Sam watched the fire. The smell of burning was very faint, but it was getting stronger and stronger as the smoke spread out.

Sam was unsure of what to do now. Should he wake up the whole village or not? He suspected that they might somehow blame him for this. Xander and he were the only strangers, and the fire did start the night that they came.

Sam just watched for a little bit longer. If the fire somehow spread, he would wake up Xander and Laina and get ready to leave. After they were ready, they would then wake everyone up and leave soon after.

It would make them look a lot more suspicious but, Sam figure, that the villagers would have bigger problems to worry about.

The fire was limited to a small area that was separated by the roads, and it didn't look like it could spread anymore.

Just when he was about to turn back, Sam noticed a small fire to the side of the left fields. It was very small, only big enough to be a torch. Sam was too far away to see anything else.

Sam watched as it moved through the unlit part of the fields. Behind it, flames began to rise to cover the entire section of the field.

A similar action was taking place in the right field as well.

The flames covered over a quarter of the entire farmland and it was only getting bigger.

Now, Sam didn't have an option. Someone was clearly starting the fires. If he delayed, all of the crops could be burnt to ash. It would eventually wake someone up, and they would eventually notice him.

Sam turned around and started to run back to the village. Stratus watched Sam leaving and followed after him.

It didn't take long for Sam to reach the outside of the village. He didn't stop when he saw Laina's house and continued running. When he reached the center of the village, he stopped to get his breath.

After Sam took a deep breath, he shouted as loud as he could, "FIIIIIRRRRRREEEEEEE!" Sam took another deep breath and shouted the same thing.

The entire village could hear him. People began to wake up and exit their houses. They looked around trying to spot a flame, but most could not. Some, who were closer to the crops, were able to see the smoke rising off in the distance.

Word quickly began to spread between the people. Everyone rushed back into their homes to grab whatever they could use to put out the fire.

Some people noticed that Sam was the one that woke them up, but they were in a hurry to do anything about it.

Laina woke up as well. She recognized that the voice was Sam's and ran towards the middle of the village.

Sam, when he noticed that everyone was awake, started to quickly walk towards Laina's house. On the way there, he saw Laina.

"What's happening, Sam?" Laina asked in a worried voice. She heard that the crops were on fire on the way. She was worried about her field that she spent so many days working.

"Some one's lighting the farms on fire," Sam said as he was fast walking towards Laina's house.

"We have to either help out your neighbors put it out, or we run before they put it out."

"What would anyone get from burning the farms?" Laina asked. "We ... we need to help out. Most of the Taking crops mature in a week or two if they all burn now, most of the people will starve in a month."

They reached Laina's house and stepped in. Xander was sleeping as peacefully as ever. Laina went towards one of the containers. Stratus went towards Xander to wake him up. Sam went towards the tools on the wall.

It was still dark, so Sam couldn't make out more than an outline. Four long tools were hanging on the wall. Sam went to feel each one to determine what they were.

There was a shovel, a hoe, and a rake. He couldn't figure out what the fourth shape was, but he could tell it was sharp.

He grabbed the shovel and the sharp thing.

Stratus had to bite on Xander's foot to wake him up. He thought that he had begun eating alive but then realized that it was just Stratus. He looked around and couldn't see anything because of the darkness.

He got and let his eyes adjust to the darkness.

Sam saw that Xander got up and handed him the shovel. Laina emptied the contents of a barrel and was ready to leave.

"Here," said Sam as he held the shovel to Xander.

Xander could make out the faint outline of Sam holding something out to him and took it. "Thanks, I guess."

"What do you need those for?" asked Laina. They didn't help put out the fire, so Laina wondered why they were needed.

"As I said before, someone's lighting the fire. If they choose to let us put out the fire without a fight, then these are not needed." Said Sam, shaking the thing in his hand. "But if they do resist, I want to at least have whatever this is instead of nothing."

"Fire?" asked Xander. He was completely lost on what Sam was talking about.

Sam sighed and said, "You'll understand when you see it." Sam saw that Laina was ready to leave and walked out of the house. Xander, Laina, and Stratus followed behind him.

There were people still in the village that had yet to go to the crops. They hurried in and out of their houses to get things that could put off the fire. There were a dozen people on the road running back and forth.

Sam ran towards the fields, and everyone else in the group followed him.

