keep the quiet unbroken, but Mary wasn’t necessarily used to remaining without conversation when amongst company. Not to mention it was practically the only thing to stave away the boredom of a long trek through the desert. So, in the spirit of being friendly and shortening the long journey, Mary hesitantly piped up and asked, “Where in the east are you folks headed?” The question was mostly aimed at the businessman, as he had seemed the most amiable to her earlier, but it was open enough that the man or his son could reply should they choose.

"Oh, just business," the man beside Mary answered after a short, nervous pause. The silence was safe, a place where nobody had to endanger themselves by speaking their opinions or pasts, and he seemed uncomfortable leaving it. Besides, he had to first figure out whether she was talking to him or not. "You know how that goes: Trading in this town, arguing in another. I'm finally going home for the first time in months, and let me tell you, I'm feeling every mile. As soon as I'm home to my wife's cooking..."

A snort from the other bench cut him off. The shifty-eyed man was grimacing at him rudely, one corner of his mouth pulled up to bare sharp, yellowed teeth, like a small animal's. "Home!" he scolded. "Life of comfort you lead, ain't it? How lucky fer you."

The businessman sat up a little straighter, offended and surprised at the same time. "Pray tell, sir," he sniffed down his long nose, "what are you and your... progeny... doing traveling so far east? I wouldn't take you to be heading there for the arts..."

"If ye must know," the old man drew himself up proudly, settling his hands on the lapels of his jacket, "me an' Young Joe here're travellin' east for our professions ourselves, ain't we, Young Joe?" His burly son gave a slow, measured nod, watching Mary with dull eyes. "We's monster hunters, best there is... an' ain't nobody ever proven us wrong on that!" He eyed Slav warily for a moment, sizing up the, ahem, "younger" man and evidently thinking his son was more than a match. Slav exhaled quietly. He always had to get stuck traveling with -these- kinds of people.

Feeling more than a bit nervous with the son’s eyes still upon her, Mary said, “That, er, certainly sounds like a very… exotic lifestyle.” She had been much more comfortable when the businessman was talking; his life, at least, they could discuss without antagonism. As surreptitiously as she could she slid a bit closer to Ferreus, glancing up at him briefly as she did so. He didn’t return her glance, and for all intents and purposes still seemed to be gazing intently out at the dust they were leaving behind them. Sitting next to him, however, she could sense a quiet tension within him, like a spring wound tightly. Though not showing it outwardly, he was prepared for action at any moment. This was somewhat relieving to Mary, who didn’t wish for violence, but was still made very nervous by the two self-proclaimed ‘monster hunters’ sitting across from them.

Ferreus stared out at the gradually setting sun, thinking through this turn of events. It really wasn’t surprising, considering; at a glance he knew those two were going to be trouble. They were the violent sort, and you found them no matter when or where you were. Regardless, he would have to keep an eye on them. It wouldn’t do to have two ‘monster hunters’ running about unchecked when three quarters of their party were questionably human. Turning back towards the inside of the wagon he set his most unsettling gaze upon the father and son, the sudden change in light making his dark eyes even blacker. “What kind of monsters?” he asked, his voice low and calm. The kind of calm, however, that threatens to become a storm; he could certainly seem unnerving enough when he chose to.

"Er." The father seemed taken aback for a moment, at the very least startled by this stony man who'd suddenly moved and--gasp--spoken, as people tend to do. He hadn't been prepared for it, and he inhaled and puffed out his sunken chest as best he could, tossing a toothy grin in Ferreus' direction. "The crafty kind, m'boy," he answered. "Skin-walkers, animal-people, undead types." He paused and grinned eerily at Violet, as she was the youngest and therefore, logic stated, probably the easiest to frighten. "Whatever would make the li'l girly here have nightmares."

"So you hunt creepy old men?" Violet said, raising an eyebrow. Her own eyes were beginning to sharpen with the setting of the sun, an unnatural shade of violet that grew more and more red the deeper the sun sank. "I'm only scared of the human monsters."

The old man deflated instantly and frowned, while the businessman chuckled into his fist and Slav stealthily patted Violet on the shoulder for a job well done. She'd learned from the best, after all. Violet beamed and looked at Mary reassuringly.

When the man looked to Violet after his comment about the undead Ferreus was briefly concerned, though he quickly realized the man meant only to scare her. Not so easily done, it would seem. Unsurprising, really; Violet had probably seen more of real monstrosity in her life (and afterlife) than man and son combined. Mary, however, was highly impressed by the response, not having expected such a keen, brave retort from such a young girl. She smiled at Violet in return, feeling grateful once again to be in the company of such a competent group of people.

