“Grandfather, how did you know there were dark clouds in the sky?” asked the chief’s assistant. She was puzzled as to how a blind person could tell there were dark clouds covering the sky.

“There’s a smell of dust in the air, yet I do not feel rain falling on my body. Come on Sheerah, I am no child”, replied the chief, with a slight smile.

“I am sorry, grandfather”, she apologized.

“It’s alright, how are the preparations coming along? Tell them to hurry it up”, declared the chief.

“They are already leaving. It seems they are done with the preparations.”

“I see. I wish I could have accompanied them, but then again, we need to win this!”

“You can accompany them, grandfather, if you really wanted.”

“The future belongs to the young ones. I fear our time maybe up.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said that. Do you really believe that, grandfather?” asked Sheerah.

“It’s not about what I believe. I can feel it in the air. Whatever monstrosity Mother Nature cooked up this time is coming and I... I don’t see how we can beat it”, replied the chief, looking down.

“Try to be positive, grandfather”, spoke Sheerah.

The women and children were now evacuating the village. Altogether, there were ten women, fifteen children and four young men. Among the young men, was Hezron who was playing his flute, while the children were following him like a pied piper of sorts. The women were carrying bags filled with clothes, while the young men were carrying bags full of food.

The travelling party bid farewell to their husbands and relatives, who were staying behind, protecting the village from the tailed beasts’ attack. With Hezron in front, all was well, or rather, all appeared well.

As soon as they left, the miasma reached the village. The travelling party saw the village engulfed in a dark-purple mist. Since they couldn’t return, the ran forwards.

The men stood on guard, having made barricades with sandbags. They were ready to protect their village, and to act as foil, so that whatever they faced would not reach their wives and children, who had departed earlier. They brandished their spears, arrows and small swords, ready to fight to the death. Anyone who arrived at the village could smell fear, as the villagers scuttled around, trying to organize themselves.

AWOOOOOO! AWOOOOOOO!

Loud howling sounds filled the air, while the dark mist prevented the villagers from seeing clearly. Soon, more and more howls and growls began to sound, as whatever had made them grew nearer the village. There was a loud sound, as though something had collapsed, followed by whining sounds.

“They’ve reached the first pit! Get ready!” shouted one of the villagers, who appeared to be commanding them. He was a middle-aged man, tall in stature and strong in appearance. He had a scar that spanned across his face, from the point between his eyes, to his left cheek.

The rumbling and howling kept coming closer and closer, and another loud collapsing sound echoed out.

“They’ve reached the second pit! Launch the arrows!” shouted the scarred commander.

The men launched arrows, which had been set on fire. The entire field caught fire, burning along with it some of the oncoming beasts. For those that survived the inferno, they arrived at the barricade and a ferocious battle began. This was a battle of survival for one group, and for the other, a battle for supremacy!

A thick stench of blood filled the moist air, as people and wolves died. The battle was really bitter. More dire wolves arrived; taking the place for those that had died. The men fought, but it became apparent that they were fighting a losing battle. It didn’t matter how many wolves they killed, more would come.

“Let’s move to phase two! Everyone, retreat!” shouted the scarred middle-aged commander.

The survivors scuttled, retreating towards a stone wall that was closer to the chief’s house. They carefully avoided triggering traps that had been laid beforehand. The wolves followed, closely in pursuit. For those that didn’t avoid the traps, they fell into pit traps, filled with sharpened sticks standing in vertical and slanted positions.

Meanwhile, the Beast King had arrived at the edge of the forest, looking at the village down below. Behind it, there was the nine-tailed fox and then the nine-tailed bear. They didn’t dare to make any sound, or even do anything that would enrage the beast in front of them. The Beast King let out a sharp roar that filled the entire forest reaching as far as beyond the village, into the ears of the escapees.

The dire wolves that had been attacking the villagers suddenly stopped, howled, and then retreated as fast as they had come. The villagers took a breath, before getting back to sharpening their weapons. They knew that it wasn’t over yet. Whatever was coming next was definitely much worse than what had happened just now. How worse? Nobody had an inkling, not even the village commander, who was the head hunter. The purple mist that covered the village made fighting in the village even harder. Unlike the wolves, humans relied on their sense of sight in order to perceive their enemies. As long as the sight was impeded, it would be difficult for them to have any upper hand.

The wolves, however, could rely on their sense of smell to determine where the humans were. In other words, the purple mist worked heavily against the humans, despite fighting in familiar territory!

At the edge of the forest, the dire wolves returned and stood behind the other beasts. The Beast King looked up, and then opened its mouth. A purple light made of energy gathered into a small sphere, which was the size of an average adult human’s head. The beast unleashed the energy, which flew in a straight beam towards the village! As it arrived, it cleaved most of the buildings in two!

KABOOOOOOM!! KABOOOOOM! KABOOOOOM!

