Alcorn Village

For those who are curious about the current timeline in Teyvat, it's a few weeks or so before the beginning of the main Genshin Impact plot. In other words, a few weeks before the scene where the Traveller is talking with Paimon on the shore of the beach.

Finally, before the chat group function becomes unlocked, whenever that will be. Just wanted to say that the characters I choose will most likely not be mainstream, mainly because I want to use characters that most probably wouldn't know about unless they looked them up specifically.

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At the current time, Kendric could be seen speeding through the forest, a trail of purple-hued afterimages following behind him as he ran. He was currently making his way toward the village Geoffrey and his family had previously lived in.

If he was able to get there fast enough, there was a small possibility that there might be some people who had also managed to survive the supposed siege of hilichurls. He didn't keep his hopes up though, the chances were definitely not in his favour.

"This should be it..." Kendric began slowing down as he skidded to a stop at the end. He then proceeded to walk out from the forest, to which he was then greeted by a rather ruinous sight, quite literally ruinous. 'Damn, this place is a total wreck...'

Kendric narrowed his eyes as he viewed the destroyed remains of the village, and while it wasn't completely destroyed, the damage could definitely be seen. Houses were very much damaged, and some debris had smoke rising up from them.

'Did someone put out the fire or something?' Kendric wondered as he inspected the burnt pieces of wood on the ground, and just by the condition of said wood, the fire definitely could have spread and burnt more than what had been. 'Maybe there actually are survivo-.'

Kendric's thoughts were interrupted when he heard something colliding with the ground, and in response, he cautiously and silently made his way towards the source. The sound brought him towards one of the houses, more specifically, one that still had smoke rising up.

"There... that should be all of it."

"Nothing managed to spread into the forest, right?"

"Doesn't seem like it, fortunately. What do we do now, chief?"

Kendric listened in on the conversation as he position himself behind the wall of one of the adjacent buildings, and from the conversation alone, these people were most likely the ones that had been putting out all of the fires that were burning the village down.

Sneaking a glance beyond the wall he was pressed up against, Kendric looked to see that the people who were talking all appeared to be men who were in their mid-thirties to forties. They wore clothing similar to Geoffrey, but with some minor differences that weren't worth mentioning.

'Chief?' Kendric repeated that word in his head as he glanced towards the individual that was called such. From one glance alone, you could tell pretty easily that the male was older than the other two by a few years. 'Perhaps that guy's the leader of the village, hmm...'

"All we can do now is rebuild, and as much as it pains me, we'll have to leave mourning the fallen for later..." The supposed chief sighed sadly as he crossed his arms. "Have any of you found any hints of Geoffrey or his family around? It'll be difficult rebuilding without them."

"Unfortunately, we haven't... Some of the others say they saw them running away from the village like the rest of us, but they weren't entirely sure which way it was that they had run. They could honestly be anywhere at this point."

"I see..."

'This could work in my favour, they do seem to be familiar with Geoffrey and his family.' Kendric thought to himself as he continued listening in. Whatever other thoughts he had didn't come through as he was soon distracted by another sound. 'Are those hilichurls? Again?!'

Looking around, Kendric soon found a group of hilichurls approaching the three males' direction. It wasn't a small group either, this one was far larger compared to the one he saved Geoffrey and his family from before. Easily more than three or four times larger that is.

"Ch-Chief...!"

"Damnit, did they come back to check?" The chief gritted his teeth as the three males backed up against one another towards the building they had just put out. Their eyes trained on the approaching horde of hilichurls. "We'll have to make a run for it!"

"B-But, how? They have us cornered!"

"We'll have to force our way through!" Despite how confidently the chief shouted this, his expression was the complete opposite. He looked visibly distressed, and he knew damn well that their chances of escaping were slim to none. "On my count, we push-!"

Before he could finish his sentence, a loud abnormal scream of sorts seemed to blast through the area. The three villagers instinctively covered their ears, gripping as the loud noise caused them to wince rather heavily. The hilichurls weren't so lucky though as they wailed in pain from the scream, obviously having trouble covering whatever ears they had due to the masks they wore.

The pain was so intense for them that the majority of them collapsed to the ground while still wailing in agony, continuing to do so even after the scream stopped. They remained on the ground clutching their heads.

"Hurry up, they aren't going to be like that for long!"

The three males stared at Kendric who appeared behind the group of hilichurls for a second before nodding, to which they then quickly ran towards him, pushing past any of hilichurls that were still in the way. Nodding, Kendric motioned them to continue running.

"Thank you, whoever you are!" The chief gave a thanks as he and the other two ran up to Kendric. "We should go. It's just as you said, they won't stay like that forever."

"You three go on ahead, I'll catch up." Kendric stated simply as the three gave him confused looks. He didn't answer them though before opening his mouth and releasing a power scream that sent the hilichurls flying back. Staring with widened eyes, they turned to look at Kendric with eyes of disbelief. "Get going, I'll make sure they can't come after us!"