Still, all this talk of monsters had scared her. She had seen Ferreus and Slav take on an angry mob, true, but in the end that mostly consisted of running. Monsters were something else entirely; and since these ‘monster hunters’ didn’t exactly seem friendly towards others, she worried that should trouble come they might find themselves dangerously in the middle of it. “There won’t be any monsters out here in the desert, will there?” she asked the older man, sounding nervous despite her best efforts to hide it.

"Oh yes, undoubtedly," the elder grinned at Mary, glad to be getting attention again. "The desert may look dead, young lady, but don' let it fool ye--there's more danger out there than ye'd be like to shake a stick at. Some of 'em may not e'en be livin' folk, seein' as we're travelin' durin' the night. You don't want one'a them ill-bloods to get hold 'a you."

The businessman inhaled, holding his traveling bag closer to him like a shield. "Pray tell, what do these... ill-bloods do?" he asked slowly.

"Don't tell me that ye've ne'er heard of ill-bloods!" Spittle flew from the old man's lips as he leaned toward the merchant. "Boogie-men, most like," he said, turning his attention back to Mary and Violet. He gave an uneasy, somewhat predatory grin. "Monsters, e'ery one of 'em. Suck your blood like mosquitoes, then turn ye innoo things like themselves. Cannae go out in the daylight, either, unholy beasts."

Violet frowned slightly as the man gave a satisfied nod. She made a point of not looking at him. "If they feed off of humans, why would they be in the desert where there are no people?" she snorted. Slav was watching intently by now, focusing most of his energies on sending out a low-grade creepiness that would hopefully supplement Ferreus' and get the old fellow to shut up.

“And if they can’t survive in sunlight, why would they chose to live in a place where it’s nigh unavoidable?” Ferreus added, the response just as cold and collected as his previous utterings. He looked directly at the man as he said it, and in the end it came off more as a rhetorical question than anything else. Mary gave a small sigh of relief and smiled slightly, comforted immensely by the logic they were proposing. Their arguments made much more sense than the ill-blooded mosquito things the man said existed. He was probably just trying to scare her, like he had been trying to scare Violet. She really should try to be more cynical from now on, not believing everything crazy, uncivilized men said. After all Ferreus had dealt with it so quickly, she must seem like a twittering fool in his eyes for taking all the monster things seriously. Especially considering where (or rather, who) all that nonsense was coming from.

She wasn’t the only one to be noticeably relieved; the businessman all but fell limp, a nervous smile crawling across his face. He lowered his traveling bag back down where it had been before. “All intelligent points, of course,” he said, sounding satisfied. He was still avoiding the man’s gaze, but he added, “If these… ill-bloods do exist, I doubt we will encounter their ilk all the way out here.”

"Quite," murmured Slav, seemingly done with the matter. He turned and drew the curtain aside to peer out the window again, watching as the sun sank lower and painted the sky a bloody red. "If there is anything to fear here, it will come in the form of reptile or insect, not something as helpless as an ill-blood."

Violet gave her assent with a firm nod, before smiling at Mary. "They're just stories," she assured the little woman gently. "I doubt we'll run into anything. The only reason anyone hears about weird things happening in the desert is because nobody goes on about the peaceful trips. Besides, if anything happens we've got Father and Uncle Ferreus to protect us." The last part was said in a hushed tone so that only their little party would hear, and she gave a hopeful wink. Hopefully the changing nature of Violet's eyes wouldn't be noticed too easily.

Mary smiled at her, comforted by the words. Violet was right, people did tend to exaggerate the bad things over the more common mundane; and Ferreus and Slav certainly seemed capable of handling anything the desert threw at them. “Thank you Violet,” Mary said softly in return, patting the girl’s knee with a smile. “You’re such a nice girl, I don’t know what I’d do without you and your family.” True to form she noticed nothing unusual about her eyes, and seemed to have thoroughly ingrained the idea that they were all related. If Ferreus were the kind of person to hold to fancies, which he wasn’t, he might have thanked his lucky stars that they were traveling with such a blissfully oblivious companion. It made things so much easier with her.

With that taken care of Ferreus turned his gaze back to the setting sun, where he had been staring for the majority of the trip thus far. If that man knew what was good for him he wouldn’t be babbling about monsters any more, at least not around them. Though if he did, Ferreus was certain that he and Slav together could… persuade the man that it was in his best interests to keep silent. Their talents did lie solidly in that area, after all. Mary leaned back in her seat, which rather conveniently allowed her to lean a good deal against Ferreus as well. Ferreus didn’t have the heart to remove her and let it be. She would be home soon enough, with their company long gone and all of this just bad memories to be buried.