Tales Of A HUNTSMAN

BLOODY MASSACARE

All the village men had rushed to the borders ready for war, all the men knew there was no way they were coming out of the battle alive but when they thought of their families behind them who were relying on their victory they steeled their hearts and prepared for the inevitable.

I stopped after running for a bit, turning to look at the fight that was about to happen but after a few minutes nothing happened. I began to think what everyone was thinking, Lambert might have hit the barrel one too many times when we heard them.

The thumping of hooves against the snow brought dread to us all, the flames of their torches appearing one by one as though vengeful spirits of the night.

The beast like roars which followed after was the straw that broke the camel’s back, chaos ensued once more. The people who had given themselves hope that everything was nothing more than the ramblings of a drunk, finally accepted reality.  The reality that we were being attacked settled in, the screams as though a symphony orchestrated by the goddess, mistress dusk herself.

I dropped my sword as I watched the ensuing battle, I had always had dreams of marching into battle and coming back with glorious tales but… this was nothing like I imagined.

I saw people I had grown up knowing, family and friends all die before my eyes. My feet were glued to the ground, I wanted to run but my feet wouldn’t let me, I tried to cover my ears to block out the wails but my arms felt heavier than lead, I tried closing my eyes but they remained wide open no matter what I did my body would not obey me, I felt like a prisoner in my own body.

The battle was ongoing and with each clash of swords sparks flew and the stench of blood in the air thickened.

The men of the village were outnumbered, they were outmatched but they stood their ground like valiant warriors. At the forefront of the battle was Mikhail he fought like a beast with each swipe of his sword his blade reaped a life, the knights who charged in without fear began to waver before him.

The leader seeing this told the others on horses to intervene and once more the odds were against us.

“Yes the commanders are here!” one of the knights shouted invigorating his men for battle but, when the village men heard his shout the opposite happened the temperature went from cold to freezing, the faint light which seemed to have appeared at the end of the end of the tunnel vanished.

The commanders of the Drakon empire, there was none in the whole Elypsus who hadn’t heard of them. In the Drakon empire their army was divided based on strength and accomplishments, from the common soldier, to a hundred man commander, to a thousand man commander, to the chapter leaders and finally the generals.

And now the men had just found out there were four commanders, worst of all there was a man who could actually command them. The fact scared everyone in the village, each commander was already known for their monstrous strength and it was a well known fact that the Drakon  empire respected only strength.

“By Borvvuk’s beard, were screwed!” Hogun shouted when he realized they were about to fight four commanders.  I focused on the commanders who had just arrived on their horses, they were terrifying, the stuff of nightmares.

They gazed upon the battlefield coldly as though envoys of Hades himself, the one at the back rose his hand slowly. As he held up his hand I felt my breath seize and without any warning he dropped it. The screams that followed were louder than I thought possible, they were so deafening my ears were ringing.

The commanders ripped through our formation like a hot knife through butter. Homes were burnt to the ground, my people were slaughtered as though pigs at the s*******r. Watching the ensuing chaos, I remembered why I began running in the first and turned to run once more hoping I wasn’t too late. As I did I took one last look at the battlefield, my father Mikhail still stood strong killing whoever came his way.

I ran faster than I had ever ran, as I got closer I begged the gods, I pleaded for my family to be okay, for me not to be late.

I maneuvered through the rumbles of my once peaceful, joyous village. It was just that morning when we laughed together, when the children played around without a care in the world, when the village’s women came together to share gossip none of them aware of what was to come that night.

Finally I reached where my home once stood and had all my hopes crushed. I searched through the rubble of what was once my home my heart refusing to believe what my mind was telling me, I only came to a stop when I found an arm.

The arm was slightly burnt but familiar all the same, how could it not, this was the arm that would rub my head to give praise, wipe away my tears when I was sad, the arms that would cover me at night to protect me at night.

“no… no… no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no mother wake up please mother, no mother please don’t, please wake up mother, I swear I’ll be good I… I won’t sneak out anymore, I won’t get into anymore fights please… *sob* don’t leave” I slumped into the snow holding my mother’s arm all the noise fading into the background, my mother was gone as I knelt there the guilt ate at me.

If only I had arrived earlier, if only I wasn’t so scared, if I was just a bit faster, if I was stronger… I could have saved her, it was my fault she was gone…I… killed her.

I knelt there completely oblivious to my surroundings, I was too deep into my spiral of guilt to notice the knight who had appeared behind me with a sword at hand. I was drawn out of it only when I heard the sound of a sword going through someone.