When Sam was outside, he could make out what he was carrying from the light from the moon. The was a scythe. Around five feet tall and a blade that was two feet long.

Sam had no clue how to use a scythe. He thought that it might have been better for him to bring the hoe instead, but it was too late now.

Sam stopped when he reached where the field split off into the left and right. From here, he could get a clear view of both sides. Laina and Xander went ahead to help put out the fire.

The flames that Sam saw from before had already turned the crops to ash. On both sides, the farthest area of the field was turned black from the charged crops.

The villagers were trying to put out the flames that were set alit after Sam went to the village. People carried water from the lake in containers and poured it into the part of the crops that were still on fire. It was fairly effective as half of the flames were already put out.

More and more people were carrying buckets filled with water and dumping them on the fire.

The result was that around a third of the crops were saved. They were completely untouched by the fire. Another third of the crops were set on fire, but then the fires were partially put out. They didn't get completely turned into ash, but parts of the crop were burnt, and some of the grain couldn't be used.

Sam looked for the torch that he saw before, but he couldn't find it. He looked into the trees to see if he could see any light coming out of them, but he failed.

Sam was about to head towards where Xander and Laina were but paused. He had been looking in the direction of the crops the entire time. Sam slowly turned around.

He looked towards the village. He scanned the trees around to see if he could see anything.

'There they are.' Sam could spot a flickering light coming from a little distance away from the village. The light was a little away from the houses, but Sam noticed that it was getting closer and closer.

'They're going to burn the houses as well. Shit' thought Sam.

Sam looked towards the fields. Fires were still going on. Sam cupped his hands and pointed his mouth towards where Xander was.

"XANDER, COME OVER HERE." shouted Sam. This was the second time that he had to shout this night.

Xander was close enough to hear him, and when he did he turned towards Sam. Laina heard it was well and looked towards Sam.

Sam put his hand forward, and then he pulled it back. He wanted them to hurry.

Xander and Laina understood his gesture and started to run towards Sam. They thought that something was wrong so they wanted to get to Sam as soon as possible.

After a few seconds of sprinting, they reached Sam.

"What's wrong? Did you see something?" asked Laina. She didn't see anyone near the fire that was not from the village other than Sam and Xander, so she assumed that the people who lit the fire were already gone.

Sam couldn't bothering explaining it and pointed to the spot where he could see the light from. Xander and Laina looked towards where he was pointing, but they couldn't see anything wrong.

"Am I supposed to know what I am looking at?" asked Xander, confused. All Xander could see was a bunch of trees. He couldn't make out what made Sam bring him over here.

"There's light coming from over there. Most likely from the same torch that set the crops on fire." Now that Sam was thinking about it, there were two separate flames, one on the left and one on the right. Now, he could only see light coming from one location. He either couldn't see the other one, or they both joined up.

"They're going to burn the village!" said Laina, finally catching on. "What do we do?"

Sam took a moment to think. They didn't know how many people they were up against. For all Sam knew, it could be a small army. Of course, that was unlikely, but there was always a chance.

Sam really did not care that much about the village people but he would still be somewhat guilty if he let it happen if he could stop it. Laina's house would also be burnt down as well.

"Let's check it out. If it's too much for us to handle, we can-" Sam was about to finish speaking when he was interrupted.

"Can't we ask for help?" Asked Xander. "The fire's almost out, and we could just call some people over. The more the better."

Sam didn't think about that. He didn't take the other people into consideration. It would be harder for them to be sneaky and they would have a harder time running away, but if a fight did happen, it would be much better for the other villagers to come.

"But how do we make them come over here? I doubt shouting fire again will do anything," asked Laina. "Everyone's too busy with the farms to notice anything happening behind them."

"Maybe that's the point!" Xander exclaimed. "If everyone's too busy worrying about one thing, they are not going to notice the other thing. Man, what a master plan. Or maybe that's what they want us to think. Maybe their goal was the crops all along." Xander started to think more than what was healthy for him and he started to question his existence.

Sam ignored Xander and spoke to Laina, "We can say that there are thieves robbing the houses or something. Do you think that that would work?"

Laina thought for a few seconds. People would have a hard time hearing it if they were too far away, so not everyone would even hear it. And for the people that did, most of them will probably ignore it. But some people, who were close to them and had enough valuables in their homes would definitely respond.

"It could work. We will only get like ten or so people but that's enough," replied Laina.

“Let’s do it then,” said Sam.