The walk back to where Malera and the horses were took a while, with him leading the girl. During their walk back, the girl didn’t utter a single word and her face stayed the same the entire time. Kendrolgo was starting to really worry, with everything that they saw inside the structure. Journeying to the nearest village could be very dangerous and even if they were to make it to the village, Kendrolgo didn’t know if the villagers would accept her as their own. A traumatized girl like her would have a difficult time adjusting to daily life. With her inability to speak being able to communicate with others would be quite a challenge. Just a couple of days ago, his problems were mainly not being accepted with the other villagers and now he’s responsible for two girls.

In the distance, Kendrolgo could see Malera patiently waiting for him to return. When she looked up and saw him walking over she got up and ran towards him. Halfway, she saw the girl holding his hand and stopped. From the look of confusion on her face, he knew that there was going to be an explanation needed.

“This is my friend Malera. She came with me from our village, after Daemonis attacked it.” He explained to the girl. Gripping her hand tighter, Kendrolgo tried to reassure her that she was safe.

Walking up towards them, Malera appeared to not know where to start. “Kenny who is she?”

“When I looked inside the root cellar in the structure, I found this girl hiding in the corner. She doesn’t talk, so I don’t know what her name is.” He explained to Malera. “I managed to grab both food and weapons. Inside of this bag is some roasted meat, so just grab yourself something to eat I know that you’re starving.” Handing over the bag to Malera, he led the girl over to where they were “camped.” Glancing over to the horses, Malera had tied them to the nearby sapling scattered sparsely in the field. Looking inside at all the equipment and supplies, Kendrolgo realized that the open field was designed to give the soldiers a clear sight of any enemy attackers. Unfortunately, they probably didn’t expect to be attacked by an army Daemonises. They must have had some warning since there were signs of battle formations, thouh. He didn’t know anything about military battles but just looking at the results, the outcome seemed obvious.

“There is a lot of food in here!” Malera exclaimed, sounding excited. Looking over at her, he could see her drooling over the food. Tearing off chunks of meat, she stuffed her face with the food.

“Hey! You need to slow down or you’re going to make yourself sick.” He cautioned her; grinning and happy that she’s doing better than last night. “After you’re done eating, we’re going to need to start heading off to the nearest village. I figure that if we continue to follow the road then we should start running into people, and hopefully the ladies.” Walking over to the horses, he untied them from the sapling and helped the girl up onto the horse. From the way she handled herself on the horse, the girl must have ridden multiple times. He grabbed the reins to the other horse and led it to where Malera was eating.

Glancing at them, Malera quickly tied the bag and stuffed it into one of the saddle bags. Taking the reins from Kendrolgo, she hoisted herself up into the saddle. “What are you going to do Kenny?” She looked down and asked him.

Grinning, he glanced up and replied, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll just walk with you guys. If we do get attacked then I’ll jump onto one of the horses and double with one of you. Remember, we need to conserve the strength of the horse, so we can’t have them carrying two people at once all the time.”

“You can’t walk all the way to the nearest village!” She exclaimed.

“Hey. It’ll be fine.” Not wanting to argue anymore, he got onto the road and headed out, with the two of them following behind. Kendrolgo quickly checked all of his weapons, making sure that they were easily accessible. Getting to the village seemed like it was going to be forever.

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Walking made the trip a lot longer than it would have taken at a decent trot. When it got dark, they had to stop and try to get some rest. The two girls needed to get their rest, so he had made sure to watch over them during the night.

Keeping ahead of the horses the next day, Kendrolgo kept an eye on their surroundings. The quiet filled his mind with unanswered questions, like what would they do if the village they were heading to, is destroyed like their village was or the outpost.

“I see someone ahead of us!” Malera shouted out to him.

In front of them, a horse and cart with what looked like a farmer was going towards them. Running up to the cart, Kendrolgo waved his arms to signal the farmer to stop. “Hello mister, I was wondering if you knew how far the nearest village is.”

“Child, there are no villages nearby here. If you’re talking about Telenka, it’s right around the bend in the road across the bridge.” Noticing the number of weapons Kendrolgo was carrying, he asked, “For someone so young, you seem to be pretty well armed.”

“We just came from the outpost, where the security patrols used to be stationed. The entire area was wiped out by monsters. There are no survivors, both the soldier and the families. Our own village was burned down by the monsters. My friends and I am the only people that made it through the attack.” He explained to the farmer.

Surprise and anguish filled the farmers face, with the news of the monsters. “I was going to take these vegetables to the outpost. What am I going to do with all of this, the outpost was supposed to pay me for supplying them.” Not only did the farmer think about the loss on payment, for his crops, but realized the number of monsters needed to destroy such a heavily defended outpost.

“I know that the distance isn’t much, but if you willing I could escort you back into town. Even though we haven’t run into any monsters, it would probably be safer to go as a group.” Kendrolgo offered to the farmer.

“That would be much appreciated.” With a look of relief, the farmer turned his cart around to head back into town.

Howling in the background could be heard as the cart was turning around. Additional howls could be heard, following the first, the horses started to rear up and stomping their hooves on the ground, looking scared. Kendrolgo could see both the girl and Malera were having difficulty controlling their horses. “The both of you head into the town and I’ll stay here to make sure the farmer and his cart gets back safely.” He yelled at the two of them.

“We can’t leave you here by yourself!” Malera cried out, panic on her face and in her voice. “You don’t even have a horse. How are you going to out run those creatures?” She desperately tried to plead with him.

