Control(on hold)

Chapter 1: chaos in the village pt. 2

I ran and I ran for what seemed like hours. When I got to the village my face paled and whatever signs of faith I had had faltered. Chaos. The village was in chaos. People were crying, some were screaming. Mothers ran with their babies in their arms, kids were running and freaking out, parents were frantically calling for their children. Fire, smoke and ashes were everywhere. I looked around and I began to feel dizzy. I fell into a fit of coughs and I quickly pulled my shirt up to cover my mouth and nose.

I quickly made my way to the cottage and had to hold back a cry as i saw the flames that were engulfing the place I had called home moments ago. "No." I whispered. "No, no, no." Without thinking, I ran into the cottage hissing as i felt the smoke fill my nose. I began searching around the cottage, or what was left of it. I grabbed a coat that had a hood, and a bag and i grabbed anything close to me and shoved it in the bag. I looked around and let out a shaky breath as I watched the cottage continue to burn. I turned to Julian's favorite chair and bit my lip as I saw the beautiful wooden color turn black. That's when something caught my eye: Julian's cane. I ran towards it and hissed when i felt the heat on the back of my legs. I grabbed the cane and with one more glance around the place that had been my home for years, I ran out.

"Let it burn!" A loud yell echoed through the burning village.

I turned and my heart stopped as I saw the men in uniform:soldiers.

"Wooo!" Yelled another soldier except this one had a black beard.

With one look at them you could tell that they were drunk. I scowled and wanted nothing more than to go up to them and punch them square in the nose but I wasn't dumb. Angry, sad, yeah. But I wasn't foolish to mess with soldiers who were armed. I had no chance.

"Did you find it?" Another soldier asked. He looked annoyed and almost disgusted with the way the other two were acting. His hair was brown and clean and he looked pretty young.

The bearded man turned to the other soldier and arched an eyebrow. "Did we?"

"You fools." The brown haired soldier hissed. He glared at them and then sighed. "I have to do everything myself, don't I?"

The one who had rejoiced eyed the bearded man and ignored the other as if already used to his attitude. "All I found was a couple of coins, food and the rest we burned down."

My stomach twisted. They started the fire. They burned my cottage. Julian's cottage.

"I told you we weren't going to find anything in this dump." the bearded man spoke as he took a swig of what I assumed was rum. "Nothing but low lives and slum stay in this here village. If you want to even call it that."

My fists balled.

"Our orders were to check everywhere. That means petty villages like these too. Didn't you hear him, it could be somewhere in the middle of nowhere or it could be in plain sight." The snobby soldier said to himself as he looked around.

"Keldrick," a soldier said out of breath.

The brown haired man turned to the soldier seeming annoyed once again. "What?"

"I have the villagers rounded up together and none of them are talking."

Keldrick smiled bitterly as he turned towards the drunk men. "How shall we go about this? Kill them one at a time as they start talking? Or should we just torture the poor souls until one gives out?"

I looked at the man, horrified. Who would even think of those things? I had no love towards the villagers but I would never think to do such things to them.

The bearded man laughed. "I vote all of the above."

"Alright, let's get to it now." Keldrick said as he hopped off of his black horse. "Bring the weapons."