The group of civilians, fleeing from Sunhaven, was walking almost silently. If not for the whispers and the cry of some young children. Nevertheless the forest was far from silent. Beasts and animals were making noise. And with only a handful of soldiers, not even hunters, the group was not reassured. Some were praying quietly, hoping that no predator would attack such a big group. Some were lost in their thoughts, creating scenarios in their heads. And some of them were whispering with their fellow villagers trying not to think about their situation.

Tyros was one of them, he found Nici, one of his childhood friends. They were chatting quietly, trying to understand what happened and making up some scenarios about the situation.

Their parents were walking closely and even if they knew each other well, they were too busy thinking to talk to each other. Until Cierra interrupted her friends thinking:

“Kaitlyn, Hezol, I think they were trying to get the kids.

Emerging from his thought Hezol blinked twice and asked:

“Why would you think so? Are they trying to get all the kids or ours ?

-I don’t know, but when we fled our home, one of the soldiers tried to shoot us with arrows. Fortunately he missed, but the other one stopped him and told him not to shoot at the kid.”

Kaitlyn interjected:

“ Isn’t it usual to avoid hurting kids ?

-It might be, but they also said that someone else will get us. But why would they want to ‘get us’, we are just villagers..

-I am not sure, it is a bit far-fetched. Anyway they failed. Now we should keep our energy, the walk is not over.”

Cierra nodded, feeling uneasy, but Kaitlyn was right. Those soldiers failed, but it didn’t mean that Tyros and her were safe yet. Waedor was close but they would still need a few days to reach the nearest settlement.

Maybe she should focus on what they will be doing when in Waedor. They would need to start over, in a new environment. She would need to find a place to work, probably in a city. Tyros would probably need to find an apprenticeship soon. He could read, she made sure of that, but he wasn’t educated like kids from the city. He would need to adapt, and that meant less time to fool around. In a city it wouldn’t be as safe as in the village anyway. Maybe learning how to defend himself wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

Her thoughts were interrupted by Tyros pulling her sleeve and calling for her. She realized that the atmosphere in the group changed. Some of the soldiers at the front of the group were jogging to the back.

Then they heard it:

“We are under attack ! They are on horses, stay close to each other and take cover in the forest !”

Chaos ensued.

Cierra grabbed Tyros and ran for the forest. Among the civilians scattering everywhere, they could see familiar faces. Some of them got hit by loose arrows, some people were screaming and most of them were running. Some people probably just fell and got trampled by fellow villagers.

The soldiers trying to secure their retreat were unable to protect everyone: the attackers were on horses, their mobility was deadly. They were probably no more than ten, nonetheless, they were trained in what seemed to be guerilla tactics. They used their advantage being able to shoot arrows while riding well. Foot soldiers were almost wooden dummies to them.

While the soldiers were regrouping toward the forest, to lessen their enemies advantage, Tyros and Cierra were still running. In their panic they went too far in the forest. Cierra realized her mistake and tried to run back to other villagers.

They heard it before they saw it, horses coming nearby. Two men on horseback charged them. The first soldier tried to impale Cierra with his spear; she managed to jump out of the way, toward her son. She avoided the spear but got hit by the horse and stayed down. Tyros fell from the impact and froze when he saw his mom on the ground. He didn’t even manage to regain his wits before one of the soldiers hit him on the head, gagged him and bound his hands. The rope bounding his hands long enough to be used as a leash, held by one of the soldiers.

Tyros wasn’t unconscious but he was hurt, bound and hopeless. He briefly tried to fight when he got put on a horse like a sack of potatoes, but a second hit on the head made him stop. The blood running into his eyes was not helping.

“Let’s go we got one of them at least” The soldier handling Tyros said.

The second one whistled and they went deeper in the forest.

Tyros was crying in silence, thinking about his mom, his life and of the horrors he will endure when brought back as a prisoner by those murderers.

The soldiers he knew from Sunhaven were nice to the villagers. Most of them at least. But those soldiers, they looked like monsters to him. He didn't understand why he was taken, why they hurt his mom, will she die alone in that forest ?

His despair were interrupted by one of the soldiers:

“Did you hear this ?

-I'm not sure, you think it’s a beast ?

-It might be…there was a lot of killing tonight.

-Yeah, we need to regroup with the main force, let’s not get too deep in the forest while we get around this shithole of a village”

The soldier that was not holding Tyros on his horse grunted in approval and indicated to his mate to keep going with his head.

Right when they were about to get out of a small glade, a beast at least seven feet tall charged them. Tyros turned his head to see the huge mouth of the beast open. He closed his eyes, his mind frozen. He felt a hit, and his body was sent flying.

He hit the ground painfully as one of the soldiers was screaming and trying to flee with his horse.

He didn’t hear the second one. He understood quickly why: his body was cut in half. The beast ate him from the head to the torso.

The large bipedal monster was covered in a stone-like armor, on his head, what looked like a crown of pointy rocks. His front legs looked like hands with three fingers and huge claws coming at the end of each one. His tail seemed to be designed as a kind of wrecking ball. The only certainty Tyros had was that he didn’t want to be hit by that.

Before panic could even settle in the young boy, the monster turned on his heels and started charging the fleeing soldier. Still haggard, Tyros body reacted before his mind could. He started running in the opposite direction.

He felt like he never ran this fast in his life. He didn’t know for how long he ran, but the only thing that made him stop was a root. He fell head first.

He groaned and got on his back. Taking a breath he stayed on his back. He stared at treetops softly enlightened by the moon and the stars. The blood was pumping hard in his head, he couldn’t even hear his own thoughts.

And before he could get his thoughts clear, he started crying.

Tyros didn’t know exactly why he cried, his thoughts were a mess, this was too much for a 11 years old boy.

That was it. He decided that he couldn’t go on anymore. He would lay there in the dirt waiting for whatever was to come. He was in shock, exhausted and lost.

Minutes passed and as his head cooled off, panic came back at full force. He was flinching at every noise and soon he couldn’t stay in place anymore. He stood up and started running again.

And soon enough, he arrived at the base of the mountain, in front of him: a wall. This wall was natural, that’s how the plateau was and the reason why you could only get in, or out, of the Plateau using the tunnels. One tunnel on the west side, toward Waedor, and the other at the opposite, toward Chalindis.

He was at the edge of the Plateau, far from home, and he didn’t know what to do.

As he was panting, thinking about the direction to choose, he heard some noise from the forest behind him. He was being chased. The image of the monster flashed in his mind and he started running frantically. But he knew he couldn’t outrun such a beast, he needed to hide. Fortunately he found a crack in the mountain and rushed into it. Tyros kept going in this narrow passage hoping that whatever followed him was too big to fit in. The passage was dark, no light from the moon could penetrate.

Soon, Tyros’ feet didn’t feel the ground under his foot. In his hurry, he couldn’t stop himself and fell down once more. However this time the ground didn’t meet his face as fast it did previously.

When he finally hit the ground, he felt his back and one of his legs crack. His head became heavy and darkness enshrouded his mind. He fell unconscious.