Cold Shoulder

The Village Of The Lost

After leaving my village I headed towards the mountain as fast as I could. When night fell I would stop and camp out until morning. Food came easy, water was no problem, shelter was easy to find or make. It wasn't until I came to a small village that I realized my enemies weren't far behind me. As I came to the village I walked amongst the mud huts and tents. Some of the mud huts were destroyed as if something bashed into them. I came up to one hut and looked at the ridges of the broken wall. As my hand glided across the rough edge, I felt a falling sensation. As I looked around me I saw fire and people screaming. The people were running from something as fire spread across the village. The screams of the innocent were flooding my ears as I heard a faint roar. As I turned around I saw a massive figure silhouetted by the fire. It had four arms it crawled on two on them and smashed buildings with the other two and as it roared fire flew from it's mouth. It looked at me with glowing yellow eyes and roared as it began to charge at me. As I pulled my arms over my head to shield myself, the screaming and roaring stopped. When I opened my eyes I was back in the destroyed village and the moonlight shined on the destroyed huts. I took a deep breath and walked amongst the huts, I could feel the pain from the people who died here. As I came to a tent with the cover ripped I saw a small pile of straw with leather on top. In the middle, the skeleton of a baby laid still. I stepped back and tripped as my heart beat fast. My eyes began to tear up as I looked at the straw pile. "What happened here?" I asked myself. I crawled up to the skeleton and lightly put my hand on its head. I closed my eyes and opened them to hear the screaming and roaring again. The skeleton I touched was now a living baby and it's mother was across from me trying to calm it down. Outside the tent the roaring filled the air. The mother then began to cry as she looked at the baby. She stood up and the baby let go of her hand as it cried more. She covered her mouth and ran outside. She grabbed a leather pouch full of liquid and she began pouring it on the tent. I could smell fat as I watched her drench the tent. I ran outside and saw the monster look at the mother from across the village. It roared once more and got ready to charge the woman looked at the monster and ran towards it. She grabbed a torch and sparked a fire on it. She ran towards the monster screaming and chanting something. As it growled it began to run at the woman, she stopped and kept chanting as she held up the torch. One word she shouted stuck clear to me. "Takara!" She shouted as she turned and ran back to the tent. As the monster was right on her tail she threw the torch to the tent and it caught fire. I yelled at her to stop as she turned and shouted the word once more. The tent made a loud noise and the flames began to spin in a circle the monster screamed as it was pulled into the vortex and it shut. The woman fell to her knees and tears rolled down her face as she hugged herself with her arms. I closed my eyes and opened them to be back in the burnt tent. I climbed out and wondered why she sacrificed her baby. As I was lost in my thought I heard a twig behind me snap. I turned and saw an elderly woman hunched over walking with a cane. She walked slowly and I watched her. "Who are you?" She asked me in native tounge. I looked the woman over carefully then lowered my guard. "My name is Hielo, can you tell me what happened here?" I asked the elderly woman. She looked down at the ground then to the destroyed village. "It came in the night at first it looked like a blessing ,then it quickly changed when we became ungrateful." She said. The old woman began to walk into the village and she continued. "This village was once a place of magic. Everyone here had an ability of magic from controlling the elements too being able to summon demons. Our leader did just that, we needed help in expanding our colony so our leader summoned a demon to help. But when we refused to give the demon payment, it went on a rampage and it destroyed everything we loved." The woman spoke with sorrow in her voice and she came up to the tent with the skeleton in it. She looked at it as tears rolled down her face. "The only way to expel the demon was to use fire and the blood of the innocent. But none of us were innocent, as we were a village that was built on blood, except for one." She pointed her shaking finger to the straw bed inside the tent. "Your baby?" I asked. The old woman nodded and looked to me. "It saved the village from dying for a short amount of time. But eventually the fires the demon created killed us off, but not entirely." The old woman sighed and she lowered her head. Her gray hair fell into her face as she started to tear up again. "What do you mean not entirely?" I cautiously asked the old woman. "The souls of the people the demon killed are stuck in the same time loop, constantly being tormented on that day. But only someone who can see the past can help the spirits." The woman sighed "But the one person that could see the past disappeared the day the demon attacked." The woman looked to me and squinted her soft grey eyes. "But you look so much like him perhaps, you are a distant relative of him?" She asked me. I thought for a second and explained to the old woman that I touched the skeleton of the baby and I saw everything that happened, she instantly lit up with joy and hugged me without warning. "Yes, please tell me your name." She begged. "It's Hielo, and yours?" I replied. "Maka, Hielo you have to help the souls of my- of our people." She said. "I don't know how too though Maka." I replied. "I will send you back in that time with my time rip ability, but you must stop the demon from destroying the village. It'll come at night when we least expect it, please Hielo, do whatever it takes to stop it." She said. "What do you mean you'll send me back." I asked confused. "I can move through time vie time rips, but as age has made me frail I can't, first you'll need to visit the young me Hielo, and tell me Time is an illusion. I'll know you're from the future and I'll help you. Go now Hielo! Save our people and my baby!" The old woman placed her hands on my chest and pushed me backwards, as I made contact with the ground I was in the past. I sat up on the cool green grass in the middle of the village. The village was so alive with men, women, and children alike, that seeing what the village will become only motivated me more to stop the demon. I stood up and brushed myself off only to be tackled to the ground again by a man dressed in wolf skins, wielding a tomahawk. "Who are you!" He shouted at me. "Are you part of the Wakati tribe!?" He bombarded me with questions until a young woman dressed in sheets clothing and holding a baby wrapped in deer skin yelled at him to stop. "Uri! Get off the boy, he's obviously one of us look at his eyes!" The man looked me over and widened his eyes. "My dearest apologize, I had no idea you were one of us. But in these days you can never be too careful." The man helped me up and patted my back. "My names, Uri the villages head hunter, this is my wife Maka, and my daughter Yurila." The man walked to his family and as soon as he said Maka I knew what I had to do. "My name's Hielo, I got lost out on a hunting trip and I wound up here. But before I got lost I was told something, Time is an illusion." Maka's eye's widened and she handed Yurila to Uri. "Hon, I'm going to give our new friend a tour of the village, watch Yurila for me." Uri seemed confused but he agreed and walked into the tent with Yurila.