Essay

"You ever kill anyone before, sweetheart?

Sorry, that's a really bad way to start a hit-on. Story. I meant story. Am I that transparent?

Your expression says yes, but your eyes say no. Why are you walking away?

Fuck it. You're a bartender, right? Stupid question, of course you are. Unless you murdered the bartender and inherited his duties. But that still makes you a bartender.

No, I'm not slurring. Look, you're supposed to listen to me talking, so listen. And get me another ale.

What's that? Yeah. Say, do you get a lot of girls in here? Girls like- Yeah, like me, I guess. What do you mean, 'of course?' This is the local pub, not a- Oh, hello.

Yeah, sit down. Please. Be my guest. Buy you a drink? Lovely. Barkeep! Another one for her!

Wait, I recognize you. You just walked away- you wanna hear it?

That's good to hear. I... I'm glad, actually.

Where was I?

The killing people bit, that's right. Well, uh... I have. A few. A lot.

No, I'd never kill you. What kind of question is that? Sorry, sorry. I'm a little, ah, drunk.

Yes. I plan to get you drunk too. Would you like that? Of course you would. But first, story time.

Uh. I'm Vic, first off. Victoria, my mother called me. Really fancy name for a mountain-village in the middle of dwarf territory.

Yeah, I've seen a few. Two of them, always hung around the village, muttering to each other in that... dwarfy... language of theirs. I think they only kept us around for the human trade we brought in. I picked it up eventually. Wanna know what they were always talking about? I used to keep myself up at night when I was little, paranoid that they were plotting something. Thought they were gonna kill us all in our sleep and make hammers out of our bones. Or something.

Where was I going with this?

Oh. The clouds. They were always talking about the funny shapes they made. Really swell guys, those two.

What town? It was more of a village. Tiny thing. Less than fifty people, dwarves not withstanding. Cliffall.

Stop laughing, I'm serious. Deadly serious about the name.

Heh heh heh. It was just a name they tacked on, actually, to fuck with people. Sure, it was built on a sheer-cliff face, but no one fell! Not in all my, uh... seve- eig- nineteen, nineteen years there!

At least, uh... not until that year, you see. The town started earning its name that year, and I guess it was overdue. Interest was high, to say the least. My, uh... my mom.

Well, anyway. That's not important. That's a lie. Most important. It was the most important.

Don't look so sad, it makes you look... sad. I'm getting to the good stuff, keep drinking.

So, I was nineteen that year. Only the women fell, like you. Like me. Young things, old things. We'd find them at the bottom of the ravine, broken, bloody corpses. We couldn't go down there, so we just stared at our friends with a spy-glass to identify them. We'd have never found any of them, had they not always... well, what do you do when you're falling down a sheer cliff?

You scream.

You're starting to regret coming back? I don't blame you. It's because I'm cute, isn't it. Y'know, people will put up with all sorts of shit to get laid. I'm just talking right now. I was kidding about hitting on you.

I think. I can't remember. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

So they screamed. They fell. They hurt. They died. Always at night, woke everyone up. And you couldn't see who died until morning; had to guess. Who was missing? That's how we knew. And the dread... the dread was palpable. Every night, we made a run through the homes, trying to find our loved ones.

I wanted to leave, then. I wanted to leave before it happened, mind you, but I especially wanted to leave then. But the mayor, the mayor didn't let anyone go. Not until they were caught; whoever 'they' was.

And then mom died, on the fifth night. She was number five. I remember screaming at the top of my lungs in the house. Crying. I knew where she was. Why hadn't I heard her leave? It felt like I had betrayed her. Dad wouldn't have been able to take it; he'd been dead for years, though. I'm glad he wasn't there to see her go like that; split open on a rock.

Too graphic for you? Was too graphic for me. I wanted to kill whoever had done it. Wanted to do the same thing to them, whatever they were doing.

We had precious few guards; a militia, organized by the dwarves. I knew one of them was doing it. Few that they were, the mayor used them to instill a curfew. For our protection.

I wasn't feeling protected. I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill the horrible bastard who'd murdered my mother.

You remember Cliffall now, don't you? Yeah. But I'm not done yet.

I didn't stay inside, when night came. The guards, they didn't see me. Didn't see me leave the house, didn't see me with my longbow that dad left me. Didn't see me sneak up to the Father Cliff, overlooking town. Mommy Cliff is where mom fell; appropriate, right?

I thought so too.

I laid there for hours. Watching. Waiting. It was freezing cold, but I didn't feel it.

Father Cliff overlooks town; overlooks the main area, the circle. A bunch of houses, and the general store, surround it. At the 'top' of the circle is the cliff face. You'd think people wouldn't be able to sleep at night, but it was dead silent as I watched.

And then I saw them.

Yes, them. Don't you remember? It was talked about.

So, I saw them. They came out from a few homes. Spoke in the middle for a minute or two. I held fire. Thought it was the guards. Thought, hoped, they had found whoever it was.

Said hopes soared when I saw one break off, heading to a house. Had to be some horrible looking man, right? Not that I could see him.

He dragged a woman out. Young thing, about my age. Didn't know her well. Didn't know who she was at the time; couldn't see.

For a brief second, I thought she was it. She killed them all. This girl.

But you know how this goes. It wasn't her. She was scared and confused. I vaguely heard her blabbering, asking who it was. Why they needed her help.

At that point, it hit me. That was when the gagged her. When they dragged her down. Took her in the middle of the circle. Why hadn't anyone seen them do it before?

Every... everyone was just so scared, I guess. We relied on him. The mayor. He said he'd...

Yes, just a bit. Sorry. I'll stop. Need to take a drink.

Don't touch me, please.

I was... well, I...

You know what I did. Or maybe you're just as drunk as I am? Need your memory jogged?

I shot them all. I started shooting arrows at them. I had such a good view. A couple of them took cover, but I waited. The girl laid there in the middle, making noises. Eventually, they poked their heads out. I killed them. All of them.

And when I came down from the cliff, not a single person had dared come save her. None but me.

So I cut her binds. Told her to get back inside. She ran off. Cute girl.

The corpses were all guardsmen. The mayor. The sun was coming up, and I'd been up all night. But I couldn't sleep. Wouldn't. I had something to do.

I dragged them all to the Mommy Cliff and pushed them off.

Barkeep. Fill her up. Mine too.

In the morning? I passed out in the circle, bow in hand. Blood all around me, but no corpses. At first they thought I was the killer, but the girl corroborated my story. So did a guard, who had refused to go along with them; he couldn't say anything until I'd killed them.

So, yeah. I was a hero. The Heroine of Cliffall. They wanted to make me the new mayor, would you believe that?

I left. Couldn't stomach the place anymore. Wandered off the next week after. Apparently they told all the traders who came by about what happened; assholes. At least hardly anyone knows what I look like.

I wandered for a few months. Shot bandits; they're lousy here in Wulfhammer, but I'm sure you know that. Most don't even seem that bad; surprisingly talkative, I noticed.

Didn't matter to me. I shot those ones in the legs. If they survived, good on them.

Because, you see, I didn't really care anymore. The worst part about all of that? It wasn't my mother. It wasn't killing those people.

I liked it. Shooting those men. The power to snuff out a life with a single pull of my wrist. I wanted to kill others; other evil men. Justice is an arrow to the stomach, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Barkeep. Put it on my tab. As for you...

Your place or mine?"