It was just another day in Canicus. I was following Kaya down the main street that in all reality was a dirt road. We were headed to the farm we going to help out that day. It was getting dark from the clouds building in the sky. The drizzle began as the wooden cottage we were headed to came into view as we rounded a corner. We saw the farmer waiting outside, we had worked for him before, he was kind, short and portly, accompanied with his bald head and gray mustache. He would wave to us till we reached the field. Today his waving stopped as the arrow cut through his neck, the spatter of his blood joined with the rain.

     They must have came from the the hills south of the village, since they are past the border into the wild zone no one heads into that area. Whatever these bandits, marauders, barbarians, whatever they go by, wanted to get done, they wanted with a passion. Before the farmer had hit the ground, his house was already on fire. Kaya grabbed my hand and we took off towards the center of the village as I counted somewhere around 10 intruders move across the field. Apparently they weren't the only ones. As we moved through the streets to the center we could see smoke rising from the border houses. 

     Many of the villagers had made it to the inner parts of the village and we now stood in the middle clearing. You could tell who was already lost by looking at the faces of the their loved ones. One of the villagers stood up on a cart. A older man, who always seemed to have more authority than other.

"Come now friends, we must make it to the river. I f we can make it their the River Guard can protect us!"

     So thats what we did, or at least tried. We could hear the raiders moving towards us as we began moving north towards the village in one big group. A couple of the more able bodied men broke from their crying wives and mothers to attempt to slow them down the bandits. As Kaya dragged me along I watched the men be slaughtered within seconds as the fire and barbarians moved forward without a second thought. Then I heard the horses, they surrounded us before we could understand what had happened. They stopped us right at the edge of town, the horse riders circled the group picking off some of the men that had stayed behind.

     Kaya pulled me close trying to shield my eyes as I heard her whisper.

"Don't worry little brother. We will survive."