"R-Right...!"

"Thank you!"

"Good luck!"

With a nod, the three males quickly followed what they were told and began running away. Curious though, they turned their attention back while running to see that Kendric was simply standing tall with his right arm raised and hand open wide.

'Concentrate...' Kendric thought to himself as he could feel his hand starting to vibrate violently. Producing powerful sound from his body wasn't easy, the only reason his voice had that much power at his current stage was because he was merely amplifying the power his own screams had. '...Now!'

Snapping open his eyes, Kendric bent down quickly before slamming his open palm down onto the ground. When he did, a purple wave of energy seemed to run along the surface of the ground towards where the hilichurls were.

Soon after, the ground began to crack violently as the hilichurls, who were just starting to get up from the previous attack, once again fell back to the ground before being hit repeatedly as multiples layers of the rocky ground were forced up, hitting them in the process.

'Alright, that should be good enough. Not enough to kill them probably, but enough to at least knock them unconscious.' Giving a tired breath, Kendric stood back up before turning and running after the three males. "Get going, stop staring and get a move on!"

Due to the miniature earthquake that Kendric produced, the three had obviously stopped in visible shock at the scene. Hearing Kendric's shout, they all nodded and continued running with Kendric following behind them.

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After effectively escaping the horde of hilichurls, Kendric was guided by the three males he had saved towards what looked to be a makeshift campsite. When they arrived, Kendric was surprised by the sheer number of people actually present here.

Don't get him wrong, there wasn't an insane amount of people, just more than he had honestly expected there to be. If he were to make a rough estimation based on how many he's seen thus far, then the camp had around eighteen, which included the children, adults, and the elders.

"Please, make yourself at home." The chief, which Kendric had come to learn was named Adriff, spoke as he gestured towards a log beside one of the campfires. "My wife is cooking dinner with a few others, it should be ready any time now."

"I see, thank you."

"No, I'm the one who should be thanking you." Adriff chuckled as he threw some wood into the fire, using a stick to push it around as he continued speaking. "If it weren't for you, then we surely would have met our ends right then and there. I'm truly in your debt."

"Don't worry about it." Kendric merely waved it off before speaking again. "What will you be doing now? It's obvious that you've set up a base of sorts here, but with all the wild animals and no doubt the hilichurls around, it's not exactly the safest thing to do."

"I'm well aware..." Adriff sighed as he heard this. "All we can do is rebuild our village, though who knows how long that'll take us? If anything, we'll be better off making our way towards Mondstadt, we have some funds that should last us for a good while."

"Why not come with me then?" Adriff wasn't expecting such a suggestion as he merely blinked with widened eyes. "I can provide you all with a new place to stay. In fact, I already have someone named Geoffrey and his family currently under my care."

"Wait, Geoffrey?!" Adriff shouted, causing some of the others nearby to turn to look towards him. Noticing his actions, Adriff quickly waved them to go back to whatever they were doing before turning back to Kendric. "When you say Geoffrey, is the one you're talking about married to a woman named Nataliana?"

"Umu."

"I see, then that means that they're safe, thank goodness..." Adriff gave deep sigh of relief upon hearing Kendric's response. "That means they must have run into you somehow as well, just like we did. Regarding your offer though, is that truly okay? You've already done a lot for me by saving me."

"As I said before, no worries. I'm sure Geoffrey would be glad to see everyone here okay as well."

"It would be wonderful to see them again, a lot of us were worried after not being able to find them."

A new voice sounded as they turned to see a woman around Adriff's age walking over, holding two wooden bowls with wooden spoons inside. She had dark-brown hair that was tied into a simple high-bun, along with having bangs that framed either side of her face.

"My name is Margaret, it's a pleasure to meet the one who saved my husband."

"Kendric Allennere, a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"A polite one as well! Here, you must be hungry, feel free to eat as much as you want." Margaret smiled as she handed the two bowls to both Kendric and her husband. "It's nothing special, just a simple stew we cooked up."

"It's simple, but it's quite delicious." Kendric smiled as he took a small sip from the bowl he held. He could see pieces of meat as well as vegetables inside, and despite looking so plain, it was quite delicious in his opinion. "Compliments to the chefs."

"Glad you enjoy it!" Margaret gave a small laugh as she heard this. "About where you are letting Geoffrey and his family stay, how far is it exactly. Depending on the distance, we'll probably need to make some preparations before heading off."

"It's not too far, around a five or four hour walk at most."

"I see, that's much closer than Mondstadt is." Margaret nodded as she held her chin in thought. "if it's that close, then we should be able to quickly head out tomorrow morning. It's far too late to begin the trip now."

"I agree." Adriff nodded as he looked up from his bowl. "We'll head out early next morning, so we should get as much rest as we can for tonight. You should get some as well, Kendric. I'm sure that we'll be able to quickly make you a spot to sleep comfortably."

"Very well. I'll take you up on that then."