Tejas and Vidur reached the village in half a night. After reaching, they looked around to see an old well outside the village. The pair stopped their horses before taking out some water from the well to feed their horses.
Tejas and Vidur decided to let the horses rest and walked towards the village.
When they entered, they were a bit surprised. Usually, a guard that is supposed to protect the village would be stationed at the entrance. However, there was no guard in sight. The pair found that the village walls had been damaged.
There were various holes in the walls and the wooden logs were broken too.
Both Tejas and Vidur carefully looked around. The sight of the broken gate made them sure that something in this village wasn't right.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man came outside from a dilapidated house. He walked towards the well and started to take out water.
Tejas spotted the man and approached him before asking.
"Hello sir, we are travellers that have completed a long journey. Could you please let us rest tonight? We promise to head out the next morning."
The middle-aged man looked at Tejas angrily and suddenly shouted.
"Leave this village now! We don't have anything to give you and we don't welcome any outsiders, so get lost!"
The middle-aged man threw the water bucket towards Tejas, which he swiftly dodged but was very confused. The middle-aged man didn't speak another word before he walked towards the same dilapidated house and shut his door.
Despite being speechless, Tejas tried to speak to the man but all he got as a response was silence. Tejas sighed before walking towards another house.
He asked for permission to stay in every house one by one, yet nobody responded. Instead, they shouted at him to get away from their village.
While Tejas was busy trying to convince the people, Vidur started surveying the village.
He observed the condition of the village to see the footprints of people, horses, and even elephants. Vidur saw that there were no chickens in their pens, no horses in their stables, no goats in their barns. Everything was empty. Even the farms had been destroyed.
Vidur found the overall condition of the village to be very bad. After surveying for a while, He returned to Tejas, who was helplessly sighing since not a single villager seemed to be willing to help them.
In the end, Vidur and Tejas decided to camp outside. They set up a campfire and built tents. As for their source of food, Tejas managed to catch a few rabbits while hunting.
As the duo was eating beside the campfire, Vidur explained what he found while surveying. Tejas listened and asked Vidur what their next move would be. Helplessly sighing, Vidur told Tejas his thoughts.
"I suppose we will wait for now. Nobody seems willing to even talk to us. We are already tired from traveling all day. Let's sleep for now and enquire more tomorrow morning."
Tejas slightly nodded before both of them quickly finished their meals and went to sleep.
*Next day*
Tejas walked around the village trying to talk to the villagers.
But whenever he approached someone, they avoided him. Everyone just repeated the same sentence that he and his friend better leave.
Suddenly an old woman tripped in front of Tejas.
Tejas immediately helped her in standing up before shouting at the villagers.
"Why are you all avoiding us? You seem like you need help. Just ask us if you need help. We can help you guys."
The villagers stopped what they were doing and looked at Tejas. They were slightly murmured among themselves.
Vidur dragged Tejas, who was still shouting away at the villagers. He told Tejas to calm down in an annoyed tone.
"Listen Tejas, I know that you want to help these people. But we have to understand the entire situation before trying to help them. If they need our help, they need to ask. All we can do for now is figure out why they are so afraid of us."
Tejas shook his head before retorting
"No, that makes no sense. They clearly need our help!"
Vidur massaged his temples before speaking.
"Yes, I know that they need our help. But if you shout like this, they will only become more and more afraid of you. You won't help this case by intimidating them."
Suddenly a man in his late 60s came to the duo and interrupted their conversation.
"Hey, can you boys really help us? As you guessed, we really need your help. But all the villagers are afraid that something will happen to them if they seek your help."
Vidur slightly smiled at the fact that this person was willing to take the risk and stepped forward.
"We can help you sir, but you have to tell us first what happened here that made you people so scared of the outsiders."
"Well..."
The old man seemed hesitant so Vidur spoke once again in a cold voice.
"Finally, why is the village only filled with old people? Where are the youngsters? Especially young women?"
The old man looked at Vidur and Tejas for a second. He closed his eyes as if he were thinking of something.
After a few moments, the old man opened his eyes before speaking.
The old man began to explain everything.
About a Kilometer away from the village, behind a large waterfall, there's a cave. A group of vicious mountain bandits had made it into their den.
Their peaceful village was suddenly attacked by the bandits around a week ago.
*7 days prior*
On a fine sunny day, as the villagers were busy with their own work. Angry rumbling sounds of elephants shook their village.
The elephants angrily stamped on everything on their path. The villagers took out whatever weapons they had and tried to fend those elephants off.
But it was all in vain. Their efforts didn't do anything to the elephants. In fact, the villagers got injured.
Just as all hope was lost, around 10 people came from the other side of the road. Roaring and swinging their weapons like madmen.
