Shinagowa

Smoldering

Ciam is sitting within his chair in the great hall, preparing for the mornings feast with the knights for the upcoming tournament in Hiku Gola Village, in the Nebulan Empire. As he looks up, he notices the huntsmen entering.

"Sire," the three men say aloud as they kneel. "We are ready for our leave for our hunt in Bethla."

Ciam smiles, "Great, hurry for your return for the tournament in three days."

"Yes, sire," they say as they turn around and rush to their horses.

The sun begins its' peek through the cloud layered sky, shining upon the warm seasons grass with sparkle of green. The three men jump upon their horses and begin their journey.

They start the travel up the red-brick path that travels past the wheat styled fields, which holds this mornings due upon. Nearing the forestry, branches shadow the path that turns to dirt, blocking out the sunshine.

The sounds of galloping echo through the woods, the ground rumbles, and dirt kicks up off of the shoes of the horses as the men race towards their destination. Sticks break after being trampled upon.

The men begin to slow down as they near the Heartman Springs. As they arrive, they climb off of their horses and tie them to the rough, shaggy bark of the trees. The spring flowed like a river through the rocky ground and was so clear that the bottom was easily seen.

"Simon, once we arrive in Alten, we should make camp for the night," as one of the hunter states.

Simon reaches down the container into the spring to fill it up with fresh water. He locks the container after it is filled, "Val, you need to relax and make sure to fill your container before we leave."

"Relax? I'm too excited to relax, we haven't been able to hunt in several months," he tells him.

"Simon, we should hurry up if we are to make it to Alten tonight," the third hunter states.

"Oma, you seriously need to learn how to close your trap sometimes. I already know and I will tell you what we need to do, I'm in charge. Both of you, relax and enjoy the simple things in life," Simon states.

Oma turns away while he rests himself upon his horse. He sees the beauty Simon always speaks about; the green leaves the sunshine reflects off of, the brown layered dirt path that leads to the water, sparkling of reflections within the spring, and life of harmless creatures stirring all around.

"Simon, look there's smoke rising up ahead," as Val notices in the distance between the shadowing branches.

They leaped upon the horses in order to race towards the area filled with smoke. Gallops are heard for miles as the ground lightly quakes.

Not too far from the spring they find a village that's smoldering with ash and smoke danced in the air. Stains upon the ground from blood were fresh. Bodies lay lifeless along the village ground.

Simon climbs down off of his horse, grabs his sword. He walk around one of the tents that was scorched to ash. Then he stumbles backwards, dropping his sword, looking as if he's seen a ghost.

How can anyone harm an innocent child and leave her here to suffer?

As Oma and Val races over to him, they noticed what Simon was seeing, that made tears begin to fall from sympathy.

Such innocent people and they all were killed for what?