Bringer of Shadows

chapter 1

Chapter 1

To the far east of the main zone, there is a small, dull village called Moonshine.  During the war it had sent a few members to fight, but not many. It was a small village that needed every single person in it to help to maintain the main farm to support everyone living there.

The King had hardly noticed of the lack of people from moonshine. In fact, they probably could have gotten away with not sending anyone.

It isn’t the kind of place that neither he nor anyone who didn’t live there would remember, or miss. It was small, and not a lot happened. There was a large farm on top of a hill, that stretch for about twenty square metres, and it had a communal barn, where horses and cows were kept. Little coupes were kept next to the farm, being sheltered while giving the chickens and pheasant light and fresh air.

The village itself lay in the middle of clearing, so it was surrounded by thick trees, that in summer were a bright cheerful place, but in the winter, it became a haunted, terrifying place that no one dared to enter.

There were eleven houses in total. The house that sat at the top of the hill, overlooking the whole village and the farm, was the Inn Keepers house. He never introduced himself by name, merely by title, as he felt higher up that Way. He was elected by the current king himself, as he claimed; only it was more by luck, to look after the wellbeing of moonshine. His house wasn’t exactly a house, more of a shack. It was only two levels high, but stretched to the same size of three houses. It was an inn, but rarely used. The last person who used it was the king, but that was around twenty years ago, and since then, no one had turned up, or left the village, except for merchants.

The majority houses were clustered in the centre, almost spiralling from the centre, following the flow of the river Discress. This river ran from somewhere in the forest, through the outside of the farm, and down the, slowly flowing down in a stream, till it reached the centre, and then the river cut off south, to where all rivers allegedly went.

The last two houses where slightly higher up the hill than the others. These belonged to the inn keeper’s friends, or they were his wife’s. No one was too sure, as they were friendly to both, but got annoyed by them both just as easily.

The bottom of these houses was slightly bigger than the houses down in the valley. It was a whole level more than the others, had a good view of the sunsets over the other houses. The man and woman that lived there were well known across the village, but that was mainly due to their twin daughters, who tended to get into trouble on a weekly basis.  However, due to the natural peaceful nature of the village, the people who lived in it were also calm and forgiving, and never blamed the parents or the children.

The last house was somewhere that people didn’t like going, except for the two naughty twins and their parents. It was exactly like the house that was below it, being two levels not one, and was made out of wood. The windows were positioned so that the best amount of light could enter, and from the roof, the most beautiful sun rises could be enjoyed. Only, there was something about the place that made some people uncomfortable to go into, including the Inn keeper.

And it was in this house that something happened to break the silence of the night. Whenever the moon came up in moonshine, the village went silence, only to be noisy again when the sun rose again.

It was at the start of winter, and so days were getting shorter, and the temperature was starting to drop dramatically. Soon, it would be so cold that being outside for too long without proper clothing would mean frost bite, or in some cases, death. This was a time of year where people preferred the safety of their homes, the warmth of their families, and the long nights rest.