"Rei! Rei! Where is that boy." said a woman in her late twenties, wearing a plain apron and sweeping a room.
Her hair was dark red and her red eyes shined with hope. With her rough hair and simple clothes, her dirt-covered shoes and average build, her skin a creamy yellow and her beautiful smile, she was a damsel.
"Yes Mama." said an 8-year-old boy. His hair was the same as his mom's, but his eyes beat hers in hope. The average height for a child of his age, he had a slightly darker variation of his mother's skin colour.
Wearing simple scruffy clothes and muscles that almost made one think he was older than his size suggested, he looked like a typical farm boy.
"Your father needs help on the farm, you know. Go help him release the chickens, and maybe you're old enough to carry the hay to feed Zasadi." The woman said giggling.
"Yes, Mama! I'll carry it today!" said Rei, running out to help his dad on the farm.
"That boy...he's going to be a fine young lad."
Rei ran out to the farm, helping out the local commute with their daily lives. "That boy, he's a blessing to this town." said an old man who ran an apple store.
"Papa! I'm here!" said Rei as he arrived on the farm. "Oh bless Vener. So your mother finally sent you boy!" said a man in his early thirties, with black hair and a muscular physique.
He had dark tan skin and His face was gentle. He was tall, but not so much that he would completely overshadow his fellow farmers.
"I'm gonna carry it today Papa! I know I can do it!" said Rei running towards a shed.
"That boy...Reinhardt, I'm sure he's got your warrior blood, otherwise he'd never think he could carry that pile of hay." said another farmer.
"Please. It's his mother that tells him it's possible. I have no hand in this." said Reinhardt, smiling.
"Ho!" shouted Rei as he prepared to carry a hay bale the size of a shed.
"Today I become a man!" he said as he put his arms through two straps and tried to stand up. He shook and shook until he ran out of breath.
"Rei, every time I see you, you look dumber and dumber." said a young boy close to Rei's age but a little bit taller and a lot smarter. He had black hair and red eyes with a light yellow complexion and sported a grin made for sarcasm.
His hair was scattered and his clothes simple, but he was far from simple himself. Though his physique lost woefully to Rei's, He was the brains between the two.
"Let him try Kevin, it's his dream!" said a little girl shorter than both Rei and Kevin. She had yellow hair and blue eyes which were intensified by her beautiful cream skin, so much so that her stare could make any with a frozen heart melt.
She was better dressed than the two, to the point that anyone seeing them could tell that they were from different social classes. But they were still simple enough to move around freely in them and play with her two friends.
"Cristina, Kevin, you're just in time! Watch me!" shouted Rei as he forced himself to get up, carrying the haybale with him.
"What the...No way," said Kevin, looking up at the hay bale.
"He did it, he did it!" shouted Cristina happily. Then the hay bale dropped. The pair directed their gaze at Rei, who had fainted.
Kevin started laughing while Cristina ran to check on the boy.
"This is too good!" exclaimed Kevin as he fell on the floor still laughing.
"Come over here and help you big meanie!" said Cristina, pouting.
After about 30 minutes, they wake up Rei, splashing water on him. Shaking his head, he let out a grin.
"I carried it today! Now all I have to do is get it to the other side of the farm!" exclaimed Rei.
"What is wrong with you?" said Kevin, looking at Rei, thinking he had a brain malfunction.
"That'd be cool!" exclaimed Cristina as she looked at Rei with admiration.
The trio were under a tree on the farm, talking about the day's events.
Kevin told them about how he had created a way to direct sheep into a pen using a patch of grass, while Cristina told the pair what she had for breakfast that day, which wouldn't normally seem interesting, but Cristina was the daughter of the mayor.
The extravagant things she ate always interested the boys.
"There was a little drake scale sprinkled on, but it was pretty normal otherwise," she concluded.
"Drake scale! As in the lesser dragon!" exclaimed Kevin.
"I wonder what that tastes like. Probably not as good as milk and bread though," said Rei. "It makes your food more bitter, they say it's a counter for foods that are too sweet," said Kevin.
"It's true! It tastes disgusting!" said Cristina, confirming Kevin's information.
"Then it's definitely not better than milk and bread," Rei said.
The trio laughed and then continued telling each other stories until the sunlight was dim and they headed home.
"Guess what Cristina ate today Mama!" shouted Rei as he got home. "Rei, that's not right, what do you say when you see people in the evening?" asked his mother.
"Oh sorry...Good evening Mum," said Rei.
"Good. Now...what did Cristina eat?" his mother asked.
Rei smiled.
This was his life, one he wouldn't trade in for anything else.
"Today's the day!" shouted Rei running to the barn, starting yet another day with his ludicrous ambitions.
