Ch 9 - Village?

When I came too I found it to be morning. I was still laying in the carriage. However, the bodies of all the monsters were missing. The only signs of a battle were the puddles of blood-soaked grass on the ground.

I heard chattering off in the distance so I assumed that there were some survivors.

Last night during the mist of the battle Christopher and his remaining guards were surrounded.

They were obviously going to lose and were only able to buy time to live out their last moments. After some time had passed and more men continued to be killed only one mage remained.

He stood bravely in front of Christopher and his daughter conjuring a fireball in both hands.

"IF I'M GOING DOWN, YOU'RE COMING DOWN WITH ME!" He screamed ready to use everything he had left including his life force to burn the monsters to a crisp.

James had always been at the top since he was a kid. When he learned that he had an affinity with fire magic at the age of ten he instantly became the greatest in his town.

His father was a war mage for the army while his mother was a commoner. His father fell in love at first sight when he saw James's mother.

When his father managed to woo her and they got married. James's grandparents disowned him thinking that he would spoil their bloodline and never be able to have another mage in the family.

However, contradictory to everyone's expectations a miracle happened and James became a mage.

Due to his father being disowned they had to move to a small town living off the income he made in the army. Yet once his son was found to be able to use the fire element just like him the government began to fund them. This was in exchange that James would also join the army. James seeing the possibility of becoming rich begged his dad to accept and so he did.

James in order to get some experience was accepting odd jobs where he would protect merchants and nobles to prepare himself for the army.

What he assumed to be a simple task of chasing away a couple of bandits, he decided to join Christopher.

Yet he was currently surrounded on all sides by hundreds of monsters. He had witnessed a one-sided massacre. Where innocent people were being killed and eaten. Then there was the even unluckier like the female mage who was raped before bleeding out.

James having a sense of duty to protect the man that hired him was about to go all out to take as many monsters down with him as he could.

However, right as he finished chanting, the monsters ran away. They disappeared as quickly as they came dragging all the dead bodies with them.

"HA! I DID IT! THEY WERE TOO SCARED OF MY FLAMES!" James shouted before collapsing to the ground pissing himself.

"I'm alive..." He whispered with a broken face knowing that his sanity was long gone.

Christopher seeing that all the monsters had run away quickly got out of the carriage to assess the damage.

"Stay here Kylee I'm going to check for survivors," Christopher said before calling out that it was safe and if anyone was alive to come out of hiding.

When the survivors gathered together they found out that only 7 remained including the mage, Christopher, and Kylee.

"What the hell was that! I've never seen such a horde of monsters gathered together all at once before. Also, this was supposed to be a green zone but it's obviously much more dangerous than that," Christopher said flabbergasted.

"Daddy, what about the baby? The mother and I put Noah in the carriage and left him all alone he must be scared we have to go see him," Kylee said crying.

"Oh, darling he probably didn't make it. There were so many monsters there's no way a baby would be left behind. We need to set out to the nearest village to ask for help in order to make it to the capital," he said assigning every remaining person a carriage.

"NO!" Kylee shouted before running off towards Noah's carriage.

"Kylee come back. It's still dangerous don't go running off," Christopher said before giving chase.

Luckily for Noah, Kylee made it to his carriage before Christopher could catch up and leave him behind.

When Christopher arrived Kylee said, "see daddy I told you he wasn't dead."

Christopher was completely unable to make head or tails of how a barely week-old baby had survived that massacre. He was stunned unable to believe his own eyes. Yet in front of him was Noah safe and sound with not a scratch on him.

"Daddy we have to take him with us his mommy probably left just like mine," Kylee said picking me up.

"You're right we should take him with us," Christopher replied before taking me out of Kylee's arms.

Christopher knowing that his plan was foiled was thinking of another way to part with his wife's son.

He already decided to go to the nearest village instead of the one that they planned where they would have dropped Noah off. Christopher thinking that there might be another family wanting to adopt, figured that he could just leave Noah there. Then he could give an excuse to Kylee that the villagers were so sad about his story that they wanted to take care of him.

Thinking that his plan was foolproof the remaining people set out.

Before noon they arrived at the village.

The villagers seeing a group of messed up people and a bunch of carriages were alarmed and came out to greet them.

Christopher jumped off his carriage and went to talk to the chief.

"What can I do for you sir," the chief asked seeing Christopher make his way over towards him.

"My name is Christopher and I am the leader of this group. We were attacked by a horde of monsters on our way to New Neviem. If you could spare a could of the resident to lead the remaining carriages I would greatly appreciate, it as well as pay handsomely," Christopher replied.

"My name is Vin and I am the chief of this town. We are not fond of outsiders but seeing as you were respectful and offered to pay for our work I'll accept your proposal," Vin said smiling.

"Great 10 people should do. I'll pay one silver coin per person once we reach our destination," Christopher said happily.

"We appreciate your generosity sir Christopher I will have the men ready within the hour," Vin replied.

"Before you leave I have another question to ask if you don't mind," Christopher asked nervously.

"Yes? What is it?" Vin answered curiously.

"A baby boy named Noah lost his mother on the trip here I was wondering if any of the villagers would want to adopt him. I would pay five silver coins which would allow for them to provide for him for a short period of time due to the hassle of raising a child. Unfortunately, that's all I would be able to offer if someone were to raise him for life. If a couple happens to be having troubles with pregnancy I'm sure the ability to take care of him will be a gift of its own," Christopher said trying to seal the deal.

"Actually we have just the couple with that very problem I'm sure that they would be very grateful to take care of the child as if he were their own," Vin replied, happy to have found a way to solve a problem one of his followers was facing.

"Perfect! I'll bring him over now then wait in my carriage until your men are ready to move out," Christopher replied giving Vin a handshake before turning around to walk away.

After giving the excuse he had thought of earlier to Kylee she reluctantly allowed him to take Noah away. However, not before she gave Noah a quick kiss on the forehead and said goodbye.

Christopher then took Noah over the Vin and he left shortly later unaware of the biggest mistake he had ever made.

Christopher not only gave away his own child to strangers but he gave away the most powerful being that will ever be.

Back when Noah was waiting in his carriage minding his own business waiting for the adventure to start again he was testing out his new powers.

Even though he was too weak to make use of the gifts he could feel it in his body that he had the power to do all that Arkin had said.

His use of magic was still far too weak so he told himself that he would push as hard as he could to the max.

When his sister Kylee came running up to him he was surprised to see that she was still alive. However, after thinking that Christopher did everything in his power to protect her it made sense.

Then Noah thought, 'why wouldn't Christopher come to protect me? Also now that I think about it even more I haven't seen him since he got enraged. He also allowed me to ride with the nurse the whole time. What is my father doing to his son? Is he ignoring me? If so that's great! I then will have the freedom to do as I please. Although I have no idea why this will benefit me greatly.'

However just as he was thinking that Christopher came over and picked him up before letting him ride with Kylee in the front of the lead carriage.

'Damn even more traveling we better get there soon,' I say annoyed.

Then we arrived at the village.

'THIS?! This was what all our efforts were for? All those sacrifices to get to this dirt-poor village. Christopher, you have really let me down. I was expecting a marvelous city not this old town,' I think disappointed.

Then out of nowhere nasty, wet, lips slobber all over my innocent forehead.

'What the fuck was that for sister? Don't taint my body with your disgusting saliva.' I say pissed off.

Then Christopher takes me over to some ugly old man and plops me into his hands before turning around and leaving.

'Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!'