The fields were glowing golden in the warm afternoon sun, in the distance one could hear faint laughter and music. It came from the nearby village of Lute. A medium sized, wealth village, filled with timbered houses everywere. A small church, with handpainted colorglas windows and a small golden sun on top of it's tower, was found at the center of the village, were also the main part of the festival was held.

The whole village was decorated with colorfull laterns and handmade paperchains, haging from pine trees and houses. A bard had made camp next to the church and played his harp, he was accompanied by the some of the villagers playing: The old Tony carresed the strings of his violin and elicited sounds from her like no other, the brown haired Marcus did his best to keep up with his cross flute, Mrs. Nacy blow her bagpipes with sheer unending stamina and small Josh played, supported by his older sister, the triangle.

All around themarket stood wooden tables, chairs and benches filled with villagers, some eating, some drinking but most importantly all enjoying themselfs. Infront of the bard, some people preppared the area for the later starting, dance it was an old tradition. Every year before the grain was harvested, the people threw a festival to thank god for their harvest.

The sound of laughing children echoed through the vilage, they ran between the tables and played fetch, Knight and dragons or pranks on each other. The older ones stood in groups together some discussing nervously whom they gonna ask for a dance later or something else afterward. There was some tension between the groups but not of a bad kind.

Marc hadn't so much fun, he was some of the few people who were on the small, wooden watch towers to look out for wolves, travelers or in the worst case, bandits. He sighed and stepped from one foot to the other. Everywere where he looked he could only see the corn fields, as far as the eyes could look, shimmering golden in the sun and moving slightly back and forth in the nice afternoon breeze. A small path cut between the fields, leading from on to the village, but of course nobody was at this time of the day traverling on it, most of the traverls would have already found shelter for the night or where at home by there families.

As so often today, he subcontiously checked his pocket, to see if the small leather bag was still there. It was a present for Miriam, today he thought he want to ask her if she want to dance with him, he had spend the last three months in the smithery to build a small ring, and mentally go through what he want to say to her. He blushed, and nervously moved around, he still got nervous if he was near her, so he really hoped he wouldn't mess this up. He was still lost in thought so he didn't hear the steps on the leader.

"Hah ! ",screamed a voice. Marc, nearly jumped to the roof and shifted around, while his one hand reached for his knife.

"Gotcha ", laughed a boy with freckels in his face. Marc breathed a sigh of relief as he saw who came up, it was Jona one of his friends. "Let me guess, you are still nervous about asking her out, how sweet" teased Jona has friend.

Marc blushed and wanted to reply something, but noticed something in the corner of his eyes. He looked back to the fields, at first he didn't noticed anything different, but a second later he saw what cought his attention, a small figure had appeared in the distance. Marc gestured to his friend, who took a small telescope from a small table and tried to get a better look.

"It's a woman",his friend said after a while," She's wearing some black clothers and her hair is white, wow never seen that before. Do you think she's an elf ? ".

After a while Marccould also make out more details. The women wore a black coat, a black trouser and black boots. As Jona said she also had white hair. The woman, moved slowly in their direction for a while and nothing happend. "Maybe she's just passing through" Marc said "Or she want's to join the festival" Jona thought.

"Well let's inform someone anyway", Marc said and started to climb down theladder.

"Ma- Mar-Mar-c" whispered Jona suddenly, "Do... Do you see that?" He looked to his left and froze in place. Around the woman rose a dark cloud in the sky. It continued for a while and then nothing happend, and then the cloud spread out around the person in the blink of an eye. With horror he saw how the cloud washed over the fields and left nothing behind. Where a second ago golden corn grew was nothing left. Only grey earth and nothing else. And it came nearer fast, and it didn't seem to slow down. He heared a buzzing sound grewing louder and louder.

"Mar-c do you see that? Do YOU SEE THAT? It-s not mi- mist that a-re insects... INSECTS!" his friend cried in a high pitched voice. Marc was still frozen in place and watched hypnotized as the clouds came near. The buzzing grew louder and louder, he shivered. His friend seem to have seen enough and attempted to climb down the ladder. This broke Marcs shock somewhat and he climbed down as fast as he could, nearly loosing the grip on the ladder as his sweaty hands seem to have a life of their own. The both arrived at the bottom of the ladder and started running in the direction of the village, behind them, with some distance, the black cloud followed, feeding itself on the corn and leaving nothing back but distruction.

They run through the through the the croweded streets of the village until they reached the the church where the festival was in full swing. Music played and some of the people nervously eyed the dancing area and one another, nobody wanted to make the first move. The boys stopped, heavy breathing they looked around for the Mayor. As they sighted him the ran to him, and tapped him nervously on the shoulder as he was talking with the towns mage.

He turned around laughing, he was a man in his 40s with brown hair and green eyes, he had a small mustache and a kind looking face. As he say the boys he stopped laughing: "You seem quite nervous, panicked I might say." The boys shivered, from exhaustion and nervousness, some of the other people seem to have noticed them aswell and turned their heads around.

