Statuelike

Prologue

Year 1484

The sky was already dark and covered by many bright stars. At first glance, it might have looked like no one was outside at that hour, but that was not true. Even though most humans were in their comfortable homes already, sleeping tight. Not having the slightest idea about two men standing under the night sky not too far away.

One of them looked middle aged and his blonde hair did find a way to form an impression of glowing. The man was restless. His glance was nervously scanning the area, as if something was about to attack him at any second. It was very obvious that he was not comfortable.

The other man looked younger. He could be about twenty years old and if the sun was shining at the moment, it would've been obvious his hair was light brown. There were no signs of discomfort in his posture. He seemed to be relaxed just standing with hands in his pockets, his face upwards as he was admiring the stars with a little smile on his thin lips.

If one looked at them only for few seconds, there would've been nothing weird about them. If one looked at them more carefully, they would've started doubting their own eyes.

The men looked as human as possible for creatures with eyes as white as snow and skin so closely resembling stone. They had all the human features, yet something felt off. They looked like extremely realistic sculptures dressed in clothes and with hair growing out. Undoubtedly, they were also moving and breathing. And then the older man fixed his gaze on the younger one and opened his mouth to speak.

"You shouldn't look so excited to be out here," spoke the blonde man and a nagging tone in his voice could be clearly distinguished. That voice was calm and cold, something in it only supporting the stone-like impression of the man.

"And you shouldn't be so grumpy all the time," the younger man chuckled. "I just can't help it. Don't you see how beautiful it is?" he smiled in excitement. His voice sounded nothing like the other man's. Surely there was a trace of the same coldness, but it got lost under the joy radiating from the man.

"I did not take you out on this night to admire the view," growled the blonde and finally made a first step forward. There was no sound of stone cracking as some might expect, there was basically no sound at all. That's how carefully he was moving around.

"And why did you then? I thought you wanted me to keep my distance from humans," said the younger man, walking to catch up.

The question remained unanswered and they both stayed quiet as they slowly approached the edge of the hill they stood on. And then the older man stopped and looked right below.

The younger man did the same and his white eyes widened. The scenario happening just below them left him completely speechless. The eyes that were admiring the night view just a moment ago lost their spark.

On a place far enough from a sleeping village stood a stake. There were roughly twenty people around it. Three other men stood a bit aside and held something tight as if they thought it could kill them all once they let go of it.

Soon it was possible to recognize what they held, or more like who they held. The brown haired man watching the scene with his mouth slightly opened let out a quiet sigh of pure horror when he noticed a pair of white eyes looking at the stake in fear.

It was a creature just as they were, with white eyes and skin resembling stone. A woman. People dragged her towards the stake without mercy and even though she looked terrified she did not beg for it.

"We need to help her!" the younger man whispered and immediately took a step back trying to figure out how to get down there on time.

The other man grabbed him firmly, stopping him from going further. "We can't," he whispered back, coldness pouring from his words. "Do you want to get killed as well?"

"But we have to do something, we can't just watch!" he demanded. "What are they even doing," he mumbled. He couldn't believe what he saw.

When they started watching again, people already began tying the woman to the stake. Two men held two flaming torches ready to set the fire, their faces showing disgust.

First flames started licking the stake as the woman began to cry silently. And then the flames approached her more and more closely, almost touching her stone like skin. The wood loudly cracking because of the heat. And in just a matter of seconds, the flames started scorching her skin.

The woman cried out in pain for the first time, her body was trapped and her body temperature started getting higher. The stone intensively warmed up. Her body was made out of stone and not meat, so it was able to survive the heat, that didn't mean she wasn't in agonizing pain.

As she was screaming, a person appeared in front of the stake. It was a man just like the other ones, nothing was different about him physically but he looked like he knows what they were doing the best. He was carrying a huge bucket in his hands, other men standing a step behind him did have theirs too.

And then, with a calm unbothered look on his face, the man poured cold water from the bucket on the woman. Other people followed him immediately.

The woman's screams intensified and cracks began to appear on her body tearing it apart and painfuly slowly splitting it into chunks. After a moment that felt longer than it really was, her screaming stopped and she definitely fell apart. Only a pile of stone was left spread on the stake and under it. That was it.

The body of a noret, which is how these creatures were called, was made of stone but it was not as firm as a rock. In fact, norets were really more like sculptures. Their bodies could hold on through fire, trying to shoot them or to stab them with a knife would be about as pointless as trying to mine coal with a teaspoon and no one would wish to attack them with bare fists. They could take much more than humans ever could in many ways. The thermal shock caused by heating the stone and then quickly cooling it down was, on the other hand, something they couldn't survive through.

The brown haired noret stood there on the edge of the hill and stared down. His eyes still widened, his lips parted as he was breathing in and out, his fists clenched. He couldn't break his gaze from the stake. He couldn't move. He couldn't say a word. He wasn't able to react in any way at all. Something inside of him was falling apart and he could feel how his lips slowly started quivering. And then without a warning his body began shaking uncontrolably. The shock was slowly fading and he raised his hand to his eye level, watching his fingers tremble.

"Oh god," whispered the other man into the silence as he was watching the young noret breaking down. "Just how humanlike have you become already?"