Fyt lifted a zombie corpse off the ground and tossed it on the pyre.

“Bit wet behind the ears, but it’ll burn,” Cor said and smirked.

“That’s awful,” Fyt said.

Ash sighed. Rain poured down on her. She sat on a wagon that had been abandoned on the street probably already when the undead originally appeared. Thick steam rose from the large bonfire. The stench was even thicker. Ash watched as Fyt lifted two zombie corpses at the same time and threw them each one-handed. She marvelled at the strength of the orc. The corpses flew like ragdolls and landed on top of the already large pyre. It seemed funny how someone so gentle could be so buff.

Cor walked towards Ash and dodged another zombie flying towards the pyre. Cor was a halfling so it didn’t take much ducking for them to avoid a corpse thrown from Fyt’s height. Cor’s eyes were constantly squinted like they were enjoying some private joke. Ash felt that Cor could keep the jokes private a bit more often, but at least their levity kept the team’s spirits up. Ash knew she wasn’t the one to handle that job.

“We’ve just about cleaned up,” Cor said. “Didn’t think we’d land knee-deep in zombies the moment we got here.”

“Just as well that we did,” Ash said. “The reports didn’t talk about there being this many. It would have been bad if we didn’t arrive when we did.”

Ash looked at the sad fishing village. It was too small to have a proper name and looked exactly like a place that would have monsters rise up from the sea and wander around its streets. Well, street. There was only one street that led from the pier, through the village, and towards the main road. The rain had turned it into mud.

“You think the numbers are going to keep increasing?” Fyt asked.

The orc had finished throwing zombies and wiped his hands on his trousers. The flames burned high. The zombies were bloated and spongy from soaking in the sea for who knows how long, but Ash had fed some mana into the pyre to get it burning hot.

Ash shrugged. The reports had been coming into Tenorsbridge for a while and their group had accepted the quest to handle the issue. Many didn’t want to face a horde of undead outside the area of what you could reach while using Mountain Ride, so the quest was given over for potential citizens to pick up. Everyone needed to finish a quest for Tenorsbridge to be granted citizenship. Their team was tackling the citizenship quests one at a time for each of them. This one was for Cor.

Tenorsbridge’s power rested on the Mountain Ride artefact and that was also the reason why citizenship was so coveted. The Tenorsbridge Janitors used the artefact to guard the citizenship and the city from all and possible harm. Adventurers on the other hand could use the artefact to relive a single day over and over again and safely try out different approaches before committing to a plan.

This particular village was far enough that it couldn’t be reached in just a day, which meant that Ash, Cor and Fyt had to go in blind, without the safety net of Mountain Ride.

When they arrived, the place had been overrun. Zombies banged on doors and tried to climb on top of huts. A lone fisherman had been out at sea and had his boat capsize when zombies tried to climb aboard it from the water. Fyt had managed to save him by wading into the sea and dragging the undead off the man. Cor had kept the zombies back by using a slingshot. Arrows didn’t affect them much but a rock to the head at least tipped them over.

Their mission was not to fight the zombies but to find out why they were shambling up from the ocean. You couldn’t research anything with undead running all over the place though, so they were first forced to put down the ones already on the shore.

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“I thought you would want to use the corpses as fertiliser or something,” Cor said and nudged Fyt in the thigh.

“I worry they would taint the earth,” Fyt said and looked at the pyre. “The ash on the other hand should be fine to use.”

“I was actually trying to make a joke, but I guess the soil in this place needs all the help it can get,” Cor said and kicked at a rock lodged in the mud.

There was not a plot of arable land in sight. The huts had some small gardens around them, but those also had turned into mud by the rain and the trampling undead.

“Concentrate, you two,” Ash said.

She stood up and slapped her robes to shake water off them. She slicked back her short hair and wiped off the water from her face.

They had arrived late and even though the fight had not lasted long, lighting the pyre and patching up the fisherman had taken some time. All zombie bites would get infected if not treated, but that went without saying. Anything dead was guaranteed to have dirty teeth. The fisherman had thanked them profusely and vanished into one of the huts. Ash worried that the night would bring more zombies up from the sea. Undead were always more active during the dark.

She marched towards the largest building in the village. Fyt stayed behind.

“I’m going to tend the fire. Make sure it doesn’t spread anywhere,” he said.

“It won’t spread. Everything’s wet. You just want to stay in the rain,” Cor said.

Fyt didn’t answer but turned his face upwards to catch some rain in his mouth. Cor groaned and jogged to catch up to Ash.

“Tenorsbridge citizen militia group Emberweave!” Ash shouted as she banged on the door with her fist.

“What?” a timid voice asked from behind the door.

“She means we’re here to help,” Cor said.

“Oh,” the voice said.

The door was opened by a stocky man who leaned out and swept his gaze around the street. He let out a deep breath when he saw there were no more zombies around. The smell of food wafted out from the open door.

Cor cleared their throat.

“This is Ashley Emberweave,” Cor said and nudged their thumb at Ash. “We’re the team from Tenorsbridge. I’m Corral Virginger and that there’s Fytolas.”

Fyt noticed Cor pointing at him and waved at the stocky man.

“We did hear some fighting,” the man said and waved back at Fyt. “My name is Hunk. I’m the innkeeper here.”

Ash nodded.

“We relit the pyre,” she said.

“Good, good,” Hunk said. “We’ve had it going for a while but it went out with the rain. We’ve been hiding since then.”

Ash nodded again.

Cor waited for the discussion to continue as the rain kept falling on them.

“Say, could you invite us in?” Cor asked after a moment.

“Oh, sorry, obviously. Please. Will he be coming?” Hunk asked, nodding his head at Fyt.

“Nah, he enjoys the elements,” Cor said. “He’s a hippie.”

“A ranger,” Ash said.

Cor chuckled and followed the man in. They removed their cloak and offered it to Hunk. He took the cloak and hung it on a coat rack, high above Cor’s head.

“We don’t get many visitors here. Sorry, all the furniture is human sized,” he said.

Cor waved their hand at the man and walked further into the room. It was a large hall with a large fireplace in the middle of the room. Villagers and also some animals were huddled around the fireplace. Cor marched to the fireplace and started taking off their boots.

“Don’t worry about Cor, they can make do,” Ash said.

“They? There’s more of them?” the man asked.

“Singular. That’s what they prefer,” Ash said.

The man nodded enthusiastically.

“Ah, right, of course. I thought maybe it was some halfling thing and they travel in packs or something. As I said, we don’t get many visitors here.”

Ash rubbed her face. She was wet and cold. Even if the fight had not been especially hard, it had come after a long and wet day of hard travel.

“Will the village hold until morning?” she asked.

“I think so. We’ve managed to get everyone to safety and to barricade the houses. The zombies don’t get aggressive unless they run into something living. We did lose quite a lot of pets and cattle in the beginning though. That’s the reason for the animals being here.”

“Good. We’ll still keep watch. Do you have a place for me and the team to sleep?”

“Of course. Is the orc coming in later?” the man asked.

“Fyt will take the first watch, but yes. Prepare a place for us three,” Ash said and hung up her cloak.

She shook water off her hair and walked further in. She glared at Cor when walking past the fireplace. Cor was standing and some locals were squatting around a game of dice. It looked like Cor had already won a sheep. It stood near the fireplace and bleated at Ash.

“Careful,” Ash said to Cor.

“I never gamble more than what I can afford,” Cor said and smiled.

Ash sighed as Cor won another round.