Chapter 5: The dark bulls

Wyatt's eyes felt so heavy, he had never been so tired in his life. All he wanted to do was sleep, forever. But for some odd reason his mind was awake.

He could hear the sounds made around him, but he couldn't make out anything that he was hearing. His sense of smell might have been broken because for some reason he was smelling.....green?

'All my muscles hurt, so bad. What exactly happened?'

He tried to move, but even moving his fingers felt like a chore.

After what felt like an eternity, he could finally make out some of the sounds around him, he could hear humming. Horrible, inharmonious, humming.

"Oi, you finally awake?" A loud, deep, burly voice assaulted his ear drums.

'So loud.' Wyatt inwardly groaned.

"Oi, you ignoring me, lad? Oi,oi." The assault on his poor ears continued.

"I can hear you just fine, no need to yell." Wyatt finally spoke, rolling to face the opposite direction of the noise pollutant. Although spoke was a stretch, because his voice was barely audible.

"Lil' man, ya got to speak louder. You said you want me to yell?" The voice sounded even closer this time, accompanied with an annoying poking at his side.

"Aaaaaaaargggggggghhh! Leave me alone! Can't you see I'm resting?" Wyatt sat up with so much power it startled the burly man.

'huh?' Wyatt looked at the stranger, he did not know this man, why was he here? Where even is here?

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!" Wyatt screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!" The stranger yelled back.

"Why are you yelling?!" Wyatt was shocked, why was his kidnapper screaming too.

"Ya scared the living crapola outta me. Who wakes up screaming?" The stranger looked equally as shocked as Wyatt.

"I scared you?! You kidnapped me!" Wyatt could feel his veins popping at this point.

"Kidnapped you?" The stranger stood up and pointed at him. "Ya don't even look stacked, why in Davy Jones' name would i nick ya?"

'nick? Davy Jones? What the hell is he saying?' Wyatt just stared at him like he was mad or something.

The stranger took a few moments to compose himself before walking to a campfire at the side. He seemed to be cooking.

Wyatt finally took a moment to look around him and noticed he was in a forest of sorts.

'green.' he chuckled to himself.

The burly stranger was too focused on his cooking to notice Wyatt was staring at him. After a few more turns on whatever it was he was cooking, the stranger finally turned his focus to the confused teenager.

"Soup?" The stranger offered with a smile, revealing his crooked set of teeth.

One look of this 'soup' told Wyatt that this man definitely wasn't a gourmet chef.

"I'm....good. who are you? Where am I?" Wyatt rejected the soup and went straight to the point.

"Straight forward lad aren't ya? I like it." The stranger laughed, loudly.

"Name's Craven the barbaric, but you can call me daddy." He introduced himself.

"I most certainly will not." Wyatt immediately shut down the idea, with a disgusted face. This man was not normal.

"C'mon Lil' man, try it." Craven pushed on.

"No."

"Just once."

"That's it, I'm out." Wyatt stood up to leave.

"Clearly you have a few screws loose and need to get..." Wyatt suddenly felt like the world was spinning and lost his balance. It was all coming back to him.

Flashes of what happened at the orphanage, the fight with Sister Lucy, everything. Even though he was certain he wasn't the one who did it, it played back in his head like a memory. He couldn't stop seeing this greusome images in his head.

"You're quite strong, kid. You'd even give me best men a run for there money." Craven spoke as he slurped down his soup.

Ignoring Craven, Wyatt just sat there waiting for something, anything, but there was nothing. There was no feeling of guilt, he didn't feel bad for all those lives that was lost.

No more annoying nuns making his life a living hell, no more kids laughing and pointing at him, no more scornful looks just for being alive. He was free from them, free from the cursed orphanage.

But he did have questions. Like what happened to him, the fire, the thing that possessed him, his locket.

Quickly feeling around for his locket, he heaved a sigh of relief when he felt it around his neck, right where it had always been.

"Oi ya listening?" Craven spoke out loud, reminding Wyatt of his existence.

"Look, i appreciate you looking after me while I was unconscious and all, but I need to leave." Wyatt told him.

"And do you even have a place to leave to?" Craven folded his arms and smiled.

Wyatt made to speak but no words came out. He clearly didn't have anywhere to go from here.

"Thought so. How about ya stay with me crew till ya find a solid footing aye?" Craven unfolded his arms and walked up to Wyatt.

