Chapter 12
by 
Jim_jones
Who was the pursuer?
A bully from the town
Fate must have the cruellest sense of humour John thinks to himself watching the bully reach the summit. He wracks his brain trying to think of a worse person to take this moment from him and Damiana and can’t think of any. From his far away position lying on the floor he can’t quite make out their face at first, the only real clue is the dangerous looking iron dagger hanging from their waist, a staple of the town’s bullies. Having reached the top the bully takes a moment catch their breath – keeping up with regular sized people as a four-foot-tall pipsqueak must be no easy feat – and John catches a glimpse of their face, his heart sinking to realise it was.
The bullies are:
Emil, previously a hulking figure standing 6’2” with a solid build that made him incredibly physically imposing. His broad shoulders and bulging arms only served to further accentuate his superiority over others. He has kept his piercing blue eyes that seemed to stare right through people, his ragged mop of dark brown hair unkempt now as always. While his current reduced size no longer frightens John, he fears that he has almost certainly kept his old personality. His favourite form of humour involved endlessly belittling and tormenting those he perceived as weaker, which to a juggernaut such as himself was everyone. While the other bullies cruel out of a desire to be close to him and out of his wrathful path, Emil revelled in causing pain and suffering to others. He often would use his cunning intelligence to carefully control situations and others around him to get what he wants.
Finn was Emil’s second-in-command, normally standing 6’ tall, his build was less impressive than Emil’s. Finn was always more on the lean and wiry side of things more than large and bulky. His body worked out in a meticulous program to hide his deceptively high strength, and to avoid mass which would get in the way of his preferred attack style, using lightning-fast movements. Finn much preferred to bully only those much smaller and weaker than himself, too cowardly to go after a bigger target without Emil and Osric around. His dark eyes were harsh, and hid his need for validation, ambitions to one day replace Emil as the leader of the trio occasionally circled through his head. Having learnt to stay out of his way, John often wondered whether his actions stem not from hatred, but a deep-seated desire for someone else to control him. Maybe if was just his imagination, those eyes show no compassion now as he brushes a lock of dark hair from his eyes.
Osric, was the smallest of the trio. At a fairly average height of just 5’8”, he tended to spend more time working out to build his lumbering frame than anything else. Osric had picked up the habit after being bullied as a child for his bright ginger hair and his warm green eyes. Amazingly having learnt nothing about empathy from the experience, he had set out to become the biggest bully of all, limited only by his unimpressive stature. John had often wondered who would win in a fight had it come to blows between Emil and Osric, and John isn't actually sure. Osric probably had 30 pounds of solid muscle advantage, but Emil enjoyed quite a large height advantage. John is almost thankful that he is presently no more likely to beat anyone in a fight than a 10-year-old girl before remembering the object he is currently reaching for. He hopes that underneath the cruel muscled interior that there may exist some kindness within him. A foolish hope perhaps.