The Black Bastard Story: Part II

PART II: Encounter

The sound of a wounded beast screamed through the sky, pulling Lucias from his sleep. He jerked awake, and blinked in the bright light of the late morning sun. Looking out the window, he saw the source of the commotion – Sebastian was down in the courtyard with three others, each had a rope in their hands, each rope was lassoed around a great, hulking creature. Lucias could only gather that this monstrosity was one of the monsters that Lady Blue had been speaking of the night before. The animal was unlike anything he'd ever seen – it looked like a cross between a ox and large-shouldered rhinoceros, and spit flew from it's mouth as it raged against the ropes that held it. It bucked and reared and kicked as Sebastian and his three companions struggled to hold it steady, jeering at it and yelling in triumph over their capture. They all had what looked like spears slung across their backs – one or two of them had the spears held at the ready, sometimes lunging in and prodding the beast, only to enrage it further. It roared in fury, drawing the attention of several people passing through the courtyard, and Lucias could see a crowd gathering slowly to see the catch.
Lucias felt sick in his stomach. He couldn't bear to see any creature harmed – and this beast was no exception. Still in his clothes from the night before, he whirled from the window and made a beeline for the stairs. All he could see was red, as if he could feel the monsters rage, and all he could think of was stopping the cruelty. If he'd known Sebastian was like this…
"You're up late."
He stopped as he reached the bottom of the flight of steps – Lady Blue was sitting comfortably in her armchair with a book open in her lap by the fireplace – the log now just a smouldering, charred black heap. G'Bacchi was setting down a tray of tea and scones on the small table beside Lady Blue's armchair, and she smiled up at her butler as she took a steaming cup. The double doors at the entrance of the manor were wide open; the yells from outside coming in on a cool breeze, but Lady Blue appeared to not have noticed. If she had, she wasn't paying the outside commotion any attention. Lucias forced himself to take a deep breath and calm himself a little.
"I'm sorry, ma'am – " he began, but Lady Blue waved it away with a white-gloved hand. She was dressed in a stunning shade of purple this morning – her dress just as elegant as the deep blue one she'd been wearing the night before.
"No need to apologize, Lucias," she giggled. "You had an interesting night last night – it's quite understandable that you slept in. It's quite all right."
Lucias felt slightly embarrassed, but another roar from the creature out the door made him look up, and some of his anger returned.
"Ma'am – what's going on out there?"
Lady Blue cast a disapproving glance towards the door.
"My nephew," she sighed, her good mood evaporating slightly, setting down the book she was reading and taking a sip of tea. "He does this often. He's always out hunting some monster or another, trying to impress the other aristocrats and their children that live in the surrounding manor houses here – today he seems to have bitten off more than he can chew, I believe."
Lucias started towards the door, and Lady Blue rose, tea cup still in her hands, and she followed him to the large, ornate doorway. They stood, bathed in the sunshine that shone over the stone steps just ahead of them, and looked out through the glare of light and down into the courtyard, where Sebastian and his companions were still tackling and sparring with the distressed and enraged creature.
"Yes," Lady Blue said, appearing to agree with herself. "Definitely more than he can chew."
"How so?" Lucias resisted the urge to throw himself into the fray to stop the animal from being hurt further. Lady Blue sighed and shook her head, her black hair falling gracefully around her face from where it escaped the bun atop her head.
"That," she pointed a delicate finger at the monster. "Is a pregnant female. No doubt my nephew dragged the thing from its hovel in order to publicly humiliate it in front of the aristocrats. It doesn't deserve it, and it detests sunshine, but he insists on putting it through this torture before he finally kills it."
"Kills it?!" Lucias cried, horrified. "How could he do that?!"
"Very easily," Lady Blue said bitterly. "Unless someone stops him."
Lucias glanced at her momentarily, and then it was like a cold hand rested on his shoulder for a moment, instructing him on what to do – guiding his mind to a snap decision, and then he threw himself forwards, down the steps and through the crowd. He'd never been one to push passed people – he'd always been too polite for that rude behaviour, but now Lucias could only imagine the horror the poor creature was going through – how it's offspring would be brutally killed before they were even born.
"Stop!"
