The Aftermath 2 (Merlin) ON HOLD

Chapter Six: Ealdor

When Merlin reached the peak of the hill, where usually the sight of his peaceful village could be seen, he was horrified to see the smoke  emerging from the flames running through the small village. Screams could be heard in the distance. Merlin wasted no more time on the sight seeing as he spurred his horse on to gallop towards the destruction before him.

As Merlin arrived in the village square he jumped off his horse before the chestnut stallion had even stopped moving. People were running, children were screaming. Mother's cradled their dying children and men tried desperately to save anyone they could.

It was not yet dark but the sun was almost gone, there was no golden picturesque sunset, the sky was cloudy and a darkish grey. The entire town felt like a somber graveyard.

The warlock looked around at the havoc before him, he couldn't see his mother anywhere, as much as he wanted to go find her, he couldn't ignore the screams around him, he knelt down by the side of a woman screaming in pain, she had burns up and down her body, another woman was holding her hand.
"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm a physician, what happened here?" Merlin questioned as he began examining the woman,

"There was an illness, it spread rapidly, other villages heard of it and wanted to stop it spreading to their homes, so they tried to kill it at the source."

"They set the village on fire?" Merlin asked in disbelief and rage.

The scared woman just nodded, "Can you save her, she's my sister."

"I'll try my best."

There was nothing Merlin could do for this woman, not medically anyway, clearly she already had the illness and the burns were severe.

"I need you to go and get me some water" the warlock asked, the woman immediately nodded and got to her feet.

Merlin looked down at his patient, who was crying in pain "What's your name?"

"M-Malia" the lady struggled to speak.

"Okay Malia, I'm going to try and help you, this might sting a little."

The woman nodded, The raven hovered his hands over her body "daflio influec" his eyes shone red as a light emitted from his hands.

Suddenly the woman took in a deep breath, she was already healing, the burns would take some time but the illness was gone and her pain taken away.

"Malia!" Cried the woman who gone to fetch water as she saw her sister sit up with the help of the physician. The two sisters embraced each other "Thankyou" she sobbed.

Merlin got up to his feet and searched for his next patient.

There was no shortage of people to heal, by the time he had healed his third person, a few villagers came up to him.

"What can we do to help?" A Man asked in concern, his face was covered in the ash.

Merlin began walking through the village with the three villagers following him,
"Is anyone left in the houses?"

"Most people are out, our men are trying to round up the last few people."

The warlock picked up a large piece of fabric which once would have been out on a washing line out to dry. Merlin began to tear it up and handed out the strips.

"Here, I need you to go check on everybody, tie this around their arm if they need immediate medical attention."

The villagers nodded and went off on their way.

A piercing scream caught the warlock's attention, he looked to the left, he saw a woman screaming into a flaming house. "My babies!"

Merlin ran over to the burning house, his eyes glowed red and the flames in the entrance subdued momentarily as he ran into the building. Once inside the smoke ate away at his lungs, he began to cough, he could hear the crying of children. Following the sound he found a young boy cradling a baby in his arms trying to protect it. The raven scooped the pair in his arms, ignoring any irritation he felt on his arrow wounds and carried them out of the building.