Storms raged in the distance as Vlad approached a run down shack, he swung the door wide and entered with a smile, delighted to see his brother Vince, and sister Zephyr eating venison that Vlad had hunted and turned to jerky.
"Good to see you two so hungry this morning" Vlad said as he closed the door.
"Vlad!" his brother was always ecstatic when Vlad showed up, "How was your hunt this morning? See anything new?!"
"No, nothing new Vince same old mountains, same old forest."
"Hmmm, that's a shame, I was hoping for something exciting to happen today."
Vlad walked over to the fireplace that he had lit before he went on his hunt and he looked at the sword of his father's that had been given to him.
"Boring...is good little brother. Sometimes exciting is sad and unforgiving." Vlad somewhat mumbled. That night they ate venison stew and potatoes. There were no towns or cities nearby that they could shop at so Vlad had to be able to hunt and learned edible plants early on as he was always fascinated with hunting and outdoor living, his father taught him how to survive amongst other things. The next day was fairly common, however it had started raining and as per usual Vlad grabbed his father's sword in case he had to protect himself with the low visibility of the rain and resulting fog of the early morning. Vlad was moving at his usual speed and shortly after leaving the shack he came across a set of track of what seemed like a deer, hard to tell with the rain, he followed the tracks for roughly twenty minutes or so, at this point he noticed something new, there was blood on the ground being washed away by the rain, however it was there along with large tracks. Vlad knew these tracks, they were from a barghest, a large wolf like creature that doesn't take kindly to intruders.
Vlad turned and started to make his way back the way he came, when just as he crested the top of the hill to his right he heard a low guttural growl and saw piercing yellow eyes move from the trees, Vlad spun on his heel, unsheathed the blade and stood at the ready. Yet something strange happened then, the barghest looked around as it seemed to be listening, knowing to take ques from beasts of all kinds Vlad listened as well. As the forest sounds slowly began to die down the barghest became scared and ran back to the trees it came from and disappeared into the forest, after that Vlad heard what sounded like metallic thunder.
It was the thundering of hooves, Vlad darted wanting to make it back home in case the swarm of men and horse made it's way there, Vlad ran as fast as possible, he got to the top of a hill to where he could see over the valley where his home lie and what he saw terrified him, it wasn't the white smoke of a fire in the fireplace billowing from the chimney...no it was the black smoke of ruin. Vlad ran, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, as he drew closer he slowed in case any men still lingered as he could see the trail of dust had moved on as he closed in, Vlad approached what once was his home, and saw nothing of the shack as he knew it.
Vlad however gave a sigh of relief when he didn't see either of his siblings in the remains of the building, he then went about his way as he collected things he had stashed nearby. His relief soon turned to terror, as he made his way into the nearby clearing he saw his sister in the dirt covered in cuts and bruises and left without her head which was found a short ways off impaled on a spear, his brother he found dangling in a tree with his stomach torn open and his organs hanging for the birds to feast on.