1 Chapter 01

When I opened my eyes, it didn't turn out to be a nightmare. The bed in which I was lying in wasn't mine. I felt empty and pained at the same time like there was not only a hole in my stomach but a dagger through my heart. The elderly couple who have given me shelter is nice, but I won't stay here. I will not stay in a place where my parents' murderers rest after slaughtering a village. I wasn't there for their final moments--I wasn't even in the village. I had gone out fishing; our crops had been poor, and we needed more food.

I was only about an hour walking distance from home but when dusk came along, I saw an unusual amount of smoke coming from the direction of the village. There was way too much and the air smelled so much worse the closer I came home. Someone must have burned something unusual and a large amount of it. The smell reminded me of burning fat and leather, although no feast or festival was announced. I get sick even thinking about it. I knew right away that a fire so widespread couldn't be without victims.

"Who would have done this?" I thought.

It could have been anyone, bandits, raiders, outlaws of all kinds, or even pillagers. My mind was racing. Could we have given them what they wanted to leave us alone? What have they been trying to accomplish? I almost tripped over something, torches, that were lying next to the burned houses. I made up my mind; this couldn't have been accidental. Could it be that they had intended to burn the houses to send a message? Did things get out of control? They might have wanted to burn down one house as a symbol and the wildfire consumed more than they could handle.

As I wandered the streets towards my house, corpses were lying on the ground. There were too many of them just person be one mad person and they were bleeding heavily. Would you have bled this much from burn wounds? I couldn't have been sure. I assumed that there were terrible people here, but where were they?

What was their goal?

"Just leave us alone," I thought.

We haven't done anything. We didn't have anything. What did they want? Fun? Was this for entertainment? Just for sport?

My home stood in flames. Most of it was already burned. I feared that my parents might be ash and my fears were realized when I entered the house. I found my mother under some rubble, her skin melted by the flames, she burned to death. Did she get stuck under a broken pillar? I didn't cry or scream. I was unable to make a sound. Something was stuck in my throat. Froze in shock I didn't know what to do, what should I have done?

I now realized that I was careless. I should have looked for my father the second I had seen my mother. The fire had already started to calm, so I had started digging through the rubble to find my father. I couldn't turn some of the debris because I was too weak, but everywhere I had searched he wasn't to be found.

I sat there for a while, kneeling next to my mother. I needed to protect myself somehow, and I knew how.

"There should be a dagger here somewhere," I thought.

I got up and started searching.

It had to be in shelve and cabinet, most were scorched and some already completely burned down. After rummaging through them for a bit, I found it. It was in a drawer in my parents' room. Good thing it wasn't damaged by the flames. I took it out of the sheath. The edges were blunt. It was a family heirloom. It wasn't meant to be used as a weapon, but I need something to protect myself with. It would have been given to me in a few years, anyway.

My father wasn't with my mother, "so where did he go?" I thought.

He would have known what to do. He was the bravest man I knew. He wouldn't have abandoned her alone, to die like this. Something must have happened to him too. I needed to find him, so I started to run around the village yelling. Where could he have gone? He couldn't have been under the rubble, could he? I would have found him. He wouldn't have died like that.

While I was running, I saw a group of men in armor. I had stopped yelling out for my father a while ago. They hadn't noticed me yet. Were they the attackers or were they there to help us? Either way, I couldn't approach them. That was much too dangerous. I didn't know much about the situation, so I hid behind a cart filled with straw. I had to think but there wasn't time. I had to find my father. He could fix everything.

I looked at the men in armor again and realized. "Soldiers," I whispered, recognizing the markings on their armor. When my father taught me how to read, he would sometimes give me books. He once bought a heavily used and almost faded book from a man at the tavern, I remember this specifically because my father came home excited to teach me as books about the other kingdoms were rather rare, the king didn't approve of people praising the neighboring empire, it stated that the neighboring Empire of Orilid used a characteristic way of smithing where gold-colored markings in the shape of flowers would appear on their armor. They decide to invade- no, attack this village of all places.

I couldn't think about it for too long because I heard someone coming from behind. I couldn't let them see the dagger. It was the only thing I had at the moment to remember my family by but if they would find it, it could have been lost to me forever. I frantically buried it into the earth next to the cart. I had to hope that when I had the chance I could come back here, to the spot next to the cart.

When they spotted me an older-looking knight in a more decorated-looking armor yelled, "take him to the others".

One rather annoyed soldier approached me. Fearing the worst I didn't resist.

