Two hours later, Morden made his way past the tree line to see what his worst paranoia confirmed. The tents were all ablaze and corpses lay scattered on the ground. He ran over as quickly as he could. Screams were everywhere, yet no mouths were moving. "It has to be these voices," he said as he walked past the faces of people he grew up with. The voices were screaming from their bodies, familiar, yet never in such a panicked way.
Some of the bodies were charred, some were cut down with a sword, others clubbed to death. Women had their clothes ripped apart and were violated while the men were decapitated. Almost everyone had large portions of their bodies ripped off and showed signs of being eaten. A horrible thought creeper up in the back of Morden's head. 'Karaia! Broffe!'
Morden ran past the smoldering ruins of what used to be homes. He made his way to his tent and searched through the rubble. He found the dishes he ate with days ago, but no bodies. Maybe there were survivors and the leader is with them in the center of the colony.
Morden headed to the center of the colony but stopped when he noticed the body of several children piled up. He walked over and saw Allel's body in tatters. Deep cuts were all over her body and her arms were eaten to the bone. The other kids were mostly unrecognizable after having most of their bodies eaten. Morden reached down and closed her eyes. A rage he had never felt before welled up inside his soul. A bitterness he never thought possible.
'Who can kill an entire colony of humans? More importantly, why? Was it the gods?' He stood up and walked slowly towards the leader's tent. He imprinted every single image into his mind. The bodies, the tents, the blood. Whoever did this was going to pay no matter the cost! He walked past the traders and his fears became reality. Hilda was lying on the ground, sword wounds pierced her body from all angles. She was violated by whoever committed these atrocities. Her eyes were filled with fear and her mouth with blood. Morden walked over and kneeled down next to her, placing her head in his lap. He covered her body with a piece of tent cloth that still wasn't burned and just watched her. Tears rolled down his eyes like a river. Why would someone do something so unnecessarily cruel?
Morden lost track of how long he sat there crying. All he knew was his body couldn't make anymore tears and the voices in his head cried with him. The piercing sounds were welcomed for the first time. At least he had someone mourning with him. Morden stood up, covered the rest of Hilda with the tent wall, and continued to the center of the colony. The sun had started to come up and, fitting the setting, it was blood red. Some believed it to be an omen, others believed it to be a foretelling. Morden didn't care, all he knew was that the nightmare he was in only seemed to get worse. In the center of the colony, behind the backdrop of the blood sun, were the bodies of dozens of humans hoisted on spears with their arms and legs removed. All of them being Dismantlers, clearly the last survivors who held their ground trying to protect the entire colony.
Among them were Karaia, Broffe, and the leader. Collapsing to his knees, Morden couldn't even cry anymore. His heart was so devastated that he couldn't even feel anything. The image seared into his mind like a hot iron. After sitting there for a few minutes, Morden saw and felt the ripples in the air from one of the destroyed tents. He stood up, dusted himself off and walked over to the distortion. Moving aside the charred cover, Morden saw an arm on the ground covered in tattoos. It was leader Mathar's arm, severed from the elbow. The angel runes on his arm let off a shimmering glow. Morden picked up the arm and held it for a few moments, remembering all the times he had sparred with Mathar and even had this very same arm hug him days ago. A sick distortion of his good memories.
He carried it to the center of the colony and placed it in front of the wall of corpses. Morden decided that there was only one thing to do right now, bury the corpses of the dead. The rest will come with time. But first, look for survivors.
He stood up and wandered around the colony seeing the devastation. This attack must have happened almost a day ago. There were no fires, but everything was still slightly smoldering. Whoever came through here came with either numbers and overwhelmed the colony and took their own dead, leaving no bodies, or it they were so powerful that they wiped out the colony and all survived. But there were none in the world who could contest a human toe to toe without any witnesses, let alone an entire colony. The voices started to calm down, or to be more precise, Morden started to tune them out completely. Examining the footprints, some were human but most were slightly larger. 'Orcs? Possibly trolls. Maybe even ogres.'
-
After searching for several hours, no survivors were found. Morden began digging graves for all of his friends. By the time he finished burying the bodies, several days had past. Morden didn't even notice how tired he was. He hadn't slept for at least four days since his incident with the statues. He walked over to the graves of Karaia, Broffe, Mathar, and Hilda and sat down with his legs crossed. He stared on the mounds without a word. Tears started to stream down his cheeks.
