A Nightmare Within a Dream

(6) The Infested Village

~Alex~

It's midday when we're arriving at the infested village. When the king told me they were suffering, I expected loss, but I didn't expect this much.

Cathy tightened her grip on my hand and winced as the village came into sight.

smoke emanated from the buildings that were standing and there were voices screaming. Normally, bad spirits only appear at night, but if they're strong enough, they can appear during the day and are at full strength. My parents had prepared me for anything, including other Elementalists, but nothing like this had ever been seen. how long has this been going on?

when we were close to arriving, the driver stopped,

"This is as far as I go," he said without tone. Cathy and I shared a glace and got off the car and started walking toward the Village.

when we got there a tall man with dark skin and red with grey mixed hair came up to us with narrowed eyes.

"we're not up for tourism," he said rudely. I shook my head and bowed slightly, Cathy following.

"I am Alex of Kauldin, and I have come in behalf of king Abrafo to help your village," he looked up and down at me,

"The king finally decided to send someone to help us huh?" he spits at the ground and sighed "it's about time he stopped punishing us," he finishes. punishing them?

"With all due respect, what do you mean punishing you?" Cathy asked as if she had read my thoughts.

"A year ago, our town was known for our connection with the spirits, we live on such hallowed ground that spirits are actually able to come and interact with us, and we lived with them peacefully. Until Princess Ade came," he said with such distaste for Ade. Alex nodded in agreement with his distaste."A well-known spirit introduced himself, wanting to become friends with her but she was disgusted and offended him greatly. Causing the destruction of our peaceful union making the spirits leave us." Okay but that doesn't mean the king has punished them. "To make matters worse, the king was furious that we had allowed his daughter to be around a 'blood hungry' spirit, so he sent a group of priests to 'purify' the land and just made all the spirits, that were starting to come back, become evil. And when we told him that we had evil spirits he said we had brought it upon ourselves and refused to help!" He said beginning to get frustrated. Cathy moved to place an arm on his shoulder calming him.

"It's okay, we're here to help. And we're not under King Abrafo's command," she stated kindly. He seemed to look at us in a different light and made a slight smile for a second. His eyes softened

"thank you for helping us," he said softly "I'm Tarlow, the chief of this village," he said introducing himself.

"I'm Cathrine of Kauldin, and this is my fiancé Alex," she said gesturing to me despite me already introducing myself. He nodded and faintly smiles.  If this problem is as big as it seems, we'll probably stay a few days.

"Sir, it might take me a while to get rid of the bad spirits, so do you have anywhere we'll be able to stay?" I ask, realizing I've been tugging on Cathy's fingers. He nods and points into the woods nearby

"I have a cabin a little into the woods, it'll be dusty but it'll keep you safe in the night," he responded, Cathy and I glanced at each other, she wiggled her eyes and smiled. Tarlow cleared his throat, "it's been peacefully today, I'll take you on a tour," I nodded embarrassed, and continued on.