Chapter 2

458 A.C.

It was midnight on the mountain range dividing the Tal and Lodh empires. "That damn bird!" a voice cursed while a human-like shadow ran through the mountain. "Why the hell did it steal my mother’s phylactery?!" the voice said after an assortment of curses. "When I find you! I swear I will pluck each of your feathers out, and then I will feed you to a snake, while making sure you're still conscious."

A bird was running to a cave on the side of the mountain. The bird had an injured wing, with blood dripping down it. Whenever it passed a tree, it would position its back to it, as if it were trying to hide itself from an unknown monster.

As the bird approached the cave, it saw a menacing group of horses and a wagon. "Humans!" it thought.

The bird backed away as it screeched in fear. A shrill, deathly cry echoes throughout the night. Horses started to whine in fear, as a human voice called out. "A monster is approaching! Wake up! There is a monster approaching!"

The bird, in a panic, turned around when it heard the human’s shout.

"Run!"

It thought as it remembered when it had stolen a strange, cylindrical, hollow, shiny stone it he hid in its cave. It barely escaped from that human three months ago, by narrowly dodging that woman’s strange attacks.

A horse ran past the bird in fear, colliding with the bird's injured wing. The bird stumbled and cried in pain. Slowly, it found its footing, before quickly following after the horse in its flight.

The group of scattered horses, obscured the vision of the newly awoken convoy.

All but five horses managed to run away from the convoy. The majority of the newly awoken, and horseless, cavalrymen were looking out for an enemy attack. A couple were trying to calm the horses. One of the cavalrymen, though, kept looking around in a panic, as they backed into the cave.

Andha Ild left the cave while rubbing his eyes. His right eye shone orange in the moonlight.

Ild looked around and saw someone was slowly backing away. Ild, in his grogginess, was searching for the man's name as he moved in front of them. "Joseph," he said, "do you know what is happening?" Joseph looked at Ild’s face when he heard the question.

While glancing at Andha’s face, Joseph’s jaw quivered in fear. He felt like he was trapped, cursed to forever lookinto Ild’s right eye. "Sir Ild, an unknown beast, cried, which scared away the majority of the horses. Currently, we are getting ready to fight."

"Have we lost anything?" asked Ild.

"Not to my knowledge, sir." replied Joseph as he tried to look away from the eye.

"We lost our horses, no? Weren't the emergency supplies and provisions on the horses?" Ild continued as the cavalryman continued backing towards the cave.

In Joseph’s eyes, Ild’s right eye became a ball of fiery snakes. The snakes slithered in and out of the ball. Gradually turning their small heads, to look at him.

"Where are you heading?" Ild demanded. The snakes bared their fangs. "N..Nowhere sir!" He barely stuttered out.

"Then why are you backing away? *sigh* Joseph, what are you hiding?"

"I wasn’t thinking, sir!"

While replying, Joseph was frantically trying to look back towards the cave. Yet, he could not break his eyesight. He could hear hissing.

’Curse that eye, like a demon's, it sees into my soul.’ Joseph thought. In his panic, he tripped over a rock and fell on his back.

"So, what is it, will you tell me?" Joseph frantically put his right hand in his left sleeve as if he were searching for something. Ild crouched down and gripped Joseph’s right shoulder. "I’m not going to hurt you. Calm down." Ild said as Joseph found what he was looking for.

Slowly, Joseph pulled out a small handgun with a peculiar blue engraving. Ild jumped back in surprise when he saw the gun. "Curse your damned demonic eye!" Joseph screamed as he fired his gun.

Bang!

A beam of blue light left the gun, hitting Ild’s right eye. The orb of snakes hissed as the beam passed through them. The snakes started to swell before they started bursting. The convoy was silenced as a gigantic fireball engulfed it.

A two-headed bird was cawing in joy while perched in an old tree. "Hahaha! These humans were so much fun! I wonder who they were." It thought as it took flight. The bird glanced at the crater where the campsite used to be, and saw someone lying there. It circled the crater as it saw a blue glowing gun. The gun was floating about three meters from the ground. It cackled as it saw someone running towards the gun.