The rain falls on to the broken wood houses that stood outside the walls that the wealthy live behind. Rain falls on to the roof of the house and leaks through into the houses where those who were poor and exiled reside. Each day having to fear for their lives, hiding from the fiends that roam the woods nearby.
In times of Fiend floods, the four entrances in the north, south, east and west will be shut, leaving the villagers outside the walls. Even if the villagers attempt to flee into the city, the guards and mages are given full permission to strike them with their weapons and to use magic on the villagers. The villagers are never allowed to enter the city, among those who are exiled are often criminals exiled for the smallest crimes. But even if one is exiled, they are able to buy their way back into the city as long as they have enough money.
Walking around the village, there is almost no market around, with money not being of any worth when outside the walls, there is no point of buying and selling. Even with the large population of people in the village, there are barely any children roaming around. They're often abandoned by their parents, who are unable to take care of them and to feed another mouth. Newborns being abandoned is common but them being sold is almost never seen since they are unable to enter the city where there are those who are able to buy them.
Although being accepted into a family is almost impossible, Zephyrine, who was dropped off in front of a house by an old couple as a newborn, was accepted into their family. Although the family was not wealthy they were still able to take care of the child, feeling sorry for it and guilty of leaving it to die. With the little that they have they were able to raise Zephyrine until he was seven years old, having to go around asking for extra food and anything edible for a newborn. As he grew older he learned how to hunt and search for food. His life was as great as it could be for someone outside the walls where there is no punishment for crime, no way for people to earn money, and the only way for people to get food is to find them for themselves.
Once Zephyrine was turned seven, a fiend flood occurred, hundreds of fiends charged towards the village knocking down the houses and ripping apart the villagers. The fiends slaughtered the villagers one by one while devouring the flesh and drinking their blood. Unable to flee from the fiends, the elderly couple had no choice but to hide Zephyrine. They covered him in mud to hide his scent as much as possible and had him hide in the tree where the leaves hid him from the fiends. Sitting high up in the tree, he covered his mouth as he watched the fiends fill the ground with blood, people scattering around trying to escape, and the guards watching the fiends ripping apart the villagers.
Fiend flood comes without warning to fill his hunger and the guards will not do anything unless the fiends heads for the gate. Zephyrine could only watch as he held back his tears and anger towards these creatures that are dark as night tear apart the villagers. There forms are constantly different where some are with human like body with sharp claws that could tear are humans with ease, some with wolf like body and other different one. Yet the most common form of these creatures are that of humans. Looking into their eyes, no emotions shows, no pupil, with a large smile on their faces.
When the fiends were no longer able to find anymore villagers they ran towards the gate trying to go further. The guards took stand, pointing their weapons at them, mages fired lighting and fire magic towards the ones away from the wall and archers shooting the ones right in front of the gate. The fiends screamed and howled in pain as they fell to the ground and their body melt to the ground, leaving behind a dark puddle.
Zephyrine climbed down from the tree and ran toward his home. Upon entering the house, he stepped into a pool of blood on the floor. Covering his mouth, he ran out the house as tears began to fall.
Unable to fight these fiends, his only option that he has right now is to survive.
The number of villagers fell from ten thousand to a few hundred left. There almost nowhere that is not covered with blood and black puddles, some villagers cried tears of joy while others stayed emotionless.
Three days after the fiend flood happened, the gates were finally in operation again. Knowing that fiend flood only appears very few times each year, times after a fiend flood are the safest to go out of the gates. A man in white clothing decorated in gold silk, walked out of the gate with guards pulling wagons filled with bread.
The man stood there as the guards gathered up the remaining villagers and began to speak.
"We are here on behalf of the great deity, Magnarius, to pass his words." He opened a scroll and began to speak.
" I, the beacon of empires, the embodiment of strength and dominion. Through my radiance, kingdoms rise, civilizations flourish, and the world bends to the will of those who dare to seize their destiny."
He put away the scroll and began handing out the bread towards the villagers. Zephyrine walked up to receive the bread but as he watched the man turn around he saw his face changed, from his smile before to one that was displeased.
"um... excuse me sir? Are you okay?"
The priest turned around, smiled and handed him the bread.
"What do you mean child?"
Zephyrine, unwanted to continue this talk any further from the priest's unsettling smile, took the bread and left. He had settled in an empty house, who's owner likely died from the fiend flood and began eating the bread. The images of the fiends constantly appeared in his mind as he filled with anger wanting to rip apart the fiends yet he couldn't feel anything towards the villagers that died except for his foster parents. He could only look at the wall and ponder about what inside the city is like.
Being born as a child outside the wall, he doesn't know anything about the city or the people that gave him food. He stood up and sat at the corner of the house holding the knife that his foster father carried around with him.He finally closed his eyes and sleeped as night fell.
As the twin moons shone, the night fell deep, Zephyrine, awoken from the sound of the wooden door opening. From the darkness, he sees the shadow figure of a human walking in, he pretends to be asleep. He felt something going over his head and then being lifted off the ground, he opened his eyes and the only thing that he could see was darkness. He unstealth the sword and stab through the bag, injuring the person who was carrying him. In pain the person screams and throws Zephyrine on to the ground. Knowing that he couldn't out run an adult he went towards the person and stabbed them in the leg, making them fall to the ground. The second that he saw the chance he ran.