I let them drag me off without a struggle. They were still very rough regardless, bruising my thigh when they forced me against the cart. They brought me to the church and threw me to the ground inside.

They rounded us up in the main prayer hall, I looked around to see if someone I knew personally was also here but I didn't dare to walk around, it was very silent. All the others here did not have the courage to talk to the guards either and the women and their small children were cowering on the benches and after a while, a man in a more detailed-looking armor came and gave orders, we were released. They didn't leave the village. I decided I wouldn't wait to find out how long they planned to stay.

I was given into the care of an elderly couple, at least until someone would come for me. I had hoped that after some days my father would come and rescue me from this nightmare. But after what I had seen, I had to depend on myself.

I'm wasn't the only newly orphaned child who was staying here. There were seven of us of all ages. The youngest one could barely speak while the oldest was another boy my age. I still haven't spoken to most of them yet.

I could imagine what was going through their heads--the anger, the fear--and some of them weren't strong enough to handle it. The younger ones cried during the day; all of us did during the night.

Some had it worse than others it seems. Friends, siblings, your home. Everything your family stood for, gone. Expressing your feelings through crying seemed so weak when you think about it. Not me, though; I stopped crying. I hated feeling weak.

I would have loved to search for my friends, but I couldn't. I had no idea what they would do with me if they caught me and I could have made it worse for the ones I was searching for.

I wasn't that attached to them anyway.

They could live on without me, even if they thought I had died in the attack.

I've already prepared a sack with water and some food. I stole some dried meat and fruit from the reserve of the old couple, and a water skin. I also stole some valuables from them too. A pearl necklace and what I thought was a silver ring. I won't have any problems surviving the first few weeks after I'm gone. I feel bad for what I'm doing to them, adding to the misery of the kind folk that took me in right after this horrible event but I'm doing this for my own survival. They will only realize that they're gone long after had I left.

The forest was my best shot, with the low visibility at night and the cover of bushes and trees I have the highest chance of escaping. Generally, people avoided untamed forests because they often house monsters and other frightening creatures, these were most likely rumors to stop young children from wandering into them. I didn't care, and the edges of the forest should be safe enough to wander through. When I was younger, the forest scared me but as I grew older the frightening thoughts I had about dark scary places disappeared. Maybe it scared me because the thought of me being alone in it unnerved me.

If they catch me trying to run away, they'll imprison me or just shoot me down with an arrow while I'm running. I have to be on guard when trying to escape. Midnight was already approaching, just a few more hours, and I will leave this world of terror behind me. Even though I have lived here all my life, I didn't care about this village that much. I'm sorry for the people who have to stay here and deal with the soldiers and the aftermath of the attack but it's better if it's them instead of me. What could I even do? I'm not even an adult yet.

I didn't sleep, I just waited until midnight. I put on my clothes and took the sack but then I heard a noise, I panicked. Soldiers? No, it couldn't be. They couldn't have known that I was trying to escape, could they? What will they do with me if they find me? I jumped into the bed and covered myself and the sack with the sheet and pretend to be asleep. I didn't hear the door open, it's not someone from the outside, I should be safe from the soldiers, but I can't trust anyone to find out and stop me. They would tell someone, the information of me running away would reach soldiers. No one can find out but if they pull the sheet away, they will see that I'm fully clothed and have a bag of provisions. I have to hope this is just a false alarm, just my imagination running wild.

I opened my eyes a little, thinking no one would notice in this darkness if I would, and in the darkness, I saw the silhouette of a tall boy near my bed. He shook me. He didn't know that I was awake.

"Hey, get up, you wanna escape too, right?" he whispered.

Did he want to escape too? I was confused, I nodded. He grabbed my arm and forced me out of the bed. This wasn't the time to work out another plan. I had to take him with me, and the two of us working together could be better than just me alone.

I took the bag and creaked the door open ever so slightly, to make sure there was no one around.

Through the opening, I could see that there were two guards.

We could see them but they likely couldn't see us. Carefully exiting the house, we saw a few other guards. We snuck to the place where I buried the dagger days ago. The cart was still here too, the owner must have abandoned it or died during the attack. I was thankful for that because, without it, it would have been too hard to find the dagger in the dark.

It seemed to me that the guards were slacking off, not taking this seriously. It made me hate them even more, after the atrocities they committed these past few days, they weren't bothered by it. It didn't hang on their conscience. I wanted to take action, do something, take revenge for my parents, for all the people who lost their lives to these bastards, but this wasn't the time.

I just didn't want to be here.