The hour long ride to the village was long and nerve-wrecking. The woman beside Arawn kept on groaning with every bump in the road despite her 'sleep' status. From time to time, she would even murmur words, begging John to return.
When they were getting close, Val said he would go warn the village to prepare a healer. Without waiting for agreement, he spurred his horse into a gallop and disappeared from sight.
The bloody tracks had disappeared from the road, but there was no certainty that the beast had changed course. It was just as likely that they would find a massacre as that the peaceful village was living unaware of the trouble in the surrounding forest.
Val did not return. When they reached the outskirts of the village, they saw his horse secured to the first fence post, but he was nowhere in sight. Soon, it became obvious why.
Once they rode into the village, a nightmarish sight rose up before their eyes. Both right and left, houses were smashed through by something huge. The creature had rammed into the outer walls and shattered them to bits.
Torn corpses lay in the open rooms. Some of them had even been dragged outside, littering the street. They had bite marks as well as crushed body parts from when the beast had stepped on them.
Two meters ahead of where Corwal and Rain had stopped, two girls lay on the dirt road. The older one's throat had been torn open while the smaller one had been crushed to death.
The beast's claws were once again painted by the blood of its victims and covered the road in crimson paw prints. They led back and forth, visiting every house where someone had to have made a sound. Not a single person the creature found was spared.
"What is this…" Rain whispered, sounding like she was about to puke. Her hands holding the reins of the horse gripped them so tight her knuckles went white.
Betty looked no better. Her face went green, and she dismounted to empty her stomach by a fence. The sound of her puking made even Arawn queasy.
"It's gone!" Val shouted out, running over at them from somewhere. His face was as white as a sheet of paper, bloodless.
"Are there any survivors?" Corwal asked, not dismounting just yet. He scanned their surroundings while listening for something.
"I don't—"
"There!"
Corwal pointed to a second house on the left and landed on his feet. Without explaining himself, he rushed inside the building and hurried to the next room.
Arawn went after him and saw him open a hatch on the floor. Musty air rushed out, followed by a soft whimper.
Inside, a woman holding three children was huddled among potatoes, carrots, and apples. Her eyes were wide with panic. When she saw the light coming from above, she clutched her children closer to herself as if that would protect them.
"It's all right. The monster is gone," Corwal said in a soothing voice as he jumped down.
The woman screamed in a shrill voice, then seemed to recognize that Corwal was human. Her lip trembled, and she raised one hand toward him as if seeking benediction.
"You came, Saint Theus finally sent someone to aid us." Her voice was shaky and still on the shrill side, pausing at times. A hollow laugh followed them however. "But it's too late… too late… Everyone's dead, already dead."
Sobs racked her body, and tears suddenly streamed down her face. The children whimpered, not understanding what was happening, and began to cry as well.
For a moment, Corwal let her vent her emotions, then crouched down before her. "Miss, I know you're in pain, but we need your help. Tell me, is there a way to call everyone out? We need to know what happened."
The woman looked up at him with glistening eyes. Pain was as clear as the moon in the night sky in them, but she took control of it with surprising efficiency. Brushing her tears away, she nodded. "The bell. Two long gongs."
Her voice was faltering, but it was clear enough. Mutallu rushed away to find the bell while Corwal picked up one of the children and passed it to Arawn. The cellar wasn't large or high, but it was impossible to leave it without a small ladder.
Once they were all out, the woman sat down to try and calm her children, forcing herself to act normal to not stress them out. The two boys and a girl did not trust her sudden change and hugged her tighter while tears ran down their cheeks.
Arawn watched them from the side, trying to decipher what he was feeling. There was pity, but also envy. When he had cried, no one had been there to comfort and assure him that everything would be all right, even if that was a lie.
The bell rang. One long gong was followed by another. They echoed in the village, with the sound lasting much longer in the silence.
Soon, hatches were pushed open and doors creaked. Pale, drawn faces looked outside. There was trepidation in people's eyes, and they scanned the outside with nervous jumps. Any unexpected sound made the villagers flinch.
A long time passed before anyone dared to leave their house, let alone walk to the square. Many fell halfway there, unable to stomach the sight on the street. They vomited until there was nothing left and then dry-heaved while crawling away on all fours.
"How could this have happened... " Rain whispered once more.
She had managed to take control of her stomach, but her complexion didn't look good. Only Corwal seemed unaffected. He stood leaning against the pillar holding up the bell, watching the stumbling villagers with unreadable eyes.
"Is this the work of a beast?" Val asked quietly. He sat on the side, forehead resting on his hands as he avoided to look at the carnage all around them.
"What else?" Mutallu asked with a sneer. His face was ghastly white despite him trying to pretend that the sight didn't affect him.
Val looked up at him with anger simmering in his dark pupils. "We need to stop it. Right now. Cursed child, how could it be allowed to roam free."
