Bruised bodies contorted in awful ways he didn’t know were possible. They lay there in pools of blood, some squashed flat and had bones sticking out of them. Some were so violently thrown against a building that it left a splatter of blood in the shape of a human before dripping down. There was so much blood. The air reeked of blood and dead flesh. Trash and various household items were thrown about as some folks tried to escape. The general store looked to be half boarded up but was either abandoned or something interrupted Julia when she tried.
Deep down Yarro knew he would have been too late, but he hoped at least some of them would have survived. By the looks of things, it seemed to be most of the village were dead. His heart sunk from the thought.
“Spread out! Look for survivors!” Commander Veer shouted. It seemed she was not fazed by the massacre in front of her. And then, at an abnormally loud level, she yelled into the town, “The army is here! We are here to protect you! Please come out so we may help you! We have medics!”
Everyone held their breaths, listening intently for any sign of human life. None came. Not even a rat. After a few beats, the company dismounted their horses and paired off. Those who were a fire elementalist lit torches or held fire in their hands to aid in their search. Yarro’s heart sank to new lows as it slowly dawned on him that the entire town was dead. No one survived the Master Earth Elemental. They all–
“Help me tie up the horses, Yarro?” Kael asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.
“Oh, sure.” Yarro looked around once more, hopeful, though he knew he shouldn’t be. Then helped Kael with the horses. There was a sort of wood fence around the tavern that was often used as a makeshift area for the horses to relax around whenever the trader stopped by. Of course it couldn’t hold all the horses of the army, and the few that couldn’t fit were situated by the general store.
Kael looked anguished, and like he was debating whether or not to speak up. They barely knew each other and he had already tried to comfort him. He eventually spoke up. “I’ve never experienced loss of this magnitude, but I still know how you feel. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”
Yarro had never gotten this attention before, and especially not from someone he was attracted to. Kael was being quite nice. He glanced down out of embarrassment. “O-oh. Thank you. Maybe later.”
Yarro got the last horse tied up before a small rock flew right by him and collided with the wall behind him, as the ground moved under his feet and closer to Kael. He gasped as he tried to steady himself until someone’s hands were wrapped around his waist. When he turned around, there was a regular sized Earth Elemental. Another normal version of the abnormally large one he encountered that day, though still dangerous. A rock hit the Earth Elemental square in the orbed head, making it fly off and subsequently collapsing the rest of the Elemental into a pile of normal rocks.
“How did that sneak up so quietly?”
“And quickly?” Kael relaxed his form and realized his hand was still touching Yarro’s waist. Their breaths caught in their throat for only a moment and Kael quickly let go.
Yarro cleared his throat. “Thanks. You’ve uh, got some quick reflexes.”
Kael chuckled. “Plenty of practice.” The two were silent for a moment. Both wanting to say something but not sure what. “Let’s let the others know to keep an eye out for more earth elementals.”
Yarro nodded and they both went further into town. The closer they got to the mines, the more dead and bloodied bodies they came across. He wanted to close his eyes and forget them all, but it would be disrespectful to those who died. To those he knew. He spent so much time learning their schedules, their favorite foods, their families. All for them to end up like this.
Yarro came across a pile of sludge in front of a house. Except it wasn’t the waste or food kind of sludge. It was human. A pile of guts and blood, with various fragments of only a few bones. Not even a whole arm or leg or head. Just… a pile. Then they passed the river, with a hole beside it the size of the Master Elemental’s foot. Blood and bones oozed between the cracks. Yarro recalled that Julia had sent the kids into…
He threw up on the spot, unable to hold it in any longer. Whatever was left in his stomach came up on display in a liquid mess. He felt Kael’s hand rubbing his back sympathetically and placed his hand above his. It was comforting to know he was still there, attempting to help him. Kael must have seen such horrors before to not be as disturbed as he was at the moment.
All the buildings in front of the mines were completely destroyed. Some were still standing bu had their roofs yanked clean off, but most were flattened to a pile of rubble. Yarro looked around and found one had been thrown to the opposite end of the road, and was currently sitting slanted on the hill down. He noticed that the Healer’s Hut in particular was no longer standing. It was completely gone.
Yarro took a few steps in that direction, tears already welling in his eyes. But he knew whatever he would find would not tell him whether Minae and her family made it out alright. Unless he found a body, which at the current state around him might have been unlikely. He didn’t want to see that anyways. Yarro rubbed his face, and took a big gulp. He forced his tears away, and tried to focus on the task at hand.
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They found Commander Veer and two others in front of the northern mines. Here the destruction was most visible. The mines no longer had its neat and tidy entrance that Yarro remembered, but a huge cut-out of the Master Earth Elemental with debris scattered all around. Its large footsteps were imprinted on the dirt all around the area before heading across the river. In front of the mines were a number of piled rocks that looked just like the one that Kael destroyed. “I see you guys have found them too,” Kael said.
