Cpt. Donovan Lox POV

It was a little after midnight, I was finally falling asleep after getting done my mountain of reports on my desk.

Knock! Knock!

'Hmmm....I must be hallucinating I thought I just heard a knock.'

Boom! Boom!

'Please say it isn't so.'

"SIR!!, PLEASE COME TO THE DOOR I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" Yelled the youthfull voice behind the door.

"I'M ON MY WAY MILADY!" I yelled sarcasticly as I tossed off the blankets.

I walked to the door and took off the board I used as lock for my door. As I opened the door, the light from the hallway entered my private room and blinded me.

"AH SHIT!!! I'M BLIND!" I screamed as I collapsed into my subordinates arms.

"Sir, could you please be more serious sometimes?" Said my subordinate.

"You know very well Laura, the only reason that I don't have hemorrhoids like those old bastards is because I act this way." I replied.

My beautiful subordinate deflected my response and put a strand of her red hair behind her ear. She then pushed up her glasses and began to give her message to me.

"Sir, the Chief Elders have gotten reports on the whereabouts of Bradley White and would like you to investistigate immediately." She relayed the command.

"Not this shit again, I'm too old to run around chasing random reports with no evidence." I replied with a sigh.

"But Sir, any report could help to bring him in. His case is also not to be written off, you know as well as I that he is a demon summoning practitioner." She said encouragingly.

"HE HASN'T BEEN SEEN FOR FIVE YEARS!!" I said with crazy bloodshot eyes.

"That's why every report is important." She said knowingly.

"Siiiiiiiiigggggggggghhhhhhhh......alright let me get prettied up and we'll all set off in an hour." I said with a wimper.

Laura put a hand across her chest then departed. I closed my door and started stretching my muscles for the day. I then went to look at my reflection in my helmet to fix my hair. At the moment it was still hanging down to my shoulders but it was tangled, so I got my wooden comb and combed my greying blonde hair. After making myself look the best I could at thirty nine I put my armor on. First my vest, which was bronze on the shoulders, pecs, and shoulder blades. The rest was a layer of darkened leather at the abdomen, back, and also underneath the bronze to avoid chafing. I put on the skirt next that had wide leather strips hanging to almost my knees. Then were my leather greaves which were really nothing special. And lastly the helmet that was bronze and covered everything but eyes, nose, mouth, and cheeks. When I put the helmet on I immediately looked toward the flask of wine near my bed and took a sip.

"Can't go to work on an empty stomach." I muttered with a smirk.

I then went to the barracks and gathered the troop for the march. No one was  really pleased, but they didn't argue. With my four-hundred soldiers in tow I made it to the main gates to wait for Laura the troops' scribe. About ten minutes later Laura came running to the main gate holding a bag of parchment. As she reached the troop we set off in the destination Laura's report gave. The Plains.

A few hours later

A few hours into the march we were only halfway to where the report said they witnessed Bradley White doing some sort of chant in a field.

"So Laura?" I asked.

"Yes?" She replied next to me.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"What does Bradley White look like, so that we don't hurt or kill some old sob taking a stroll?" I asked.

Laura took out a parchment from her back and started to read.

"Apparently he should be around his seventies to eighties, grey hair, and he is human with a rosey pink skin tone."

"Who was the person that reported the sighting?" I asked.

"It says here it was a rancher who heard noise while hearding his livestock." She replied.

'Well, this report's looking more promising than the last ones.' I thought

A few hours later

"Why does this report have to be hours aways from Lankland, why couldn't someone just see Bradley White at an Inn?" I complained.

"We're almost there sir, so just think about seeing Gwin on your day off tomorrow." Said Lt. York

"Thanks for the reminder." I replied remembering the day I see my daughter.

I walked with a smile on my face for the next couple minutes until we came upon the area of the report. Before me, was miles of Plains heading east. To the north,  Elshaw Valley, a sink in the ground that goes down hundreds of feet. It looks like a scar on the earth left behind by something that is long been dead. To the south is Willard-Wood, just trees and a few ponds but nothing of danger.

'Alright, I guess I'll get this over with.' I thought.

"Laura, where is the Ranch from the report located?" I asked with a bored expression.

Laura pointed more toward Elshaw Valley, so we traveled to meet the rancher. The Ranch was at the edge of the Plains near Elshaw Valley and the rancher told us he saw a man chanting in the center point of the Plains.

'Well I guess we're done then'

I was ready to get this goose chase done with already. We were already near the center of the Plains and there was no one there. As I was thinking about marching the troop home I saw birds circling around a part of the Plains we didn't cross.

'Please, let this man be dead. This is my twenty-third report for this guy. PLEASE!!' I begged in my head.

I brought the troop to the site where the birds were circling and I almost did a dance. What we saw was a Bradley White lying dead on the grass.

"Oh shit." I said reflexively.

As we were investigating the body, there were fat maggots all over his body, that weren't normal in any way.

"Laura make sure to document all this for the Chief Elders." I commanded.

Laura did as I said and wrote down everything we were seeing and discovering.

One hour later

After investigating the body we brought all the maggots and the body to a secure site in the area and burned everything. Afterward we headed back to Lankland to report to the Chief Elders. But once we got to the city we were told the Chief Elders were dealing with matters of the Estate and could not be disturbed.

One month later

I opened the doors to the meeting hall and was greeted by the Chief Elders.

"Welcome Captain what important news have you brought to us today?" The 1st Elder asked a hand on his cheek.

I looked at all four Elders whose names nobody knows but the King, and said.

"Bradley White was found dead at the last reported location."

This seemed to get the other three Elders attention and they all started to smile.

"The Gods must have struck him dead themselves." The 4th Elder said with a laugh.

They seemed to have wanted to celebrate the moment but I wasn't really finished.

"May I continue with the report Elders?" I asked bowing my head.

"There's more? Do please continue." Came the First Elder.

"The body was found with abnormaly sized maggots on and inside of it. I would have thought nothing of it beforehand, but the report stated he saw him chanting." I said.

After I was done speaking, the Elders got deathly silent. One of them even looked like they were starting to sweat.

"Did you make sure to dispose of maggots?" The 3rd Elder asked.

"I burnt the body and the maggots that were with it, why do you ask? I replied.

"DEMONS THATS WHY!!! That crazy bastard tried to summon fucking demons, what was he thinking?" Elder 2 said in a rant.

"What she was trying to say was demons can't come into our world fully formed. When they're summoned they could be an egg, baby, or like what you saw it with Mr. White, maggots."

"And that also means that dumbass used his own body as part of the ritual. That's why you never see maggots in these cases because no one is that crazy." Elder 2 said.

"At least all the maggots were destroyed. We would have had a lot of trouble if those demons went wild and did what they wanted. They might have even instigated a war." Elder 4 added.

That's when I started to sweat a little myself.

"Well.... we did discover one empty maggot skin shell near the body. And during the inspection of the body the brain was entirely gone." I said with a worried expression.

"If that demon ate a whole brain when it was a maggot, it's no longer running on instincts, it has intelligence." The 3rd Elder said.

"Captain, take your troop back to the site and burn everything. If we can't find it then we'll try to kill it or chase it to someone elses kingdom." The 1st Elder commanded.

With the new command I put my arm across my chest and went to give the troop the orders.