Quietly his slithering tongue licked his tiny calloused palm that was coated in fresh blood and blood stained fluffy white bird feathers. Old Night’s imp, Perak, wings cloaking his sinewy body, hid within the tree top concealed within an illusion of his own making. Beady yellow eyes observed the crowd of outlanders and guards below, congregating outside of the Lady’s Rest, the same Inn that was so hospitable as to chase his master out for nothing more than simply being “deformed.” No love for the caliban. Radu’s legendary hammer has split the melon of as many as half a dozen calibans, maybe more, some of them even runts, standing no taller than Radu’s waist, and most were as harmless as a gnat. They’ll tolerate a caliban, so long as that caliban is out of sight, out of mind.
And some, many, would say that Old Night is out of his mind. The sun drops, and the village and surrounding farmlands and forests darken, and for a caliban, darkness heralds a welcomed beginning. In the darkness, in the absence of light, they become just another bump in the night. Crawling from the caves, stepping out from the thickest woodland seclusions, climbing up through the sewer grates, leaving the stench of sewers and rotting rats behind for the sweet fresh air, nostrils flare, breathing it all in, relishing the freedom that only night can provide them.
Perak’s head swiveled side to side, serpent like, as he watched two Falknovian men, he knew their names, Vladimir and Otto, as they stood under the new winter moon. Night is not the domain of caliban alone. There are things far more dangerous than a caliban. One such danger stood calmly before the two Falknovians, who stood with shields ready. Perak’s ears twitched as he focused in on what they were saying.
“Why don’t we go somewhere else?” calmly spoke the dark clad figure of a man, “Being outside the inn here can….complicate things.”
What Perak knew, and perhaps what the Falknovian men also knew, was that this Red Vardo was not what he seemed. He was once a man. The Falknovian men scoffed and replied in their thick Falknovian accents,
“So we can walk right into your trap? You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“I had hoped you’d be more than just talk" was the dark clad man's reply, as if disappointed.
With those words he calmly turned his back and walked away, gradually fading into darkness until he was seen no more. The Falknovian men spent the next hour cursing the Red Vardo, but Perak heard tension in their voices. Then the Falknovian men began hurling explosives and gaseous grenades about the outskirts, perhaps thinking the Red Vardo “man” was lurking about. One must learn to be more careful of what goes bump in the night, if they hope to live a long and well….just if they plan on living.
Calibans aren’t so much wicked as they are misunderstood, scorned, and wretched. Old Night, as a child, his mother was forced to keep him hidden from the neighbors. As a result, he never learned how to relate to others his own age. He never had any friends, though he’d pretend. Most nights at the outskirts he simply watched the people, drawn to them, but yet separated by a vast chasm. Old Night did not care for having his night time disturbed by the loud mouthed Falknovian men. He reached into his charcoal robes and pulled out two peanuts, popped them into his mouth, then stepped forward within spitting distance of the two men and fired the peanuts from his mouth. The peanuts landed at their feet, and then their minds came undone, like twine unraveled by the cat’s paw.
Vladimir began kicking and slashing at Otto, screaming “Go to hell fey!!” one moment, and then the next he would mumble incoherently and look about in a state of profound confusion. Then he’d look again at Otto, and begin screaming again, punching or jabbing his blade until Otto was bleeding like a stuck pig. Then their minds returned to them, looking upon one another with the blood of each man on the other’s hands. Quietly they stumbled into the Lady’s Rest, leaving the confusion of the Barovian night to itself. Perak took flight following Old Night back into the sewers.