VII

I've spent the last year and a half now in a constant state of life and death. Castle Smrt was aptly named. When my Uncle told me that everything and everyone was trying to kill me, he meant it. Even my Uncle Jim himself hunted me with murder in his eyes. So for the last year and a half I have managed to survive off the vast estate of Castle Smrt.

I have managed to successfully avoid everyone including my Uncle much to his dissatisfaction. Little did I know that later that day everything was about to change. Talented and educated eleven year old I was, I was wholly unprepared for what I was about to face.

 I had made my base in the trees of Sume Smrti. Sume Smrti was the name given to the 60 thousand acres of "haunted forest" that was part of Castle Smrt.

I had spent the last year and a half exploring and learning the tree tops of Sume Smrti. In fact at this point not only had I learned, memorized and mentally mapped out the entirety of the 60 thousand acres of Sume Smrti in the last year and a half but the entire 750 thousand acres that was the vast estate of Castle Smrt as well.

 I was currently laying on top of the trees watching the sun set. I was waiting for the time when the sun was halfway past the tree top horizon. That was when I would make my rounds, patrolling the outer border that was my designated sleeping area. Always vigilant for signs of my Uncle or anyone else, Uncle Jim's words ringing in my ears.

 "For the next three years you will be hunted. Everyone and everything will try to kill you. Me included. Most definitely and especially me. You will learn fear dear nephew. Fear of a kind you have yet to experience. I don't expect you to live past winter." This was said with a sinister grin on his face.

 It had been weeks since I had last had any traces of my Uncle or anyone else. Most people stayed away from Sume Smrti. They all feared Sume Smrti even more then they feared my Uncle. Even my Uncle showed Sume Smrti a healthy amount of respect for reasons unknown to me. I didn't know if it was luck or sheer stupidity on my part but I didn't question it.

 It was an hour past sun down and I had just finished my patrol and was heading back to my sleeping quarters when I heard a faint sound off in the distance. I paused in mid stride to listen to see if the sound repeated itself. When it did, I turned towards it curious as to what the noise could be as up until this point, that particular sound hadn't been heard by me since my arrival. 

 As the sound continued to periodically sound, I continued to sprint across the tree tops as I tracked it. As I got closer to the sound, it began to change. No longer did it sound like some indescribable sound I had never heard before. Instead it began to sound like unintelligible screeching noises. Almost like some other worldly language. The path through the tree tops I followed eventually lead to the edge of Sume Smrti where Sume Smrti connected to Krv Smrti.

 As I climbed down into the tree top proper and edged out onto a limb, I began to pick up other sounds besides the screeching. Horses snorted nearby overlapped by human voices and the occasional hoof stomp. Soon I was close enough to look out of the trees to see what lay beyond. After a year and a half of being hunted for mere sport, I'd had one too many close calls and had quickly learned to adapt to my surroundings and the situation I was in to avoid getting caught. How I had managed to not encounter a single threat other than that posed by my Uncle and his men, I had no idea.

 As I sat there in the tree and observed what was out past the tree line, I couldn't believe my eyes. About 150 yards from where I perched in my tree, my Uncle sat atop horseback. All around him was a mix of horse and motorcade forming a dense circle around my Uncle. And in front of my Uncle stood the weirdest looking man I had ever seen. Ouroborus has its fair share of weird looking.

 The man in front of my Uncle looked to be around six foot tall but it was hard to tell for sure because of him being hunched over at the waist. He was shrouded in what appeared to be a cape. It was hard to tell for sure though because the cape seemed to move as if alive on the wind except there was no breeze. He was also the hairiest man I had ever seen, covered in hair from what seemed to be head to toe. His arms were massive almost the size of tree trunks with legs to match.

 As I shifted in the tree in an attempt to get a better view of what was going on a few yards ahead of me, the strange man in front of my uncle appeared to stiffen in an instant. Then making the strange sound that had originally drew me out here, the man spun around abruptly and pointed in my direction. What I saw when the strange man spun around shocked me to the core and that shock is probably why what happens next happens. For if I had not been so shocked by what I had seen, then I wouldn't have failed to realize to late that the man in front of my Uncle was pointing me out to him as he once more made the strange sound that had originally drew me out here. 

 While my Uncle who had spotted me at once after the man in front of him pointed me out, ordered the people around him, preparing for his assault on me, I stared at the man in front of him in shock, oblivious as to what was going on with my Uncle and everyone else. The man in front of my uncle appeared to have three more pairs of arms underneath the pair he was currently using. A set of horns looked to be jutting out from the top of his head barely visible from the mop of hair. What looked to be razor sharp tusks protruded from the man's jaw. 

His massive tree trunk sized arms ended in massive hands with razor sharp claws and his tree trunk sized legs ended in boots. A tail seemed to appear from beneath his cloak, which when the man spun in my direction actually looked more like wings than a cape.

 It wasn't until an arrow thudded into the tree a hairs breath from where my left hand had rested against the tree and a bullet grazed my left thigh that I realized my life was in danger and it was almost too late for me to escape.