Sebastian turned suddenly, and Lucias knocked him down – the spear Sebastian was holding went flying and the rope was flung from his hands, and the two hit the cobblestones and rolled, Sebastian instinctively lashing out at Lucias, catching him across the jaw. Lucias' head spun and he saw stars, but as if the cold hand was still on his shoulder, he retaliated with a punch of his own, getting Sebastian squarely in the cheek. Lady Blue's nephew yelped in pain and Lucias rolled away from him, scrambling up and turning to Sebastian's friends, who were standing by looking dazed and surprised by the outburst – even the creature had stopped fighting and was watching them. It was heaving its breath, it's pregnant belly swollen and bleeding from the cuts and stabs from the spears.
"What the hell are you doing?!" one of the crowd yelled. "Let it die!"
"Yeah!" another one cried. "Kill it!! It can't be allowed to live!"
Lucias ignored them, feeling a small trickle of blood down his face from where he'd hit the cobblestones as he and Sebastian had fallen, and made his way towards the beast. It snorted and roared, but he willed himself to keep going. He stepped right up to it, ignoring the yells from Sebastian's three companions to get away from it, and slowly reached his hand up, palm facing upwards, to the distressed animal, desperately trying to keep the fear from his expression.
Sebastian was on his hands and knees, yelling after Lucias, and the crowd was beginning to call out to him to, but the creature seemed only focussed on him, and it slowly stopped trying to pull away from its binds, watching him cautiously with weary eyes.
"Shh, now, shh," Lucias said softly, thinking back to when he'd say the same thing to one or another of his younger brothers or sisters, hushing them and drying their tears when they'd had a nightmare, gently wrapped the bumped knees and scraped elbows, rocked them until they felt better. He steeled himself to believe it was the same principle with distraught animals – no matter how odd they looked, no matter how monstrous they seemed. If he could gain its trust, let it know he wouldn't hurt it; he wouldn't be hurt by it.
The creature collapsed with exhaustion to its knees, before falling heavily to the cobblestones, where it lay heaving and blowing. Lucias knelt down by it, carefully reached out his hand and ran it over the creature's tough, hard skin. Up close, Lucias could feel the heat and sweat on its body, the blood from its wounds. Appalled, he removed his waistcoat and spread it over the worn out animal, shading it slightly from the sun. The crowd had stopped yelling by now, watching in wonder as Lucias slowly ran his hands over the creatures neck, stroking it gently and whispering words of kindness. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucias could see Sebastian watching him; see the look of amazement on the young mans face. Lady Blue was watching him from the steps, a small smile across her pretty features, and then, slowly, Lucias turned to look around at the rest of the crowd – all of them well-dressed aristocrats, some of them children, others young men and woman like that of Sebastian's companions. All of them, however, were staring at him.
"What are you doing, Lucias?" Sebastian asked, his voice carrying easily over the space between them. "That thing isn't just a normal animal. It a creature of the Bastard."
"The Bastard?" Lucias repeated, still soothing the creature with his hands just as a shadow fell over him. "Who's that?"
"Me," said a deep, calm voice from behind Lucias. A gasp went up through the crowd, and Lucias carefully turned back to see a looming figure blocking out the sun. A wide-brimmed hat hid the figures eyes, and long, silver hair blew around the mans face. He was wearing a long, dark green coat, but there were no signs of the mans arms or legs – only long, knee-length boots that clad the feet that stood on the other side of the anxious creature. Three scars ran down the side of the mans face that Lucias could see as his eyes adjusted behind his glasses to see the man properly.
"Uh – "
"Audacious!" Lady Blue's cry echoed across the courtyard and everything fell silent as she approached, making her way through the crowd and to Lucias' side. Her voice was strong and hard. "You are trespassing, Audacious."
The man sneered, his scars stretching.
"As was your boy last night. He dragged my friend from her nest at dawn and pulled her here to be taunted and flogged like a criminal. She is no such thing." His voice was so deep, Lucias almost believed he wasn't a human. But he had to be – nothing could get weirder than dancing scarecrows and impossible beasts, could it?
Lady Blue folded her arms.
"I don't care – you're invading the privacy of the all the aristocrats here on Manor Terrace – I demand you leave at once." She said firmly, but the man, Audacious, shook his head.
"Not without her," he nodded to the beast by Lucias. "She and I will leave as soon as you call off your infernal nephew and his cohorts, release her and allow her to stand."
"It stays!" Sebastian protested. "I worked hard to catch that thing!"
Audacious seemed to lose his patience, and he lashed out a hand as if to slap Sebastian – but Sebastian was too far away for Audacious to even make Sebastian have to lean slightly to avoid the hit. But to Lucias' surprise, Sebastian reeled back and cried out in pain, falling to one knee and cradling his shoulder – Lucias could see blood trickling from the slash in Sebastian's sleeve. Lady Blue's eyes hardened.
