TATT: The Fall Of Neuhaven

Episode I

Stratios, my horse, grew more and more restless the closer we veered towards the slumbering town. It was an hour or two past dawn, pools of mist linger above the over-saturated grass. Rolling hills alongside a thick forest made for a challenging last three days of travel. But Stratios was a stallion built for conquest, more disciplined than a squad of men. He could easily carry me to our destination and probably keep going for two more days. We stopped atop a sizable hill, granting me the view a kilometer around, I took in the details for a few moments. Studying the terrain like a captain interrogating a prisoner.

The village was named Neuhaven, due north from the much more established City of Gran. Constructed from the center of a near-endless Evergreen forest and fueled off the blood of the Rheo River, Neuhaven managed to be completely independent. I could see the beautifully crafted front gate from my little vantage point. A towering stone wall jotted the perimeter of the town, where the majority of the wooden buildings hid safely behind.

I made a clicking noise, and it ushered the beast forward and down the rocky path. It was there at the bottom of the drenched pine treeline where we moved into a clearing. A clearing dotted with hundreds, if not thousands of stumps. It was humanity's attempt at staking its claim on an un-tamed forest. From what I could see, the ring of stumps carried itself around the town like a border. The population of Neuhaven hung around three hundred in number. Yet not a soul in sight.

Stratios walked carefully that but he started to act weird, almost tense. It was like he was second-guessing every step forward it. I could relate to the uneasiness, I felt off too. I knew the feeling, though, it was one carried with me from every fight with a plague. It was the feeling dread.

"Woah... Woah... Let's get camp started.. over there." I extend my arm to a point directing us toward a large patch of field, undisturbed by the surrounding stumps. "That way," I continued my thought. "If trouble does arise, then we'd be able to slip into the forest with ease."

Dismounting, the laborious animal had gotten rougher with age. It took around five minutes to get all my belongings unfastened and placed around the newly established campground. My travel companion, now free from the labors of carrying my belongings, enveloped in irritating magic smoke. After a few moments, a small critter sat where Stratios once was licking one of her front paws.

It was her pure form: the majestic love child of a Pseudo Dragon and a Siamese cat. Her name was Talias, a name which means nimble. Her body took a lot of aspects from her feline mother, adopting the stumpy snout and whiskers, the pointed ears as well as a fluffy tail. But where fur should cover her body was instead a sea of dark turquoise scales almost like a suit of armor; her scales shimmered like that of a fish when caught in sunlight just right. She had a fluffy plume around a slender throat, it was snow-white, but was attacked with flakes of black. A pair of silver reptilian eyes look up at me.

"What is it."

I watched as she decided to coil around my legs, purring, her voice was so soft like a low but constant meow. "I smell deaf. I don't know if people are even around anymore."

My hand dug deep into the box of rations its contents cooled by a rune somewhere in the boxes depth. "Interesting, isn't it?" Inside I felt out three flasks filled from the Rheo, that as well as a few cuts of venison from a deer I shot a few days back neatly packed at the bottom where it was coldest. I fished out a slab of the raw meat and offer it to the dragon who perched on a stump.

She gags on the aroma filling her nasal cavity "it's expired, I wouldn't even eat it."

"That's.. annoying, I may have to go hunting before we even have a chance to explore the town." Picking up the other pieces of meat, I traveled with them a reasonable distance from the camp before beginning the process of burying it. The hole had to be deep enough all to mask the stench of rotting meat from the abundant carnivores that held out in the woods.