La Mangeur D'Enfants

Dagda walked with a destination in mind, his pace determined and true. It had been a long day. Hours in the expansive countryside were spent guiding a shipment of hay from Magnolia to a nearby farm. It was a job he’d seen advertised around and had taken without hesitation. The titan loved to help, especially if it meant he’d be able to meet some of the farm creatures that Earthlanders kept. He’d spent more time than he should have in the horse stalls, talking to the creatures and petting them. Dagda was a sucker for interesting creatures. Though they may have seemed familiar and boring to some Earthlanders, they were new and exciting to the extraterrestrial man.

An exhausted sigh left Dagda’s lips as he paced on, heading for the inn he’d booked a room at. The place was supposed to be quite wonderful and he couldn’t wait to flop down on the bed and sink into the cushiony mattress. It would probably be too short, as all beds in Earthland were to him. Being six feet and eight inches in Earthland measurements, he towered over most of the people here. It was an ongoing struggle to find stuff that was the appropriate size for him.

Rounding a corner and onto another street, Dagda’s boot splashed in a stream of rainwater heading towards a sewer drain. It had rained just a few hours earlier, a swift and powerful storm that had left as quickly as it arrived. The sky was clear and dark now, but the storm’s remains dripped off of rooftops and headed for the sewers. The light of the moon glinted off of the liquid-covered town of Magnolia.

The titan suddenly felt odd and stopped in his tracks. A sense of unease tugged at his stomach. What was this sensation? What had caused this? Looking around, he didn’t see anyone nearby. There were no creatures around either. The streets were silent. Dark eyes peered to the ground. A little stream of rainwater trickled from an alleyway to his right. Down the cobbled street it traveled, until it met the drain. Dagda’s eyebrows furrowed. He had pretty decent night sight, and something in the water caught his eye. The titan crouched down, leaning in until he could see it clearly.

It was blood.

The titan lurched back with a gasp. The little stream of water was dyed crimson, carrying the liquid with it to the sewers. Some of it had splashed onto his boots when he stepped in it, which Dagda now tried to wipe off frantically. There was so much of it. The stone beneath his feet glistened with blood and moonlight.

Dagda stood and stumbled back a step, collecting himself from his shock. Why would there be blood on the street? Was there a bar fight nearby? That couldn’t be the case, as there was nobody else around at the moment. The stone ground didn’t tell him of any vibrations of footsteps within at least a half mile.

Determination replaced the shaken feeling he had experienced. He was the only person around besides those sleeping in nearby houses. What if someone was dying and needed help? He had to do something.

Following the bloody stream, Dagda headed into the alleyway. Puddles of water turned into puddles of pure blood. It was dark in the space between buildings, but he could see a little bit ahead. There was something in the alleyway, pieces of it scattered around. As he got closer, the titan had a sinking feeling he knew what it was. He wanted not to believe that such a thing was possible. Every step, every breath he tried to deny the truth. There was no way…

His worst fears were confirmed as he arrived just a few feet from the object. It was the body of a child, torn to shreds. Limbs were the scattered pieces, some with bites taken out of them. Pools of stagnant blood occupied the stony ground. The torso was ripped open, bones broken, and remnants of flesh and guts spilled out. Dagda saw the remains of the face, a moonlight picture burned into his mind that he would never forget in his lifetime. It was a young boy, barely five in human years. His dirt-streaked face and unkempt hair signaled that he was unsupervised by adults, maybe an orphan or homeless youth.

Dagda’s hearing faded out. He had tunnel vision, focused in on that awful vision of the destroyed little face with a bite taken out of the cheek. The titan felt like he had been punched in the gut. Ragged breaths leaked from his lips, but it seemed as if oxygen was fighting against him. At last he was able to tear his gaze away. Dagda fell to his knees. What had happened here? Why a child?

The face of his own son flashed across his vision and Dagda felt his stomach turn. He scrambled to the side of the alley on his knees and emptied the contents of his stomach. The pure fear, rage, disgust, and horror had his body in shambles. This boy had been just a year or two older than his own son. Nobody that young deserved a death as tragic and horrific as this.

Trembling all over, Dagda took a moment to catch his breathing and focus his mind a little. It was no wonder he couldn’t sense any movement vibrations from this direction. There was no life here. Even the rats and stray cats kept clear. Something heinous had happened in this space, something even the creatures felt was wrong.

Steeling himself, Dagda returned to his feet. He had to search around and see if he could find the perpetrator. If he found them, he would obliterate them into a fleshy pulp in an instant. A rage filled him, calm like a flowing river but with a dangerous under-current. He had to keep his head on straight for now, but if he figured out who was responsible the river would flood with the rage of the spring melt.

Clenching and unclenching his fists, Dagda approached the body. If he had been able to smell, he surely would have thrown up again. The anosmia granted by an old injury was a blessing for once. As a hunter, Dagda knew how to spot the subtle signs that told useful information about a kill. In the mountains of Tetsukazu, he would be able to tell how old a bear’s kill was and how it had been killed, as well as what region the predator and prey had come from.

The details on the child’s body were more confusing than a simple animal kill. There were no signs that were indicative of a typical predator. The area lacked signs of a scuffle. There were no claw marks on the remaining skin. As Dagda looked closer at the bite on the cheek, it looked nothing like the fang marks typically left by a dog, wolf, or bear. The teeth marks were human.

Dagda stared at the cheek, baffled. A human had done this? But… why? As far as he knew, the humans of Earthland weren’t a cannibalistic species. The thought was revolting to all of them, or so he thought. Perhaps it was a humanoid creature, like the vampires he had heard of that roamed this planet. They had fangs, though…

Returning to his feet, Dagda looked around at the scattered pieces. They told of the same story, a human or humanoid that had torn the boy apart and eaten pieces from every part of the body. He scouted the alleyway and the surrounding area, but there were no signs of footprints or an exit route for the attacker.

