*** Chapter 15 Day 17 Santos -Solfrid ***

The night had dragged on, but the fighting spirit of those that defended did not easily break, enough stood their ground that some managed to survive the night. As the first hints of dawn began to brighten the world the creatures began to flee, some went back into the cave and others scattered elsewhere.

For the next couple of hours after sunrise the group tended to the wounded and counted the living, there were a total of four adults and eight children below the age of thirteen. Countless others lay on the ground dead along the bodies of the pale creatures. It took time to dress wounds and deal with the dying, before the group could move on, the number of adults had been larger, as the light covered the world the light in them bled out through their wounds.

What remained was a bare shadow of the many that had gathered around the burning tree, it became the funeral pyre for their bodies as it still continued to burn. It was the common practice to burn any body that remained, if not the creatures would simply come later and reclaim them.

After everything was done, it was decided that they would return to the settlement and see what could be salvaged. Santos and Solfrid led the way, though both were young both were the only remaining fit warriors.

On their way back they discovered bodies lying dead and mangled of both man and creature.

The prospects were bleak, but Solfrid maintained her spirit by caring for the younger kids, keeping them together and their own spirits intact. Santos was not of these people, he could understand that they suffered, but he could not feel as they did. His mind was focused on what was next.

When they arrived at the settlement his pessimistic thoughts were confirmed, the settlement was totally destroyed, most of the ruins lay burned or ruined or in most cases both. There were bodies everywhere, it was a blood and gore filled sight. Countless dozens of bodies piled high everywhere.

The sight that broke most spirits was where their chief lay dead, partially buried under the body of the behemoth monstrosity that was responsible for the destruction of the settlement. In the hands of the monster was Freet, mangled and broken, his great feathers a complete mess of matted blood and dirt. His claws dug deep into the side and neck of the best, he had probably dealt the finishing blow while the chief distracted the creature.

As Santos inspected the bodies he felt a rising tingle in his body followed by a shivering that lasted but for a brief instant. He did not know what to make of it, but he didn’t feel anything off about his body and decided that it was just fatigue.

“Brynjay!” Solfrid’s voice ripped him away from his thoughts. He turned to find her and discovered she was kneeling next to a body a distance away, it was hard to recognize the fallen man. He was largely covered in blood, but as Santos approached he could identify that the fallen was indeed Brynjar.

As time wore on a few more survivors appeared, returning to the settlement, this brought the number up to fourteen adults and twenty two children.

As noon came around everyone gathered for mealtime, it was a somber mood, but with everyone gathered it was time to make decisions.

“What are we going to do now?” an older woman asked, she had three daughters, all too young to be warriors. She had lost all of her sons except the second oldest, he was one of four sons.

“We have to rebuild the defenses quickly,” a young warrior suggested, one of the few that remained.

“There aren’t enough of us to defend this place boy,” an older warrior said. “Even if everyone was given a knife or sword, not enough of us are able to wield them well and there are not enough to recreate the former groups to defend each entrance. We would be overwhelmed before the first hour is over.”

After a moment the same older warrior spoke again.

“We have to abandon this place.”

“But where will we go?” the older woman asked. “There is nowhere else for us!”

“These things know where we are,” he began. “They know we are weaker and smaller, easily overwhelmed. They will act like any other animal that smells blood, they will swarm and what remains of us will all be killed. We must find another place that the few of us can defend.”

“I might have a suggestion,” Santos raised his hand.

The people grew silent.

“We can try and find my people,” he suggested. “There are not many of us, but we have successfully repelled them before. Here we cannot build fast enough to have a place to defend against the horde that will be coming by the falling of the sun.”

“What if we cannot find your people?” the older woman asked.

“Then we will all be hunted down like dogs and die in these mountains,” Santos replied.

The woman reacted with shock towards his brutal words, the others however only had somber looks.

“How strong are your people?” Solfrid asked. She had been standing behind Santos as she overlooked the children beyond the ring of adults.

“They are double of what remains now,” he replied. There was murmuring of what difference that would make.

“Son we could very well waste our lives searching for a great that paled in comparison to what our settlement was just a day ago,” the older warrior said.

“Being with them will give us much more than we have right now,” Santos said. “We have no place to defend, we will have no place to sleep, and food will be what we recover from the remains of here. I understand how this sounds hopeless, but something is better than nothing and my people are more than we have right now.”

There was silence.

“I know that we are going to lose people until we find them,” Santos continued. “It is not an exaggeration to say that the days that follow will be mostly likely worse than tonight, because we will be hunted and there will be nothing we can do about it, there are some things we are going to have to do to give us time.”

“Like what?” asked the warrior.

“We must not burn the bodies,” Santos said. His face grew stoic and hard as the expressions of horror encircled him. Already a few people were carrying bodies into piles to burn.

“That’s sacrilegious!” the older woman screeched, tears streaming down her face. The pain in her eyes was obvious. “What of the souls of my boys and my son!”

“A warrior dies on the field of battle, yes?” Santos asked her.

Her face said yes, but the anger and anguish did not disappear.

“These warriors are not done fighting,” Santos spoke. He decided to shoot his shot and bull his reasoning. He wondered if these people were anything like the vikings of earth, if they were he might stand a chance to convince them. “They, even in death, will continue to fight the last battle, they will be the rearguard for all of us. In their sacrifice we will be given precious time as the creatures are diverted here, to a place where they can finally have what they want. What time they give to us, we must take advantage of it so that what they do for us is not in vain.”

“You have words of a poet,” the older warrior said. “It is nice to say things like that to save yourself.”

“You say that,” Santos said, “but, let me ask you something. Why did they all die?”

He stood and motioned to all the bodies that lay on the ground.

“It was their time,” the warrior spoke. “And, if it is our time so be it.”

Santos turned towards the older woman,” do you think that all of those who died here died, because it was their time, or because they chose to stand their ground so that someone they cared about might survive?”

The woman turned away, the wounds still freshly carved into her soul bled again.

“It was their time because they chose it,” Santos said. “I did not have that conviction for I do not have family here, but they did. Once they chose to stand their ground, they knew they were choosing their moment of death.”

Again no one spoke. Emotions were high and the mood was low, there were other adults present, but their spirits kept them closed.

“Then what do we do?” Solfrid asked. Santos had kept her from falling into the darkness, he had fought harder in the last night than even she had to keep both her and the kids from getting killed. The losses of adults had been more than those of the children, for that reason she believed in him, believing that even with the settlement in ruins, it would not die if he protected it.

“We have to take what we can,” Santos replied. “Supplies that we need only, food, water, and everyone including the children need to carry a weapon, because when it comes down to it in these upcoming nights we will live and die by our own strength and will power.”