No one had an answer for him. It was one thing to hear that beasts were murderous and a different one to see just what they could do. Most people lived out their lives without seeing them, only hearing legends about their atrocities from a couple generations back.
"It killed anyone it could find," Rain said softly while looking around the street. "I heard that they seek human blood, but… it should have been an exaggeration. There is no logical explanation for it."
"They're demons," an elderly man said. He hobbled over to them with the help of a cane while a number of villagers trailed behind him. "Demons need no reason. They're the evil in all our hearts that has been given freedom."
Corwal lifted his head up, giving the grey-haired man a once over. "Priest of Theus?"
"You've got sharp eyes." The elderly man nodded and came closer, stopping with the crowd right before them. "Did you chase off the demon?"
"No. It was long gone when we came." Corwal pushed himself off the pillar and took a step forward. "What happened here?"
"It was a normal day and we were working and conversing when a black demon bounded over from the south road. Everyone panicked. Those who hid are here with me, and you've already met the rest." His gaze went to the many corpses all around them.
They exchanged a few more questions, but the elderly priest had nothing to offer. The beast had come without warning and massacred everyone it could find. After that, it left. They were nothing but a momentary stop in its path.
The priest was surprised to hear that the beast came from a couple travelers. His brow furrowed, but he accepted to take care of the injured woman. A makeshift hospital was going to be arranged in his house anyway. The building had been quiet throughout the beast's rampage, so all its walls were still intact.
"Time to leave," Corwal said. "We already lost a couple hours of daylight."
"Leave?" Val asked with surprise evident in his voice. "You're not serious, right?"
"That beast can be anywhere by now. We don't have time to chase it all over the country. That's what the military is for."
Val did not agree. He argued that they were already there, so it was their duty to help. What if the beast reached another village? Wouldn't the deaths there be on their conscience?
When Corwal refused, Rain joined in to convince him to change their course as well. She wanted to hurry, but it wasn't right to do it by forsaking the lives of the common people.
Once they all exhausted themselves, Arawn walked to the cart and sat down. He wasn't sure how to use the reins, but it couldn't be too hard. Others had led his horse pretty easily.
"I'm not going," he said while making himself comfortable.
His soft words attracted the attention of everyone in the group, but Arawn focused his gaze on Corwal. "That beast needs to be stopped, and I'm going to do it. You can come with me, or we can say goodbye right here."
"When did you become so rebellious?" Corwal asked with annoyance in his voice. "We've got no time to chase wild animals. Someone else will take care of it."
Arawn looked away, glancing into the distance. Corwal might be right, but no one could tell when it would happen. What if it was a month later? How many more villages would be massacred until then? Most of the king's military and agents were in the capital preparing for the conference.
Carnage was something that Arawn was familiar with, but he could not let it continue. Too many innocent souls had already lost their lives because of him. If he wanted to atone for his past and start using his power for good, he had to take the chance presented before him.
"I'm coming with you," Val stated. "Wait for me."
As he ran off to get his horse, Rain looked at his figure, then turned to Corwal. "We're going as well. I could not live with myself if I let this continue."
They mounted their horses, and Rain picked up the reins from Arawn. "Let me help with that."
Arawn didn't refuse. If there was someone who could control the old animal, it was better if they took up the lead.
Once Val came back, the four of them set off in the direction of the bloody tracks leading out of the village. They went in the opposite direction of where they needed to go, but that was not important. Their only concern at that moment was to stop the beast.
Back in the square, Corwal stood with Mutallu. He watched everyone leave with a heavy heart. They were doing the right thing, but at the wrong time. Not one of them realized that half of them might die if they tried to face the beast by themselves.
"Why don't we just turn around and leave too? It's not like we need them to find the princess," Mutallu said in a soft voice.
"No, we don't," Corwal agreed, but he didn't turn around. Both of them knew he wasn't going to leave by himself.
Mutallu looked at him before whistling for his grey stallion. The animal trotted over and nuzzled its head against the teenager, for which it received an offhand pat on the nose. "You think they will die, that's why you want to follow, isn't it?"
"I know they will. The three idiots have no idea how powerful a beast truly is and will underestimate it, thinking it's just a dumb animal."
"But you don't care about them. It's Arawn that you're worried about. He hasn't graduated yet."
Corwal rolled his eyes at him. "I'm not running a school here."
He got on his horse as well and signaled for it to start walking. What troubled him wasn't that Arawn had yet to finish his training, but that he was still too naive. Hiding the past was expected, but why did he give Corwal the power to control his future?
It had been beyond stupid of Arawn to admit his weakness. If there came a day when Corwal needed to demolish an army, he could do that by sacrificing Arawn. For the greater good, it might even be worth it one day.
'I really wish you would have kept such things to yourself. Now I have to face too many questions whose answers threaten my self-image.'