The Hunter Chronicles
Volume-One
Chapter 1
One Night In The Woods

The moon rose high over the forest, the trees sighed with the weight of snow on their branches and the only sound was of heavy foot steps running through the deep frozen undergrowth below.
He had been chasing her for almost six months now. Through cold mountain passes and high windswept plains, where the scorching rays of the sun had baked the earth into a hard fractured crust, interspersed with deep fissures and populated by desperados, thieves and killers, all of them driven crazy by the relentless heat, he had tracked her every footstep. Through city streets and nameless alleyways he had called her name. Why she had run he never knew, but now in this distant frozen forest he was as close to her as he had ever been.                                                    
Back in Brennin City, he had been handed a dossier containing her name, photo and a list of alias’s she went by and places she was known to frequent. ‘Who is she and what was her crime?’ he asked himself for the thousandth time. There had been nights when he had almost given up and sold the contract on to ‘some other damn fool.’ Only to have found another clue, a glimpse of her in a dark, dingy tavern. Where ancient honky tonk and blue grass were being beaten out of a battered old piano, by some broken down old creature, who’s soul had been sold along time ago, for the last dregs from a bottle of moonshine, laced with diesel oil and old tea.
   He was only a few paces behind her now ‘just a bit faster and I’ll have her’ he thought. His exile was almost over, at last he would be able to go home. Suddenly a gunshot rang out from some way behind them, dislodging a flurry of snow from the trees.
She fell forwards, a spray of blood staining the virgin snow red before her, he turned to see where the shot had come from. A dark figure in a long black coat and wide brimmed hat stood almost seventy yards away holding a one shot wide bore rifle ‘another bounty hunter, he must he followed me hear!’ A surge of anger ran through him and he launched himself at the figure drawing his sword. The other man had almost finished reloading by the time he reached him.
"Who are you?" he yelled as he hit the other hunter running. He held his sword to the stranger’s throat pushing him into the snow. "Who sent you?" he screamed. The other man just looked up and grinned, revealing a mouth full of broken teeth. "They wanted her alive, you half faced miscreant! Who do you work for?"
"Fuck you!" said the stranger and spat into the hunter’s face, his breath smelled of moonshine. With that he clamped his jaw tightly, swallowed and died with.
‘Suicide pill, you god damn coward!’ he thought, the other mans eyes bulging in there sockets. And then his heart skipped a beat. He heard something moving behind him and looked round. 
"Help me" she said sitting up, "the bastard shot me! ".
He stood up, tried to compose himself and walked back to her "Don’t worry its only a flesh wound, Cassandra." 
"You’re a bounty hunter then?" asked Cassandra looking up, a tear in her eye. 
"You catch on quick kid." The bounty hunter took a small bottle and a length of cloth out of an inside pocket.
"And I’m under arrest?"
"Right again, you’re a sharp one you. Now hold still" He leant down and tore her sleeve where the bullet had ripped through taking with it the top layer of skin. "Now this wont hurt a bit."
"Liar." The hunter, holding her arm, took a short gulp from the bottle and then pored a little of the liquid onto the wound. Cassandra screamed but the hunter took no notice and began bandaging her arm as she started to sob.
"Now, now precious, we don’t want non of that." He said in a gruff tone, "I’ve tracked you long and far enough to know you’re not the kind of lass to cry in the face of danger." The hunter smiled at her fixing her with eyes that had seen the valley of death and passed on through.
Standing over her he reached into another pocket and produced a folded parchment and two lengths of twine. He bound her hands and then her feet and lashed her to the tree by which she sat, before going back over to the dead man. Kneeling beside him he picked up the strangers’ pack and removed four candles, a butchers’ knife, a loaf of stale bread and a bag of tea.
"You’re robbing a dead man?" said Cassandra in disgust.       "It’s the best time to do it!" the hunter shouted over his shoulder. He then took the dead mans rifle, cartridge pack and sword. He was about to stand up when he noticed a strange tattoo on the mans right hand, it was a black six pointed star with a red cross through it, he looked at it, sure he had seen it somewhere before. But his attention was taken by the platinum ring on the strangers middle finger which he slipped off and pocketed for himself. Then sitting in the snow next to his captive, he unfolded the parchment. Looking over his shoulder she saw he was holding a map. "Lost are you?" She asked. No reply." Don’t know where you’re going do you?" No reply, "Why did you kill your partner?" the hunter turned.
"He was no partner of mine."
"Then who was he?" she asked, resting her head on his shoulder.
"A bounty hunter," he said, "I forgot to ask his name. And I didn’t kill him he had a death cap in his wisdom tooth." And with that the hunter stood up, replaced the map, threw her over his shoulder and set out into the night.
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Chapter Two – The Reckoning
The hunter walked on hour after hour with his quarry hung helpless over his shoulder. The moon sank below the horizon allowing the stars to shine down in all their glory on the frozen river along which they now travelled. Far off to the west the mournful howl of a wolf sounded in the night, the hunter quickened his pace. It was a well known fact in these parts that wolfs would only attack a man when the moon went down.        
Mile after mile he walked and never seemed to tire, until the first of the suns rays began to fill the sky with there golden light. Cassandra was dropped roughly to the icy ground the hunter straddled her sitting on her waist his knife in hand, she was certain that she would die here, but he reached down between her legs and with a swift stroke he cut the bonds on her ankles.
