Spoils

For 2022, I've been wanting to write more 'creature features' and generally improve my short story writing. My partner got me a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual for my birthday so I came up with the idea of writing a story every week based on a different creature from that - All There in the (Monster) Manual. Hope you enjoy!

This Week's Inspiration: Wererat

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Hooves sank into the muddy path as rain slicked the horse's flanks, running in rivulets down its legs. Black and gleaming, the animal was a magnificent destrier that slogged through all terrain and all conditions without complaint. Between forks of lightning, the only light on the road came from the lurid green glow of a conjured ghastlight hovering behind the shoulder of the horse's rider. Otherwise, the stormy night, the mud road and the surrounding woods were all as black as the bottom of a well.

Ahead, nestled in the low hills, the rider spotted his destination in the white strobe of a lightning strike. A large wall separated the town from the road. The rider spurred his horse to the looming gates. Not a single light showed anywhere in the town. Other than rain hammering wooden structures and thunder rolling off the nearby hills no sound came from behind the wall either.

Water streamed off both sides of an awning near the gate, where guards might have previously stood or travellers might have taken shelter for the night. In the green glow of the ghastlight, the rider could see several boards nailing the gates shut and a single word painted sloppily across the wood, running in the rain. The word 'PLAGUE'.

It didn't take the rider long to take apart the boards and the gates swung open. He trotted into the town unimpeded. Hooves rang off wet cobblestones. All the buildings surrounding them, one or two story structures of wood and stone with rain running off their eaves, looked dark and cold. Windows were shuttered or unlit. Many of the doors were boarded shut and painted with numbers and symbols like signs meant to ward off evil. If so, they hadn't worked.

The rider reached the town's central courtyard without meeting a single living soul. More cobblestones paved the open space around the town well and empty gallows. Lightning forked through the sky. The rider rounded on the largest building to edge the courtyard, a two story inn with a row of stables.

The rider stabled and wiped down his uncomplaining destrier. Hay had been left behind but all the stalls were, of course, empty. The rider then went to the inn and pulled apart the boards barring the entrance with his gloved hands. Inside, the inn's front room was cold and damp and empty. A fireplace sat in the centre of the space. The stranger found some firewood, piled it into the hearth and lit it, more for light than warmth. They dispelled the ghastlight that had followed them loyally along their journey through the dark woods. The fireplace illuminated dozens of empty chairs scattered across the room, parked at rough hewn tables, and a bartop lined with empty stools. There was little doubt as to why the tables and chairs sat unoccupied. A stench of death permeated the whole room, the whole building. Probably the whole town would have smelled the same if the rain hadn't been tamping it down. That was alright, death was exactly what the Doctor was there for.

The Doctor wore a black cloak that fell to the ankles of his riding boots. Black clothing, black gloves, and a black hood helped hide every inch of skin. A mask styled after the masks of plague doctors, black leather with smokey lenses and a hooked beak, covered his face. He and the others like him didn't have names but that's what their enemies called them, Doctors. Even alone, the Doctor did nothing to remove the mask or his wet clothing. Underneath, his flesh and sinews creaked. Grey and stitched and cold. Sitting by the fire, he raised his gloved hands to the blaze. Steam rose lazily off his cloak. Fire reflected in the lenses of his mask. The Doctor knew he'd never be truly warm again, short of immolation, but the heat did help limber up the stiffness that had developed in his fingers and joints over the cold, wet ride.