An Old Legend

I was surprised there were people out here, and their seemingly carefree attitude immediately made me wary. They had no care for the noise they were making or who might find them, meaning they were either very confident or very stupid. Or both. Either way, there was a good chance of trouble. I could have avoided them, skirted around the edge of the forest and watched as they passed, but my curiosity got the better of me and I stayed where I was. 

Soon, a group of six leisurely walked out of the shadows of the forest. Three of them, all male, walked in front of the rest, talking and laughing back and forth. Behind them stood two women, who occasionally added to the conversation or laughed at their jokes. Behind them was one final person, a noticeably younger man who trailed behind the rest, eyes cast downwards. There was nothing specifically which indicated he was male, but I instinctively knew it somehow. He was noticeably more unkempt than the rest, a cloak over his shoulders dragging on the ground behind him as he walked, his feet dragging every few steps. His hair was disheveled and dirty, something not unexpected for hunters who had been out for a while, but it seemed out of place when compared to the rest of the group, all of whom looked as though they were about to head out for a pleasant afternoon in some fancy part of a city. 

I was off the road only a small distance, with no significant concealment, so they naturally saw me soon after they left the borders of the forest. I locked eyes with the foremost man, who seemed to be the leader of the group. They stopped talking and we simply observed each other for a short moment. Eventually, the leader of the group smiled and took a step forward.

"I wasn't expecting to find someone this close to the town, did you not evacuate when you were told?"

I didn't respond immediately. The group behind him passed some comments between themselves, treating the situation as a form of entertainment. 

"Well, you can stop worrying now. We're on our way to your little town now, so the problem is as good as solved. I'm sure you know who we are, so you can be confident in your saving."

"I don't."

"I'm afraid I didn't catch that. Can you say that again?"

"I said I don't know who you are."

The man's plastic smile twitched, the talking behind him stopping immediately as they all adopted ridiculing smiles. The man then laughed and regained his composure.

"I guess it was presumptuous of me to assume someone from a middle of nowhere town like this would know much about the world. We are an elite group of hunters, trained in the finest facilities of the capital. Many of you people call us 'Cleaners', but I prefer the term 'Solvers', as we fix the problems you people let get out of hand."

"Oh, okay. You seem a bit late, though."

The hunters I was accustomed to were a dreary bunch, simply not caring enough to be even a little haughty. This one, however, and I assumed the group as a whole given their reactions, was a complete inversion of this attitude, and I found it just as entertaining as they were hoping this interaction would be. Their reactions, in particular, made it even more entertaining, as they didn't seem to know whether to laugh at their leader's misfortune or be angry at me for treating them like normal people. 

"Late? What could you possibly mean by that? We were already packed and ready to go by the time we were given the order. There is no group that could've possibly made it here any faster than we did. I'm sure that this little problem will disappear as soon as we get there, and you'll soon be thanking us for saving your worthless little town."

He turned and walked back to his posse, who were now all smirking at me. The one in the back had kept his head down through the whole exchange, uncaring for one reason or another. I watched as the group welcomed their leader with praise and mockery pointed towards me, and while they weren't speaking loud enough for me to hear them clearly, I did pick out words like "cretins" and "fodder".

"Well, your job seems very important to you, so I'd hate to keep you any longer. You all can leave now."

Their conversation abruptly halted as they all turned to look at me with disdain, nearly in unison. I could tell their leader wanted to make some more comments, but before he could, one of the group members stepped forward and said something quietly to him. He then smiled and nodded, before taking one last look at me and laughing scornfully.

"Let's go. No need for us to waste our time here anymore."

And with a few more snide comments, they were finally off. They left at the same leisurely pace they arrived with, none of them even sparing me a final glance. The one behind them stayed still for a bit before he started moving as well. After taking a few steps, he stopped again, turning slightly to look at me. He kept his head lowered for a time, his slightly curly, dirty hair hanging in loose strands, blocking what little I could see of his face. He eventually did look up, allowing me to finally see his face.

His hair was draped over most of the right side of his face, with a convenient gap around his eye. He looked young, much younger than I expected, and yet there was age to his visage, his countenance, that unsettled me. It was the face of someone that had seen things far beyond his years; it was the face of someone who had experienced more pain than someone had any right to in their lifetime. Despite this, his lips, thin, pale, and cracked, were stretched into a faint smile. There were large, dark circles nestled under his eyes, looking as though someone went at him with a piece of charcoal. But cradled atop these dark nests were a pair of eyes I would never forget. Pools of tar amidst a field of bloodstained ash. He had seemingly no iris, his pupils seemingly stretching to fill the space. His sclerae were streaked with a countless number of red cracks and what wasn't red seemed a dull gray. But while the outside may have been impure, a far cry from the pristine white one would expect, the rest was simply unfathomable. So deep, so pure was this blackness that even the untainted night sky would be hard-pressed to compete; like windows into an endless abyss from which nothing could escape. The depth in those eyes was hypnotizing, threatening to steal my consciousness even with only a brief glance. 

"We're moving, Tagalong. If we have to stop to wait for you again, it wont just be one finger."

The voice of one of the men from the group, now a decent ways up the road, called back, drawing my attention back to the present. The young embodiment of pain before me simply looked at them, looked back at me, once again smiled softly, and started slowly plodding in the same direction as his group. I merely sat there, trying to process the thoughts in my head. I couldn't understand how someone seemingly so young could give off this type of feeling.

But it was those eyes I truly couldn't get out of my mind. They were simply unnatural, something that no person should ever have. And yet, there they were, on a person who looked nearly the same age as I was.

I simply couldn't imagine how different our lives must have been.