Dagda walked out to the entrance of the alleyway, leaning against the wall. He needed time to gather his thoughts and figure this thing out. Being the first person to come across the body and a protector of children by heart, the titan felt a responsibility to see this situation to justice. The child deserved better than this. Dagda felt a few tears leak down his cheeks.

Through his feet, he could feel the vibrations of steps upon the stony street. They were light and dainty - a female human. The vibrations painted him a picture of a young woman, much like echolocation did for bats. Looking up, he could see her now. Short reddish-brown hair curled around her face. Pale skin was illuminated in the moonlight. She was pretty and youthful.

Dagda stepped away from the alleyway and hurriedly approached her. He didn’t want to seem too intimidating, so he put on a gentle smile. It wasn’t his best effort, but he was still shaken from the horrible sights he had seen. If he could prevent this woman from witnessing such an awful scene it would be for the better.

“Ma’am,” he spoke carefully, keeping the volume of his voice low. “You shouldn’t be out this late alone. Something awful has happened in the area and a criminal could still be on the loose. Do you have a home I can escort you back to?” Intentionally he kept the words vague as not to scare her. When she was delivered to safety, he would either return to the scene or report to a Rune Knight outpost to notify them of what had happened. No matter what, something had to be done.

The woman began to speak, her voice quiet and stammering. Dagda cursed himself for being so intimidatingly tall. There were many times like this where he wished to be smaller for the comfort of others on Earthland. On his home planet, he was actually one of the shorter men, so being the tallest one around was something to get used to here. He would have to put in more of an effort to ease this woman’s fear.

He listened closely as she replied to his question. His lip twitched down in a frown for a moment. There was not a home he could help return her to, which made things a little harder. Perhaps he could suggest a hotel or inn? As he was about to speak, she slipped past him towards the alleyway.

“Wait, ma’am-” It was too late. She had encountered the young corpse and its bloodstained surroundings. Dagda hurried to catch up and stood between the woman and the crime scene to prevent her from seeing any more of the horrors. Out of instinct, Dagda believed that she was too sensitive to see something so awful. She seemed sweet and delicate. Hopefully his hulking form would block her view enough.

“Yes, I’m quite sure,” Dagda said steadily. “This was a criminal, a human one. The bite marks are definitely not from an animal.”

She suggested aiding his search and the titan shook his head. “Ma’am, I think it’s best if we find you a safe-” Dagda’s reply had come immediately after the last words left her mouth, but now he paused. Had she said ‘find her’? His brow furrowed. Leaning down and closer, his dark eyes pierced into her with a grim desperation.

“Wait, ‘her’? How do you know it’s a woman? Did you see something? Where did she escape to?” Dagda’s peppering questions rang throughout the alleyway. He had forgotten his attempts to be calming almost instantaneously. This whole situation had him shaken and his usual level-headedness had slipped ever so slightly.

The meek woman seemed to shrink back in her sweater at his vigorous questions, so Dagda backed off a step. He’d lost his collected demeanor for a minute, but it was still rocky. His heart was still racing and he still felt a bit queasy. Being calm was not an easy task when there was a child dead just a few yards away. Dagda felt his chest tighten at the thought of the tiny corpse. The boy was so young and too innocent to suffer an ending like this.

She began explaining what she had seen, her voice still stammering. Apparently, a suspicious woman had been in the area around an hour ago. The timid woman had found a young boy, who the stranger claimed was her son. She hadn’t questioned it at first, but upon returning to check on the boy, she had found the body. While she spoke, she seemed frightened, at least to Dagda. Her eyes hardly left the ground.

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault,” he reassured her when she finished retelling her story. There was no reason for her story to seem suspicious, so he believed her fully. What an awful thing to have happen. The situation must have felt hopeless. Dagda assumed she was blaming herself, so he continued to try to calm her. “You didn’t know that lady would be a danger to the child.”

Before he could stop her, she had dodged around him to look at the body once more. According to her, one of her sisters was an officer and had taught her some detective work. She confirmed Dagda’s own findings from earlier, there was hardly any struggle from the victim. There was not much he could have done against a grown woman. The titan felt another wave of anger. How could anyone do this to a child? Whoever it was had to be a monster. His fist clenched subconsciously.

His companion seemed to think the woman was a slayer, something Dagda had no knowledge of. “What’s a slayer?” he asked, brow furrowing in concern. If the name was anything to go by, it sounded bad. From what she said, it seemed to be a type of magic. He wanted to know more. A magic that required the user to consume flesh - it was almost unthinkable.

“No, don’t apologize. Good thinking, the attacker probably was covered in blood when they left.” Dagda’s voice was curt, but only because of the severity of the situation. His mind was racing as he paced around the body, careful to watch his step. Rainwater splashed on his boots with each step. Perhaps he had missed a footprint or something in his frantic once-over of the alleyway earlier.

“Which way is the canal?” he asked, dark eyes scouring the ground. He was torn between investigating this now or going right to the Rune Knights. As much as he knew he should leave it in the hands of the authorities, he wanted to take charge and work with this timid woman to figure it out. Perhaps with two of them, they could track down the woman she had seen.

Dagda instinctually, and mistakenly, assumed this woman’s innocence from her meek disposition. She seemed too sweet and timid to be involved in such a horrible situation. The desire to escort her away from here and to safety still pushed at the titan’s mind. He didn’t want her to be traumatized any more. However, despite her meek appearance, she seemed to want to help. The scene was so horrible, but she had jumped right in to look at it and try to figure out any clues. Fighting his protective instinct, Dagda decided to keep her around. He didn’t want to be alone out here, and his want for companionship was escalated by how shaken he was.