Hansel, Victor and Sam travelled together as far as Ridgeton, where Sam left them and went alone to Ingrim, following a hunch that she had. They then continued on to Salphest, where Victor went west, and Hansel stayed for several nights. Many long days passed before anyone heard from Victor again, but Hansel was not worried, for he had his own tale to concern himself with. He was determined to make this the most legendary hunt of all time, and had spoken to Gretel before leaving the academy. “You got pretty real out in the mountains when you were talking about your dad. It’s none of my business how you think other’s see you, but I thought you’d be interested in at least proving to me that you’re the better hunter.”
“Are you challenging me?”
“The most formidable kill wins. Care to play or not?”
Gretel smiled. “Alright, I’ll play, but I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into, Hansel, because I play to win.”
All hunters knew the value of an inn for obtaining general knowledge on a target. There were all kinds of folk who could be found at an inn, especially travellers, and most were very talkative given the right price. But the topic of the Greater Fiend that haunted Etheryn’s Gulley had become somewhat of a taboo of late, and no one desired to speak of it, even to a hunter. Hansel sat at a table, drank his beer and shook his head, wondering if Gretel was in the same spot of trouble as he. “What have I done?” he wondered.
He had greater luck in a more prestigious abode on the east end of town, where the folk were not so scared of ghosts and had a great deal more sense. He found the inn-keeper. “Excuse me, good sir!”
The inn-keeper was cleaning a mug. “You’re a hunter,” he said.
“That I am. How did you know?”
Without looking away from his mug the inn-keeper replied: “You look like one.”
Hansel thought that this man was an odd fellow, and he hoped the rest of the residents here were not the same. “Okay – I’m looking for work of a particular kind. Can you help me?”
“We keep a notice board by the door. Plenty of contracts for hunters up there lately. Take your pick.”
Hansel strode over to the board and examined it carefully. “Where are you?” he murmured. The number of contracts was extraordinary – Hansel thought the board at the academy was bad – but here there were ghouls and goblyns and other things roaming all over Salphest. A goblyn chieftain had been officially deemed a Greater Beast by the academy, but Hansel knew he had no chance of beating Gretel with a kill like that. At last he found the one he desired:
Warning! Mysterious forest creature pillaging logging camps south of Etheryn’s Gulley. Reward will be offered to any man who can slay it! Signed, John Hachette.
Hansel plucked the notice from the board and glanced around. “John Hachette! Are you in here?”
“Aye!” called a raspy voice from the back. “I’m Hachette. What do you want?”
Hansel took a seat across from him. The man had an untidy grey beard and leathery skin, and he reeked of liquor and tobacco. A patch covered his right eye, around which the skin was scarred and uneven.
“My name is Hansel…”
“I didn’t ask your name! I asked what it was you wanted! Get to it lad, I’m a busy man!”
Hansel grudgingly placed the notice on the table. “What can you tell me about this?”
The old man took a swig of his drink and coughed. “Hah? Oh, so you’re a hunter aye? Well I’ll tell you what I told the others. I was a lumberjack down Etheryn’s Gulley way until about last month. There was a dozen of us working in the woods, you see, when out o’ nowhere I hear this terrible sound, like nothing I’d ever heard before. Next thing I know some animal has jumped out from the trees – I thought it was a bear at first but no bear can make a sound like this thing did. I can’t tell you what it was because I honestly don’t know, but it killed everyone…” He stared longingly into his drink.
“Is that how you…” Hansel pointed to his missing eye.
Hachette coughed again. “Aye, I took a claw right here! It’s a miracle the thing didn’t cleave my head clean off, and I bet it’ll take a miracle to kill that thing. If you go after it, boy, I wish you luck.”
Hansel left the tavern with the rest of the information that was needed. Soon enough the news of his intentions swept through the district, and people from all over were giving him queer looks. “Luck!” he said to himself. “It’s going to take more than luck!”
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