"Leave, Audacious. Now."
Audacious shrugged, and he removed Lucias' waistcoat, examining it for a moment before handing it over the top of the beast to Lucias. Still stunned by the mans appearance, Lucias took the waistcoat, his hands numb and a cold weight sinking in his stomach – Audacious didn't seem to have arms – just white gloved hands that protruded from the sleeve-ends of his coat. He carefully removed all the ropes from their hold on the creature, and then Audacious knelt down by the monsters head, and gently ran a hand over its eye. It groaned, and then heaved itself into an upright sitting position. Lucias scrambled up and stood back with Lady Blue as the animal rose, hauling itself up, giving itself a small shake before turning its head to Audacious.
Audacious laid a reassuring hand on its head, then tipped his hat to Lady Blue, turned away, and began to stride away through the crowd, all of them parting like the red sea for him, like he was a leper with a terrible contagious disease. The creature hobbled after him – neither of them took one look back, Audacious' cloak billowing out behind him.
"Do not stand between Audacious and anything," Lady Blue said softly to Lucias, who turned to face her – he could still feel cold resentment inside of him, even as the crowd began to disperse and the people started to talk amongst themselves. Sebastian stepped over to them, wiping his brow.
"How could you let this happen?" Lucias asked Lady Blue, who sighed and shrugged. But before she could reply, Sebastian intervened.
"More to the point – how could you let that demon just take my kill?!" he cried, infuriated. "You have no clue what you've just done!"
"Hush, boy," Lady Blue chided, and Sebastian looked as if he wanted nothing more than to hit Lucias. Lucias stood his ground. He knew that backing down got you nowhere.
"It's not Lucias' fault," Lady Blue continued. "He wasn't to know." She turned back to Lucias. "That was Audacious Crowe, the Black Bastard. He rules over the creatures and monsters that roam the streets of Nowhere at night – it gives him the delusion that he rules over everything here."
"He's a pain and a terror here," Sebastian spat. He took a deep breath, and then extended his hand to Lucias. "Listen, I apologize. I'm just not used to have him swooping in whenever he fancies – he doesn't usually bother stopping us hunting the creatures around here. No hard feelings, all right?"
"All right," Lucias bit back his pride and shook Sebastian's hand. The blonde youth nodded, and then turned to Lady Blue.
"Any other surprises for the day?"
She scoffed and raised her eyebrows at Sebastian.
"You honestly think I had a hand in leading Audacious here?" she asked with a shrug, and Lucias blinked in surprise. "I had nothing to do with it. The animals' cries brought him here – he responded to the distress in its voice."
"That may be true," Sebastian countered, his tone almost suggesting that he was suspicious of his aunt. "But whenever else we've had a catch and brought it out into public, he hasn't so much as lifted a finger to help it. We've never had trouble like this before."
Lucias felt suddenly defensive of Lady Blue as he suddenly realized something.
"But it was pregnant – " he said quickly. "Lady Blue's right – only it's cries would have been more urgent because of it's young."
Both Lady Blue and Sebastian looked surprised by his sudden input, and Lady Blue nodded in agreement.
"You have a point," she gave him a small smile, but it soon faded. "But nonetheless – Sebastian, I want you to take Lucias with you around Nowhere today with the others," she gestured towards Sebastian's companions, who were waiting for Sebastian to return to them. Sebastian nodded. "I'd like you to give him some markers – help him to become familiar with the city."
Sebastian agreed, then bowed and excused himself to go back to his companions – there were three of them – all of them men, yet one looked younger than the others; he was still a teenager, Lucias guessed, whereas Sebastian and the others were clearly in their twenties. The boy was giggling madly, holding his sides in ragged fits of laughter. Lady Blue raised an eyebrow at the cackling teen. Seeing Lucias watching him curiously, she sighed.
"Grinspoon," she said simply, and Lucias blinked, tearing his gaze away from the boy to look at her.
"Pardon?"
She pointed a gloved finger at Sebastian's chortling sidekick, who Sebastian smacked upside the head for no apparent reason. The boy just kept on giggling to himself, and the others hardly paid him any attention.
"That boy you see there – his name is Grinspoon." Lady Blue repeated. "He's got an odd illness that never seems to go away. The doctors have called it 'autism'. Apparently it comes from a foreign tongue, meaning 'self'."