Waving his arm, he shouted “You can’t worry about me right now! Get out of here and make sure that the girl is safe too!” Both of them looked at him, one looking worried and the other expressionless. The girl nodded her head and slapped the rear of Malera’s horse, forcing it into a gallop towards the town.

The girl looked at him, pointed to him and then to the town, letting him know to get to safety when he could. Kicking the horse, she galloped to town following after Malera’s horse.

Kendrolgo watched as the two of them headed towards the safety of the town. He hoped that there would be people guarding a town, with the larger population size compared to a village. Remembering what had happened to the outpost, he didn’t know what they could do against these creatures. All he could do was look after the cart and try to give it some protection, but after that he didn’t know what other help he could provide. Unslinging his bow, he then drew and nocked an arrow aiming towards the direction of the Daemonises. Though he didn’t know if he would be able to hit anything with much accuracy, he hoped that his new abilities would compensate or the arrows would at least slow down the Daemonis onslaught.

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The first of the attacking group came out of the forest. By size alone, it was the largest he had ever seen. Raising its arm as if signaling for an attack, it roared and charged towards him at full speed. In moments the Daemonis was within the attack range of the short-bow. If it wasn’t for his reaction time, the Daemonis would have been on top of him before he had time to release the arrow. Releasing the arrow, it flew through the air as if alive and with a purpose. The arrowhead pierced the left-eye of the creature and penetrated into the skull. Dropping to the ground, the monster began thrashing its arms before turning to stone. Drawing another arrow and nocking it, he waited for more of the creatures to come tearing out of the forest. Releasing arrow after arrow to keep up with the number of enemies, he quickly started to use up the arrows in the quiver. With his inexperience of using the weapon, some of the Daemonis needed multiple arrows before they fell, before petrifying. Using the last arrow, with an even breath and focus, he pulled the drawstring to his cheek and released the string. Aiming at the chest of the beast, to insure the arrow landed on target, it hit the Daemonis dead-center.

As soon as the arrows were all used up, Kendrolgo tossed the bow and drew out both of the short-swords, and ran into the horde. Though many of the creatures were killed, there still a ton coming out of the forest, in droves. Just looking at the situation he was in, the chances of him making out of the situation alive was slim. Quickly glancing back, he could see that the farmer was nearly around the bend. Even with the distance being so great, compared to the speeds at which the monsters were moving at, they would be able to catch up to the cart. First thing he needed to do was to eliminate the Daemonis on the outside part of the group. Depending on how the situation proceeded, he may need to run into the forest and draw them away from the town. Without knowing how many forces the town had, he couldn’t just rely on them to be able to repel the attacking creatures.

Reaching the nearest monster, he cross swiped with his blades and flew through the dust to the next target. Reacting faster than he anticipated, the Daemonises converged on his location, forcing him to sheath both of the blades and in a single motion drew out the long-sword and sliced three of the opponents at once. The sword cleaved through the first target, wounded the second, and nicked the third with a shallow cut. Ignoring the fatally wounded Daemonis, Kendrolgo impaled the third target, dusting it, and dashed toward the forest before the others reached him. Sheathing the long-sword and reaching the forest, he ran away from the town and where the attacking group was coming from. Dodging between the trees and jumping over bramble, he tried to make distance between him and them, while making sure to keep them interested. The last thing he needed was for them to lose interest and head back into town. Jumping and then twisting his body, he kicked off the nearest tree towards the Daemonis chasing after him. Pulling out his right-side short-sword, while rolling in the air, he used the momentum to cut into the beast. Severely damaging the monster, but not killing it instantly, he used the chest of the beast as a launching pad and continued into the forest.

Continuously, he swerved between the trees while killing the beast that came too close. The forest seemed to go on forever. Looking back, he could still see quite a number of Daemonises chasing after him. His breathing was starting to become ragged, and gulping down air wasn’t helping at all. The only thing that kept him going was thinking about Malera, and the girl. He didn’t know if Telenka had the force necessary to keep the Daemonises back. These creatures were already acting differently than the books mentioned. Even though a town was likely larger than a village, he didn’t think it was stronger than the outpost was. Where are those darn Ladies? He thought to himself, as he was sliding down a slope and dashing forward, when he reached the bottom. As long as he didn’t stumble, he would be okay. Occasionally he slid across moss covered roots, and the occasional rocks. Fighting in the forest was no easy task.

Finally he reached a clearing and once he made it to the middle, he turned around to meet the remaining beasts that were chasing him. This needed to be finished, because he didn’t know how much longer he could run away. Wiping away the sweat pouring over his face, he grabbed both of his short-swords and positioned them to meet the wave of monsters. Gritting his teeth, he stood his ground and waited. Time seemed to slow, and the sound of his heart pounded in his ear.

The first Daemonis reached him and was quickly dispatched, and he moved on to the next. His blades were a series of blur. He lost one of his short-swords by not pulling out fast enough before a Daemonis turned to stone. Having only one short-sword really hurt his ability to kill the remaining monsters. Losing his second, and final, short-sword, Kendrolgo was forced to pull out his last blade. Holding it with two hands, he continued to dusting the creatures. I think that was the twentieth one that I just killed, he wearily thought to himself. At least Malera will be able to live, and continue on with a happy life. The girl hopefully would also live a long and fulfilling life, and get over the trauma she experienced.