The Afflicted

"A flash of green whizzed past his head and exploded in the earth near where he stood as he leaped towards cover behind the small boulder. He smacked his dry lips and grunted, then stood up and gripped onto his double-bladed axe. The mage stood, only a hundred feet away, glancing around, bored, and toying with him, knowing he would not keep this up forever. "Talon!" His mentality solely focused upon the enemy, he scarcely heard his friend's plea. "We must go! She is too great, and we need to find your brother!"
Talon leaned on his stronger leg, the other wounded by a deep gash from a keen lash from the dragon-mage's spiked tail. He watched her, her horse-like head but reptilian in nature, the large spear whose blade was that of some great beast's tooth not seen in the lands for centuries. She walked digitigrade in a circle, pivoting the spear-staff, flexing her brown-gray wings, taunting him. She was not using her full strength, but the neutral smirk upon the mage's face contained a secret that would doom the human race.
Swallowing, Talon regained his composure and breathed in and charged the creature. She held her hand out and a green pentagram swirled into view. For a few seconds, time slowed down drastically, and the mage stepped casually out of harms way, and Talon fell face first into the dirt. His cheeks flushed red with slight embarrassment while she danced around in the opening, chuckling. Then finally she stopped and closed her eyes, placing her hands against each other, staff in between, as if in prayer.
Talon came to his senses when he heard the shallow chanting behind him, and he immediately scrambled to his feet and braced himself to attack. He knew that now was his only chance to defeat the abomination. His armor clinked as he hefted his axe behind him and charged towards the mage, but he was too late. She had finished her spell and had already stepped away, ruining his aim and causing him to fling his weapon from his grip. He turned around and swore under his breath.
Finally she sighed and crossed her arms. "The gods created these lands. The races, the people, the mountains and valleys of the very world. Everyone has their place. For thousands of years, the ancient creatures, some human in nature, traversed the earth your kind defiles so disrespectfully. Humans have hunted the beasts of this land, their land, as they slowly migrated across the terrain." She paused, deep in thought."... You have killed us, for trophies, money, food, games. The creatures who are not worthy enough for your world, the Beasts of Old, shall rise again. One cannot create something from nothing, even me. You shall be scarred by the creatures you have eradicated. They will come forth from within you. You are the First, the cursed, and you shall never see me again." With a blast of green flame, the mage vanished.
"What was that?" Ny asked Talon with a strong trace of fear in his tone. Talon looked up in surprise at his little brother emerging from the trees at the end of the clearing he had fought in. Ash walked over, too, with a frustrated look.
"Ny! Where the heck have you been? If you hadn't wandered off that mage would be dead!" Ash demanded as the little boy began trembling. Ash looked over at Talon then, "Come on, we need to get back to the village."
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In the small village of Thail, residents emerged from their huts to see the warriors return home. The atmosphere was saturated with joyful jubilance as tearful mothers hugged their sons, and each retold the tale of the monster that had nearly killed Talon.
For months, her last words resonated in Talon's mind, and he fainted one morning when he had found his hair to be a pale brown-red color. He was reassured it was okay for weeks, until the deep red fur had begun sprouting on different parts of his body. " You shall be scarred by the creatures you have eradicated. They will come forth from within you. You are the First, the cursed... "
Slowly, Talon began refusing to see other people, afraid of what they would say when they saw how furry he had become, like a dog. His feet were a dark red, the rest of him the deep red, his chest white, under his eyes was black fur, and his forehead was covered in tan fur.
Over weeks he experienced excruciating pain when his foot started growing to about the same length of his thigh. Over days his toes and fingers cracked as they morphed into unreal paw-like forms. Days progressed and gradually, unnoticeably, his face had began to lengthen forward, slowly warping into a snout. He realized this by the time his ears had become large and white , fox's ears.
Three months after the curse the mage had created, three horns had grown from his head, one small one in the middle of his forehead, and one that grew in front of each ear and curved back around his head, almost creating a halo around his head. His pupils had vanished and his eyes were glowing yellow and a thick, red, striped wolf tail had grown painfully from the end of his spine.
But by then he had seen no one, only locked himself within a corner of his home and only sneaked out to eat. Today, however, he would show himself, and see Ny, Ash, the elders of the town, even his parents, in the middle of their town. The sun had already risen nigh on its high point, and so he stood up on digitigrade anthro red-wolf legs and walked out into the sunlight.
He had become a Beast of Old, just as the mage had promised as she finished her chant. Townsfolk screamed and gasped, children cried, and some men brought out their knives, shouting. Talon had second thoughts.
The sun shone brightly upon him, and he felt his back grow hot. Very hot. In fact, two flames shot from his back and curved up over his body, like a giant firey halo, but these were thin, firey wings.
Talon turned around and saw his family; his parents completely paralyzed with horror, and Ny leaning into his mom, crying. Then the shaman of the village came up to him and exiled him from their safe haven, sending him off into the wilderness where he would not bother them ever again, or taint them with his disease, they had called it. It was true; Talon was never seen or heard from again, and everyone forgot about him until a toddler was seen with his hands webbed, and a small tail sprouting from him. It was then, the townspeople realized that Talon possessed no small disease; it was a curse, an incurable curse, that had contaminated the very essence of the area, slowly making its way into other human bodies, and mutating them. They are the Afflicted."
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