The elephants were somehow scared and ran off to the jungle as the men chased them off. After a while, the men returned to the village and informed them that the elephants had been successfully chased.
The villagers rejoiced and treated the men like brave warriors. The "warriors" were welcomed like deities.
They introduced themselves as a mercenary group that was traveling back to the city when they saw the elephants attacking the village.
When the villagers heard that they were mercenaries, they feared that the mercenaries would ask them outrageous things as compensation. But the mercenaries didn't ask for anything. They just requested a roof above their heads and a hearty meal with booze for the night.
The villagers gladly accepted the request and cleared up a few houses for their stay.
The next day, the elephants returned again. But the mercenaries fought the elephants and again chased them off. However, they managed to kill one of the elephants this time.
The mercenaries presented the Elephant's tusk to the villagers and told them to do what they wanted. However, they asked for money this time which the villagers reluctantly paid.
The next day, the same events transpired.
Then, again the next day.
Then, again the next day.
In the end, the villagers couldn't afford to pay for the mercenaries.
The mercenaries asked for their livestock which the entire village refused. Without their livestock, the villagers couldn't survive properly. This led to a feud where some villagers angrily scolded the mercenaries.
"You, you damn mercenaries! Didn't you say you would leave yesterday?! Why are you still here!?"
The mercenaries also started to get angry. It seemed as if a fight was about to go down.
Fortunately, the captain of the Mercenary group, Rek calmed the mercenaries down and prevented a fight. But he angrily looked at the villagers.
"Hmph, if we had left this place yesterday, your entire village would've been stamped to the ground by those elephants. We saved your lives. Is this how you treat your saviours?!"
Not a single villager could retort to that sentence. All they could do was listen as Rek continued.
"For now, we will settle this with money as compensation. In fact, you don't need to pay the amount we asked for. Just give us all the money you have. Plus, I don't want any of my men to starve. So, bring us our meals and drinks too."
Rek turned towards his men and shouted.
"We will leave this ungrateful village tomorrow. But be sure to party tonight my boys!"
"Yes Sir!"
As the mercenaries enjoyed the villagers fulfilled their wishes with a sad face.
The next day, the elephants attacked again. But this time the mercenaries didn't come to face them. In fact, they started to pack their bags.
The elephants decimated the gate, stomped the guard to death, and started destroying everything. They went on a rampage like true wild beasts.
All the villagers ran for their life while crying. They went towards the mercenaries who were about to leave and started begging.
"Please save us!"
"Oh, great mercenaries, please save our lives!"
Despite their cries, the mercenaries just sneered as Rek said
"Heh, didn't you say that we needed to leave? Look, we are doing what you asked."
The mercenaries were about to leave as everyone knelt on the ground and shouted.
"Please! we will give you everything. Take everything that we have. Please save us!"
The mercenaries halted after hearing those words and began smirking evilly.
They immediately started fighting the elephants and killed a few while the rest of them ran away.
After everything was settled, the villagers handed over all of their wealth. The mercenary captain Rek grinned and said,
"Well, it seems like you rude villagers know at least some basic decency."
The mercenaries left while laughing while the villagers were left with no choice but to cry. After a while, one of the wise elders of the village spoke.
"Phew, it's good that we are safe now... But don't you guys think that this was a little bit suspicious. The mercenaries and the elephants just coincidentally happened to reach our village? I suppose we send some men to investigate this matter."
The villagers agreed and at night, 2 youngsters set out to look for clues. After walking for a few minutes, they arrived at a camp.
The pair of villagers turned off their lamps and hid in the bushes. Under the starry night, as they slowly observed the camp, They witnessed some people taking care of the same elephants that attacked their village.
That's when a man approached the elephants and started ordering the people to hurry up. The youngsters immediately recognized him.
They began to sneak away from the camp but that's when one of them tripped and shouted in pain.
"Ouch!"
The campers immediately spotted the pair and followed them. The same man from before ordered his minions to shoot arrows.
He took a lamp and followed the two youngsters. As the two villagers ran as fast as they could, the light from the lamp revealed an evil face.
Yes, this was the same mercenary guy who came to help the villagers.
After finding the truth, the two village boys agreed to return back to the village. But one of them tripped while getting away which revealed their location to the mercenaries.
The two boys ran as fast as they could for their lives. But the mercenaries were persistent, they chased the two villagers for a long time. By the end of this cat and mouse chase, the two boys had been injured pretty badly because of arrows from the mercenaries.
Maybe the goddess of luck had smiled on them miraculously, the two managed to hide inside the forest and successfully escaped.
After returning to the village, the two immediately revealed the truth among the villagers.
As the two boys were explaining what had happened, the villagers felt their blood boiling. Fury and rage were all that was in their heads.
"We will confront those bastards tomorrow!"
This is what everyone unanimously agreed to before going to sleep.