Free DeVante's Curse by S. M. Johnson

Chapter 1 -- A Child
     
    It did not matter how he became the monster
or the man, only that he grew into both, and thus was meant to
survive.
    Ernesto Alvarez was born a pariah, the male
offspring of the village witch, an impossibility according to
superstition. His mother had bled profusely from his passage into
the world, and the bleeding would not be stopped. Her frightened
apprentice reported that the witch used her last breath to curse
her male offspring. You shall live darkly and long, and the
culmination of your life shall be your triumph.
    He had no father. If any man from the village
had claimed parentage of the witch's son, they would surely have
both been driven away.
    From the moment he could stand on his feet
and push open the door, Ernesto preferred the forest to the
enclosed space of his mother's empty hut, and so he took shelter
only during the heaviest rains.
    The animals were his guides. He learned from
spider monkeys which fruits and berries were safe to eat, and from
the capybara about edible plants. He sometimes ate the raw flesh of
the tapir when the kill was plentiful, and the jaguar too sated to
chase him away.
    Ernesto did not remember a taste preference
between these things. He knew the villagers cooked meat over fires,
but all of the animals distrusted fire, and he shared their
wariness. Fruits and nuts were plentiful and easier to catch than
meat, and killing for the purpose of sustenance was unpleasant.
    Twelve rainy seasons passed, and then: a
guide from a different village brought the red-haired woman, and
explained that it was Ernesto's destiny to go away with her.
Ernesto did not understand, but as the villagers stood in a
semi-circle around him holding torches to ward off the night, he
could see in their solemn eyes that they wanted him to go.
    The red-haired woman smiled and smoothed her
fingers through Ernesto's hair, but he could see a disconnect in
her eyes that belied her nectar-sweet smile.
    Ernesto did not trust her, and less so when
she wrapped her arms around him and leapt into the sky like a great
bird of prey.
    The woman brought him to a stone building in
a cold land. She talked to him, but she spoke a language he did not
know. He was shivering from the cold and shocking flight, and made
the mistake of ignoring her.
    A loud shriek from her caught his attention.
And then her palm met his face with a harsh snap and sudden
pain.
    She hit him again, and he fell to his knees,
raising his hands to protect his face.
    She beat him until he thought he would die,
and then she went away.
    Ernesto stayed on the floor, barely able to
breathe. A hard seed of anger settled into his chest. Discipline in
the animal world was swift and immediate. The jaguar might cuff her
young and send him sprawling if he bit or clawed too hard, but it
was warranted, and then it was over.
    Ernesto had done nothing to warrant
discipline but fail to understand her words.
    A boy, older than Ernesto by several rainy
seasons, helped him sit up, and then stand. A boy whose language
was more like Ernesto's than the woman's.
    "She will beat you no matter what you do or
do not do, say or do not say," the boy said.
    "How do I avoid it?" Ernesto asked.
    "You cannot. She brought you here for some
purpose. Maybe she'll kill you, maybe not."
    Ernesto worked to wipe all emotion from his
face, hoping to eradicate the dread from his heart. "What are we to
do?" he asked.
    "We work," the boy said. "We feed her. We
obey."
    The boy's name was Felix, and he led Ernesto
to a small kitchen where he cleaned Ernesto's face with a cool rag,
then gave him bread and cheese to eat. Then he led Ernesto through
the tasks of sweeping floors, and stacking wood into the
fireplaces. "We check the sun now," Felix said, and pulled Ernesto
through a doorway to an outside courtyard.
    The right side of the courtyard was taken up
by a smoking pit encircled with large neat bricks mortared to waist
height. The flagstones beneath his bare feet were warm.