Discretion

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It was midsummer. He was running through the diminishing light of the distant star they called Granderos. The gates were closing, and he was to be stranded in the chilling bloodbath of night. The creatures of the Bloodlands could be heard calling out, whining out as night descended.

The sticky heat of the air had cooled to a chilling freeze, and the ice started creeping up behind him. With the ice came those hideous creatures that the night brought out, that the night had birthed ages ago.

Up ahead, just out of reach, laid the gates of the beautiful city of Heliuos, the capital of his country. There lay the solace of safety, of peace and civility. There lay everything he had always longed for, and here he would die, watching the entrance to his dreams close as these monsters tore at his flesh.

He could almost feel the teeth of the beasts ripping through his skin, devouring his muscles and tendons, consuming his bones. He could feel the warmth that accompanied the breath from their bodies at his heels, could picture just how close they were, just how close the ice was.

Either those animals would end him, or he would freeze. The gates were still open, and if he could only escape the wolf-like brutes that had been trailing him since earlier that week, he could make it, he could live in peace for a while.

That was not the case as of present, however. This attack differed greatly from the previous nights he had struggled to get within a city as darkness fell. They weren't running, speeding up in order to cut him off. And he realized with a sharp pang that they were no longer chasing. To them, they had caught their prey. And it struck him then just how alike they were to the long-gone wolves that once roamed over this world.

He knew, then, that he would not survive the night. He had been ignorant and naive when he started off from his small town, when he left the walls of the hidden village amongst the woods. He had thought that he could handle it, that he was prepared. He had thought that his companions would help him, should he run into trouble. He had thought nothing of what he learned in school of the beings that dwelled outside in the Forbidden Plains, or in the Bloodlands, or in the dangerous unmarked territory.

He had not spared his education a second guess, had not paid heed the warnings bestowed upon him. The class he had taken as a youth had not even crossed his mind, not intelligent enough to realize that it taught him about outside, and that it held valuable information.

Now, that class came surging back to him, and he was able to place a name to the beasts trailing so close behind him.

They were greesores, beasts that had mysteriously appeared after the Battle of Blood. The battle had been amongst many a people, neighbors turning amongst each other, traitors and spies everywhere. The other species had fought humanity long and hard after what they did to them. Humanity had become cruel many years ago, and they had declared war upon all species, thinking themselves stronger and best. As it turned out, they were not stronger, but nor were the other species. Alliances were made, trust broken, and the war came to a standstill when offered by the majority of the species.

Years after had been rough, but it smoothed out, creating a general peace amongst them. That was until they all showed up in a large mass suddenly and out of nowhere.

The new, they were feared and unknown, and they were very much dangerous, upon which all agreed. Hence leading to the creation of walls surrounding every civilization, and the banishment of such beings as the ones about to bring him to his unconventional end.

And as the hopelessness swarmed over his being, he fought and rebelled against it, deciding at once that he was not going to give in and go quietly, and if anything he would bring them down with him. He had the means to do so, once he accessed the far-back memories of his knowledge on such creatures. He had weapons, and he had an idea of which would be successful against such as them.