The First Kill
Slade sat alone at his table in the "Cats Meow Tavern" staring into his half filled cup of spirits. He wasn't sure if he was really ready for what he was planing to do later that night. Sure he spent two years climbing some of the deadliest rock faces within a hundred kilometers of Ravenport, trained with the best pikefurrs that he could afford, and spent many months sitting at his lab table with his youngest sister Joy extracting pufferfish and sea snake venom and sealing it into vials just for this occasion, but nothing can prepare you for the real thing. His train of thought was interupted by a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey there." Said Fiona. She and Joy insisted on accompanying him on his first kill dispite all the dangers that he warned them of.
"Oh. Hey there sis. You and Joy should get out of town. A lot of the other townsfolk have already left town. Most of whats left is either militia or furries too stubborn or perhaps too dumb to leave town." Slade gestured around the tavern's common room.
"Really? Look whos talking." Fiona said while poking her brother in the chest plate. "To some, this is their home. They can't just leave it."
Slade sighed, "I guess you have a point there, but what good is home when it's nothing more than a burning ruin?"
Fiona covered her brother's hand with her's. "Well, that's why you are here tonight right? You're here to put an end to this town's constant state of fear and dread." She smiled at him, hiding her own worry for what was soon to take place. "I've done a little information digging and found that this town has a small series of tunnels that they had built after Jaxie's last few attacks on the place. They were mostly ment to provide a way for the wealthy and the ruling family to escape if Jaxie ever decided that the sacrifice wasn't up to her standards. They could prove useful... if they don't collapse under her enormous weight." After taking a quick look about the tavern making sure she wasn't being watched, she pulls a key from between her breasts. "Here's the key to the gates and covers to those tunnels." Fiona said as she dangeled the brass key in front of her brother's nose.
Slade quirked an eyebrow at the key. "And just how did you manage to get that?"
"No need to consern yourself with that, just take it." Fiona said giving him a wink.
Slade took the key with a sigh and nodded. Movement got his attention from the other side of the table, it was his youngest sister Joy coming over to join them.
"Good evening." Joy said, giving her brother a nod. As she sat at the table, she placed three small bottles on the table in front of her brother. "I managed to get in contact with the assassin's guild and purchase some good stuff here." Joy picked up brown bottle first. "This is venom from several rattlesnakes. The venom is a hemotoxin that is extremely painful, causes necrosis, and coagulopathy in the blood." Next was the grey bottle. "This is rockfish venom. It's a nerotoxin that attacks the nervous system. If the toxin manages to travel to the heart or lungs the victim can die from suffication." Last was the little blue bottle. "This was the most expensive of them all, but I was asured that this was the most pure venom I could buy. This is the Box Jellyfish venom you wanted. This stuff is VERY nasty! Intense crippling pain that makes moving difficult, swelling, and can send it's victim into shock." Joy paused looking at the little blue bottle very closely. "A little goes a long way with this stuff, so don't use it all on one macro M'kay?"
"Thanks Joy, I owe you one." Slade said collecting the up the bottles from the table. Joy was still holding the little blue bottle looking at in with an almost haunting intensity. Before Slade could speak, Fiona butted in.
"Hey! You owe me one too! You didn't forget about the key I got you already did ya?" Slade's eyes shifted over to Fiona, she was looking dejected.
"Of course not. You went through a lot of trouble to get me this key." Slade said. Fiona barely drew in a breath to say something when Joy cut in.
"If you call spending fifteen minutes on her knees in front of a wealthy feline merchant "Trouble" then yes, but I doubt she was in any real danger." Joy said. She gave Fiona a smug look as she watched her sister's face widen with shock. Joy couldn't resist, she had to get in one more jab. "I guess you didn't like the taste, cause you spat out the "little gift" he squirted into your mouth." Now Fiona's face went from shock to anger. Joy sat back from the table to avoid being slapped by her sister.
"Y-you! I am gonna..." Fiona stood up from her chair, her tail was all fluffed up and the fur on the back of her neck was on end. Before she could take a step towards Joy, a loud rumbel from outside rattled the tavern. Everyfurry stopped what they were doing. For a moment, the tavern was very silent. Another loud rumbel rocked the tavern again, this time furries started running for the exits.
"She's early?" Joy said. "B-but she doesn't collect her sacrifice for another two hours! What happened?" Joy stood up from her chair and another rumbel pounded through the tavern much louder than the other two.
Slade got up from his chair and started ushering his sisters to the back exit. Being inside a building during a macro attack was a good way to be buried alive. Of course being out in the open didn't make you any safer, macro's seemed to have a taste for furrie flesh.
The trio made their way out the back exit into a narrow alleyway where the garbage was put out. The sounds of hundres of furries running and screaming as their town was being torn apart around them filled their ears. This wasn't a memory, this was happening right now! Fiona was close to his left, Joy was at his right and she was starting to panic.
