MATURE CONTENT - LANGUAGE AND GORE
In the dead of winter there wasn’t a single bird to break the silence. I begged for sound, wind, birds, anything but even our horses went dead quiet. We waited on top of the hill for sign of life within the buildings below. The noiseless town caused panic to rise in my chest but I repressed the fear. To any normal person silence was better than screams. In my line of work screaming meant someone was still alive to save. Silence meant we were too late.
We received our report two days ago about demonic activity. We tried getting here faster but we were a two-day ride away.
The sun set and the Omni star followed closely behind casting a deep red glow over the snow making the scene look like it was covered in blood. Around the village were man made trails leading in and out of the main roads with an infrequent pattern of footprints around the outsides. These footprints lead into the woods in all directions then back into town several times. The snow was too deep to make out anything more than a hole in the ground. We would have to get very close to determine foot size, if they were human prints, and if there were claws.
“Arion!” I yelled to the skies frightening my horse, Seriph. She jumped backwards and reared her head.
Arion flew from the sky and perched on a boulder. Arion was an Avian, a race of Akira that could shift between three forms: A large falcon, a human, and a mix of the two. Arion had a white belly with black spots, his back and wings were gray feathers accented with white around the edges. His feathers were smooth and well groomed, laying neatly against his skin making them appear as a singular velvety pelt instead of individual feathers.
“Scope out those footprints.”
“Aye!” He jumped into the sky, wind blew against my cheeks and froze my face. His large wings made a booming noise breaking the silence that I hated.
“Why don’t we just go down there?” Landon, one of fifteen demon hunters that accompanied me. He had just graduated from squire, this was his first mission as knight.
“We don’t want to trample over footprints. This town looks abandoned, we need them to figure out where the demons went.” Xanthius explained for me.
“If this was a demons doing.” I corrected him.
“Yes, there are hundreds of hellish creatures that could have done this.”
We watched Arion circle the town then gently perch on a straw roof. His head bobbed this way and that as he surveyed the area then took flight and circled back. He perched on his boulder again. “There are odd shaped footprints, but they’re too small to be a demon and too pointy to be a humans.”
“Where do they lead?” I asked.
“It’s hard to tell.” Arion looked back at the town with a quizzical look in his peregrine eyes.
“What is it?”
“It’s almost like they did this on purpose. The tracks are stomping all over the place. They must have done it to allude us.”
"They expect us?" I asked a rhetorical question which was followed by silence.
“Would you be able to identify where they went?” Amy, my Terran Akira comrade asked. She was a panther with sleek black fur. Her human skin was a midnight ebony with sharp yellow eyes.
“It would take a very long time to do this by myself.” He said.
I turned around to my group. They waited for direction.
“We’re going to split up. Xanthius, you and Felicia take two Akira and go south. Follow those tracks that go further into the mountain. Amy, choose four people and head north into the forest. Elia take the rest. Arion and I will search the town. If anybody runs into anything use your stones to communicate your location.”
Only Xanthius, Amy, Elia, Me and Arion had stones. They were smooth rocks that looked as shards of glass but glowed white when someone needed help. It shone so bright you could see them from miles away. When one stone was activated the others glowed in case we couldn’t see the flash.
The group separated, and Arion flew to a rooftop and perched, keeping his eyes open for trouble.
I grabbed Seriphs attention by lightly pulling on the reigns. My legs tightened around her belly and I thrust my hips. I clicked my tongue against the side of my mouth and Seriph trotted forward.
Seriph came within a few feet outside the village when she suddenly reared and whinnied out of control. She stomped and began creeping away. I struggled to stay on but held tightly to the reigns.
“What is it?” Arion called from the rooftop.
“She’s spooked! I’m going to have to leave her here.” I dismounted when we came to a comfortable distance from the town. With a hundred pounds of armor on my body I sank into the snow. I trudged through. The snow had frozen overnight after it rained. It was as hard and sharp as shards of glass. It creeped into my armor and what was once warm and dry was now cold and wet, I felt like I was living in a freezer.
