"Slow down *hah* Drem, why are you *hah hah* in such a *hah* hurry?"
Flom was barely able to keep up with his brother's pace, and his heavy breathing made it incredibly hard to speak.
"We don't have time for this Flom" Said Drem. He had a really bad feeling about the whole situation, so even after ten minutes of running at his top speed, he had no intention to slow down whatsoever.
Drem completely ignored his surroundings in his mad dash back towards the village. At one point, he was nearly tripped by a rabbit hole, the original reason that Flom dragged him all the way here.
It took about thirty minutes for Drem to reach the village, with Flom lagging five minutes behind.
His exasperated breath, and panicked expression caused nearly every member of the village to gather towards him.
"What happened Drem?" asked Janro, the village elder worriedly.
In this fifty-four year old man's experience, if someone rushed back to the village in a hurry, especially if that someone is a young hunter like Drem, than someone must be either dead or dying. He knew that today, Flom dragged Drem along near the lake for some of his usual escapades, so he naturally feared for the worst.
"Where is Flom?"
Drem took a moment to catch his breath.
"Flom is fine elder, but a group of outsiders have entered the woods and i heard them speak of another group that is chasing them"
"Pfff, impossible" said Garrett, the lead hunter of the village and it's defacto leader, in a rather mocking tone.
"We all know that there are no humans outside of these woods"
Suddenly a woman rushed towards Drem, and held him in a firm embrace.
"Are you alright?" she asked. "Where is your brother?"
"He's fine mom" Drem said while returning her embrace. "He ran behind me and should be here any second now"
"Are you certain of what you saw?" asked Janro, after giving the boy's mother a few seconds to calm down and leave her son's embrace.
The villagers whispered among themselves in the background. They were split into those who outright regected the idea of humans outside of the woods, and those who, just like Drem, were worried about them.
Their whole life they've been taught to fear the outside world, so whoever these outsiders were, they were convinced that they are a threat, and even if they themselves aren't, whatever it is that is chasing them surely is.
"I'm certain elder" Drem said with great conviction.
"I saw them too!" At this point Flom reached the village, and after catching his breath, he supported his brother's story.
"If so we must gather the hunters and deal with them, with force if needed"
Drem might be young, but Janro knew him well. He loved this village with all his heart, so he had no reason to lie when it comes to something that might threaten it's very existence.
The men of the village prepared for battle under elder Janro's orders. Garrett still didn't buy Dren's story, and neither did several of the hunters, but he both respected and trusted Janro, so he had no intention to deal with this situation half-heartedly.
"Well, If it turns out Dren is wrong or lying i'll slap the shit out of him for rousing up the whole village"
He thought to himself.
"I told you i sensed some people in here!" Dren heard an enthusiastic and familiar voice heading towards the village.
He recognised it as the voice of one of the intruders.
"How can they already be here?" Dren thought.
Only ten minutes had passed since Dren alerted the villagers. Even if the intruders managed to follow his tracks, he was sprinting all the way here. He was sure he wasn't followed, so it just made no sense for them to have already reached the village, even if they traveled there in a straight line.
"I hope they have some damn food in here or i swear to Gronadius i'll burn these woods to the ground!" said one of the intruders. His voice contained a mixture of anger and exhaustion.
"I sincerely hope you don't do that" a third man commented. "It'll be like screaming our location to the goons of Arcandrin"
"They're here!"
The first hunter who recognised the intruders shouted as hard as he could.
The men of the village drew their spears and readied their bows expecting to see some terrifying monster in human flesh, but to their surprise, what came out from between the trees and into the village was three malnourished men, dressed in strange and unfamiliar clothing that was ripped in several places, presumably unintentionally.
One was blond, rather short and dressed in blue. Another, dressed in red, had black raven hair and was holding a cane to support himself. The final one, whom Drem guessed was their leader by the way they talked to him and were looking towards him, most probably to decide what to do in this situation, had grey hair and a long unkempt beard and was dressed in yellow.
"Stop right there, drop any weapon you have on you and lie on the floor or you'll die where you stand!" Garrett was quite nervous when he heard the voices of foreign men approaching the village. He was raised to believe only monsters exist outside of the woods after all. But after seeing that the intruders are just three malnourished men his caution was replaced by amusement and excitement.
After all, if they came from the outside, maybe it's not so bad after all. He decided in his heart that he'll lead his village to expand to the outside world, after he'll interrogate these outsiders of course.
*woosh*
The man dressed in blue raised his arm, aiming his open palm towards Garrett, and suddenly a fireball shot out of his arm and hit Garret straight in his chest.
The whole process took just a bit over a second.
The moment the fireball touched Garrett, his whole body was engulfed in flames.
"ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"
Garrett screamed in terrible agony, but luckily for him, the unnatural flame burnt him so fast that he barely had the time to feel that pain, and in mere seconds all that was left of him was a charred corpse.