"There is something comming" Jona said. "A monster" Marc added. "It destroyes everything in it's path, the- the fields are gone.." "It uses some kind of insects... a lot of them", Jona supressed loosing his breakfast. "Are you sure boys that's not a prank ?! " the mayor asked them calm. "No, Mr. Harris, not a prank I swear !!!" Marc said. The mayor mustered both, suddenly a loud buzzing noise was heard. The music stopped, the children stopped in their tracks, the talking stoped as everybody tried to figure out where the sound is comming from. The whole village went totaly silent.

Then a scream, which sounded not human, another deep scream sounded through the streets and another. The people seem to grew more nervous looking around and at each other, unsure what to do. Another and another, it didn't stop. Someone shouted: "It's the animals, something kills the animals". The people panicked more, moving closer together, their eyes darting around. The mayor has stood up, next to him the mage rose to his feet. More screams appered, human screams. People came running on the square from diffrent streets their faces showed pure horror. The priest came running out of the church and asked the mage: "Do you feel that ? " The mage answered: "Yes...". The mayor grapped a hold on himself: "Boys bring the people in the church, try to get in as much as possible, now MOVE!". The boys bodys moved on their own, more mechanic than human and they started directing people in the chuch. The buzzing sound intensified and so did the screaming.

A lot of people had already moved in the church, and the last ones pushed the others, as they saw a dark wall appearing on the opposite site of the village, it was still some streets away, but slowly came near. The mayor had collected some people and together with the mage and the priest they positioned themself between the church and the the rest of the square.

The buzzing stopped, some people came screaming out of the streets, the dark wall had stopped behind them. "Oh god oh good.... They got my wife" a bloodyed man screamed as he ran for the mayor: "Mayor, they got my WIFE!". Everyone was in shock, the man was bloody from head to toe, but no knife wounds, sword wounds or wounds from any other weapon were to be seen. He collapsed suddenly on the ground, and did not move again. To the horror of the onlookers a small bug moved out of the dead mans mouth before the mage burned it. It was sielent, the boys looked in the direction of the man, frozen in shock, their hearts pounding like crazy. Then a slowclicking sound was heard.

Click Click Click

Click Click Click

A person appeard out of the blackness in the streets and stopped on the square. It was the woman the boys had seen: "Tha-t that is-s the monster..." Jona squeaked. She looked for a second at them and they realized her eye color was also of a cloudy white.

The mage hissed: "What do you want hear woman!" as he said the last word, he spat out. The women grinned scronfull. "You know why I'm here"she said "it's time to pay !".

"Insects, that's new", he said: "Couldn't you get a hold of a real army?" The woman looked at him, her expression didn't give any emotion away:"For you I think it should suffice." "Hah " laughed the mage,"let's see how you like this!" He waved his hands in the air and and a bolt of lightning shoot in the direction of the woman. A chunck of the darkness reached out and covered her, as the lightning came down. The air smelled burned. But the woman still stood there where she stood before without moving an inch, her arms crossed in front of her. The mage flinched angrily. "Let's get a bit more action, shall we boys?" the woman said, as multiple streams of insects started rushing to attack the group.

"The light of the sun compells you!" echoed the priest in a deep voice. Sunrays shoot from the sky infront of the group, protecting them from the onslought of angry buzzing insects. Then he reached into his pocket and moved out a small flask filled with water. The mage in the mean time had created a magical flame which the villagers used to shoot arrows on the woman. Non reached their target, but any time an arrow hit some insects they were consumed by the flames, accompanied by bursting sounds. The boys lost a bit of their anixty and cheered for the group.

The priest looked to the mage and both nodded. The priest opend the flask and the mage made another set of gestures. The content of the flask flew high in the sky dissapearing behind the clouds. A second later the sky grey dark and it started to rain. The insect attacks where still pushing against the light barickade. But as soon as the insects where hit by the rain, a hissing sound was heard and the melted away. Slowly but surely the dark cloud grew smaller.

"Hah "screamed Jona, "there you got it witch!". The woman didn't flich. Suddenly the priest screamed: "Stop it Maran, stop it! Don't you see her aura?" The mage let loose a curse, made another set of gestures and the rain stopped. "Ah you have realized it haven't you?" the women said. "Well, well you plan was good, but apperantly something is wrong with you holy water". The priest flinched and the mage looked worried at his friend. "Well let's try this" he said. He throw up his arms and circled his hands.

The small flame the villagers used to shoot their arrows with started rotating and grewing in size. It rose higher and higher, the boys looked at it in awe. It grew bigger and bigger until it was a fully fleteched fire tornado. He grinned and gestured to the woman, a bit of sweet run down his sleeve.

"Not bad for a village mage", she said and lifted her hands up. The tornado moved through burning them to death. Suddenly the air felt cold, and a blue light appeared on the hands of the woman. After a second blue streams of ice shoot from her hands, at the tornado. The air was filled with hot water vapor. Then nothing was heard. The mage moved his hand and the vapor left. The woman stood their, looking at the dead insects around her.

The priest raised his hands to the air and started mumbeling. A golden light ray shoot from the sky, the woman jumped away as he exploded at her last position. The mage now raised his hands again and two clusters of flames apperead at his sight. One after another the flames shot at the running woman. The villagers nervously shifted around as they waited for a chance to strike. Some let arrows loose, which the mage guided with small wind gusts. The woman doged most of the attacks, but some hit her and she slowed down.