John explained that the place that all the farmers met, was at a tavern. "This is where Cornelius will more than likely be."
A week after getting his arrows, Thomas headed out on his hunt. The ride to the village was long and hard and once within walking distance, Thomas left the horse in the care of the Townsends. He paid them a silver to stable it, making sure to keep his hood up.
On his way to the tavern Thomas passed by the burnt out remains of his family farm. He felt a lump in his throat. Night had fallen and he climbed into the husk of a cottage. His mind's eye pictured it the way it was. He then pictured the events of the night of the fire. He looked around, fumbling in the dark. This was madness, he thought he might never let it go. Should he let it go? Should he forgive and forget?
No. The wolf demanded blood. His eyes focused in the dark. Bits of debris glinted in the moonlight. Then rain came. It was light at first, washing much of the ash away.
Thomas felt like crying. He missed his family so much so that it hurt to breathe.
There was a noise suddenly. Voices in the distance getting closer along with the sound of horses. He crouched quickly where he stood putting a hand down to balance himself. His fingers played with something hard in the soft soil. He picked it up and as the rain hit it, the moon showed its shape.
It was a silver ring.
The moonlight reflected off of its surface and caught the eye of the soldier that had come out to search the area for Thomas.
"Aye," he started, "who's that o'er there?"
Thomas could see that the other two soldiers were further down in his fields. He stood still but moved the ring so that it glinted.
The soldier took the bait and climbed down off of his horse. Thomas didn't move as the soldier made his way over to him, almost blindly. He reached down for the ring and found Thomas' hand. Thomas other fist swung at the man's throat, permanently silencing him. He gasped for air on the ground and Thomas stomped heavily on his face. Soon the sound of the stomp sounded more like stepping in mud rather than on someone's face. Thomas stopped.
He quietly dragged the man back to his horse and slipped one of his feet into the stirrup. He went back to the shadows of the burnt out cottage and threw a stone as hard as he could at the horse's hind end, causing it to rear up and gallop off. The other men saw it run down the trail and they broke into chase after it.
Thomas waited a moment then headed for the inner square of Loxley. He found a blind of sorts amongst the trees at the square's edge and slept for a couple of hours.
When morning came Thomas waited patiently. His eyes focused on the tavern and within a few hours, the man that fit Cornelius' description appeared and went in.
That first night, Thomas waited outside for Cornelius to leave and he followed him back to his cottage. There, Thomas saw Cornelius' family, comprised of a wife and young daughter. Thomas watched him from the safety of another treeline. Thomas thought about how he wanted to kill Cornelius in a manner that would warn the rest that mob law wouldn't be tolerated. He realized that the worst thing he could do would be to have Cornelius believe that Thomas intended a retribution that included his loving family.
The following morning, Thomas entered the tavern first thing. He kept his hood up, as it was still raining and no one would care. He sat at the back of the tavern and waited.
Mid-day, Cornelius came in and Thomas noted that they all noticed him. They kept very quiet but Thomas didn't care. He was paying more attention to the layout of the tavern and noting where the spirits and ale were being kept. Back wall, on the right, behind the counter. Thomas also noted the front window, which the keeper kept closed when he left and when they held their meetings.
Thomas left shortly. He would have to wait for the rain to stop to do what he planned. That was okay with Thomas. He could wait forever.
He stayed deep in the woods during the rain. He'd kill rabbits with the blunt arrows he had been carrying and had done so for more than a week when the rains finally stopped.
Thomas found a stable that was set up to shoe horses. Thomas took several of the nails and a hammer. Early in the morning, before dawn, he went by the tavern. Thomas looked around to see if anyone stirred and when he was comfortable in believing that all were still asleep, Thomas quickly nailed the front window shut. He lined up each of the nails with a single tap of the hammer then drove them in fully with another strike. Five of them and he figured the shutters would hold anyone inside from getting out.
Thomas went by a wagon and cut away part of it's covering. He cut it into small strips and wrapped several of his blunt arrows with them. He then went by a shed and dipped them all in oil before going back to his campfire deep in the woods and lighting one of the wrapped blunt arrows. Thomas wrote Cornelius' name on a rock with some of the rabbit's blood and went to the blind near the tavern.
There he waited and surely, Cornelius returned. A few more people arrived and Thomas realized that it was one of their rebel meetings. He smiled to himself.
Once he felt that no more people would go in, he lit an arrow and fired it at the door. He quickly lit and notched another. The door to the tavern opened and Thomas fired a burning arrow into the chest of the man who came to see what the noise at the door was. The man flew back in through the door.
Inside, those that hadn't panicked, put out the fire. They realized that someone was outside waiting for them to try to leave.
"It's the nobles," Cornelius declared, "they've discovered us."
The bar keep disagreed, "The nobles would have just come in and killed or arrested us."
The other men agreed that it wasn't the nobles.
A man went to the door and cracked it and tried to look out of it, using it as cover. Thomas saw the gap as a perfect opening. Thomas fired a third flaming arrow. This one hit a glass of spirits in front of a seated man and he caught fire as it spilled onto him. They tried to put him out but he panicked and went running out of the tavern. Falling to the ground in flames.
Thomas threw the rock with Cornelius' name on it, in through the open door.
The men all stared at the stone before one man picked it up. They passed it around until it got to Cornelius.
"Whoever it is, he wants you," the bar keep said.
The men all grabbed Cornelius as he began kicking and screaming. He begged them not to throw him out, not to throw him to the wolves but they did.
As the door opened, a single red arrow clips Cornelius' neck. Blood gushed out in an arc and coated the men around him. The suddenness of it all caused a panic and the men paused momentarily as three lit arrows passed them, one hit it's mark at the tankard of spirits on the back wall. The other two hit two men standing near the tankard. As they fell, they knocked over the tankard, breaking its wood body against the floor and sending its flaming contents across the floor of the tavern. The tavern erupted in fire. Two more arrows hit the man standing near Cornelius and he fell against the doors, pinning them shut.
A flaming man ran towards the window and attempted to leap but hit the closed shutters with a thud. The men tried to break the shutter with the tables and chairs. Another man on fire took a running jump at it and the shutter splintered as he fell through it. He landed on the jagged pieces of broken wood, tearing his abdomen open as he fell to the ground in a flaming pile of gore.
Thomas casually walked over to where Cornelius lay dying. Thomas pulled his hood back and uncovered his face so that Cornelius could see his death dealer.
"When I'm done here, I shall visit a worse fate on your wife and daughter," Thomas lied, "Something so gruesome that they'll name it after me."
Cornelius looked up with eyes that were already seeing the other side and asked, "Who are you?" Cornelius was afraid for his family.
"I'm Thomas Redgrave, the man whose family you razed for the sake of a statement. I'm the wolf without a pack."
Thomas pulled up his hood as the villagers all came out to see the fire. Life left Corneluis in a red stream.
Thomas walked casually past them, even seeing Cornelius' wife. Part of Thomas hated what he'd done. It hated that he'd cursed a whole village to slowly die since they no longer had men to work their fields.
The other part of him smiled deeply at his work. The wolf was satiated. For now.
Comics, "Alan Moore", "Captain America", "Robin Hood", "Ivanhoe", "Green Arrow", "Kevin Smith", "Tarzan",
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