"Cadmus! Wake up!" Guthen banged on the door of Cadmus early in the morning. He quickly got up as Guthen kicked the door in.
"Marc is dead! We're riding out hurry up!" Cadmus looked at her surprisingly, Marc and him trained much together, this could not have happened. He quickly got dressed as all the others got on their horses in the stable. Cadmus ran down the stairs and outside. He jumped on his trusty steed with his equipment at the ready, just like everyone else.
"COME ON EVERYONE! LET'S GO!" Rufa yelled as they all started galloping with their horses.
"Where to?" Cadmus asks as they went on the only road leading from their fortress. "And just what happened to Marc!?"
"To the giant's fork! One of my ravens returned this morning, it seems like Marc got murdered by... something, i don't know the details." Cadmus grunts as they keep on riding.
After a few minutes of riding they get to the junction where Marc was camping. Rufa whistles sharply, some crows set off from the woods. "There!" He points to where they flew from. The Hunters all start riding towards where Rufa pointed to, they come to find Marc's corpse, seemingly stabbed many times.
Bryda gasps as Rufa jumps off his horse along with Cadmus. They draw their swords and look around anything suspicious. They all slowly get off their horses as they approach the campsite.
"At least he seems like he put up a good fight." Cadmus grunts and comments as he notices Marc's wounds.
"Over here! You guys are not going to like this..." Lurken yelled out and pulled a corpse from behind a tent by it's legs. It was Ronan's corpse, a clean stab right through his heart.
"The knight? Marc must have killed him... but why did they leave it's body here?" Rufa crouched down at the corpse as he was thinking. He got up and turned around. "Well we have no time to waste do we, we have to do something about this, we can't let our brother's death go in vain!"
Two horses approach the junction as they all draw their weapons and look towards the road. "It's the king's man. Patrols galloping towards the capital, but why?" Cadmus says as he straightens up. They all look at each other and nod, they jump on their horses and go to where the soldiers came from.
After a few kilometres of riding they see huge smoke clouds coming from a village in the distance. They headed straight for it across the countryside, as they got closer all they could see is some frames of houses, roads covered in ashes. There was almost nothing left from the village.
"Rhytfilk, it was burned to the ground under one night, who could do this?" Guthen remarked as they started to slow down and investigate. They could not find any tracks that could lead them to an answer. It could not have been monsters, there were no survivors they could find in the area either. They kept searching across the ruins for anything.
"You finding anything Lurken?"
"Nothing here Rufa. Cadmus, any luck so far?" Uthreg asks as he walks towards them.
"Some footprints leading towards that hill, i will go check it out."
"Good idea, we will keep looking for any clues."
Cadmus calls his horse and follows the footprints. He eventually reaches a smaller camp with around 10-20 people. There were many children amongst them, some of the people were wounded as well, they sure seemed like survivors from the attack. Cadmus got off his horse and lead her towards the camp. One man stands up and looks at him as he approaches him.
"Can you tell me what happened here? What destroyed your village"
"Are you with the king? Where were the reinforcements? I saw the patrol run off at night but no one returned since!" The people start to rise up and yell at Cadmus.
"Hey, i am not from the king, i am one of the Brave Ones, we are here to help, just tell me what happened? Did beasts attack the village?"
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"Beasts? There were no beasts friend, the gods are punishing us, i am sure of it!"
"It all grown dark, when it was only the sunset! Then everything started burning and falling down, some people were screaming and yelling. Something was in the village, killing everyone!"
"We could not do anything to stop it! No one knew what was happening so some of us started to run away, many of us got wounded by the thing!"
"It cut off my whole hand as we were running away!"
"Something you could not see? That left no tracks? That is impossible, someone must have been behind this." Cadmus was pondering as he tried finding an answer to all of this non-sense.
"It was those witches i tell ya'!" They started to guess and answer the question themselves as Cadmus tried calming them down.
"Cadmus! The King's men are here!" Brytha said as she was overlooking the hill. Cadmus and the villagers followed the woman. All the people were grunting and mumbling about the king.
"All we want to know is what happened here, this is the King's territory, Lord Rufa!" Said a soldier who seemed to be the captain.
"Your people were deserted by your king that is what happened!" Cadmus yelled at the spokesman as some the villagers behind him were riling up and agreeing with him.
"T-The King will take care of the survivors, but we need to know what happened! We need to know who destroyed this village!"
Rufa looked at the captain of the small army consisting of only a dozen men. "Frankly, it seems like your King is not so interested, where were you when the village was attacked? Your patrols were off to drinking the night away?"
The soldiers looked at each other and whispered, one of them walked to the captain and whispered something in his ear.
"Shadow Hunters, if you do not comply with our request, the realm will see you as an enemy!" Lurken draws his axe but Rufa signals him to stop half way.
"Tell your king, we don't know what happened, but it was no ordinary beast. They would not destroy a village overnight to this extent. There are a few traces of magic, but not enough for us to tell what exactly happened here." Rufa told the captain in a sincere low-tone. The soldier turned around and started slowly marching with the army.
"The survivors shall follow us to the capital where they can be safe and sound!" The villagers followed as they had nowhere else to go. They thanked the Brave Ones and went on their way. The Hunters also grouped up and trotted back to their fortress along with Marc's and Ronan's corpse for further examination.
Meanwhile the members of the courtroom all talk over each other hours later when the news arrived. All arguing over the safety and the future of the realm. Some talk of war, some talk of beasts and magic. The Emperor not being able to listen to the noise anymore stands up from his throne.
"Silence at once! I will not hear any more of this! The realm is as safe as ever, we just have to find out who would attack us in such an unnoticed way!"
"What about the Brave Ones? Maybe the attack was from beasts after all!"
"We shall not ask for their help anymore." Declared the king as he walked to the bedroom chambers. His adviser looking back and forth as he stood up as well.
"Everyone dismissed!" The court members walk out disgruntled at their king
The King got in his chambers and looked in the mirror pondering. His adviser followed him shortly. "My sire! Who could do such a thing? If it would have been from outside the realm we would be under siege right now!" The King turns around and sits down at his table, he takes a huge sigh as he tries to calm down and think of something, as someone knocks at his door.
"It's Dryzl, should i let him in sire?" Asks his advisor looking at the king as he nods.
"Good day my Lord, perhaps would you care for us to discuss this in private manners? I might have found something of great importance, and i have something to lighten up your mood with, My Lord!" He shows a bottle of "white blood." A very well liked drink originating from the realm. The King looks at his advisor as he nods.
"We tasted it beforehand, sire. It is safe to drink."
"Alright, then you are dismissed, we will talk in private Dryzl, i am pleased to have you as company." The advisor leaves the room as Dryzl puts the bottle down and walks to get a glass and put it opposite of the King.
"You forgot my glass i fear." The King looks at him and chuckles.
"I did not forget anything, lord. But something far greater than your wine is happening, which you do not have to worry about anymore." The King reaches for his sword just too slow as the spy stabs through the King's throat and covers his mouth. He pours some white blood in his glass and drinks it. He walks out of the chamber to see both guards on the ground covered in blood. He quietly ran from the castle. Out the window, climbing down in the shadow of the walls, right to the stables to his horse waiting for him. He got away from the capital without anyone batting an eye.
The advisor returned to the king quite some time later only to find the corpses, he alerted all the guards as they were desparately searching for Dryzmr, only to learn that he gone from the capital a long time ago. Headed to a realm that is seperated from the home realm by some smaller countries, Gununkunta.