He looked across the landscape to see to his far left the rocking of tall branches. He squinted. Raina and Cairo were still banging and yelling when they heard the loud crack of a trunk in the distance being snapped in half. They turned to face what Julian was looking at. They couldn't see it but they heard a tree fall as it broke the branches of the other pines in their view. Loud and heavy footfalls could be heard, striking the ground with soft tremors as they went. Something else was in the woods. And it wasn't the wolf.
The foot falls were slow at first, then they grew in rapidity. As this new creature moved behind the trees at the edge of the clearing, they could tell by how high up the tree branches shook that this creature was very large. Possibly even larger than an elephant. There was no way to see a shadow, as the light from the torches pushed the shadows away from them. They heard what they thought was scurrying from another animal. Then the foot falls got quicker. The creature was running with loud but swift stomping.
Another loud crack from a broken branch and the footfalls had stopped abruptly, followed by a loud and violent whimper of the now helpless wolf. The forest was hushed for a moment as it watched the descent of a predator onto it's prey.
The stomps quickly resumed and then grew more and more distant along with the wolf's howls of pain. Desperate whimpers echoed as it was carried away. Its cries eventually ceased, leaving the natural noises of the night to take over once again, surrounding Raina and the boys. They stood there dumbfounded and still. The door that had previously been their singular focus creaked open behind them.
"Hello?" came a man's voice.
They turned around to see a figure holding the door. He was wearing armor. He had a black metal chest plate and gauntlets on his arms that had a red hue to them. Julian thought he looked like a modern version of a medieval soldier.
"Come! Come! Get in!" he said gesturing.
They quickly came inside the walls. The man closed the door and latched it behind them. The streets of the inside of the village were fairly bright. Torches lit the streets like lamp posts. Wherever the light of one torch ended, the light of another torch began. It was as though the light radius had been measured out. Neat and small cabin homes lined the inside of the walls, row after row. They couldn't see how big it was but there was something odd about it. Raina thought it reminded her of her history textbooks. Julian thought it looked more like a reenactment of some sort of old medieval culture. The guard came around the front of the frantic young people. They could now see he was a young man, looking to be somewhere in his twenties.
"Boy, you people are a long way from home! The nearest town isn't for miles!" He said with a smile.
He reached out and quickly shook each of their hands.
"My name's Boke, officer of The Kings Guard. It's a pleasure to meet you."
They stared back at him looking frazzled, trembling with wide eyes and breathing heavily.
"It's always a relief to see someone make it to town and not become a victim of the night. Bless you three! You didn't lose anyone in your party did you?"
He pulled out a clip board. Cairo thought a clip board seemed out of place with what he was wearing.
Julian looked confused, "In our party? It's just us."
The man called Boke pulled out something to write with and started in on his clip board. He muttered each word as he wrote it.
"Okay... three... people... no... losses."
The three of them looked at each other as the man wrote. He finished and then looked up and smiled at them.
"Come with me."
YOU ARE READING
The Cinders of Dezu
AdventureDezu is a world where average people become legends. But it is haunted by a story that turns legends into ashes. Cairo and Julian just graduated and they've got their whole life ahead of them. But before college and all that adulting they have to do...
