The monthly caravan to Cerus typically consisted of about forty merchants, twenty wagons, and four squads of guards to protect them. On the way there, the wagons would be filled with wood, cloth, food, and other resources that were difficult to procure around Cerus, while on the way back, stones, construction materials, and tools would take their place.
The people who made this journey rarely changed, aside from some merchants taking their children once they became adults, to show them their future job. As such, there was a camaraderie between the guards and the merchants, and it was normal for all of them to engage in discussions or smalltalk during their travels. Typically, the guards were a little reserved though, as they still had to keep an eye on their surroundings. Especially at night and as they got closer to Cerus. The farther away you got from Alarna, the stronger the typical beasts became. While even category fives were rare around Alarna, they became relatively common farther out, and if you went past the neighboring town, you could even run into category sevens. However, this time, it was the opposite.
Shortly after they had left town, they were greeted by Lilly, the divine messenger everybody had already heard about. With her blessing, they left for Cerus, and even though many of them were convinced that nothing could happen to them now, the guards were on edge. The beasts that weren’t approaching Alarna anymore had to be somewhere, and no matter what this girl had done to keep them away, there were some who doubted that she would’ve been able to do it for the entire road to Cerus.
A day passed without any attacks. Then a night. And another day. With each passing hour, the guards relaxed more and more, until, eventually, they felt completely safe. There was not a grim expression in sight anymore, and the laughter from the happy guards and merchants could be heard from dozens of meters away. Life was good.
On the morning of the third day after they had left Alarna, the caravan was approaching the last turn in the road before they would be able to see their destination in the distance. Their spirits were high, and nobody believed that anything could dampen their happiness. That was, until Cerus’ town gate came into view.
One half of the gate hanging onto dear life, while the other one was nowhere to be seen, the town was wide open. As they got closer, they saw blood painting the floor and the walls, with a dozen bodies strewn around in front of the town. Some donned the armor of Alarna, while others were guards of Cerus. Once more, the caravan guards were on edge, as the happy atmosphere was blown away, and one squad went ahead to investigate.
The town was dead silent, and they found more bodies past the gate. They were aware of the soldiers that had been sent here, and if Mayor Cerus would’ve refused to cooperate, their order had been to at least temporarily take the town. This might have resulted in a fight, but something wasn’t right. This town didn’t have nearly enough Fighters to put up a real fight against the soldiers of Alarna, and they would’ve been crazy to actually resist to such a degree. But even if they had, they wouldn’t have fought in the streets, where innocent citizens could’ve been killed. Yet, most bodies they saw past the wall weren’t soldiers or guards.
As they looked closer and entered the town, they realized that these men and women hadn’t fought each other. On every body they found bite and claw marks, making it clear that they were dealing with beasts.
“They didn’t keep going to hunt the criminals...” one guard said, as he looked down at their former comrades.
“I thought it was weird that they didn’t send messengers back,” another said.
“The messengers could’ve been attacked, that wouldn’t be so weird!”
Back in Alarna, people assumed that the soldiers hadn’t found the criminals in Cerus and had followed their tracks past this town, to wherever they had gone to hide. The soldiers’ job was to find them, and led by Captain Lera, they would’ve kept going as long as necessary. However, they would’ve sent back at least one squad, to inform the king about the change of plans.
“Do you really think Captain Lera would’ve sent a bunch of weaklings? We would’ve heard from them!”
“There was a cat six in Alarna just a few days ago! You really think they would’ve made it past that!?”
“Calm down,” their squad leader said. “Let’s get out of here and regroup. If they’re still here, we need more men.”
“Right...”
“Sorry...”
“I don’t get what happened here though...” the leader said.
They hadn’t heard from the soldiers in three weeks, and even if they had searched the entire town, they should’ve returned or continued on a while ago. Based on the state of the bodies, however, they hadn’t been dead for long, a few days at most.
“What did they do here for so long...?”
When the group turned around to retreat back to the caravan, they saw their path being blocked by a beast. The guards immediately readied their weapons, but they relaxed ever so slightly when they realized that, based on its small, wolf-like appearance, they were only dealing with a category two. The guards started to approach it slowly, to surround and neutralize it, but their eyes widened and they stopped in their tracks when the beast suddenly started to speak.
“Welcome to the party,” it said.
“That thing can...”
“What...?”
The beast prepared to launch at them, when a shout from somewhere got them out of their daze. “Watch out! It’s stronger than it looks!”
The beast jumped and the guards barely managed to avoid its attack. They immediately went on the counterattack, but their weapons didn’t appear to penetrate the beast’s skin at all.
“Get out of the way!” another shout instructed them, and they had barely stepped back when a ball of water ripped apart the beast’s head and it fell limbly to the ground.
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The guards first stared down at the dead beast, before their gazes wandered in the direction the voice had come from. In the middle of the street stood someone in a robe belonging to the temple of Alarna. It appeared to be a young man, but his face was obscured by a low-hanging hood.
“What was that!? And who are you!?” the squad leader said.
“Uhm... Don’t be afraid. I’m a follower of Lilly. I was sent by her to bless the road to Cerus for your journey, but when I arrived here, I was devastated to find the town in pieces. It is a tragedy that I didn’t make it here earlier. Please head back to the caravan, while I take a look around.”
The young man was acting a little weird and nervous, and it was the first time that the guards had heard about a follower of Lilly who also had special abilities, but he had helped them, and it seemed like he knew something about this weird, talking beast. Someone who hadn’t come from Alarna also wouldn’t know that they even knew who Lilly was, so they decided to trust this man for the moment.
