Roaring Thunder

Chapter 3: A Shadow's Revelation (Part 2)

________________________________ Sub-chapter: Dark____________________________________

'One dead.'

The members of the the religion known as Lux, standing near to the owner of the voice, turn their head around towards him upon hearing the word 'dead'. One of them speak out softly but enough to be heard by the man, asking him as to who is dead?

The man who appears to be the head of the village's distinctive religion called Lux, simply returns their stare and replies in a polite and stern tone. 'Dead? Oh, you must have heard me mumbling just now. He laughs a corteous laugh.'Do forgive me for my sudden remark of such a dreadful and despised word in the midst of this joyous moment of preparing for our prayers tonight. If possible, please forget what I had said for I was merely reminded of the death of my brother when I was young.'

The members slowly shake their head in response to his answer. 'Our god, Ligero, will protect the poor soul in the heaven. Don't you worry.' A woman in her forties steps forward then, put her hands on his shoulder and say sympathetically .He smiles at her.

They are arranging the tables and benches and, cleaning the floor and walls of the slightly bigger than a cottage sized- religious hall. The man, meanwhile, walks over to a small door at the side that links the hall to a room, specially designated for him as the head of the community of Lux here in the Village of Terra. This village is slightly more modernised than the other villages for the village's elder has certain connections to someone within the palace. Instead of dry grasses being used in making the roofs, clay-based rooftiles are widely used here.The man enters the room and locks the door as soon as he shoves it to a close.

Leaning against the door, he lets himself slides slowly down to the wooden floor and lands into a sitting postion. Sigh. 'Looks like I will have to do it again soon.'He mutters and grins a little.

Presently, the order to exterminate Frederick and his companions, and also Rex has reached the ears of every knights searching far and wide across the kingdom for them. 'Break into every house; every building and dig them out!'One of the Holy Knights can be heard shouting at his underlings. After the war twenty years ago, the status and position of the Holy Knight has been in a chaotic state with people of the kingdom doubting his strength. For during the war, the Holy Knight had not played an active role in it, rarely appearing on the frontline and constantly hiding behind his knights. It was said that the Holy Knight was fortunate enough to survive to survive the m******e of the countless number of knights on the blood-soaked soil for the war ended after the remaining knights joined hands and managed to break through the enemy's defence, barely winning the war. And the Holy Knight... he was seen walking away from the commander's tent minutes after the war came to an end and, he was never seen again. Disappeared into thin air.

To strengthen both the offense and defence of the Kingdom of Claudia, ten Holy Knights have been chosen from knights who have proved themselves to be worthy of the title. They consists of the ones known as the angels by many for their skills are beyond comparisons.

Raisha, the Tankmaster. Armed with two dolabras tied to her back, she surveys the surrounding area of the village she is searching. Her twin-tails fling around as she turns her head and shifts her eyes from left to right, scanning the sight of the village. She is riding her horse and her hands holding the rein in them, a knight approaches her from the left and reports their findings. 'Null.'

'Very well.Gather the men and tell them this: We shall arive at the next village before nightfall!' With that, she tugs the rein forcefully as the horse pulls itself vertically upwards and neighs wildly, then landing its front legs on the slightly sandy ground and gallops forward and away from the village.

Also, in the same village, a man donning a weary and battered clothes steals a glimpse every now and then as the knights slowly make their way to their horses and ride them after their commander, the Holy Knight known as Raisha.

The Tankmaster.

The sun sets and vanishes from sight, the full moon slowly revealing its colour behind the clouds in the dark sky. Night has came.

The religious hall is filled with twenty villagers at most. They are seated into the benches with the tables before them lined with food and drinks. Resembling more like a festive feast rather than a religious meet-up, the Lux's devotees fill the hall with their voices as they eat and drink down their portion of food,water and wines before all calms down at the clap of the host's hands, the head of the local religion.

