Tales of Erud

Chapter Two: The Start of Revenge

Soon after, Gilliam heard a strange crackle of flame. He felt rather too warm and it hit him, there really was a flame. He jumped on his bed and went to his mother, but she can't be seen in the house.

"Mother!" He shouted but then he heard different people outside of the hut and his mother was on a pole and the people he doesn't know was calling her mother a witch and she should die.

Shocked that they wanted her mother to be killed and burned, Gilliam ran towards her mother.

Gilliam was seen by the people on the clearing and they restrained Gilliam hard, Hee struggled but to no avail. Then he saw a familiar group of people came out in the crowd and then the people stopped shouting and swearing when a man wearing a silver and iron plating with a sword on hand entered on the middle of the crowd where her mother was bounded on a pole, together with an old man who wears a white and golden robe.

"Tonight! We can finally rest in peace now that we found the witch that was controlling the forest and takes out our children as a sacrifice" After the announcement of the old man, the cheer of the people was surprisingly loud, and as soon it broke out, it was dead again.

"Now what do we do with the Witch?" Asked by the old man towards the crowd.

Gilliam saw her mother was injured and was tied to a stake and was just silently listening to the people. Then, it looked like her mother noticed the presence of Gilliam among the crowd and look towards Gilliam.

He knew that her mother who took her in when he found himself running in the dark Forest of Erud and gave him life and name was a witch, but she was only protecting the forest through her powers to keep it safe and sacred for the animals and other beasts to leave in peace. She was the guardian of something that is sleeping within and she had lived a hundred years just to keep the forest peaceful. She was not a witch that takes out human away. They are mistaken.

Now he heard the people saying that she should burn at the stake so that her witchery would stop. Gilliam tried to struggle on his bindings but the men that took him down was too strong for him and he could not do anything.

"MOTHER!!!!" she shouted as she saw that the stake where the blind old woman was tied up. The old woman in a black dress didn't move. "Please, let her go, she didn't do anything wrong. My mother won't do that!" He pleaded to the men that held him in the ground. But they didn't seem to hear him. "Please! Please don't burn her! She is innocent!" He shouted and finally the men said that he should be still because after the burning of his mother, he will be next, Gilliam felt terror and a cold chill crept on his neck down to his spine slowly as if reality wants him to feel slowly and surely what is happening.

The men in silver plating armor finally held out a torch and the people screamed like wild animals in Gilliam's ear.

When the torched touched the bottom of the stage where the stake was on, he saw how quickly the dried woods and leaves caught fire and how quickly it spread towards the area where her mother is.  

Gilliam saw the horror where the humanity was brutal to another life. Everything slowed down in his time as he felt hopeless. He looked down at the ground and a tear left his eyes. He looked up again towards his mother and he saw as her mother was burning at the stake for being a witch, he noticed that she was smiling and is saying something.

I release you from the bound. Free to use your sword. Be free and explore the world.

It troubled Gilliam but he felt a certain feeling of cold and years of longing. He was rather surprised by the sudden surge of emotions filling up his whole life and brain as if something big returned to him.