When we arrived back in Jewelston Harlow greeted us again and this time he told us of the next village we should visit.

"The mayor is meeting directly with Al'Doran to go over what all needs to be done still to the city. It's going to be a massive undertaking."

"That's great news. I'm glad it's going so well so far."

"We are too! We are really excited about the changes. Did you see any bandits out on the road?"

"We did not. But we were able to help the town. The residents decided to stay behind to take care of the crops."

"That's not surprising. They are a proud people and there are many around them that rely on those crops for food. The next place the mayor says you should go to is almost directly north of there. You can just follow the road there. It's a small village called Woodland because it was a logging village."

I nodded and we set out in that direction. After leaving through the north gate we plodded along as we had for a while talking about what all was still to come and the times we had so far. Aeolith was making large circles overhead, as she could fly much faster than we could move on horseback. We got close to the town and Aeolith mentioned she felt something strange from the town.

"This doesn't seem like the other towns, Callan. It's quiet like the other towns, but I'm not sensing the same signs of life I did in the other towns. I think something is wrong."

We immediately went on high alert. As we got to the town we saw what the difference was.

Out in front of the town were spears that had been driven into the ground and the heads of villagers were shoved onto the spikes. Their slack, dead faces were staring out into nothingness forever. Flies swarmed around the heads and some of the eyes had already been eaten out by birds. These spears had been put on either side of the road leading into town, a macabre warning to those coming here for a visit.

"These are truly evil beings that would do this to a town of innocent people," Rutherford commented.

"These beasts are all evil. They have no good in them. But this does seem a bit extreme, even for them," I replied, sword ready and watching for anything.

"This doesn't bode well, Callan," Vokin said.

"I know. But we have to go on to see what has been happening and if there is anything we can do to help."

We continued up the path, choosing to dismount and walk the horses up instead of riding them through the spears. When we got to the main entrance a terrible stench hit us. The stench of death. And it was everywhere. We dismounted to enter on foot. Entering the town we saw piles of bodies at various intervals. Men, women, and even children were tossed aside like garbage at the corners of streets, hanging out of houses, and inside of buildings.

The bodies were broken, battered, stabbed, cut up, and all discarded like they meant nothing. Some had weapons sticking out of them still. Others had limbs missing, or heads cut off. Some were bloating in the sunlight from being left out in the elements. It was a purely tragic scene reminding us of exactly why we were out here to fight. I stopped when we reached the center of town, a man was hanging out of a broken window with his body cut open by the glass that was left after the window had been broken out, and looked around. There didn't appear to be an official Town Hall in the sense that there was one building bigger than the others, but there was a place with a raised platform that was out at the northern end of town. We walked to it and saw gallows that had been hastily put together. Three ropes hung from it with a body in each noose. The middle one had a sign around its neck that read, mayor of Woodland, example to all.

"I...I have no words for this level of cruelty. It's like it tried to do as the others had, then gave up and just massacred everyone." I said, unable to take my eyes off the hanging bodies on the gallows.

"Do you think there are any survivors at all in the town?" Tristan asked.

"I have no idea, but we will search to see if we can find any. Let's split up and see what we can find. Call out if you find anything."

Aeolith landed in the clearing with us and we started looking around. There didn't seem to be anyone anywhere left alive. We branched out to search some of the buildings nearby. We walked in and out of buildings hoping against hope to find anyone alive. After over an hour of searching, we met back at the center of town and none of us found anything. Not even a sign of the Shadow Beast.

"This is terrible, who could do something like this to an entire village?"

"Shadow Beasts, that's who," I said almost shaking with fury. "And they were too cowardly to STAY AND FACE ME!" I shouted this last bit to the sky.

"Come on Callan, let's go back to town. There's nothing we can do for anyone here," Rutherford said to me trying to help make me feel better.

If he said there was nothing we could do, then there really wasn't anything we could do. We would report back to the mayor in Jewelston, and then figure out what to do next. As we turned to leave I heard a cough coming from a building we hadn't searched because it had toppled over. I ran over to the building.

"Is someone there? Are you alive? Hold on and we will get to you!"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

There was another cough and a strained voice.

"H-help, please, I can't feel my legs. I've been here for days now."

"Aeolith, help me get this building lifted up!"

Aeolith rushed over and with everyone helping we lifted the entire roof off and flipped it over on itself. We then began to frantically dig through the debris of the building to find the survivor. After about five minutes of digging, we saw a greyish-blue hand, covered in dust and mud, reach through the debris. It looked like it was coming from a set of stairs that may have led to a basement or larder of some kind. So that was how they had survived the building falling on them.

"We got you, don't worry. We will have you out in no time. Rutherford, be ready with healing magic."

