Black Blood

Chapter One

Thale makes his way through the small bleak village. Its dozen or so barely standing houses and field of crops that obviously under produced being similar to all villages of this size and distance from a city. However, this village did seem to air more so on the bad side causing him to turn to his Captain.

"Are you sure this village can afford the full payment?" Thale spoke not in a hushed fashion, but one that was clearly meant for only Dale.

"If they can't give us another cow then we'll take their crops instead." Dale's eyes remain trained forward as he, Thale, and four other members of his mercenary group near the building housing the village leader. Dale pauses before the building.
"Knife, go scout out the village."

Thale lets his hatred of the nickname slide as he picks up on Dale's words. The employer may not know their mercenary group has an elf in it or may just not like elves general so best not to reveal himself yet. "Understood."

As Dale and the other mercenaries enter the building Thale begins wandering around the village. The resilience, or possibly the idiocy, of these more isolated villages always surprised him. Why live with such an added burden when they could relocate the whole village a day's journey north. But, if this village or others like it did this then mercenary groups like Thale's would be out of jobs fairly quickly.

Thale continues walking about the village the wind catching his shoulder-length black hair ever so slightly. As he makes his way down the main road of the village Thale notices two children, a girl and boy, playing in it's center. Their eyes lock onto Thale with an obvious degree of shock and interest, and with a friendly smile he approaches them.

"I'll bet I'm the first Elf you've ever seen." Thale squats down before, the two as he says this and the children give him agreeing nods in response. "Well my name is Thallyse, but you can call me Thale. I don't suppose you can tell me about the area? Or I can answer some questions of yours? Perhaps we can trade them?"

The two children look to one another in an almost apprehensive fashion before the girl steps forward with somewhat of a stumble her words coming out in an excited whisper. "Do Elves really live forever?"

"Not quite forever." Thale lets out a brief chuckle before continuing on. "Most Elves live to be about six hundred. So, then have Undead gotten into the village?"

"No, but we aren't allowed to leave the village anymore." This time it is the boy who gives a response before enthusiastically moving on to his own question. "Can you really see in the dark? Or hear a leaf hit the ground from a field away? Or fall out of a tree and not get hurt? Oh, and can you talk to animals?"

"Give me a moment." Thale laughs at the child's enthusiastic line of questions. "We can't see in complete darkness, but we can see better than most of the other races. The same goes for our hearing. The tree thing is true depending on the tree. We are a very agile and springy race. And finally, talk to? No, but have a type of understanding with? Yes."

The children exchange amazed looks as if they had expected the things they had heard to be complete lies. Thale's smile is replaced with a more serious look. "Now then I believe I get a question. How many people have the Dead taken? Was it all at once or on separate occasions? The more details I have the easier it'll be for me and my friends to deal with them."

The children understanding the more serious tone Thale had taken become more serious in demeanor themselves. The girl then speaks up. "At first it was a family that went missing. Uh, there were three of them." The girl pauses before continuing on partially because of emotional distress and partially due to trying get the information accurate. "After they went missing seven of the adults got together and went out to find them, but none have come back." Once more the girl goes silent.

"Uhm, they were gone for a couple days and then the adults tried to reach out to the Black Bloods." The boy takes over for the girl in explaining the situation.

"But they couldn't get them, so they reached out to us right?" Thale puts together the rest of the tale on his own before looking to the children. Noticing the damper in the mood he attempts to switch the conversation with a smile on his face.

"Alright, I believe it's your turn to ask me a question."

"Umm, why'd the Elves run away?" The boy once more asks a question, one that Thale was not expecting.

"That's a difficult one." Thale takes a deep breath having expected to answer another more straightforward question. "Elves are a self-centered group often thinking of what's best for the Elven and often times acting on those selfish ideals no matter the cost to others. In this case, they thought it would be safest for them to isolate themselves from the other races and the Undead. I suppose they thought they could just wait a couple hundred years and everything would get better." Thale ends his explanation with an unintentionally bitter smile.

"Then why'd you stay?" The girl quickly asks full of curiosity.

Out of the corner of his eye, Thale catches Dale and the other mercenaries approaching him. Standing up he gives a sincere smile and response. "I guess you can blame it on my human nature. Thank you for what you've told me."

Thale rejoins his group led by Dale. "The village has lost about ten people to attacks. A family at first followed by a group of seven. Partially because they thought they could handle the Undead on their own, but also the fact that it seems to be a medium sized group played into it." Thale finishes debriefing his group on the information he had gathered.

"I figured the 'leader' withheld some information. He gave us the total number and that he believed they stuck to the woods, but neglected the grouping. Alright, then it seems we're dealing with roughly twenty of them if the missing also turned." Dale lets out a sigh as he begins to walk and then continues on. "Alright, it's still simple. We find the group and use one of us as bait to lead them on. As the group goes on the other remaining members will be tasked with pulling at least two of the Undead away at a time. Once they deal with the ones they pulled they'll move onto the next member and we'll repeat this process until the five members can join up with the bait and eliminate the remaining Undead."

Each member in the crew nods their head in agreement as they follow behind Dale. Their pace is swift allowing to make it out of the village and onto the outskirts in little time. The six men soon come to a stop now stand before the woods that the Undead were said to inhabit.

"This'll be the spot we lure them to. Even, open, and a fair distance from the village." Dale pauses briefly as if contemplating something and then goes on. "Let's scout out these woods and then when we find them we'll get into position. With how many there can be we want to get rid of them before night. After all, not all of us can see in the dark right Knife?" Dale let's out a laugh attempting to lighten the mood and the other members of the crew join in proving his actions to be a success.

"Well, you are right there. None of you are like me." Thanks offers this retort and a laugh.

"Spoken like a true Elf." Dale offers another laugh in this brief moment of levity before getting back to the point. "Alright, let's get to work."