Commander Veer nodded, still inspecting the ground. “It seems this mine is elementally active. They’ve been coming up in waves every few minutes. All earth elementals.” She turned her eyes towards the dark mine. Once bustling with activity and the echoes of pickaxes against rock, now as empty as a void. Yarro sighed. “Once the company is done searching the town for survivors I want us to split into 3 teams and clear the mines. Spread the word to have them meet up here.”
Kael bowed quickly. “Yes, madam.” He turned to leave.
Commander Veer turned to Yarro. “Yarro, you know the town best. If there were any survivors, where would they go?”
He thought for a moment. They did have an escape route to a forested area just southwest of the town, in case of emergencies. But if the Master Earth Elemental was also heading south west, then wouldn’t that be the direction the survivors were headed? Yarro told her as much. “They would have gone to those trees just southwest, but the Master Earth Elemental also headed the same direction, right? Why would it be following them?”
“Unless it wasn’t after the people specifically. What if it had an order? A command of some sort?” Commander Veer mumbled. She was thinking out loud, but Yarro couldn’t help but think of the effect that a Master Earth Elemental having orders would be. Who ordered it? And why? His mind thought back to Queen Illa, and how she always blamed everything on the Obrarians after her twins died on that voyage proposed by them. This time it seemed possible, and shiver ran down his spine.
“Aster!” The woman whose horse he shared with on the way over walked up. “Find a buddy and go search the forest just southwest of the town.”
The woman nodded, and grabbed another nearby member of the company to go search. Yarro looked around. Everyone else was searching. Should he search too? “Commander Veer, do you have a job for me?”
“You and I are going to stay at the mine’s entrance and disable any earth elementals that come up,” she said.
Yarro nodded and suppressed a yawn. It must have passed midnight, and with all of the traveling and searching they’ve done, Yarro was exhausted. He spotted a bucket nearby, which reminded him he needed more water. He grabbed the bucket, and headed towards the river, trying to avoid looking at too many bodies. His mind couldn’t take much more of that. Once it was full, he placed his hand over the top of it, and manipulated the water so none would spill on the way back over to the mines. He then placed the bucket close to the entrance, but still far enough that he wouldn’t become surrounded should multiple Earth Elementals come up at a time.
Within a few minutes, three Earth Elementals emerged from the mines. “Get ready,” Commander Veer said. She assumed a stance that reminded Yarro of boxers. She was light on her feet, and jumped on her toes slightly from side to side. In seconds she took down 2 of the Earth Elementals. One right knee kick sent a large slab of the earth just in front of it to spike out, knocking the head out of its body, and with a left punch sent a ball of earth jutted out, harden within the half second it was in the air, and knock off the head of the Earth Elemental behind the first one out. Both collapsed into a heap of rocks.
The third one was further off, and closer to Yarro. He rose a ball of water from the bucket into his hands, and hurled it to the Earth Elemental. It completely encased the head, and Yarro yanked his hand back. This motion sent the water back to him, as well as the head of the Earth Elemental. Yarro let the water fall back into the bucket before he tossed the head aside. The orb rolled until it rested against a body. For a moment he tried to recognize who it was, but Commander Veer was in combat once again and he had no time to be distracted.
When he looked back, two more had arrived but Commander Veer took care of them. Just as they were coming out of the mine, she opened her arms wide, and clapped them together. Two stone slabs from the side of the mines collided with each other. These slabs were the exact height of the Earth Elementals so their heads were smashed into dust, instantly crumbling the rest of the bodies. By now a small pile of rocks was beginning to accumulate in the entrance. Veer did nothing to sweep them up.
“Couldn’t the two of us go down and destroy the source?” Yarro asked.
Commander Veer shook her head. “We have no idea how many of them are down there, what’s creating them, or how to stop whatever it is. It would be a death sentence for just us two.”
Could it be some mechanism? Something the Obrarians could have planted deep underground while they were digging a tunnel? But Yarro did not think they were that advanced enough to create complex machinery that breathed life into the elements and commanded them. If it was on their side of the mountains as well, then they would have a diplomacy problem on their hands. What would most likely happen is they would get as far into the mines as they could, collapse that area, and put up a sign. If Governor Erica was still alive, they would have to update her on which tunnels were to stay blocked off. They would also have to alert the Queen of plots to destroy a village on the border to Lacruss, which she would not be happy about, no doubt in a poor attempt to blame them and induce a political upheaval. But for what reason? What were they after?
Every few minutes a couple of Earth Elementals would come up, which Commander Veer and Yarro would take care of. After about 15 or 20 minutes of this, most of the company had come back with their search complete and were helping fend off the elementals. None could find any survivors of the attack, not even in the forest to the southwest. The longer this went on, the less Yarro had the energy to fight. Not due to the external energy being used to physically fight. No, with the company helping, he was barely expending any physical energy at all. But it was more of the mental energy being used to not break down. The entire village was gone. They were dead and he had no idea which way the survivors went, if there were any.