Explosions followed, causing the remainders of the houses to collapse. The rubble went up in flames, causing everything else to catch fire. A thick scent of burning flesh filled the air, while the wind blew the scent, spreading it beyond the village. The Beast King issued another beam of energy, which did more damage than the first.

KABOOOOOOOOM! KABOOOOOM!

More explosions followed, finishing off whatever had been left of the village. The Beast King gave another sharp roar, and all the other beasts that were behind it descended! When they arrived at the village, some of them started ravaging whatever survived the second blast. At this point, almost everyone was dead, including the village chief. He was sitting in his house, with staff in hand. When the first series of explosions occurred, the roof of his house collapsed, trapping him inside it. And then the second series happened.

For those that had somehow survived, they had to face the arriving flood of beasts! What happened next was completely uneventful. The mixture of tailed beasts ranging from bears, wolves and foxes to spiders, bees and even gigantic rabid squirrels, descended upon the rubble and began to ravage anything and anyone alive. Quite a sorry sight this was. It then started raining.

At the other edge of the forest, Ryan, Rose and Gonin were preparing to teleport back to the monastery. That was when it started raining.

“We cannot use the teleportation talismans while in the rain. If they get wet, they’ll stop working!” declared Gonin, who was scrambling around, trying to look for a place to shelter them.

“Let’s run that way”, yelled Ryan, pointing in the direction where there was smoke towering to the heavens.

“That might not be such a good idea. Let’s hide under a tree”, spoke Rose.

As they were scuttling and scampering around, lightning struck the tree closer to where they were standing.

“This is a really bad omen!” declared Gonin.

The trio ran until they found a wooden cabin that was quite a distance from the forest. When then got there, they were drenched. It seemed very weird to the couple who owned the cabin. Why was a monk trying to look for shelter from rain? Why was a monk travelling with young adults who looked like they’d never set foot in a monastery, based on what they were wearing?

Never mind the trio’s explanation for what had happened. Well, the couple simply decided to let it go. Either they were crazy, or it was one weird dream, which they were both involved. They offered the best hospitality to their visitors, offering food, and shelter from the rain. When the three had warmed themselves, they excused themselves, with Gonin producing the teleportation talisman. It was still raining outside, and the couple tried to get them to stay, but in the end, they gave up.

The trio went outside, where Gonin activated the talisman and they vanished, appearing in the middle of smoldering ruins.

“Umm guys, where are we?” asked Ryan.

“No! It cannot be!” exclaimed Gonin.

Everyone was shocked by what they were seeing. Never mind that they were still getting drenched in rain, no one noticed. They were supposed to have teleported into the comfort of the monastery, away from the rain. Well, to tell the truth, they had teleported into the monastery. It was just that the monastery was in ruins, and there were no signs of life, as far as the eye could see.

A figure wearing tattered robes rose from the rubble, accompanied by a small drone, which was hovering by the figure’s side. Everywhere one looked, there were scraps of metal, occasional fizzles of electric sparks and rubble that would have been on fire if it wasn’t raining.

“Are you sure your teleportation thingy worked?” asked Ryan, with anxiety mounting.

The figure walked closer, until they could see it in full view. It was Myra, and he only said, “We need to leave right now! They are going to come back!”

Hezron and his team started running, trying to find a place to rest and hide away from the pouring rain. It was not a good thing for the children since their immune systems were weak. Something as insignificant as rain could end up with someone in bed with a severe cold, or it could be worse. However, before they got anywhere...

AWOOOOOOOOOOOO! AWOOOOOOOOO!

Howling sounds echoed nearer to the team. They appeared to be getting closer and closer. Never mind the fact that it was raining, now they had something else to worry about.

“Run! Everyone, run as fast as you can!” yelled Hezron.

However, it didn’t matter whatever efforts they made. Trying to make women and children outrun a pack of vicious mutated wolves, was like tying a lot of snails to a war chariot and trying to race them against free horses! It simply wouldn’t work!

So as unfortunate as it was, the expected thing happened. The wolves caught up, a lot of people died, including the women and children. All the young men accompanying the women died, all except Hezron. Currently, he was surrounded by dire wolves, which were drooling. He took out his flute and started playing it. For some reason, he had decided that, if he’s going to die, he might as well as die doing something he loved. He closed his eyes and began playing the tune he’d been playing earlier in the village, The Calm Sea.

However, after a few minutes of playing the flute, something unexpected happened. Instead of attacking him, the wolves stood there, without moving an inch. The expressions on their faces changed from rage, hunger and greed to a calm, soothed expression. Hezron had his eyes closed, so at first he didn’t notice. However, he realized something was off! Why was he still alive playing the flute?

Slowly, he opened his eyes, afraid the wolves would pounce on him the moment he fully opened them. He didn’t want to see himself die, that would be really horrible. The one thing he kept doing was playing the flute.

“You...You are just like us...,” a gruff, ancient sounding voice echoed in his mind, causing him to stop playing the instrument.