The sun had set, leaving the sky painted with a myriad of shades of red, purple and orange. In a small village in the heart of the desert, a man arrived, his eyes scanning the surroundings with a keen and analytical gaze. He licked his lips, dry and chapped from the heat of the summer.
The village was eerily quiet, and the few people who were still outside hurried indoors as soon as they saw him. He was used to this reaction. People often mistook him for a vagrant, a beggar of sorts, but he was much worse.
One of the village militia approached him, his eyes fixed on the man with a steady, watchful gaze.
"What ye seek, drifter?"
The man licked his lips, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Its as if he had lost the ability to speak. He fell on his knees, his spirit broken by the arid temperature of the sandy wasteland.
The militia was keeping his distance, rightfully so, since the vagabond smelled like a rotten corpse, but he stepped a bit closer to check something. A mark, on the right shoulder of the man, a brand depicting a symbol, not very unfamiliar to the guard.
"So yer one of them?"
The man felt a pang of fear in his chest. His whole body had gone numb from the days he had spent starving, but suddenly feeling was restored into his body and suddenly he felt the aching agony raging through his body. He tried to reach towards the sentry but collapsed and fell flat on the ground.
"Dont come near me, you whoreson!", the guard whistled signaling the militia to come.
One of them poked his near motionless body with the blunt end of his pike.
"This knob is still breathing!"
"Bah, take him to the infirmary. I will dig up a hole, just in case"
Even though the man could hear what the militiamen were discussing about him, he was on the verge of passing out to even care or have any sort of tangible emotion towards it. An elephantine pain was slithering through his body, leaving him paralyzed to even think. Although it wasn't as if he didn't deserve anything less, since he had committed one of the greatest crimes known to men.
Regicide.