Suddenly several dozen men jumped out from behind the village houses and fired into the crowd repeatedly. The villagers screamed in terror as arrows from all around whipped by and found their marks in people attempting to stand and run.
In an attempt to alter her sons fate, Athys's mother pulled him into a cradle and covered nearly all of him. She cried as the crowd fell around her, her neighbors, the towns mayor, the churches choir. As fewer people started to stand, the assailants closed in and with daggers drawn, stabbed and hacked down anyone cowering in their way.
Athys's mother urged him to stay silent with a "Shhhh, its all going to be fine Athys, I love you, stay quiet.". As the assailants grew closer the mother wept quietly, holding and cradling her son as if he had fallen in the earlier attack. A man walked up to her and let out a sigh, "I can almost feel for you, sadly you all stood on the wrong side of this war. Let me send you to your son now." and with a quick jab of his arm, the woman crumpled on top of Athys. Smothering him for the next few moments, as the men finished their job and left in the dull evening light.
After another minute of near suffocation, Athys finally slides his mothers body off in shock. He looks to her and sees the wound in the back of her neck. Shakily, he extends his hand and nudges his mothers shoulder, she moves a bit in a relaxed manner. He nudges her again, "Mom.. Mom they are gone, come on..." Athys grows increasingly erratic as it dawns on him that his mother isn't alone. He looks around and sees his friends, his neighbors and his younger brother, lying on the ground. Arrows or stab marks adorning all of them. He stands up quickly and starts walking past the bodies, looking for a survivor to share in his pain. Though he searches thoroughly, the assailants did their job effectively. As his feelings start to drain away in a second wave of shock he walks to a nearby cottage wall and leans against it with a thud. He slides down it into a fetal position and starts to shiver. It was growing cool out now that the sun had gone down and Athys had been searching for nearly an hour.
As he slowly started to fade into a shivering sleep, he heard the drowned out voice of a young girl. "Mister, Mister wake up. Mister are you cold? I have a blanket if you need it.". This made Athys start to come to his senses. Then he more clearly heard the voice of an older man, coming from behind the girl. "Let him be Luthia, he seems to have survived this horrific act. He at least deserves to have his thoughts uninterrupted. Starting to wake from his near coma like sleep he shifts and falls over onto the cold ground, this jolts him awake and Athys jumps to a stand. "Wait, what, have you come to loot? I won't let you loot my village.." He states angrily but still slurred as he was very cold. The older man looked at him with sorrow, "No, we are traders, simply passing through. We can offer you assistance for a small amount of money." the man stated simply. Athys stared at them, trying not to lose consciousness from the sudden rush of blood away from his head. Pulling a thumb shaped silver coin out of his pocket, Athys weakly holds it towards the little girl. Luthia takes it and with all her might, attempts to bend the coin. It bends a little and she looks satisfied. "Luthia, how many times do I have to tell you not to bend the coins to make sure they are real? You scratch the edge with a steel blade." the older man states in annoyance. Luthia hands him the coin and he bends it back into shape with relative ease, then proceeds to pocket it while setting his ruck sack down and opening it.
Pulling out a large jar, he sets it on the ground, then a similar sized rolled blanket and finally a hook and some twine. "Here, a weeks worth of pickled beets, 5 beets a day. A 4 by 5 foot blanket and 6' of twine and a hardened steel fishing hook.".