"Alex lets go out, if we don't that person will come here anyway."
The little leader Alex looked at his friends and suddenly his eyes became determined.
"Alright, everyone of you be ready to fight !"
After saying that the 5 kids left the small house and aligned themselves in front of Elliot, one of them had a slingshot, another one of them had a lumberjack's axe and all the others also had something that could be qualified as a weapon.
"Hey kids you shouldn't be playing with such dangerous stuff !"
Elliot couldn't help but care for them as they reminded him of his brother, at the same time he felt sad that kids their age could have such eyes. He clearly saw a mix of fury and sadness in their eyes.
'Kids around this age should be smiling and playing with their friends not carrying weapons around and looking like that.'
"Who are you ? What do you want from our village ?"
Elliot looked at the kid who spoke, he had heard his friends calling him Alex and they all stood one step behind him, he looked very average. He wasn't neither the tallest, nor the strongest or the biggest but he had a fire in his eyes that the other kids didn't have and Elliot knew that that kid was the leader of that group at first sight.
"Your name is Alex ? How about you tell me about your village ? I was asked by someone to come and save the villagers."
Alex's eyes didn't change but the kid's behind him all started cheering !
"He came to save us !"
"Yes he will free everyone !"
"SHUT UP ! Don't trust him so easily ! What if he was sent here by the Baron ?!"
Alex snapped and his happy friend one again looked gloomy, none of them went against him and they just looked at Elliot with vigilance.
"Yeah my name is Alex, this village is called Dhore and a few days ago we were attacked by the army of the noble we serve, he took the men to do physical jobs and women for...for..fo—"
Alex couldn't end his sentence because of his voice cracking and tears flowing down his face, Elliot felt his heart aching and took a step forward towards the kid who hastily retreated.
"Wh—who sent you here ?"
Alex swallowed his tears and asked Elliot.
"I don't know his name either, he promised me a reward if I saved all the villagers."
To be honest Elliot didn't even know if the village the old man talked about was this one but he didn't have much choices and in the end even if it wasn't this one he was decided on helping these kids.
"Why would that old man ask you that ?"
"I told you everything I know, how about you answer my questions now?"
Elliot glared at the young man to make him more willing to help him and finally the young Alex nodded, of course there was no way a kid wouldn't be afraid of an adult.
Elliot sat on the step of the big house and gestured to the kids to walk over, they did as they were told but still kept a safety distance and still kept their weapons with them just in case, these kids had been through a lot and wouldn't give their trust so easily.
"Alright, what happened to this village ? Can you tell me everything ?"
"Yes... this village and a few others is under the supervision of Baron Crus, every year we have to give 50 percent of our crops and also have to send 30 young men of the age of 15 to join his army. This year was a difficult one and we had not the quota of crops nor the 30 young men. The baron used this opportunity to attack us and abducted all the women and men, he said the reason is because we were trying to raise an army to go against him."
'This kid knows a lot...'
"I doubt he would do this for that reason, there must have been a hidden reason."
"There was a hidden reason but he didn't really try to hide it. The daughter of the village mayor is the most beautiful woman of the Baron's territory without a doubt, the mayor refused a lot of marriage proposals by the Baron and in the end he couldn't endure it and anymore and attacked the village to kidnapp her."
"Where is the mayor's daughter now ?"
"Humph ! Even if i knew I wouldn't tell yo—"
GRUMBLE
The kid was stopped mid sentence by the loud sound and suddenly...
GRUMBLE
GRUMBLE
"Are we being attacked ?!"
The young Alex was ready to run when his chubby friend said in a low and ashamed voice
"Sorry Alex... it's my tummy."
Elliot looked at the kids surprised and suddenly couldn't hold back his laughter
"Hahahahaha you guys are so funny ! How about we eat before talking more ?"
As Elliot didn't have his bag with his canned food and cooking materials he said to the kids.
"I'll go and hunt something to eat, can you get everything we need to cook ready ? I'll be back in less than 10 minutes."
"Uh... sure."
Alex looked curiously at Elliot but a lot of the hatred in his eyes had faded, he started believing a bit more in Elliot and having an adult to rely on made him release a lot of pressure he had accumulated. He was still just a kid after all.
Elliot disappeared from the spot and ran towards the field he had been released on earlier.
"Wow he just disappeared?"
"Woahhh that big brother is so strong !"
"Isn't he stronger than big brother Rega and the other ones ?!"
"Humph ! Our big brothers are the strongest of this whole village do you think some random dude would be stronger than them ?"
/
Meanwhile Elliot had felt like taking good care of these kids but he forgot that he didn't know at all what kind of monsters lived here !
'Monsters here must be weak since a village like that was able to survive and grow this big, yeah nothing to be scared of—'
MOOOOO
Suddenly Elliot heard a furious bellow coming from his right side, on a reflex he jumped up and looked down, a huge bull with lowered head and sharp horns went bellow him at full speed.
"I guess you'll be tonight's dinner."
After a short fight that lasted less than 3 minutes the bull was lying on the grass with its head dangling, it almost wasn't linked to its body anymore.