[coronatiger]

Shelter

I stayed in that building for years, only leaving to run errands. The main part housed the Ashtar-Muriak, “Ashtar’s Fangs”, and the snake-filled cellar was the holy temple of our faith. The Fangs, as you know, are our holy warriors, our guardians. Those not stationed elsewhere, or on a mission, lived and trained there in Sam. I practiced with them, and learned how to defend myself, unarmed and with a knife. I helped out in their offices, learning how to read and write, and discovered that they regularly took bounty hunter missions, tracking down and bringing criminals to justice. The authorities knew what to expect when they hired Fangs as bounty hunters; the last part of the expression “wanted dead or alive” was superfluous in mission briefings. After all, Ashtar is the goddess of death, and no Ashtarite hunted bounty without her blessing, thus no target was brought back alive.

Of course, my work and practice with the Fangs was secondary to my work and practice in the temple. I became familiar with the rites and rituals of Ashtar, and learned the holy stories. I soon figured out that there were things they didn’t tell me, but I was patient and said nothing. Knowledge would come when I was initiated to higher ranks. The ritual with the snake crawling over me had bestowed upon me the lowest rank, Spawn. I determined to be obedient, dutiful and devout, not because I desired knowledge, but because it felt right.

I had a small room all to myself in the living quarters, but I often took a blanket down to the temple and slept among the snakes. They were so fascinating! I was sad when one of them passed away, and overjoyed when a new one hatched or when someone brought one as a gift. The first time I bled, I woke up with cramps on the temple floor, and I was afraid one of the snakes had bitten me, but when I looked at them, I saw no hostility or anger, and I remembered that Rhuk had told me this would happen when I got older. When the caretaker came to feed the snakes, I was praying to Ashtar, caressing a viper that had slithered into my lap. I calmly told her what had happened, and she helped me clean up. She told me that in addition to working in the temple, she was a midwife. She helped women who were sick or injured, or who had trouble giving birth. She offered to take me on as an apprentice, but that didn’t feel right to me. I had my duties in the temple and with the Fangs, I explained. She insisted on giving me five-minute lessons each morning, and I learned a lot from her over the years, even with such short lessons.

I had stayed in Sam for about a year when I was initiated as a Bearer. I lay down naked on the temple floor, and was covered from the feet to the neck with sand and dirt, before volunteers from the congregation washed the dirt off me, starting at my feet and cleaning each body part in the proper order.

Rhuk came and went as her job demanded. She was a cart driver, mainly transporting produce from farms to markets. When she was in Sam, she always looked in on me, often staying with the Fangs for a few days to take part in teaching me. She never mentioned it, but eventually I came to see that she was the one who made sure I got all the skills I learned during my stay. It didn’t take long to figure out that she was a Fang herself, and a pretty high-ranking one at that. Everyone treated her with great respect.


Fang

I was around sixteen when Rhuk took me out on my first bounty hunt. We followed a murderer to Byblos, showing a detailed drawing of him to people along the way, asking if they’d seen him. We believed we were one day behind when we reached the capital. Rhuk pulled up at an inn, and sent me to get some supplies while she got settled. By pure coincidence, our quarry bumped into me on the marketplace. Thinking fast, I apologized and engaged him in conversation. I directed the exchange, guiding him to invite me to have a drink with him. I happened to know an inn nearby, so we went there. While I distracted the man, Rhuk added a few drops to his drink. He slumped over the table, and Rhuk displayed our papers, identifying the man as a criminal and us as bounty hunters. She said she had drugged him so we could bring him to trial. We took the body up to our room and left for Sam early in the morning, the corpse wrapped in a blanket on the back of the cart.

Rhuk was impressed with how easily I had lured the man to the inn, and with how little the kill had affected me. I asked her why she expected it to bother me. It was by Ashtar’s will this man was dead; I had done as my Goddess desired. Feelings didn’t enter into it. As for how I got him back to the inn, I had just told him what he wanted to hear. I explained that I often knew when people lied to me or didn’t tell me the whole truth, and that I just made sure I didn’t give away any of the markers I knew how to look for. Rhuk said she would mention my talents when she made her report.

After several successful bounty hunts with Rhuk, I was taken to a sacred place. I will not tell you where, but I remained in seclusion for three months. I have few clear memories from the dream-like state I was in, but I remembered someone praying over me, as if I was dead. Many secrets were revealed to me, but not in the sense of shared knowledge. It’s difficult to explain; it was more like my body was imprinted with muscle memory. Although I knew how to fight already, when I reemerged into the world, my body was a weapon. I had truly been blessed by Ashtar. Bestowed with divine gifts and the knowledge of how to use them according to Ashtar’s will, I felt like a new person.

Rhuk welcomed me back to the land of the living. A ceremony in the temple celebrated my ordeals, and as the priest spoke the ritual words, I realized I might not have survived. I asked Rhuk about it, and she admitted that while the priests only submit those they think are worthy to the trial, two out of three succumb to the tremendous power they are subjected to, and join Ashtar in her realm. I had witnessed this ceremony twice before, but this was the first time I knew what it was actually about.

Among the Fangs, those who underwent and survived the trial share a sense of brotherhood, a feeling that we are special, and of course we get the most difficult missions. I don’t know how many we are in total, but the next day, eight of us gathered for our own celebration. Rhuk was there, of course, but all the others were men. The other Fangs arrived after a while and I was officially included in their numbers.

At the next Meet, I was initiated to the third rank in our faith. A cup of poison was passed around, and we had to drain it completely before the evening was over. I had no reaction to it, even though I drank my fair share, but some of the others became unwell. We all became Daggers, though.