“It is not the easiest of stories to tell but I’ll try and tell it as best I can.” Foxy prefaced her retelling of her own story.

*Flashback*

I was born in a one of the many different beast villages to the south of here. Mine was called Foxtrot. Back then there were a lot of my kind, the Kitsune running around. We were by no means peaceful but we co-existed with the other tribes around us with a few a scuffles here and there. It was a good life, my mother and father were good people, my father was a hunter and my mother a gatherer of berries.

A usual day for me back then was waking up at the crack of dawn, eating a small bit of breakfast and drinking from the river by our village and then hunting with my father and the other tribesman to get us some meat from the nearby forest. We mainly hunted animals like deer, rabbits and other small animals. We hunted enough to just feed the whole village, we never had a shortage of food though and no one ever went hungry. After hunting we would convene back at the village and stockpile all the food that had been gained throughout the day, there would berries, ripe bursting with juice and vegetables, firm, crisp and earthy from the gatherers and farmers, deliciously fresh caught meat from us the hunters and the children of the tribe would do their part by gathering fresh water from the river nearby.

We would then have a giant feast in the middle of the village with everyone. I can still remember the great buzz around the town at dinnertime when everyone was together. Laughter and smiles from children and adults alike, it was a general sense of merriment throughout everyone. Back then I had no worries I was just a teen who had just entered the hunters group and was still getting the hang of hunting as a pack. People said that I was a natural but I thought I just picked up things easily from imitating other people. I’ll admit I miss those days those days where there were no cares in the world, no real danger to our survival and life was carefree for everyone.

However that soon changed, at first it was the disappearance of a few wayward gatherers who had gone farer than they should have venturing deeper into the forest than advised. People mourned for those who went missing but most chalked it up as bad luck than anything else. I didn’t pay much attention to it as I was still too busy trying to adapt to the life of a hunter. I’m a heavy sleeper as you know and waking up at the crack of dawn isn’t exactly a great match for me. I was too busy to notice but perhaps I and the people around me should have noticed sooner.

The disappearances continued to grow and mount as time went on. A few survivors from the disappearances could only murmur a few unhelpful words, bright red eyes, sharp jagged teeth and a rock hard shell that couldn’t be penetrated by our spears. It sounded like the stuff of nightmares to most of us. We still couldn’t believe that our peaceful village had suddenly been turned upside down with the number of deaths. In that first month I lost my mother, my cousin and my uncle. Most families had at least one person they know disappear. I was so devastated from losing my mother that I didn’t come out to hunt for days after. A large numbers of those who survived dare not to do their required jobs or else they be taken too. Soon the elders of the village had to institute rationing to make sure there was enough food for everyone. No longer was there the smiles and laughter around, No longer was there a carefree life, No one could still claim they were innocent and unaware of the grasp of these monsters on our lives.

However the worst had yet to come. That came several struggling months later, when we were weak and struggling to survive let alone protect ourselves. They arrived in the night, it was one of those nights you remember, bitteringly cold and unforgivingly windy. Maybe it was the weather or hunger or a combination of both. They came through the forest stalking their prey, each of them were at least 6 feet tall. They towered above us who had been shrinking from the cold. Seeing them in the clear is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.

They had a bug like shell that encased their torso and smaller shells that looked like gauntlets on their arms. Their eyes were crimson red, but somehow glowing, their eyes seemed to darken for a second and turn pitch black and then brighten a few moments after and turn into the color of claret. Their whole face was dominated by these eyes but somehow it was their mouth that drew the most attention. The teeth were like a normal beings teeth, in two rows top and bottom. No, it was far worse, there were rows of jagged, putrid smelling teeth that gnashed biting down like a reaper of doom. They were quick too, they had wings that allowed them to travel at surprisingly quick speeds, we found that out after the first line attacked those stuck in fear by the appearance of these bug like monsters. There was no mercy, no emotion, pure killing machines focused on the single minded task of eliminating the people in front of them.

My father sensing that doom was about to engulf the whole village threw me into the relieving areas and told me to hide. I was completely struck by fear that I didn’t even respond. There were screams, oh god there were so many screams, cries for help fell on deaf ears as these foul creatures eliminated everyone of my friends and family. Then there was a deathly silence that engulfed the whole village just an hour after. Not a single thing was left alive by this god forsaken evil beasts. They smell was unbearable mixed in with the smell of urine and feces that I had hid inside but I was alive. I waited until the light of day came and I dragged myself from the poo and wee and surveyed the area around me. None of my friends, family or anyone in my village had survived except for me.

The village with laughter and smiled had been completely extinguished in a single night. What lay in its place was the foul stench of systematic decimation of a village. Blood was everywhere, limbs, eyes, lay all around. Not a single body had been left unharmed, all of them were in pieces, the monsters had destroyed my village completely. It was terrible, I cried for hours after, mourning all my family and friends who I had lost to these disgusting creatures. I prayed to the heavens for someone to bring them back. But no one amount of crying and praying helped. After a while I accepted everyone I had ever known had died and I would never see them again. It was tough and to this day I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. But I washed myself in the river, washing the blood, excrement and other unmentionables of myself and just lay there in the river. Wondering what to do, what would happen to me? Why had god deemed it right to have an entire village disappear? I just lay there in the river hoping that it was all a bad dream but my nightmare had only just started.

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