Jen and Lae were running
among a series of chaotic scenes as the village they had lived and
worked in was torn apart around them. There wasn't much time to waste
taking in all that was happening beyond the random details their
brains decided to pick out. The smell of smoke filled their nostrils
as they crawled behind burning wreckage; the glint of an arrowhead as
it speared past to go thudding into a cherished neighbour's ribs. The
cries and screams that burst through the chilly evening air, now
warmed in places by the blazing fires bursting forth from the former
homes, emphasized tenfold whenever it was from someone they
recognized. Their aim was simple, get to the trees. Trees reduced the
visibility of their attackers and were far enough from the village to
be encompassed by the attack. Unfortunately, as they groped forward
blindly through the smoke, walking into Briax, Throx and any others
still surviving – they couldn't see any treetops beyond the thick,
grey haze now enveloping the settlement. Every now and then there
hearts would freeze as a figure strutted out of the smoke dressed in
the dark clothing signature to the attacking band. They were usually
armed with a knife or bow and arrow and would attack a trailing
member of the diminishing group. They were following a crying young
woman who had also escaped from the pub moaning tearfully to herself
as she felt forwards towards the tree-line behind the pub, which had
to be close by now. As she lunched forward a dark clothed silhouette
materialised in front of her. He was coughing from the smoke and was
caught off guard by the young woman ramming head-first into him,
tipping his scrawny body over easily. Nevertheless, he demonstrated
amazing reflexes in his ability to jump back from the floor and
gather the girl into a grip around the neck with a knife at her
throat. She cried out in terror as he turned to disappear into the
smoke. A bottle smashed against his face causing glass to lodge
itself in his eyes, mouth and nostrils igniting a bawling scream from
his mouth as he loosened his hold on the girl. A purple garbed man
strode heroically from the smoke as Lae and Jen reached the scene. He
picked up the woman, who had rolled back onto the floor, as she
breathed heavily- still in shock from the incident.
“Come on now you're nearly
there,” he reassured her in an easy-going soothing voice as he
helped her find her feet and continue.
“Cax!” Briax exclaimed,
appearing with Throx behind Jen and Lae.
“Keep moving,” Cax replied
with a grim expression. “We won't all make it through this.” Soon
several others dressed similarly to Throx and Briax stepped in beside
them, herding the motley group onwards hopefully towards the forest.
They trudged forwards eyes and
ears hyper aware of the sounds around them, shoulders hunched as if
to make them less visible. It was only a dozen more paces before Cax
swore as a thin line of the attackers emerged from the misty smoke
blocking their advance, grinning and leering over their new-found
prey. Some held weapons, mainly knives and axes with a couple of bows
among the throng. The two bows were trained on the miserable group
huddled together standing splattered in mud and blood with smoke
curling around them, threatening to take even the air from their
lungs.
“You'll never get away with
this,” Cax spoke his eyes brimming with fury as they stung from the
exposure to the smoke, staring hard at the thieves gathered before
them.
“Oh I think we will
merchant,” a large, thick-set bald man sneered pushing through to
face Lae, a small boy piggy-backing on his back. “We know what you
hide in these villages, what you keep from the cities residing far
away. With enough wine we'll be able to set ourselves up as merchants
like you and give ourselves.. a fresh start.” A resigned look
passed over his face as he looked back at the boy hanging on tightly
to his back.
Jen was incredulous at these
words and spoke thunderously in spite of her despairing state.
“You've done all this..”
she gestured around her at the ruined village, the screams and the
smoke with the flicker of fire glimmering through. “For wine?!”
She shook with rage and it was evident that the rest of the group
were feeling it too as well as confusion from the words of the thief.
The bald thief's mouth twitched in annoyance.
“You wouldn't understand..
and why are they still alive?” he yelled louder, turning to his
comrades. As he finished his sentence the bows thrummed taking one
villager in the throat and hitting Xa in the side. He collapsed onto
the floor blood oozing from the wound as Briax let out a screaming
challenge to the thieves now closing in. Before they reached the
group though a scruffily dressed man came punching and shoving his
way through the villagers, now dispersing into the smoke.
“Oi!” he yelled, pointing
at the bald man. “You look like Crass, are you Crass?”
The remaining merchants looked
at him bewildered as the thieves paused, confusion written across
their face, allowing several villagers to run and find another way
out. A few still remained with the merchants however, including a
young woman now with a look of joy and worry on her face.
“Fal? What are you doing?”
she questioned in an astonished voice.
“How do you know who I am
stranger,” Crass called in a brass tone indicating for the thieves
around him to hold. A few on the outskirts of the gang broke away
anyway to gleefully chase any remaining villagers, cause relative
havoc and most importantly loot anything valuable still remaining in
the settlement.
“Baxter says he wants you,
says he's found a massive stash in the pub right..” he whirled
around arm flailing out, clearly confused by the wall of smoke and
shocked faces that greeted him.
“There... no... there!” he
finished proudly pointing into the smoke, the outline of the pub he
had clearly come from still barely visible.
“He says Greg's band is
trying to steal it all, says you better hurry.”
A look of greed, twisted with
annoyance and tinged with doubt wrapped around Crass' face. The
thieves surrounding him were muttering among themselves, clearly
discontented at the prospect of losing such a prize. A few on the end
had already started edging away from the group towards the direction
Fal had pointed in, clearly wanting to get some sort of head start on
the rest of them without Crass noticing. Crass didn't take long to
come to a decision.
“Let's get what we came
for,” he snarled. “With me!” He charged through the villagers,
trampling on Xa's leg as he passed as the gang galloped forward. The
remaining survivors among the group shrank back from them as they
passed but the sense of urgency among the thieves was massive. In a
few seconds there was merely harmless open space to the front of the
bewildered survivors.
“Run!” Briax yelled out
suddenly, and the dozen or so survivors pelted forward coughing and
spluttering out of the grey smoke and into the refreshingly green
trees, keen to get away from the panic and violence they were leaving
behind.
