The ride to the border was uneventful and rather monotonous. Nothing more than a few wolves lurking outside of the light of his fire at night so much as made him draw a sword. As he approached the road leading to the trail on which the gate to Gandùr waited things changed. He noticed something odd in the woods on the side of the road. a large pool of blood and half of a horse lying under a bush. Its head had been rent from its shoulders and the guts were entirely gone. Reachers horse shied and balked at the sight of its mutilated kin. He had to walk it away and tie it to a tree before coming back to inspect the body further.
The blood had spattered on trees even five foot from the body. Something with immense amounts of strength had killed the horse, that much was apparent. A glint in the dark pool of blood caught Reachers keen eyes. He reached in and pulled a long, silver, oily hair from the pool. The blood dribbled off as soon as he lifted it from the gore,reminding him of a duck shedding water. Something in the back of his mind tried to force its way into the forefront of his thoughts,the hair seemed familiar, but he couldn't tell why. Shrugging it off he slipped the hair into his pouch and stood, brushing the dirt and grime of the road from his breeches. Thinking back to his training with Azura, he recalled ever lesson on every beast and monster native to this continent and the neighboring continents. There were to many beasts that were native to this region that could have done it. Anything from a common ogre to a less common white mountain ape could have done it. He just didn't have enough information to make a call. Reacher thought to himself on the way back to his horse that perhaps he had grown to complacent in the past few days of riding. He berated himself and made a mental goal not to fall into another false sense of security again for the rest of the trip.
The trail lead up hill to a mountain pass that the Gandurians had blockaded and made a border, for its easily defensible nature. There had been a war going on between Gandur and Casur for years, it was illegal to cross without a pardon from the other country, and that was rarely given. Anyone who was recognized on Gandurian soil who was casurian, would be killed on sight. The border,being the only place the two countries people could interact in relative peace, had two barracks for both sides of the border. Both countries had men stationed in the barracks at all times in case of possible raids. Expecting the busy bustle of a military strong point, Reacher was met with carnage. From the top of the hill that lead to the border,he could see bodies littering the ground. Both Casurian and Gandurian. Blood soaked the ground. Six fully grown mountain ogres were lying in the clearing in front of the barrack on the casurian side and small fires were burning from where a mage had called upon magical flames. Now, however, there was no one in sight. He quickly searched for the mage or the mages body, but couldn't find it or any traces other than the fire. Perhaps he hadn't died? Reacher shrugged that thought off as he looked at the bloody clearing in front of the border. He knew that taking this opportunity and crossing the border would be the smartest idea, but something that had been in the Tokarie from birth flared up again. He had never heard of that many ogres coming together and fighting as a unit. Was it the mages doing? Ogres could be easily controlled with magic. Reacher suspected that was the case, but what could he have gained from killing all of those men? He had to have been looking for something that the soldiers had. The young assassin set his mind to his task and made his way towards the bodies.
The men had fought well, but ogres are relentless when riled. They had destroyed half of the troops before the soldiers had even began fighting, if Reacher had read the story of the battle correctly. At that point they had already lost to many men to matter. The soldiers were doomed from the start, however they had managed to fell all of the ogres. Was there some other beast that had survived? The barracks were the only place anything could be now. Again Reacher felt the tug in his stomach. He let it pull him towards the barracks, towards whatever evil beast had killed all of the soldiers. The carnage only grew more intense as he stalked towards the entrance, or the remains of it. What was left of the heavy wooden door lay splintered on the ground inside the main room. Blood drenched the walls and floor, seeping into every crack in the granite floor. It had been a massacre. Again Reacher questioned why he was still here, but the tug only intensified. Whatever had killed these men needed to be brought justice. He didn't stop to think about it, didn't question how he would kill something that had killed a whole barracks of trained soldiers. The only thing running through his mind was vengeance. Gorgon had once said if Reacher had been born an orc or some other race of brutes, he would have put everyone in the assassination business out of a job. He cased the room, looking for anything that might have beget such a slaughter. The young Tokarie had already assured himself that an item was the cause for such a massacre, but what? He followed the trail of death through the barracks until he reached a large set of double wooden doors. One stood agape, the other hanging from its hinges. Heavy breathing and an odd sounding snuffle came from the room. An odd whistling noise, followed by a huge crash, pierced Reachers ears. Whatever was inside the room was rather angry. Or was it elation that he sensed from the room? The little voice in Reachers head begged him to turn and run, but He wasn't listening. The fury of seeing all the killed soldiers just kept mounting. He didn't care that whatever inside the room would likely kill him. He didn't care that his mission called for urgency. All he cared about was justice, and he would be the one to carry it out. The only thing that stopped him from barging into the room and attacking whatever beast that lie in waiting was his arduous training. Gorgon would have beaten him until he couldn't stand if he could see the stupidity that Reacher was partaking in. Pushing all of the thoughts from his head with a silent shake of his head, he peered into the room and saw nothing. The room was empty. Standing he walked into the room utterly baffled.