Across the courtyard, they could hear Grinspoon singing insanely to himself. "…I love my friends!! AAAAAND they love me! We're just a close, as we can beeeee…!!"
"Take no notice of him, Lucias," Lady Blue advised, and Lucias nodded and readjusted him glasses. Grinspoon remained oblivious to Sebastian and his other companions.
"And just because – we really care!! WHAAAAAAAT-ever we get, we SHARE!!"
Lucias found himself entranced by the song of the madly hooting boy.
"I got it from Agnes! SHE got it from Jim! We all agree it must have Louise who gave it to HIM!! Now SHE got it from Harry, who got it from Marie! AND EEEEEVERYBODY KNOWS THAT MARIE – awk!!" Grinspoon staggered as Sebastian lashed out a kick into his shins. Grinspoon collapsed to the cobblestones, rolled away from them, and finished the verse, sounding a little strangled.
"-GOT IT FROM MEEEEE!!!"
Lady Blue sighed, sounding irritated. She turned back to Lucias from where they were watching the sniggering idiot rolling about on the cobbles.
"I'd better go. My manor house won't run itself, even with G'Bacchi taking charge while I'm out here," she said, and briefly touched Lucias' arm. "Don't let Grinspoon's oddity get to you – it's only natural."
"Uh…yes, ma'am," Lucias bowed a little as Lady Blue turned away, and he watched she headed back up the stone steps to her manor house, hitching up her lavender skirts as she went. He stood there a moment more, his mind still working through all the things that had happened that morning only minutes before, when Sebastian was suddenly calling him name.
"Lucias! Join us – we'll show you around Nowhere," he called, and Lucias went over to the small group that had gathered – there were a few others that had joined Sebastian and Grinspoon – a young girl who couldn't have been more than seventeen and two other young men who looked close to Sebastian's age.
"These are a few more of my friends," Sebastian gestured grandly to the three newcomers, before sliding an affectionate arm around the girls' waist and pulling her close. She had short, dark blonde hair and pretty bluish-green eyes, and was dressed in a plain white and brown dress. "This is Meg," Sebastian said, giving the girl a squeeze, and she chuckled softly; not really shy, but not really embarrassed by Sebastian's outgoing nature, either. "She's my good friend and an avid reader – almost can't tear her away from a good book," he laughed, and Meg shrugged amiably.
"This is Timothy," Sebastian continued, patting a tall young man with dark hair on the back. "God know I'd be dead without him." Timothy laughed and gave Sebastian a punch on the shoulder, which the blonde took, but winced at.
"And this is Jack – don't be fooled by this one," Sebastian laughed, moving from Timothy to catch the other young man in a headlock. "He's more slippery than an eel and can bite twice as hard."
"Geeroff, Sebastian!" Jack squirmed out from Sebastian's grip, and Lucias saw that he couldn't have been much more than twenty-one at most. He still had a very young, boy-ish look about him, but his face had a scar running down one side of it and his eyes held a certain light of experience. Lucias felt the need to be weary around Sebastian's friends, although he couldn't place why. The feeling was, however, swept away by Sebastian, who breezed back to his side and took him by the arm, starting off towards the main street at the gates of the courtyard.
"Come!" he cried as Meg, Jack, Grinspoon and Timothy followed suit. "We have a city to show you!"

.:.

By early evening, Lucias was ready to fall over. The group had trooped around the seemingly massive town for the entire day – there had been so many people to meet, so many places to see, so many things to show and be done, Lucias' head was spinning and at that moment he would have liked to do nothing more than fall into a very deep, very rewarding sleep. His legs were trembling as the group began to make their way back towards Lady Blue's manor house.
"Are you all right?" a quiet voice came to his ear, and he turned to see Meg watching him, her eyes slightly concerned.
"Uh…I'll be okay," he replied, and she smirked and linked arms with him, so that he wouldn't fall behind with the group. Sadly, when it came to girls, Lucias had no prior knowledge of how to act around ones closer to his age – girls that weren't posh noble ladies with butlers to do their every beck and call – girls like Meg who dressed plainly, ran around hunting monsters with boys. All the knowledge he had was of his younger sisters, Mary and Annie – and they weren't much to go by, being only four and seven years old.
"Pish," Meg said, a small smile on her face. "If Sebastian knew you were this exhausted, he would have hailed a carriage."
