“So… What’s your name?”

When I ask, the girl recoils and looks at me suspiciously. A while passes while she is glaring at me. Eventually she puts her hands forth.

“You want more?” It’s the only thing I can think of the gesture meaning. She nods. I heave a sigh and go catch another rat-like thing to cut up. It only takes a minute or so, even with cutting it up out of her sight, but when I return to the water source, she is gone. Shit, did monsters come for her? I cast my read spell, and I quickly identify her, but there are no other signals near her or chasing her and I quickly catch up to her.

“Hey!” I shout a little, while placing a hand on her shoulder. She jerks down with a shriek, throws herself to the floor and prostrates herself once again. What’s this? Did she run away from me? I guess she was taught to be distrustful of strangers.

“Why are you so afraid of me?” I ask her. She only answers by cowering a little harder when I speak. Jeez.

I place my hand on her and lift her up. She looks straight down into the floor, so I crouch to forcibly enter her line of sight, but she merely turns her head too.

“I just want to help. You were starving to death and I saved you. How can I make you trust me?” I ask her. She doesn’t really respond. But then it appears if she had an idea.

“You… You can save my parents.” She said in a quiet voice.

“Are they in danger?” She looks a little confused.

“I don’t know. It was all of a sudden turning scary. And they made a fuss and told me to run… And the humans came for me, but mommy and daddy stopped them… And I ran” She starts crying. Humans came for them? Is there some sort of race war going on?

Nevermind, I have to cheer her up for now.

“There, there” I say as I pat her head. She recoils a little under it once again. I can’t help but sigh.

“I don’t know what is going, but I am willing to go take a look and help if I can, is that alright?”

She looks at me. Visibly confused. She nods.

I quickly retrieve my backpack and I carry the girl back to about where I first met her. She looks around a little and points me in one direction alongside the road, which I promptly move towards. It seems she is quite afraid of the high speed, as she is clinging to me tightly as I travel, but it has already been like eight hours since I picked her up. I don’t know how long ago her parents were in trouble, but it is probably better to hurry.

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After a few hours of high-speed travel and being lead a bit off the main road, I start to catch glimpse of what seems to be a camp. Tents put up, bedrolls strewn around, a few campfires and such. And soon, I notice a horrible stench. I get an ugly premonition.

I put down the girl and tell her in a harsh tone “Don’t move! Okay?” She seems terrified of my voice, but nods.

I try to move towards the strength. A massive hole appears to be a bit away. As I approach the stench gets stronger.

The moment I catch sight of it, I feel like retching. Human remains in a great pile in the whole. Scores, if not hundreds of bodies, most decapitated. I quickly avert my eyes, but upon a second glance, they are all Silvestri. The manes like those of lion and horses, the cylindrical ears and the large statures make that apparent.

Is there anyone left? I use read and detect the girl, but also four spots in a different location. Survivors?

I approach them to find four human people, sitting and chatting peacefully around a fire. I shout out.

“Hey! What happened here?”

One of them turns to face me and shouts.

“Oh, do you live near here? Sorry about the smell, it will clear once we got it buried.” A callous attitude. It seems almost trivial to him. An admission of guilt.

I am angry. Angry and somehow sad. I approach with stomping feet, as if I tried to show my anger.

“Hey, hey, what’s the ma-“ I grab the nearest guy who is talking to me by the throat and lift him up from his sitting position, raised above ground. He jerks and exerts force on my hand but I am far stronger.

“WHAT!? HAPPENED!? HERE!?” I ask as menacingly as I could muster.

One of the men get up and unsheathe a sword, which he tries attack me with, but I am far faster. I use the man in my one hand as a club and bash both their skulls together. I think they died.

The other men look terrified now. One of them tries to run, but before he completely rises, I have grasped the necks of both and pushed them into the dirt.

“WHAT!? HAPPENED!? HERE!?” I ask much in the same way as before.

“I… We…. We couldn’t feed them… The war… Few supplies” One of them manages to explain a little while gasping and wheezing from the pressure applied to his throat.

“But why kill? Why not just let them get their own food?” I don’t understand.

“If… Fed… They…. Rebel.” Rebel? Against what?

I was about to ask them, but it seems they both passed out. I feel so incredibly pissed I ended up applying the last bit of lethal pressure by mistake. Shit. What do I do now?

First things first, I should get back to the girl. I cast read to make certain of her position, but she is no longer where I left her. In fact, she is almost where I just came from.

Shit! I think, as I dash back towards her but it is too late. Soon, all I see is a girl kneeling before a horrid sight and all I hear is her loud wails. I slowly walk over to her and pick her up and hug her gently. Sorry, I couldn’t stop you from seeing that.