Scourge of the Dragon Lord

Chapter 5: The Village

I awoke to find Airen coming from the direction of what was once my home.  As he came toward me, I could see that ash was still caked around the soles of his boots. "Hey Airen, did you have a nice walk?" I said, my voice wavered when I saw his pale face and far off look.  

"What happened to you David? I saw the place where the smoke came from, how did you get out alive?" He said this with a solemn expression, I saw in his eyes a man who has experienced horror as great, if not greater than mine.

"I don't know Airen, I really don't know. I will tell you what happened to me."  I wanted to get off of this topic but I knew I couldn't, not until I told him what happened. 

His response was quiet, I almost missed it, barley above a whisper, "Tell me as we walk to the village." Airen was ready to return to his home, I could see it in his eyes. I wanted to get to someplace that had a roof on it. "Sure, that sounds good to me."  

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As we walked, I limped, I told Airen what had happened to my farm and my family.  He was so quiet that his voice made me jump "We are almost there, it is just over that hill."  He pointed  to the nearest hill, I was beginning to feel the effects of walking half the day.  I was stumbling more and more as my body felt the physical and mental fatigue, as I was talking to Airen all of the emotions, sadness and pain that I had experienced.   

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When we reached the village, it was strangely quiet, there was none of the usual hustle and bustle. Airen's face wore a surprised look. "Airen, where are all off the people?" Before Airen could answer me, we saw it a black snake cutting its way through the blue, cloudless sky.

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Airen and David ran in the direction of the smoke trail and found a gruesome sight waiting for them.

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Airen stared at the sight before them, his eyes were glassy like a dead fish, "Who could do this? Why would they do this?" He muttered under his breath, his eyes following the mound of corpses from the top to the base; they settled on ten man grouped around a fire. Their laughter carried to Airen and David's ears.

"Hahaha, the boss will be happy." said the one closest to the fire, little did they know this would be their last utterance of joviality and merrymaking. All the years that Airen had held onto his anger and pain of being a soldier came out at once, the bloodlust so great that the very air shimmered around him. The glassy film that had settled over his irises erupted in flames of rage, bringing their life back and with it the mind of a warrior; kill or be killed.

Airen charged into the group of ten men with nothing but a dagger from his waist band and a adrenaline and anger fueled strength. I watched as he lunged and stabbed, each blow was rewarded with a fleshy squelch and a trickle of blood. Within the first minute five men were down, dead or dying, even after he lost his weapon he used the body of a man as a shield and his fist as a weapon. Within the next two minutes all except one lay slain, Airen was the only man who remained standing on the field, covered with the blood and gore of those he felled. I hobbled to his side, Airen's knuckles were a bloody pulp, and in some places the bone was visible through the raw flesh, across his face were cuts and scrapes from fists and grazing knives.

He just stood there swaying, shifting from the balls of his feet to his heels, back and forth, back and forth almost as if he were dancing to some music audible only to his ears. Airen's eyes turned to look at me and he said "How could they do this? How could they do this to them?" All I could do was take his arm and lead him gently to a sitting position on the ground, I sat down next to him , my injured leg sitting stiffly in front of me. I put my hand on his shoulder because I just didn't know what else to do. We sat there for a while, maybe an hour, before the silence was broken by the footfalls of someone who came to investigate like we had, drawn by the smoke and now the death throes of the fallen men.

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