“I hate snow.” I muttered to myself but Arion caught it.
“Why don’t you do your fire thingy.” He said.
“Fire thingy?”
“You know… the bursty sun flame thing.”
“The sun fire, flame, thing?”
“You don’t have a name for it?” His beak gawked open in shock.
“I never needed a name for it.”
“Godius gives you a powerful gift and you never needed a name for it?”
“If I think of a name will you leave me alone?”
His head cocked to the side and his eyes met the sky. He pondered. “Deal, it better be cool. Nothing stupid like Sun Flare or some dumb obvious shit.”
“Dammit…” I muttered to myself. I wanted to take the easy route and name it Sun Flare just to shut him up. Arion wasn’t going to make this easy on me.
“So what’s your excuse?”
Should I tell him? Arion was the type of asshole that would laugh at me.
I finally passed the tall snow and made it to the area where it was stomped down into a thick layer of ice. My leather boots had grip but I still glided across it.
Arion glared at me from the rooftop demanding an answer.
“Because… I hate using fire.” I finally admitted.
“You’re so ironic.” He said while shaking his head at me.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You’re the sun gods saint, and you hate fire?”
“It’s not ironic, it makes sense.”
“Ha! Howso?”
“Godius knows I’ll never abuse the flame because I fear it. I only use it in emergencies. Unlike you, I’d never use it to show off.”
Arion scoffed. “I never show off.”
“That’s a load of crap.” I rolled my eyes. I slipped but caught myself before my weight crushed my ankle. “It would be nice to have wings right now…”
I was too focused on the ground to see Arions expressions, knowing him he was laughing silently to himself. My plan was to inspect every house in the village, but the town hall gave me a daunting feeling. It was a dark ominous building already constructed with dark wood and gothic accents. But the windows were empty with no light shining through. Something about the shade almost gleamed.
“Something is wrong with this house.” I said to Arion.
“What is it?”
“It’s a dark feeling.” I carefully wiggled my way to the steps and gained my footing on the wood. I looked closer at the door, the gleam was gone. The large double doors loomed over me and I felt small for a woman that towered over everyone else.
I reached for the door to pull it open but I hesitated. My odd feelings have never failed me before. The large door groaned open allowing light to beam into the haunting vision inside.
The main entrance was a large rectangular area with stairs on each side. It had a ceiling twenty feet high. Metal poles were bolted on the sides and ran across the ceiling. Dangling from the poles were chains, dangling from the chains were the villagers.
The bodies that had faces were blue, the arms were pale but the hands and feet were blackened with frost coating their bodies. Each one was mutilated differently. Some had arms, some had their heads, some had their faces, and others had their bowels in a heap below their feet.
Blood was everywhere, smeared into handprints on the walls, soaked into the carpet then froze solid and frozen to the tools that lied haphazardly on the floor. On my left was a hand cranked meat grinder. A heart rested on top of the funnel with bits of pink flesh surrounding it. On the floor was a pile of human meat.
Images rushed to my head. Images of screams but it wasn’t of the villagers.
“Stop…” I whispered to myself. My eyes closed and took a deep breath. I focused on something else. Anything else. When I thought I had regained my bearings I opened my eyes. Instead of mutilated corpses hanging on the walls I was surrounded by fire.
A piercing pain from my ear on the right side of my face brought me back to reality. I focused on the morbid scene, doing all in my power to keep the flashbacks from haunting me.
I studied the ground for signs of the hellish creature’s whereabouts. A small shimmer caught my attention. As glass would reflect the sun the blood seemed to gleam against the darkness instead.
A thud landed on the porch behind me. Arion transformed into his human form. His feathers receded into his skin leaving a hairline on his scalp and a small soft tuft for his eyebrows. His beak transformed into a gawking human. His eyes remained black with an aqua ringlet.
“How did I not smell this?” He said.
“The cold has a way of masking scents,” I said.
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