The voices never left his head during those days, and at times he swore that the bodies were talking to him. They begged for revenge, for mercy, for their lives. Morden consoled them as often as he heard. He didn't care whether or not they actually spoke to him. Talking to his old friends, dead or not, put his heart to rest for a short while.
"I... I already miss you," Morden said slowly with a shaky voice. "Maybe if I had stayed, things would have ended differently. Or at least I could have died with everyone. But now I'm stuck here, alone to suffer these thoughts. I can't even get rid of these god damn voices in my head!" He punched his head hard to try to maybe 'turn off' whatever was causing it but to no avail.
He couldn't keep his head up due to exhaustion, so he laid down next to his friends. "Please come back," he begged with tears streaming. "Please." A soft voice next to him spoke into his ear saying, "I won't leave you."
Morden recognized Karaia's voice. Too tired to even turn around to look at it, a smile came across Morden's face as he said, "Thank you. I want to talk more but I'm so tired. We'll talk more after I wake up." He closed his eyes and embraced the darkness. A few moments later the whole world went silent, as if mourning the loss of the most powerful species in the world.
-
Morden slowly opened his eyes. Unfortunately for him, what he had witnessed had not been some terrible dream. The soft whispering of voices in his head confirmed that. He looked around, remembering hearing Karaia's voice right before he went to sleep. "I was hallucinating again. Hadn't slept in days and overworked myself." He stood up and brushed the dust from his face. Walking back to the colony sight, Morden looked over the devastation once more.
It had been around a day and a half that he had slept. It was noon time and the sun was glaring in his eyes. Morden walked a little ways down a small hill to the creek nearby. He stripped himself of his clothes and washed his body. He was filthy after the last few days and needed to clean up desperately. When he finished, he put on his pants and walked back to the colony. He would need a new shirt as his current one was completely in ruins.
Some movement in the forest caught his attention. A lone elf girl walked out of the forest as she gasped and covered her mouth. She had long brown hair down to her waist and a soft complexion, looking as though she was just over 20 years old. She was a head shorter than Morden but had an air of confidence about her. She was clearly shocked at what she was witnessing. An entire human colony, burned to the ground with no survivors. Morden walked her way.
"Why are you here?" He said coldly.
With some hesitation, the girl responded, "I'm from the village nearby. You helped us with our draugr problem a few weeks ago. We wanted to thank you all and were hosting a feast. My father, husband and I came to request you and your leader, as well as anyone else you wanted to come and join us." She looked over the destruction and her eyes started to water. "What happened?" She said while holding back the lump in her throat.
"I was hunting. I came back and everyone was dead. Slaughtered like animals. I spent the last couple days burying everyone. I don't know who did this but I will find them."
At that moment, two elven men came from the forest and rushed over to the girl. The older looking elf was shocked and asked the same question. Morden didn't have the willpower to answer, so he turned around and walked to the graves. Images flashed in front of him, reminding him of the death he had witnessed days ago. He shook his head as he walked. The three elves followed behind Morden as the girl explained the situation. When they arrived at the graveyard, the elves bowed and spoke something in elvish to the deceased. It was their way of paying respects.
After a few moments of silence, the younger male elf walked over beside Morden and placed his hand on his shoulder. "We will help you in any way we can. You saved us, its the least we can do." Morden stared blankly at where Karaia was buried and didn't say anything.
"Come with us," the older elf said. "Me and my house will give you shelter. This sight will be cared for by my village. Nobody will tamper with it without our knowledge." Morden nodded slowly and turned to the elves. They all walked back together.
They reintroduced themselves as they had met previously. The elf leader of the village whose name was Dashra. The girl introduced herself as Cauwen and her husband as Grenda. Morden didn't say anything in response and just nodded. They arrived at the wagons they traveled on and even had several more to transport any willing colonists along, but they were just reminders to Morden of the tragedy.
The journey to the village was quiet and somber. Four days passed and they arrived at the village. When the villagers saw that the wagons were empty and only their savior had returned, questions and murmurs spread quickly. Dashra gestured for the villagers to silence their suspicions and headed to his home.
After bringing Morden to a guest room and giving him some new clothes, they left him to rest. The village leader called a meeting and shared the news with everyone. Gasps and shock was seen on everyone's faces. One of the villagers spoke with a tinge of fear in his voice, "The ancient ones, they must have come for the humans."