"I think you can walk a while now lass." He looked down into her eyes and for the first time she truly saw his face, it could have been a kind face but for the years of exposure to sun, wind, and frost. He wore a black- leather hat with a wide brim, torn in places and repaired unevenly with faded thread of red and purple. His eyes were deep blue and his skin was rough and tanned, he had obviously not shaved in weeks and small frost crystals now hung from his beard. His hair was long and matted and hung in strands from beneath his hat and on his cheek an ancient scar ran across his skin. His coat was long and slate black, under it he wore a shirt of chain on top of a layer of furs and animal skins and at his waist hung a straight bladed heavy cavalry sabre and a six barrel volley gun. "Don’t worry its not far now."
"Where are you taking me?" she demanded," Aren’t you worried that I’ll just run again?"
"There’s an abandoned hunting lodge about two miles ahead. I passed it on my way up here. And no," he said, taking a three foot long chain with a handcuff on either end from his pack, "I’m not."
They walked on then, chained together, through the frozen landscape the going was tough as the ground became rockier and steeper. At last they came to a bend in the river and saw ahead of them a small limestone cabin set back some way from the river.
The door swung open as the hunter kicked it, and as they walked in the air smelled stale and old, no one had been here in a long time. "We’ll rest here the night I think." He said looking around at the room in which they now stood. There was one window next to the door and in it stood a table and three chairs. In the middle of the floor there was a cast iron pot bellied stove and behind that stood three wooden beds, it was to one of these that the hunter now chained his prey. 
The hunter was worried ‘Why had there been another bounty hunter sent after this woman? Who was she? And what had she done to be wanted this much?’ the sun was still high in the sky so he went outside and began covering there tracks and setting traps for anyone else who might be following them. When he returned to the lodge he found Cassandra desperately trying to free herself.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked in shocked disbelief, pushing her back onto the bed and holding her down. "Listen to me! I don’t know why but there’s someone wants you dead girl! You’re safer here with me than out there alone! So why are you trying to run?" At this she stopped struggling and smiled shyly at him, before raising her knee sharply to connect with his groin. His eyes bulged and he stood up groaning. "You fucking bitch!" 
Cassandra, still tied to the bed looked up at her captor, "I’ve been thinking," she said in a calm tone, "if the other bounty hunter wasn’t working with you and you had no idea he was following you then someone probably wants to cap you as well! As for being safe here, well don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you’re a wonderful person an’ all, but I’m lying here tied to a bed, being held captive by a bounty hunter! That’s not exactly the kind of thing that makes me feel safe!" She tried to sit up, obviously getting angry but her restraints stopped her.
"I don’t need this shit!" shouted the hunter, "All I know is that I was asked to do one last job by an old friend of mine! If I’d ‘a known that six goddamn months later I was gonna be here in this shit hole with you!" he turned and looked out of the window clenching his fists.
"Go on then, HIT ME! Hit me you son of a whore! You have no idea what they’re going to do to me, when you take me back, but I can assure you it will be far worse than anything YOU could do to me!" she screamed and threw her head down on the bed, a look of despair crossing her face.
The hunter then took one of the chairs and sat down next to the bed, taking a tobacco pouch and clay pipe from his pack, "I saw something strange last night." he said striking a match on the wall. "The other hunter had, what looked like a guild tattoo on his right hand. It’s been playing on my mind all day because guild members are barred from becoming bounty hunters and I thought that I knew all the guilds but I can’t for the life of me remember this one." He leant back on his chair taking the smoke deep into his lungs. His tobacco smoke filled the small room with a sweet, sickly aroma dispelling the stale smell of the long stood air.
Cassandra lay there quiet for moment and then turned to the hunter and asked him what the tattoo had looked like. The hunter scratched a six pointed star and cross into the wall with the dead mans knife. "You really don’t know what you’ve gone and got your self into! Do you?" She stared at him, in amazement, her big brown eyes searching the hunters’ face for signs of deception and found non.
"You know what this is don’t you?"
"I’ve seen it before, loosen my bonds and let me have a smoke and I’ll tell you all."



Chapter Three- Elena Amargen

     The sky was full of stars as Elena Amargen snuck out of the royal citadel. She pulled a black hood over her head so as not to be recognised by the City Guard, as she made her way through the streets. She was the daughter of Lord Amargen, the hated Patriarch of the city of Brennin. She made her way to the lower west-side and along O’Donnell Street until she reached the doorway of a small tavern known as The Three Stags Antlers. Once inside she pulled back her hood, allowing her thick auburn hair to cascade over her shoulders in thick ringlets. She took her usual seat a, bar-stool at the far end of the bar, ordered a pint of Black Hound and waited.
     Half an hour had passed when she felt a hand on her shoulder, "Hello El, I’m sorry I kept you waiting." The voice was that of her lover, Leftenant, Joseph Cohen of the City Guard, "I had to stay late at the station house to sign another arrest-warrant for Old Man Mac’Vaye. He’s been seen exposing himself down by the river again." He smiled at her and kissed her for-head.     
     "Don’t worry Joe, I had no where to go," she said, smiling up at her lover, "besides, the barman’s been keeping me company." She grinned, wrinkling her freckled nose and put her arm round his waist. They moved over to a dark alcove in the corner where they sat talking in each others arms.
XXX To Be Continued XXX