"We got to get out of here!" Joy screamed. "We need to hide or Jaxie will find us!"
Slade grabbed Joy's wrist and held on tight, he didn't want her running off. Joy's eyes were wide with fear, her fur and tail were all fluffed up, and she was breathing heavily.
"Fiona! Take Joy to the safe spot, I need to know that you two are out of Jaxie's way to do my part in this!" Slade said over the loud rumbeling and sounds of panic. He handed Fiona Joy's arm and gave her one last look. "No matter what happens, don't come looking for me! Stay at the safe spot, I'll come find you!"
Fiona nodded in acknowledgment and took firm hold of Joy's arm and waist. Fiona wachted as her brother ran out of the alley way toward all the noise and fires that everyfurry was running from.
"Slade come back! Don't go! Please come back!" Joy screamed after her brother. She tried to chase after him, but Fiona held her tight. "We don't have to do this! We can all just go home!"
"Joy!" Fiona spun her sister around to meet her gaze. "I'm scared too, but we need to stick to the plan! Slade has to keep his mind clear and that can only happen if he knows we are at the safe spot! We need to go!"
"But..."
"NOW JOY!!" Fiona yelled. Joy's ears drooped and tears started running down her face. Fiona turned and started walking towards the old mines just outside of town still firmly holding her sister's wrist. Joy looked over her shoulder, she could see Jaxie from the shoulders up over the town's rooftops.
Jaxie was a muscular feline female, about twentyeight meters tall. Her fur was ginger and her head fur was a light brown. She looked just like anyother furrie with only the exception of her size. One could even say that she was quite attractive even. She wore a short skirt and a tight fitting tank top streached over her large breasts. She had come into town early because she noticed that the standard ceremony that was held in her honor wasn't being carried out. Every month the town offers her a sacrifice in exchange for her protection from other macros and her own wrath. The town would offer up carts of produce from the fields, fish from the ocean, and meat from the local markets. But what she really looked forward to was the two furries the town would select to be part of the sacrifice. They would be virgins, one male one female. Sometimes she would take them back to her home alive with the rest of her bounty. Other times she would devour one or both right there at the alter just to remind the town who was in charge. She enjoyed playing with her furrie offerings. She liked the way they squirmed and struggeled against her far superior strength and size. Sometime she used them as servants, other times as sex toys, or as entertainment like music or story telling. But in the end they all would wind up in her belly, wriggling and pleading for their survival. She liked to swallow them whole so she could feel them squirm as they went down. Sometimes she could feel them moving around in her stomach trying to get out. This only lasted for a minute at most before they would succumb to to either drowning in her stomach acids or lack of fresh air.
But today was different, there was no offering! No show of respect for her presence! "How dare they denie me what is rightfully mine!" Jaxie thought to herself. "It seems that the little furries in the town of Mewosenburg need to be reminded who their master is!" First she smashed the empty alter with one blow of her mighty fist crushing the stone tablet into small pebbles. She then turned her attention to the town itself. Jaxie picked up a stone that was heavy even to her standards and hurled it into the main gate. The boulder blasted the gate into splinters and she stomped her way into the towns main square. There would be much to answer for. She basked in the chaos she was creating. Any furrie unfortunate to be within her reach was either stomped on, tossed into the air, or devoured! She let out a mighty roar to spread the fear to those that could not see her from their hiding places.
"You fail to give to me that which is mine by birthright!?" Jaxie roared. "If you will not give what is owed to me willingly..." Jaxie scooped up a townsfurrie running by. "Then I will take my fill by force!" Jaxie placed the upper half of the furrie in her mouth and bit down rending the furrie in two. The salty taste of her blood and her dying scream filled her senses. Jaxie swallowed the still screaming furrie and tossed the rest into her mouth. There were plenty more here, all she had to do is tear open a few buildings. She would kick in a wall and furries would come pouring out or doorways, windows, and sometimes even the very hole she made. Some she would eat, others would be smeared under her boots. Jaxie let out a triumphant roar expressing her self imposed superiority and self claimed victory, but Jaxie was unaware of the small shadow stalking her.
Slade climed his way to the second floor of a crumbeling building. Slade had gambeled that since Jaxie had already struck there, she wouldn't suspect anyfurrie to remain inside. Jaxie's roar shook through his body and caused a ringing in his ears that he found quite annoying. Slade unlocked the safety on his spear's poison delivery mechanisim and approached the unstable ledge. He had never been this close to a macro before she was only three meters away and her back was turned to him, something had her attention. Slade looked down to the ground and saw what it was, A mother and her kitten had been forced out of their collapsing home out into the town streets where Jaxie was. Jaxie knelt down to better see her next two victims.
