SOL

SOL- CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

Being a makeshift military base, many of the building in Halstor have an unfinished appearance. Many are made of wood and have no form of paint or decoration to them, with the exception of buildings from over sixty years ago, when Halstor mainly sold pottery, and buildings made for the Enforcers.

It is just like most of the towns in the Sentrails.

"Mother?" Rayna said as she walked through her front door. A small woman with short, auburn hair poked her head around the corner of the kitchen.

"Rayna?" She said. "What are you doing here? You have patrols, don't you?"

"Gin told me to take part of the day off," Rayna said walking into the kitchen. The room was filled with the smell of boiled vegetables and pepper. "I'll be here until nighttime when I need to go back to the barracks. Do you have an issue with this?" She smiled.

"Of course not!" Her mother cried with fake shock. "Anytime is better than no time. With all your working and whatever else, I'm seeing less of you than I did your father when we were young." Her mother rushed over to a pot of vegetables. "The soup should be finished soon enough, dear."

Rayna nodded as she took off her boots and Enforcer jacket, then sat at the kitchen table. The blue picture frame at the center of the table caught her eye. She picked it up and stared at a family of four smiling; all with large green eyes and lovely brown hair.

"Here you go, dear." Her mother hurriedly put the bowl of steaming hot soup in front her. She frowned when she saw the expression on her daughter's face and what she had been looking at. "I know you miss him, Rayna." Her mother said sweetly. "I do too." Rayna could only give a slight nod as she began stirring her soup.

"There is one thing that gets me through the days without him, though."

Rayna looked up at her mother. "I see so much of him in you, and that makes me so proud, and I'm sure he's proud of that too."

Rayna's face turned into a large smile as she started eating her soup.

"I love you, mother."

As she hopped onto her bed face first, Rayna felt much of the weight on her shoulders dissolve. No matter how tired or unhappy she felt, the feeling of her bed always gave her a womb-like comfort. She curled up, wearing only a tank top and blue pants, and she could feel the warm soup her mother made in her stomach as she drifted off to sleep. Rayna felt warm. She wanted the excitement the father spoke of, but always knew it would be hard to leave Halstor fully. It is her home.

As Rayna's eyes closed, on the verge of sleep, she felt a sharp pain in her forehead, and once again, say that stare from the young man.

"Agh why can't I shake that guy?" She thought. Rayna buried her face in her pillow and quickly fell asleep.

Although her bed had always given her warmth, Rayna was tossing and turning in her sleep, sweating in an almost unbearable heat, until she jolted upright coughing. She continued to cough in a daze, smelling something acrid and strong, then she realized what it was.

"Smoke?" Rayna jumped out of her bed and put on her black boots and Enforcer jacket as she ran from her bedroom. As she opened her door, she felt a blast of heat hit her face, and noticed her house was in flames.

"Mother!" Rayna screamed in panic. She ran through the flames to her mother's room, bursting open the door to more flames, but her mother could not be seen. Rayna quickly ran towards the house's front door as the flames grew hotter, making sure the grab her gun holster before leaving. As she left her house, now a giant bonfire, she noticed the heat of the flames was even greater once she was outside, and the smell of smoke was intoxicating, almost unbearable. Rayna soon realized in horror that the other building in Halstor were in flames, and the sky black with smoke.

"What the hell happened?" Rayna thought in disbelief. "Where is everyone?" Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the sounds of yelling and screams behind a row of burning houses. Rayna quickly rushed to the voices, her eyes beginning to sting from the smoke, she prepared her revolver for whatever lay behind those flames. As she turned the corner of the houses, she saw what the yelling and screams were, and could only stare in disbelief.

Bodies. Piles of bodies covered in blood or burning. As she looked closer, even from a distance, she began recognizing some the faces still intact. Fellow Enforcers, local merchants, neighbors, children, all of which filled Rayna's mind with confusion and rage as she gritted her teeth and clutched her revolver, preparing to run towards the bodies, and whoever caused this slaughter.

As she was about to charge towards the bodies, she noticed another body, and recognized it immediately.

"Mother..." Rayna muttered as she felt all her strength collapse. All of her rage quickly turned to tears. As Rayna stood a distance away from the burning and bloodied corpses, she quietly cried.

"This has to be dream." She thought. "I just saw these people a few hours ago. Why are they...? How?"

Rayna felt herself about to pass out when she noticed people walking among the flames. Even with the smoke stinging her eyes, she started to see who they were. They were soldiers. All of them tall and male, and they seemed to be given orders by another one farther back. Even with flames raging around her, and the bodies so close, Rayna willed her body to move closer, to see who these soldiers were. She crouched to make herself harder to see as she approached them, trying desperately not to look at the corpses of her friends she was moving closer to as well.

As Rayna became closer to the soldiers, she realized exactly who these soldiers were by their uniforms- Castral soldiers. Their uniforms black and form fitting, with patches and stripes of dark green on their arms and chests. She could hear what they were yelling about now.

"Did you see him?" One yelled.

"No, sir. No sign of him being here." Another answered.

"We've searched this whole damn town, yet no sign of that rose-red bastard."

"Rose-red?" Rayna thought, then remembered in a shock. "The guy from this morning? Captain Kole said Castra was looking for him." She felt her chest tighten, her anger steadily coming back.

"We are moving on to the next town." One of the Castral soldiers yelled to the others. The rest of them yelled to move out, as quickly as they came and burned the town of Halstor, the Castral soldiers left, with nothing but blood, fire, and corpses left behind.

After the Castral soldiers left, the fires began to die down. Soon they disappeared, with only ashes left. Rayna put out the remaining fires so she would not have to go back near the mounds of her dead friends, but eventually summoned the nerve to do so. As she felt tears well up in her eyes again, she knelt down near her mother and the fellow Enforcers her body was near. She blinked away the tears and said through clenched teeth,

"They will pay for this. Castra and that guy with red hair. I promise, they will. To everyone here."

Rayna stood up slowly, anger and strength fueling her. She buttoned her Enforcer coat and loading her revolver, as she set off to the near by town of Murdole to avenge her town by killing the Castral soldiers, the mysterious man they were looking for.