"Then let him never know," Lucias chuckled tiredly, and Meg giggled. Sebastian and Timothy were arguing about something just ahead with Jack, and Grinspoon kept wandering away across the street every so often; mostly to look through the occasional trash can. Sometimes he'd come up with something worth something, and he'd skip back to the group, singing to himself and then presenting it proudly to Jack or Sebastian, who'd either nod in appreciation or tell Grinspoon to grow up. Other times, Grinspoon would come back empty handed, and would hang like a child off of Sebastian's arm, whining and complaining bitterly, his words never quite understandable.
"You should be glad," Meg said after a moment of watching the autistic sixteen-year-old dodge a passing horse and carriage after another unsuccessful trip across the cobblestone street, cackling manically as the driver swore and cursed after him. "If Adele was here, she'd have already left us all behind and called us all children by this point."
"Adele?"
Meg smiled.
"My adopted sister – I don't see her much these days. Adele doesn't like to associate much with Grinspoon or Jack." She explained. "But today apparently she had business to attend to in the North end of Nowhere."
"Ah, right." Lucias said, and they continued after the boys. As they passed a large building, another noise floated to Lucias' ears – a deep, low growing. He looked over his shoulder, then to Meg. "Uh…was that…?"
"Oh dear," were the only words that Meg said. She suddenly shoved Lucias away from her as something ripped between them, and what looked like a large, black dog leapt through the space where they had just been.
Lucias was thrown to the pavement as the dog turned back to him, snarling and slavering, it's eyes burning red and yellow.
"LUCIAS!" Sebastian cried from somewhere beyond the dog. "RUN!"
Lucias was frozen in fear as the hound prowled closer – it snapped it's large, shark-like teeth at him and growled even louder. Suddenly, a large stone bounced off it's head and it yelped – and Lucias looked passed it to see Sebastian, Meg, Timothy and Jack all gathering any object on the street side as they could – Sebastian was already hurling another rock at the creature's head. It snarled and snapped at them, and Grinspoon, who wasn't helping much at all, was cracking up hysterically nearby.
"Run!!" Meg and Timothy yelled, and Lucias snapped back into motion, scrambling to his feet and taking off at a shaky sprint – his earlier exhaustion weighing down heavily on him as he struggled to move faster. The hound was already after him, and he could hear snatches of Sebastian's yells behind him as the group started in pursuit.
Lucias dived for a back alley, and the creature overshot the small opening, but recovered and skidded after him. He took a sharp left, almost slamming straight into the wall in the tight street opposite, but managed to bounce off it, barely registering the shooting pain in his shoulder and all the way down his arm as he kept running. The hound yowled in pain as it, too, hit the wall, but Lucias could already hear its paws covering missed ground between them. It was catching up – and it was catching up fast.
Lucias burst out into another open street, almost to run headlong into a very surprised Guy Fawkes. It whooped and laughed as he shoved passed it, grabbing it and trying to throw it back into the dogs' path. Why the dog was chasing him in the first place, he didn't know, but he made a mad dash across the street and up a set of rather familiar stone steps until he reached the massive, wooden double doors.
Throwing himself at it, he grasped for the large brass knocker and pounded on it hard.
"Help!" his breath left him in a wheeze, and he gasped for breath, his throat dry, and turned just in time to see the hound bounding up the steps after him. He yelled and went to shield his face with one arm – only to find the solid wood where the door once was to not be there anymore – and he fell through the open doorway.
The door slammed into the dogs face as it swung heavily shut again, and Lucias fell back against the cool, smooth marble floor, his eyes closing in relief and another wave of exhaustion swept over him. He passed out soon after.

.:.

Bursting out into the street, Sebastian, Meg, Timothy and Jack stopped suddenly as they realized they were in an empty street – empty, save for the dizzy scarecrow staggering around on the cobbles and the hell-hound that had been knocked out from hitting the massive double doors head-on. Grinspoon stumbled up next to them, giggling and gasping for breath, clinging to Jack's arm.
"Where – where could he have gone?" Jack huffed, and Sebastian looked up and down the street.
"No clue – " he stopped as he saw the hall-hound. "Aw, no…"
Meg stepped closer to him as a chill wind swept through the street, and the group looked up at the Library, fearing the worst. After a moment of silence, Grinspoon broke into song again. A discordant, haunting tune.
"Puppet on-a string, puppet on-a string.
You ain't goin' nowhere,
You puppet on-a string."

The END of PART II.