Chapter 4

The danger behind him, and the danger in front of him.

One was known, Gorfs and the shrieks of animals that were trapped in there.

One was unknown, such as Temtor and the thing that attacked it.

And a child that was still coughing his lungs out was running towards the comfort of knowing dangers.

It didn’t take long before Aydin encounter the first victim of Gorf.

It was a child younger than himself. His innards were pulled out and were cut in many places, which by itself, it left a horrible stench. The skin around his neck and face were gone and torn off. Whatever skin that was left there, it showed the teeth mark of a Gorf. The distance between its teeth, which showed how close they were.

The nauseating smell of innards, blood, and other organs that were exposed to elements now, forced Aydin to move on.

He wanted to vomit, and the moment the thought was formed, he emptied his content in his stomach.

It took him a while to empty his stomach, even when there was nothing left in his stomach, the body was insisted to empty itself.

The mixture of coughing and retching brought Aydin to his knees.

He was gasping for fresh air after throwing up, and what was entering his nostrils were that foul stench, and add to that, his body still was trying to get rid of whatever entered to his mouth during the battle he had with Temtor.

His body was confused what the priority were anymore?

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Get away from the danger area? But there was no air left in the boy,

Then the encounter with corpse of that young child happened, which made the whole process more tasking and complex.

It was only shear will of young boy and his desire to leave that area and leave behind the stench and danger that forced him to get up and do a mixture of walking, jogging, and stumbling.

When he distanced himself enough from that smell, where he could breathe without being choked, he let the coughing continues its course.

As he was walking towards the village, the coughing became less severe.

Now, he could take a breath, for every two coughs.

And when he could breathe, he could smell the burning wood that was catching fire.

The plume of smoke mixed with fog; it was difficult to distinguish between the two.

Aydin jogged for a bit and stopped a bit to catch his breath.

It was then when he heard the crashing noise of something big that was running, away from the fire and towards him.

Aydin that had nothing in him, except a hopeful wish and a trick, he laid down on the ground and covered himself with twigs and fallen leaves.

He didn't need to smear mud on his face and skin; he was already completely covered in it.

The noise of crashing was getting closer to him.

On the distance, Aydin saw, a creature that was many times bigger than adults’ man, as big as a peasant house, was rushing towards him.

Not exactly towards him, but on his direction.

When he recognizes what it was, he took a breath of relief.

It was a Loktale.

A docile animal that farmers use for pulling the carts. Even though, it eats vegetation, it was far from being not dangerous.

The back of Loktale was covered with honeycombs pattern of stones like, hard to break with hammer or sword. The sword wouldn’t even leave a mark on it, let alone cut it. And, on each pattern, something like a lance like protruded out.

A jerky move from Loktale was enough to impale anyone or anything who dared to annoy them, let alone try to kill it.

So, now Aydin figured out why Siaak army set everything on fire. They wanted to put Loktale in panic and break any defence that his father and his older brothers set up to.

The Loktale passed him by twenty walks away from him, but on its wake, with those spikes that left deep gash on the trees, and its heavy wight that rumbled the ground, it made Aydin happy that he was far enough from that animal.

If there was one more reason to hate Siaak army, this could be one on top of the list.

It was then he felt a more sever rumbling under his body.