"I've never eaten a kitten before." Jaxie said to the mother. "I'll let you decide. Should I swallow your kitten whole, or chew it up first" Jaxie grined at the torment she was giving the furrie. She reached down to the mother. "Give it here."
Slade filled his lungs with fear, then exhaled, and ran for the ledge. At the last moment he lept off with his spear held high. He would use both his strength and gravity to thrust the blade of his spear into Jaxie. His spear sank into the softer flesh just behind Jaxie's left breast and Slade punched the bolt that injected the venom. Jaxie had delt with "warrior" furries in the past. Fools that thought they could slay her with their small swords and spears. They usualy made for good toothpicks after the very brief battle, but this was different! Sword and spear strikes were never more than pin pricks or paper cuts to her, but this one shot a terrible pain through out her entire left side and it was spreading! Slade hit the ground and rolled to absorb some of the fall. His spear still partialy buried in Jaxie's side.
"Come on!" Slade said as he took the trembeling mother by the arm. He ran for one of the wealthy homes that nesteled near the end of the street. "No time for formalities." he thought to himself as he kicked in the door and pulled the mother and kitten inside.
"To the basement!" Slade barked.
"No! She'll bring the whole house down on top of us!" Cried the mother.
"She'll rip you and your kitten to pieces if you go back outside! You've gotta trust me!" Slade pulled the frightened mother into the basement. He could hear Jaxie's enraged roars as she stumbeled towards the house they were hiding in. Once in the basement Slade started franticly looking for the cover to the tunnels his sister Fiona had told him about. Pulling up a rug, he found what he was looking for and thrust the key into the lock. He tried to turn the key, but it wouldn't turn. "Is it a fake?" Slade thought to himself. "No! No! NO! NO!" He said as he tried and tried to turn the key. The building above them rumbeled as dust and splinters of wood rained down around them. "Come on Gaia damnit!" He said as he continued to wiggle the key in the lock. At last, the key turned in the lock and a metalic click qued the two furries that the cover was open. Slade threw the cover open as more debris fell from the celing. "Get in! Hurry!" Both jumped down into the escape tunnel and ran as fast as they could into the darkness.
"I can't see a yiffing thing." Slade cursed as he fumbeled around in the blackness.
"H-here, take my hand. I can see ok." Said the mother.
Slade reached out in the direction of her voice and waved his hands about searching for her hand. His hand found her, but it wasn't her hand. He froze as he squeezed the soft warm part of her body.
"Ahem! That's not my hand sir!" She said sternly. Slade felt her take his hand and start pulling him down the tunnel. Outside Jaxie was smashing the house to nothing more than matchsticks, but she couldn't stand the pain swelling in her body. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and her heart was racing so fast she felt it may jump out of her throat!
"Wh-where are y-you? >Gasp!< You p-pest!" Jaxie fell to one knee. Standing was proving to be a challenge. She felt like she was burning up and her vision was starting to blur. "Wh- >Gasp!< What have you d-done to me?" Jaxie was now on all fours gasping and wheezing for air. Jaxie tried to stand, but she just fell right back down without taking a single step. "Why c-can't I m-move?" Jaxie murrmered to herself.
"It's rockfish poison!" Slade called out the the now nearly paralyzed Jaxie. Slade helped the mother and her kitten out of the tunnel through a hole in the street. "Go on and get out of here. I have something I need to do here." He said to the mother. His facial expression turned dark and void of emotion as he walked toward Jaxie who could now only gasp for air and watch as he approached her. Slade sat next to her ear so he could speak to her without yelling. "You know Jaxie, you were given a powerful gift. You were born into this world and you became a macro. You were strong and powerful, you could have done a lot of good in this world. But you chose to use that power for your own selfish desires. You caused misery and sorrow in your wake. You tore families apart and cut short so many lives to satisfy your own ego. I was going to finish you off, show you an act of mercy with a quick death, but I think I will leave you to them instead." Slade gestured down the street where the mother met up with a crowd of other furries watching. Slade got up and brushed the dust and dirt from his butt. "I'll be taking my spear back now." He said. Slade worked the spear back and forth as the barbs cut and ripped Jaxie's flesh to get free. Slade walked down the street headed for the mines on the outskirts of town. If his sisters did as he asked, they would be there waiting dispite the sudden hush that fell over the town. When Slade looked over his shoulder, all he could discribe it as was a swarm of ants washing over Jaxie's body. She was being torn apart piece by piece, little by little. Death would not come for her soon enough. "Not bad for my first kill." Slade thought to himself. But I still need more actual combat experience if I am going to take down Devon, the one that tore my family apart." He let his thoughts replay the battle in his head as he walked on. When the mine entrance was withing sight, he could see Joy running to greet him. Slade turned the bade of his spear downward into the ground behind himself and braced himself for impact.
