They thought it was just a wildfire at first, the plume of smoke rising from the woods approaching them. The elven lands to the north, ruled by queen Hyrrie was always looking for an opportunity to invade, and the thought of a wildfire burning a path through the forest of Alm excited her. Luckily for the kingdom of Volst the fire didn't spread, and their barrier forest remained, unfortunately for a trading caravan that happened to be on the road at the time, it wasn't a wildfire, instead it was a fire demon burning it’s way through the trees.

The demon would later leave the woods and level three villages before finally being subjugated while it made its way to the nearby city. This story however follows the lone survivor of the trading caravan on that fateful day.

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Tost woke to the stench of smoke, he poked his head out of the wagon.

“Wake up pa, wake up, there’s fire in the east” Tost said, shaking his father awake. Lars woke in confusion, but the reek of smoke confirmed what his son was saying and he stumbled outside.

He looked to see the pillar of smoke rising far into the sky, illuminated by the sunrise it gave the sky a blood red hue. “Hitch up the horses, I’ll wake the others.” He rushed to the other wagons, there were 5 in total, including his own.

The horses were spooked but compliant enough when they realised that Tost was hitching them up to get on the move soon, they seemed eager to leave and began pulling the cart over to the road. Tost held their reigns tightly and called to his pa “The horses want away pa, we should hurry, the smoke is getting close.”

That was strange, he thought, the smoke was close, really close. The other traders had woken and hitched up their horses, wheeling their carts back onto the road. Tost was staring into the dense trees and could swear he could make out a pair of eyes as his pa jumped on the wagon and got the horses moving. The horses took off at a blistering pace as a rumbling could be heard behind them.

Stolen story; please report.

Tost jumped into the wagon to make sure all the crates were secure, the wagon had basic leaf springs but wasn’t built to make a journey at this pace comfortable. They had piled a few crates to make room for their bedrolls and now one of those crates came crashing down, the sound of broken glass came from inside. They were transporting low grade magic stones from the elven kingdom, as they shattered they gave off a strange glow which seeped out of the gaps in the wood, it was a colour that Tost truly didn’t know how to describe, a colour he had never seen before.

His thoughts were taken away from the strange light as a scream came from behind them, he peered through the back of the wagon and finally saw the cause for the smoke.

A Giant burning crab.

Giant barely summed it up, it’s gargantuan right claw was the size of their wagon, as a whole, it was the size of an average house. It was moving fast enough to keep up with the horses, fast enough to gain on them. It’s claw was held forward, jaws pointing towards the rearmost wagon, it snapped shut and a ball of flame shot out, consuming the cart, horses, and rider in an instant.

The wagon lurched as the horses somehow pushed themselves even harder, the crab demon saw its prey escaping and launched another fireball high into the sky, it arked over the traders and landed before them, turning the road ahead into a burning hellscape.

The demon closed the distance near instantly and opened it’s maw towards the carts. That same strange coloured light began flooding from the crates to the crab. Even more worryingly it was draining from the other traders and horses too, life leaving their eyes as it was taken.

Lars unhitched the horses, grabbed Tost and threw him on one while jumping on the other, his eyes were wide with fear but he almost calmly said to Tost and the horses “ride through the fire, it’s our only chance” and kicked hard into the flank of his horse.

Tost followed suit, hunching down as the horse made it to the flames, he heard the screams of his father to his side but he didn’t open his eyes, the flames burned hotter than he could have believed, and he felt it as his clothes caught fire, the horse was staggering and eventually fell.

Tost found himself on the burning ground, his hands and knees hurt where he hit the ground but the fire wasn’t burning him, he looked over to his father, facedown and likely already dead. The demon approached, it began to drain that strange light from his dad as well. Tost closed his eyes.

Behind his eyes he saw that strange light again, a ball of it, inside him. He knew that was what the crab demon was after so pushed it away, pushed it out.

Through his eyelids the world went white, and then black as he lost consciousness.