'Now then, let us all stand up before our mighty Ligero and pray to him!'The villagers rise from their seats and turn to face the life-sized statue of a man with his hands crossed at his chest, enveopled by his own angelic-looking wings. They close their eyes as they chant their prayers. The flames of the candles lighting up the hall blow out as the chant is uttered in unison by the men, women and children alike. The man standing at the far end of the long row of tables watches closely as the chanting sound fills the hall within seconds. 'Now then.'

With a sudden widening of his eyes, the shadows from every nook and cranny of the hall crawl up the walls and swallow the entire building into darkness. All light is exterminated within the coverage of the semi-sphere of shadows with a radius of a few metres to the outside of the building. The villagers still chanting with their eyes closed, unaware of their surrounding have the shadow around them slowly making their way up into everyone's mouth and down their body. It doesn't take long for the shadows to occupy each and every person in the hall on that day. 'Perfect. My preparations are now nearly complete.'He thought to himself.

When the villagers open their eyes, everything seems normal around them. The remaining shadows have returned to their respective corners of the hall. With the feast over and the prayers done, everyone goes back home except for the man still standing at his earlier postion. The hall's empty, he put his right hand onto his head and pulls down his nicely combed hair to his forehead.Nicely hanging in the air, his long, black fringes cover the upper part of his eyes slightly. He extend his arm out and snaps his fingers. For a second there, nothing happens. Just then, on the part of the floor a few centimetres from his feet, two black circles are surfacing and getting darker and clearer by the second. And from the black regions, two wolves baring their teeth climb out and stand before their summoner, the man who runs his life as the head of the village's religion in the broad daylight and before the villagers. There is a thick air of mysteries shrouding this man when he stands alone in the dark. Like now.

He crouches down before the wolves and stretches his head out in between the two wolves. In a soft voice, he issues his command.

'Lead him here.'

He grins.

But unknown to him, a small boy has been hiding behind one of the pillars for as long as the man has been staying behind in the hall. The child was left behind after he walked away from his parents earlier to search for the white pebble he had found in the past and had been treasuring it since then. He found it and he saw everything.

After the man leaves the hall and enters the room at the side, the boy quickly makes his escape. Nevertheless,unfortunate as he is, he is found dead on the next day alongside the rest of his family members. Teeth-marks are found on their bodies, from the neck down to their legs. And nothing could be done by the villagers but to conclude that this is nothing but the work of some stray beasts from the wild.

His secret remains safe and sound.

Still dark and considered as night, here I am. Regarding the body of my beloved, I have buried her in a part of the forest grounds where the green plants are still mostly alive and green there. For a plant witch, I believe that there is nothing better than letting her body to live as one with the nature. Plus, doing so will lessen the damages dealt to her corpse if I am to fight or run away.Walking among the trees in the forest, I have finally arrived at the next village. The village of Nerr.

The cottages are scattered all over the grassy land. And there are the empty stalls put up at different spots and, the benches surrounding a small circle, perhaps, I thought, that is the campfire site judging by the presence of burnt logs and ashes at the centre. The windows of every house are closed and there are no lights on the streets nor are there any in the houses. The night will be replaced by the day soon, I thought. And as such I sit on the benches to wait for the villagers to rise before heading to the tavern if there's any here. Quietly and patiently, I sit and wait.

The Sun begins to rise in the east an hour later. Just a little longer until everyone is awake...or so I thought. To think that I have brought myself to a dead village is definitely beyond my wildest dream. To think that I have came to a village where everyone is dead in a strange and mysterious way. With dark teeth marks on almost every part of their body, this is indeed a terrifying and painful death for all of them.

'Search the area!' A female voice beamed from the village's entrance.

And to think that I will be encountering the ones i have been running away from, here, in a village where no one is alive anymore.

'Exterminate the criminals upon sight!'

To be encountering the knights.

In a tone similar to the earlier one, the female knight declares and demands.

'I am Raisha the Tankmaster. Show yourselves, peasants!'