Outsiders

Zane slowly opened the door to the blacksmith. He glanced inside the lobby and saw a counter with no one on the other side. There were racks on the side of the room filled with farming equipment and some weapons. Zane headed inside and closed the door behind him.

Hearing someone enter his shop, the blacksmith came down from upstairs. He was an old skinny man with balding hair, wearing a blacksmith's apron. He stopped in front of Zane and looked at him. "Zane.. Come."

Zane nodded and followed the blacksmith. The blacksmith took Zane into his smithy at the end of the lobby. As soon as Zane stepped inside, he felt the heat from the furnace. The blacksmith stopped in front of the anvil and faced Zane. "Zane. I don't think I can keep fixing your hunting knife anymore." *Cough*. "I've sharpened your hunting knife hundreds of time. I think it is reaching it's limits. As a present for you, I've created this hunting knife."

He handed Zane a beautiful hunting knife with tree-ring like patterns on the blade and a leather grip handle.

"I don't make many weapons. *Cough*. So it may not be of the highest quality. But it will get the job done." Saying that, he handed Zane a sheath for the blade.

"Thank you." Zane gave the blacksmith a solemn look. He knew that the blacksmith's sickness was becoming worse by the day.

"Now now don't look at me like that. Put that away for now and come. Let's start where we left off last time. I know you don't want to go to the farm with all the people. *Cough*. So, you might as well learn something as you're already here."

Zane nodded his head and put the blade inside it's sheath. He put the blade aside and began learning from the blacksmith. By the time Zane came out of the blacksmith's, the sun was already beginning to set.

---

While returning to his house, Zane noticed a crowd forming near the entrance of the town. Curious, he went towards the crowd to see what was happening. He saw that the crowd was forming around a short chubby person. He was Mr. Henry, the merchant of the town. He would go to the city and bring back goods to the town. He was also the father of the bully kid.

Zane spotted Valentina in the crowd and walked towards her. He pulled on her arm to take her out of the crowd. Along with Valentina, Cadell also came out of the crowd. Zane glanced at Cadell, ignored him and turned to Valentina. "What's going on?".

"That Mr. Henry brought some outsiders to stay over claiming that they are the patrons of the church." Zane looked over to Mr. Henry.

"I told the patrons of the church about our town's condition! They want to support the town again!", Mr. Henry screamed heartily. There was a group of people behind him, wearing dark violet hooded robes. Watching them gave Zane an eerie feeling. His focus was broken by the crowd murmuring amongst themselves.

Hearing that, Mr. Rodger stroked his beard. He gave a smile, "Welcome, patrons of the Church. Thank you for coming all this way. I'll prepare the accommodation for you." After saying that, Mr. Rodger assigned a person to take the outsiders to stay in an abandoned house.

"Let's return brother. We need to prepare dinner. We harvested a lot of vegetables and buckwheat today!" Valentina smiled brightly. "You return to your house too Cadell" Valentina turned to Cadell.

"Okay.." Cadell spoke in a low voice. He looked at Zane squinting his eyes, "Then I'll be going brother Zane. Good Night."

Zane nodded at Cadell, grabbed Valentina's hand and headed home. After freshening up, Valentina prepped the vegetables for dinner while Zack prepared the firewood. After all preparations were complete, Valentina started cooking the vegetables. She put a small block of lard on the pan and stir-fried the vegetables.

*Burp*. "That was a really appetizing dinner. Thank you Val."

"Gross."

"Haha. Hey Val, those people from earlier... Do you think they are really from the church?"

"I don't know, I've never seen people from the church before. But looking at those people gave me goosebumps!" Valentina shuddered and hugged herself.

"We better be careful for the time being Val. Let's go to sleep today."

----

A room was being dimly lit in a violet hue by the moon. Inside, there was a person sitting on a luxurious chair writing something on a paper illuminated by the dimly lit light inside the room. He was a middle aged man with graying hair. He had sharp facial features accompanied by a neat beard. He was wearing a neat fitting shirt and trousers.

*Knock Knock* "Night Commander, Cadet Edana reporting."

"Come in."

The door opened and a girl walked inside the room. She had beautiful black hair tied into a ponytail. She was wearing the same type of clothes as the man, and a violet long coat with a crescent moon symbol with stars. After she came in, she stood in an attentive position in front of the man. "Sir!"

"Edana, go and pack your things. I am assigning you your first mission."

Edana's eyes went wide. "Yes Night Commander Thorn! Can I ask the details of this mission?"

"I will brief you about the mission while we depart."

"We?"

"Yes... I'm coming with you." Thorn stood up, grabbed his long coat from the back of the chair and wore it. "You're dismissed."

"Yes Sir!" Edana stood straight and exclaimed. "May the night protect us!"

Thorn also followed, "May the night protect us."

----

A couple of weeks went by after the arrival of the church patrons. Each day passed normally. Some days Zane would go hunting, some days he'd go to the blacksmith to learn and some days he'd read books with his sister and teach her.

Zane kept an eye on the church group as he was paranoid by nature and quite untrusting of people.

The only odd things he noticed happening the past few weeks was that they wouldn't interact with the townsfolk much and some of their members would leave the town and come back a couple of days later. They'd come back with a bag which looked heavy, and if someone offered to help, they'd refuse and carry the bags themselves.

After finishing his lesson at the blacksmith, Zane returned home. The sun was already setting when he reached home. He butchered the meat he hunted the day before for dinner. Then, Valentina prepared a meat stew. They ate the meat stew and buckwheat bread sharing a hearty conversation.

"Val, I'm going to go for a walk around the town."

"Come back fast!"

The town was covered in a violet hue and the moon was shining brightly in the clear night sky. Zane casually strolled around the town. When he reached near the house the church patrons were staying in, he heard some voices. Curious, he sneaked towards the house and took a peek from the window.

"It's already been weeks since you have come here. You promised that the town would become mine! You always tell me to come back later and the time has not come. When will you give me what you promised!?"

Zane saw Mr. Henry shouting at the leader of the group. The leader slowly approached Mr. Henry. Frightened, Mr. Henry took a step back. But just as he did that, the leader quickly punched towards his stomach. Widening his eyes, Mr. Henry looked down at his stomach. A hand was sticking inside his stomach and coming out from his back.