Skinwalker Apocalypse

Apiatan Thunderhawk

Alona Thunderhawk mentally rolled her eyes, cringing in irritation inside as Gamio kept running his mouth at her beside her stall. She just had a few more meat to sell and it would be all over.

"...just give me a chance and you really wouldn't regret it. I promise.. "

Alona wanted to black out his words but really couldn't ask she depended on her hearing since loosing her sight.

"Meat cuts, please." A voice said peaking her interest and thankfully, silencing the never ending noise beside her.

Alona was thankful for the reprieve and also if the buyer, whose voice she had never heard, bought all three pieces of antelope flesh left, she could go back to her home on the hills. That would be all today. She might even gain a new customer.

"Might I interest you in some antelope meat, Sir?" Alona turned with a smile on her face in the direction from which she heard the sound. If her hears weren't deceiving her, which they never did, the adult male voice came from slightly to her left. The voice sounded aged, Alona imagined it was a man closer to his death than he was to his birth.

"Ah... Yes, that please." The voice replied. "How much are they."

The voice was easy to differentiate for Alona as it had none of the native accent that the locals had while speaking the English language. It was most definitely a foreigner.

That meant a chance for extra cash for Alona. And goodness knows that she did need all the cash she could get. Aunt was getting worse.

Alona gave a price that was twice the original price without the slightest pang of guilt. She needed the money and most foreigners had more than enough to spare.

"I'll take it." the man's voice came again making her sigh internally with relief. She wrapped the thick piece of meat and handed it over after receiving the current amount of coins. She used her hands to trace the numbers on the metal to confirm before handing the meat over.

Finally, she was free to go home for the day and especially free from Gamio's "sweet talks". Couldn't he get it into his skull that she had no interest in joining his group of hunters. She was fine on her own and didn't need to hunt for him on the Deathmoore community woods.

An hunter needs permit to hunt in that animal rich forest and to get one, you needed an agent to grant. Gamio was an agent but runned it like a pimp would run his p********e and she had no interest to pay him interest for each day of work.

Accepting to do that also meant that she would go daily to Deathmoore. She had promised herself not to step into the village anymore since she had been sort of banished from it. She vowed not to go there and that included every part of it, even their forest.

Moreover she didn't want anything to do with a disgusting excuse of human that thought accosting a blind female on her way from the market with his thugs could intimidate her into working for him. Luckily for her, her partially elusive magic decided to show up and all she knew was that he never tried that method anymore and went back to his offer and persuasive method.

Feeling her way around her stall table, Alona made to leave with her pouch of coins when a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Alona, you have to reconsider. I can give you an offer that you can't resist." She felt the warmth on her face as the agent leaned closer to her to whisper in her ear "It's better than anything I've ever offered anyone else. Think about it."

Alona nodded her heard in a way to get him to back up from her already knowing that she was not going to give it a second thought, she had things to do like take care of her sick aunt and set up fresh traps.

Gamio's hand squeezed her shoulder before he took his hand off. She opened her mouth to say something when the sound of incoming hurried steps.

"Shin... (aunt). Maman... Come check her... Blood... " Apiatan's voice was a mess within wheezes and sniffs. His voice carried the distress he felt and Alona knew that it was serious.

Apiatan, her cousin, was the type to brag about his knowledge in medicinal herbs and healing prowess and if he was this worried, it was definitely serious.

Forgetting what she was about to say or even the fact that she was discussing with Gamio, Alona let her cousin take her hand and fled after him.

*****

Hours later, Apiatan was shaking in the town's sole local clinic where his mother had been referred to a big city hospital on the diagnosis of possible stomach cancer.

If they were lucky and have a surgery done immediately, her aunt had a chance of being cured or so the doctor had said.

The problem was that they had nothing to their name and couldn't afford the transportation, not to talk of the actual surgery and other treatment.

Apiatan was uncontrollably weeping even as Alona held him and tried to control her own tears. They both were sad and her aunt's condition looked bad but she had to be the strong one.

Maybe we aren't doomed yet, Alona thought, maybe I can borrow some money from money lenders and then go work for Gamio. It would be difficult but she could do it.

Surely she could swallow her pride and take insults to save her kind auntie's life. Even if it meant slaving herself off for the rest of her life, she could do it.

She would do it!!

Alona untangled her limbs from her cousin's shoulders and stood up, she had to tell the clinic doctor to prepare her aunt to be moved while she arranged for some money.

"Alona." Gamio's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Gamio! Thank heavens that you are here. I would like to speak to you."

"I have brought a visitor with me, Alona, a foreigner. He wants to see you. "

Alona's clouded eyes widened in surprise. "What would a foreigner want with me?"

"Not you. Apiatan."

"Hello, my dear." Alona heard the same voice that had spoken to her in the market earlier. "How would you like to be my Shaman for a few weeks and in exchange, I'll foot your mother's bills completely?"

A/n: I might make up some words as I go as Deathmoore is a fictional land but I'll interprete what they should mean.

Also, I'm sorry from late updates as I wanted to finish this book this month, I really did for the competition but the pressure as well as other things really took a toll on me, gave me the worst writers block and took the joy of writing from me. So I've decided to write on my own pace to give the best.

Thank you and please comment your opinions. It would really help me in so many ways. Thank you.