“Are you sure about that?” the squad leader asked. “If there’s more of them, we can help you.”
“I’m good,” the young man said. “Lilly would never forgive me for endangering your lives. I will let you know what I learn.”
“Very well,” the squad leader said.
As they didn’t know what they were dealing with, and since regrouping had been their plan anyway, they finally retreated through the broken gate, back to the caravan.
***
When the guards were finally out of sight, I ducked behind a building, where Reurig was waiting for me.
“What. The. Fuck,” I said.
“So that was one of those talking beasts...” Reurig commented.
“Yeah... and I guess they don’t care about our tree scripts. But why did they attack Cerus?”
“I doubt we’ll ever know. Unless we get one to talk to us.”
“Curiously, they don’t seem like the talkative types... Man, this sucks. Everything went so well until this happened. Do you think this will throw us back?” I asked him.
“Hm... I don’t think so. They expected their journey to be safe, and it was. They know Lilly is only human, she couldn’t have known what was happening in Cerus.”
“You’re right. Well, I guess we should take a quick look around.”
“Hm hm, let’s go.”
Miles had promised the people who were traveling to Cerus safety, and while he stayed back at Alarna, to make regular appearances, Reurig and I had headed out with the caravan, to scout ahead, protect them, and place scripts on trees along the way. Everything had to be timed just right for the biggest impact on the people, and so far, Miles’ plan seemed to be working out great. The first real bump in the road we encountered was the state Cerus was in.
While this town wasn’t officially under “Lilly’s” protection yet, I was worried that seeing all these massacred people would have the merchants scared again. However, as Reurig and I hurried through the streets, looking for any more beasts, I realized that there was a positive side to this tragedy.
“In a way... this might even be good for us... right? Cerus hadn’t been blessed by Lilly in time, and it was hit hard. This shows how fortunate we are to have her.”
“Well... yes. You could look at it like that. You know that you sounded like Miles just now though, right?”
“Yeah...”
Ever since Miles came back, and I saw him act on his own, independently from me, I realized that I seemed to have become a little more like him. After I was on my own, and I had to make my own decisions, I began to act differently than before, though I didn’t always notice it in the moment. The way I thought, even the way I spoke at times, it was as if I asked myself “What would Miles do?” all the time. And as I looked around, I also realized once more that I was able to ignore all these dead people around me, although I did get a little nauseous if I let myself think about it too much.
“Did you notice any more tracks?” I asked Reurig.
“No, they all lead out of town. I would guess there were about a dozen beasts. Maybe they left one behind to kill the stragglers?”
“This doesn’t like beasts, right...?” I asked.
“No, these talking beasts are different,” Reurig said. “Last time they were looking for Miles?”
“We think so, yeah. But Miles hasn’t been in Cerus for weeks. This makes no sense.”
I bet Miles would have some kind of theory though.
We couldn’t be certain that there were absolutely no more beasts in town, but during our quick sweep we didn’t find any indicators for it. Unfortunately, we also didn’t see any signs of human life. We were hopeful that some of them might’ve survived, however, since there were too few bodies for them to have killed the entire town’s population, and we didn’t see anyone we knew either.
The town seemed safe for now, but we were concerned about Alarna and our friends. If these beasts were to head there next, the citizens would be in danger. Not to mention that these talking beasts would also endanger the plan, as any beast sighting around Alarna would put Miles’ claims into question. We had to tell them.
“Alright... we’ll meet back at the next bend in the road?” I asked Reurig as we got closer to the gate.
“Alright, see you soon,” he said and went down a side street, while I put my hood back up and left the town through the gate. All eyes were fixed on me as I approached the caravan down the road. Once I was close enough, the guard I had spoken to earlier stepped up.
“Do you know what happened here?” he asked.
“Unfortunately, I don’t. The beasts that attacked this town are different from the normal ones.”
“I understand that much,” the squad leader said, “beasts don’t ravage towns this way, and they certainly don’t talk.”
“There are no signs of any more of them hiding in town. I suggest that you briefly venture inside to get what you came here for and then return to the safety of Alarna. We will need Lilly’s blessings to truly deal with this.”
The leader seemed to think my proposition over for a moment before nodding. “We’ll do that then,” the leader said and started shouting instructions at his men. The merchants would stay outside, away from death and destruction, while the guards went into town with the wagons to get the vital supplies they had come for. If the people these resources belonged to were still alive, this would be theft, but under the circumstances, I couldn’t imagine anyone taking offense. We could also always pay them later.
What worried me, however, was what would become of Cerus now. This town was important for several other towns in the area, including Alarna. People back home were depending on the blue and white stones from here, and without the blue ones in particular, we would have a serious problem very soon. If everyone here was dead, someone else would have to pick up the mining. Hm, the king wanted Cerus though... Would we just take over this town as well? What if the beasts come back though?
After the guards returned, I told them that they would be safe on the way back and then disappeared into the woods to meet back up with Reurig. We would have to stick around, in case talking beasts appeared, but I decided to keep staying out of sight, to preserve the illusion that this road had been blessed. As long as nothing happened, the people would keep believing.
The future had seemed so bright just yesterday, and now it was full of uncertainties once more. Were our plans about to fall apart? Would Alarna get attacked next? What did these beasts want? All we could do for the moment would be to hope for the best. And maybe we should come up with defensive strategies for this enemy...