Albie was struggling to find an axe or firewood. Most of the farmers tool sheds were part of their buildings and had caught fire destroying most of them. Most of the firewood was gone too. Albie relied heavily on the musket for support and moved slowly about the burnt town. No household had been spared. Everyone Albie ever new he found dead. Some were charred husks in their house's others were just murdered in the street. Others had stab wound or musket wounds. As best he could count there was a body for all the old, women, and children in the village. After determining that there were no shovels in the town, he crutched his way to the fields.
He found many of the men wo worked this part of the fields dead in a mass. All of them had been decapitated. Their heads lined up on a nearby fence. There was not a face missing from the lineup. They had gotten everyone who had their farm plots here. The young man fought back tears. Everyone was dead. Maybe someone on the other road into town had survived but Albie couldn't hope for that anymore. Albie checked the headless corpses for there tools. Someone had taken all their sun rings as well. Their fingers cut of and discarded. Albie could still recognize the headless bodies. He had known his neighbors that well. Most he had used his magic to heal at some point. He at last found an axe held in Teds icy grip. The young mage got on his knees and pealed the tool loose finger by finger.
He had finally found an axe. He had also confirmed two thirds of the town dead and looked to the other road into town. The other men would have been there. He didn't want to know. He also couldn't help needing to know. He couldn't just leave them out like that. Shovel in one hand leaning on the musket with the other he wobbled through the field. The soft dirt beneath him making him unsteady. The shambling survivor noticed a headless body in the middle of the field. The young man tripped and fell into the dirt. He coughed a few times spitting up more black liquid that fell onto a nearby sprout.
While Albie grabbed for the phantom pain in his chest the single sprout grew to a full-sized shoot of grain in seconds. It continued to grow as all the other sprouts around it withered and turned form a healthy green to a sickly yellow. As the surrounding plants died the single sprout became impossibly large. Soon it was too large, and the stalk snapped in two. The stalk continued to grow for a second longer before the soil beneath it could no longer hold the plant.
Albie looked at the blighted ground still holding his chest. The effected soil looked lifeless to him. Almost like it had become sand. How much work would it take to grow something in it again. Albie Stood up again and remembered why he had come this way. He hobbled to the far side of the field concentrating on not tripping again. It became harder and harder to concentrate as the pain in his chest grew worse. He paused dot on a knee and using the power of the moon light drained the life of the surrounding plants to heal himself. The pain he felt lessoned but didn't go away.
The pain from when he was shot through the lungs was gone, but the pain he woke up to the pain that mirrored the wounds Cat had received still slightly burned. The young mage screamed helplessly and leaning on the musket continued to trudge through the field.
When he at last reached the far side, he was greeted to the site of more headed on a fence. Albie counted the heads and knew that it had become his job to lay to rest the entire village by himself. Albie leaned against the fence and began his sobbing again. The pain of loss for a moment overwhelming the other pain in his chest. He looked at the musket and considered sucking a ball out of it and being done with everything now. As Albie cried, he remembered he had something else to do first. The traveler always told him that a soul couldn't move on until its body became one with the earth. As a moon mage one who uses his power to manipulate the circle of life, he had to ensure that everyone's remain returned to the earth. He limped over to the largest body. Thomas was the biggest man in town. Even without his head he was taller than Albie. It would take all night to gather up everyone. A few more to build a funeral pyre large enough for everyone. He would have to chop and transport all the wood himself. He lifted Thomas on his back beginning the large job of moving the bodies up hill. He supposed it would have been easier to bring the other bodies down, but funerals were always held in front of the mill. He did not want to change that now. After getting the body halfway up the hill Albie heard a horse drawn wagon moving very fast behind him.
Albie slid Thomas off his back and sat down on the hill so he could see who was coming. A covered wagon was driving up the hill. Its cover was black with many colored stars decorating it. The man had on a hood with stars. Even the horses had been painted with stars. The wagon came to a stop by Albie. The Driver took off his hood and a sad looking young man with dark hair and bandages over his eyes peered out form underneath. Despite the bandages the mage looked right at Albie. Albi looked back at his mentor A star mage Known as the Traveler.
"Little Moon," said the man on the wagon. "I am here to help."
Albie looked at the star mage. The man who had brought him to this village before he could walk. Albie felt his eyes go red but didn't seem to have the energy left to cry.
"Everyone's dead," cried the young Moon mage.
"I know Little Moon," said the Traveler getting off his cart and hugging Albie close. "I'm sorry to say its much worse than you think and there is nothing you can do to feel better."