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Chapter 4

Nonek Greenbolt POV.

One day, shortly before dawn, a group of armed men entered the abandoned village. Nonek and another man went out to find what was causing the trouble and came across three young children, sitting huddled together, frightened.

They took them home where they immediately bandaged their wounds and made sure that they were fed and rested before letting them return back outside.

One day later several more villagers were found huddled together near the village center. All were injured or missing pieces of their bodies. They had been ambushed. Nonek and the other man went inside to investigate the corpses of villagers. There was no sign of an organized attack. All of the victims were clearly slaughtered. Their heads were missing. Most likely they were eaten. The headless bodies were still covered by their torn cloths and they smelled strongly of decay.

Afterwards, nonek sent out scouts to search the area and found the remains of three more villages along the way. There was no sign of survivors or any animals either. Not even animals could survive being attacked and hunted by the monsters like these. The hunters had done a thorough job cleaning up the carnage.

Nonek and his companion, a young woman named Hala, stayed in the village for months. Nonek was convinced that something bad was happening somewhere out there in the world. He didn't trust those people who claimed to be helping the people of Rokurou. No matter what people said, he could see past their disguises and masks. These people did not show any remorse for what had happened to all the villages. He believed that they simply wanted to steal the land for themselves and take over as soon as they possibly could. His only hope was that there was someone alive out there that could help him and Hala, and also that there wasn't a huge army of killers out there hunting him down.

But there wasn't much that either of them could do to stop the attacks on their own, especially since the only resources that were readily available within the village were food. So the pair made their living by selling supplies to merchants that stopped by the village. It was a small village and a fairly busy one considering the size of the land. The village had a few taverns and pubs scattered throughout its small town. Most of the buildings were wooden and painted in shades of brown and grey. A few had white walls to distinguish the rooms of some of the inns and bars as well as a large open space in the middle of the village square, which allowed visitors to walk around, eat and enjoy the town's sights. Many shops were open as well and there was even an old-fashioned candy store that had been kept shut for decades by the village owner who refused to sell the shop. In fact, it had become so used to being empty that there was practically nobody else in the town except for a handful of old women who would sometimes sit outside in the courtyard to rest.

As it was getting darker, it was hard to distinguish anything from the shadows, but that was when one could hear the sounds of fighting in the distance. The shouts were loud and piercing and could be heard even through the closed wooden doors of the houses surrounding them.

"I swear to god, if you don't let me fucking go...!"

The two villagers looked at each other worriedly for a while until their curiosity got the better of them and they headed towards the door leading towards the streets of the main town. They carefully tried opening it to find out just what kind of a fight was going on, but the door creaked loudly when they opened it and the sound brought the attention of one of the women inside. The elderly lady quickly rushed out of the room, holding a long wooden stick in her hands, ready to hit anyone who dared enter into her home.

"Who's there?! Get your filthy hands off my property!!" she shouted angrily.

"It's alright lady," replied one of the villagers who was slightly taller than the elderly woman.

He pushed his way into the house and helped to close the door behind him.

"Is the city still under attack? What have you heard? Are we safe? Where is everyone else?" he inquired anxiously.

"Please calm down sir, I haven't been able to catch sight of anyone in the city for weeks now but today I was surprised to find out that the whole area has been cleared completely out. No one could get in or out unless you know where they are, so that means…" She paused for a minute trying to piece together a solution. Her expression changed and she became calmer. "I believe that those monsters have gone to the other side of the river. That's why the last people I talked to reported that the monsters were heading this direction, but I thought that they wouldn't venture in such a dangerous territory anymore. But if they are going straight towards the river there seems to be no reason to keep following them."

"How many of us are left?" asked another villager. "Where is everybody hiding? Why hasn't anyone arrived? Why doesn't the king do anything about it?"

"Oh please.