'Crew?' Wyatt raised a brow.

"Why would you want to take me in anyways? Didn't you see what I did?" Wyatt questioned Craven.

Craven moved from him position and towered down on Wyatt.

"Because, that power....I want it." Craven told with a straight face.

Wyatt was confused. What did Craven mean by wanting his power? Who want such a thing? "What do you mean?" Wyatt asked the obvious question.

"What I want, is your Talent." Craven explained.

"A Talent?" "You don't know what it is?" Craven an expression that said 'you can't be that stupid.' After seeing that Wyatt was still clueless he sighed.

"Talents became known after during the Great War, humans were helpless against the demons and deviants, until people with special powers emerged.

These people were known as 'the Talented' and their powers were crowned 'Talents'. The human race could only win the war because of them."

Talents the special power, specific to the human race, came in all shapes and sizes.

Talents ranged from elementals, to DNA altering and bodily enhancement. The possibilities were endless. Mixed with newly discovered deviant gear, humans believed they were at the peak of their evolution.

Wyatt was confused. If talents were really this powerful, surely he would have at least heard of it, right? Well, there was a simple explanation for this.

Wyatt grew up in a small village in the woods, the boons if you would.

"Talents are something you're born with so of course there are humans without it. Infact there are more people without a talent than there are people with talent." Craven continued, whilst blowing his soup.

"Then how-"

"How do I take your talent?" Craven cut him off with a smile."It's simple. I either have to kill you and absorb your core...." Craven paused dramatically.

"Ehn?" Wyatt stood up, spooked. He fell down immediately due to pain. His body was still sore. "Calm down, Stud." Craven laughed,"There's another way."

"What?"

"It's a sh*t ton of work but at least you'll still be alive. I highly doubt I could beat you if you use that alter ego of yours anyway." Craven casually chugged a bowl of hot, disgusting, nature soup down his throat.

Wyatt waited for him to finish his 'concoction' so he could continue. But he was also ready to bolt out of there if things went sideways.

Craven let out a satisfied moan, as if he didn't just drink DIY poison.

"You learn to transfer your talent."

"Transfer? How?" Wyatt was elated. He wanted this power out of him.

Craven did another dramatic pause.

"Ain't got a clue, mate." He replied shamelessly.

For a moment, Wyatt thought of strangling the idiot and hiding his body in his big pot of diarrhea.

"What do you mean 'ain't got a clue.' It was YOUR idea." Veins were bulging at the side of Wyatt's head.

"Well I ain't the minister of magical affairs now am i? I ain't got the slightest whiff."

"Besides there's always the killing you option so we ain't gotta worry."

"Yeah I gue- EHN?" A look of horror filled Wyatt's face. He wanted to run.

Well, wanted to wouldn't be right. Because Wyatt was already a mile away and was still running.

"Pretty fast for a scrawny kid." Craven praised with the wildest smile, before proceeding to drop his empty bowl, and run after Wyatt with all his might.

"HELP!! HELP ME!! THIS BIG MAN IS TRYING TO CATCH ME!!!" Wyatt screamed with all had. Too bad he forgot they were in the woods.

After a few minutes, Craven finally caught Wyatt. Wyatt kicked, insulted, begged and even resulted to swear at Craven. But it was all for nothing, because Craven had his big hairy hands latched onto Wyatt's cranium and we wasn't letting go.

"Let go of me you stupid gorilla...." Wyatt continued to brutally insult Craven, who just stood there looking pissed.

"Would you calm down?" Craven karate chopped the back of Wyatt's neck.

"kieuk!!!" Wyatt exclaimed with pain." I said I don't know how, not that I don't know who." Craven continued to clobber the poor boy.

'This kid, just what kind of stamina does he even have. We were running for a good while and he doesn't even look tired. Am I getting old? Or is he just that good.' Craven thought.

After a good while of catching his breath craven brought Wyatt up to speed.

"It's a skill that can be taught. So we just need to find someone who knows do it and get them to teach you."

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die....." Wyatt kept whispering the same things over and over.

"Oi, lad ya listenin'!" Craven clobbered Wyatt yet again before he got a response.

'kid's broken. I like it.' Craven thought with a smile.

"Alright then, without further ado, welcome to the dark bulls." He said with a smile, and a grand spread of his hands.

And suddenly, Wyatt noticed 8 other figures perched on the tree behind Craven.