"Seriously! Again!! you haven't even exercised yet!" said Kevin, chasing after the boy.
"Go Rei go! Go Rei go!" shouted Cristina chasing after Rei as well.
"Reinhardt! Ya hear about that dragon trouble to the south? I hope that doesn't affect business."
"Nah, the knights will handle it. Though what's a dragon doing south? It's not mating season yet." replied Reinhardt, watching as his son went towards the barn, putting the creature out of his mind.
A few weeks pass by without issue, and the three meet at the farm as usual, Rei already flexing his muscles.
"I'm gonna get stronger, then I'll carry it to Zasadi!." said Rei while doing push-ups.
"At this rate, it might actually be possible," said Kevin sarcastically.
"108,109 go Rei go!" shouted Cristina who was sitting on Rei's back.
"Huh...that's a strange bird, Rei said as he saw something in the distance.
"That's not a bird..." said Kevin squinting.
"IT'S A DRAGON!!!" shouted Kevin as he sighted the creature. "We have to warn everyone!".
The trio ran towards the direction of the town, shouting 'dragon' at the top of their voices.
"Oh, kids these days. Playing all sorts of games." said an old woman carrying a basket.
"Shut it ya brats, you're disturbing the peace!" said a man in a tavern, throwing his fist in a rage.
"Hey, they're kids. Let them have their fun." said a woman who was passing by. "Tsk." said the man as he slammed the door shut.
"No one's taking us seriously..." cried Cristina.
"Why! There's a dragon on its way here and they're so blockheaded that they brush it off as a joke!" exclaimed Kevin.
"Don't worry guys, we'll get help, don't give up- hey, why is the sky darker?" Rei said, noticing the shade around them.
"DRAGON!" a man shouted as flames came down in his direction.
"It's here..." said Kevin, a tone of despair in his voice. "Calm down! My father's a former knight! He can take this thing down!" said Rei. "Let's go get him."
"Alright, I'll go make sure my family is safe, go get your dad quickly!" said Kevin as he ran towards the fields.
"Cristi-" said Rei before looking at the girl, noticing she was frozen in fear. He held her hand, then whispered to her.
"Don't worry... I'll be back."
She nodded slowly, before he let go of her hand and ran towards his home.
However, he was greeted by something truly nightmarish. The fields were already on fire.
As he arrived he saw the horrific sight of his house burning, but still ran inside the charred mess, hoping to find help.
"Mama! Mama!" cried the boy until he stumbled on something. He turned to see what he had stumbled on... it was his mother's roasted corpse. "MAMA! MAMA!" the boy exclaimed. "PAPA WHERE ARE YOU!" shouted Rei as he ran towards the fields where his father worked, to see them burning. He ran through the field until he came upon a body...his father's body. "But you're a knight Dad! How could you die too" He cried as he held his father's corpse. The flames burned the field around him, eating up the poor boy.
But he didn't move.
The flames surrounded him, covering the scene.
Hours passed and Rei walked back to the town after the inferno had died down. He came to the spot where he had left Cristina to meet her smoldering corpse.
"I'm sorry... I couldn't get help." the boy said to the corpse, tears welling up in his eyes. But he didn't want to believe that he lost it all. Kevin was smart, he definitely survived. And so he moved towards the fields once more.
Arriving at Kevin's house to find it barely standing, Rei pushed open the door to find a family of three, burned to a crisp.
He saw his friend's body...inches from an empty bucket.
"Kevin...are you still-" Rei said as he touched him on the shoulder...and it broke off.
"Kevin..." Rei said silently, as his eyes lost the shine of hope they once had.
"It's my fault... If I brought them with me. If I went to Dad first...I don't know." said the boy as he broke down crying in the burned-down home.
A week passes, and a small group soon arrives at the remains of Viel.
"It overdid the destruction a bit. There's almost no one alive..." said a knight.
A group of knights had come to check on the remains of the village, one destroyed by a dragon that the capital had chased towards that direction. It had been moving strangely, but to think it was randomly attacking villagesโฆ
"Viel was a great retirement spot too. Almost no noise and constant cool breeze, plus-"
"Hey look over there, it's a boy!" shouted one of the knights upon sighting a small child.
His clothes were burned and his face looked pale, his eyes dead and his skin burned in several places.
"He's got burns in some places but he's still fine. Boy, where are your parents?" said the group's doctor. Upon mention of his parents, his eyes came to life.
Inside them was not the pain or suffering that was to be expected... but the inferno of anger. With this look in his eyes the boy cried and said to himself, "I'll kill them. Dragonsโฆ I'll kill them all."
The knights and doctor understood, seeing the corpses that surrounded him, and carried the boy to a wagon. The knight pulled out a note, and began to write on it.
"Population of Veil: 1467. Number of Survivors: 1."