"What if it's the shadow Beast?" Rutherford said, putting thought to something I hadn't been thinking.

We paused in our digging for a moment.

"It doesn't matter right now. We saved the others. If it is the Shadow Beast, then we will free the person and heal them. It's just that simple."

We continued digging until we had cleared the stairway. What we found there was not at all what I was expecting. I had expected it to be a human, but it was something else. I vaguely remembered seeing this race in my race choices during reincarnation. Orthix I think it was called. It did have a slightly upturned nose, and its skin color was a greyish blue. It was thin and frail-bodied, though whether this was from the time it had spent down here or a combination of that and the size of the species I wasn't sure. It appeared to be a male from its anatomy, but I wasn't going to make assumptions at this point.

"There you go, come on up now. Careful, easy does it." I directed as the others helped me get the poor creature out.

Rutherford began casting some healing spells on it as we pulled it out and saw that its eyes weren't glowing red.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Randal. I was an apothecary here in town."

"Well Randal, we will get you some help, here drink this," I said offering him, as it was clearly a him now, a water skin from my bag of holding.

He took some drinks from the waterskin, coughed a few more times, then took a couple more sips. He laid back much more relaxed now that he had some water and Rutherford was tending to his injuries.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"A man came to town, with red glowing eyes. He demanded that the town be turned over to him. Of course, we said no, but....he was so strong. He fought like a devil. We didn't stand a chance. He just went berserk and started killing everyone. Didn't seem to care who they were. Men, women, even the children." Randal said, a tear running down his face.

"People I had known for years. Families, the elderly, and the mayor he hung from a gallow in the center of town for his disobedience. Such a horrible man. What would cause him to do such terrible things." Randal broke down into sobbing at the end of this.

"He wasn't just a man. He was possessed. By a Shadow Beast. We are out here to hunt them down and destroy them. Is the man still here?"

Randal shook his head. He got his crying under control and continued.

"I think he left. He said something about there being nothing for him here so he would try another town. I came out to try to help the last few stop him, but he blasted me back into my shop and the building started to collapse around me. I was stuck when I heard him laugh as he killed the last of them."

"How are you feeling now? Can you stand?" Rutherford asked him.

The man moved his legs and stared down at them.

"Yes, I believe I can now. That is some powerful magic. I'm certain at least one of my legs was broken."

"Both of them were, in several places. But I was able to set them and repair the damage. It took a lot of mana, but you should be good to go now." Rutherford said.

"Thank you so much. How can I ever repay you?"

"You can't, but don't worry about it. You can come with us for now and tell your tale to the mayor of Jewelston. We will set you up there and get you back on your feet." I said.

"But, my home, my business?"

"There's nothing for you here," I said to him flatly. "And if you stay you could be a target again. you need to come with us for now where it's safe. When we get to Jewelston, we can help get you set up there. Since you were an Apothocary here, your skills will be needed there too, I'm certain."

Randal took a long look around at the ruined town. He nodded as another single tear fell from his eye. He went with us to the horses and I let him use my horse this time to go back with while I walked. Aeolith stayed with us as there wasn't much need to warn of one person coming back, and with the possibility of a Shadow Beast out on the loose, we would rather have her with us than away.

As we neared the city the mayor herself came out to greet us.

"How was Woodland? Why are the refugees not with you? That should have been a small enough town to bring them all in, unlike Edgeville."

We all looked down at her words.

"Randal here was the only survivor we found. The town was destroyed and we almost didn't find him."

Her face went pale.

"The entire town?"

I nodded.

"No survivors. Men, women, children, the elderly...it didn't matter. That Shadow Beast had no mercy."

A tear formed in Sandra's eye.

"Did you at least kill the monster?"

I shook my head.

"It wasn't in the town when we got there. It appeared to be happy with destroying everything and going somewhere else when the town rejected its offer to give up the town."

"So there is one out on the loose?"

"It likely will go to another town. But yes there is one out there still unaccounted for now. But it didn't see us hopefully, so there is a possibility we have some level of surprise still left. But we can't count on it."

"Alright, well...let's get this poor man inside the city and to a place he can get comfortable with food and drink. Harlow, take him please."

Her voice sounded hollow and distant. She was feeling the same way we felt. Like the hope was beginning to dwindle. But it was not dead yet.

"Sandra," I said, and she looked over at me. "Do not lose hope. Think of those we have saved and know that we will find more. We will save all that we can. Even finding one life there was a greater success than complete devastation."

She looked at me, a single tear falling, then I could see her resolve harden in her eyes and she nodded once firmly and raised a fist to her heart.

"Thank you, Dragonrider."

And with that, she marched off toward the Town Hall.