The all consuming blaze was like a hungry beast, never satisfied. It kept craving more. The bright and cold moon high above seemed to contrast the hellish scene seemingly so close. The men had watered the farmland with their blood.
Time seemed frozen, as the carnage slowly played out. The rays of moonlight, drowned out by the bright fire were reflected in the eyes of a young boy.
A woman sprinted towards him, the flames nipping at her heels while a bandit reached for her neck. There were just a few metres left between the woman and the boy and the distance kept getting shorter, until… the woman had passed the boy as if he did not exist.
The bandit finally caught up with the fleeing woman and was dragging her by her feet as she struggled to kick him off. The scene was unfolding right in front of a single spectator.
"Stop moving, whore!"
Her neck was ruthlessly pierced by a small dagger, causing blood to gush forth, spraying directly into the young boy's eyes.
~
Nikolai jolted up. He had woken up drenched in sweat.
It had been a few years since his village had been pillaged by a group of bandits, whom had recently moved into the mountains on the border of kingdom of Lumivera.
"Oi, get up already. The horses won't feed themselves, boy."
With these words the groundskeeper made Nikolai get up, interrupting his chaotic thoughts.
Nikolai bowed his head. "Yes, sir."
"When you are done with feeding and brushing, change the water troth and repair the hinges for stall eight. Then in the evening clean the tables and continue serving the nearby tavern, that would suffice for today."
"Sir, will I be allowed to visit the festival tonight?"
The groundkeeper shrugged and replied that he didn't care as long as Nikolai got his five Muds.
Excited Nikolai got to work and finished his work at the stable quickly.
He had been allowed to stay as an apprentice in the stable, as the stable master had sympathy for the young child and the other refuges of Bright Moon village. Only Nikolai was provided refuge and he had been quite lucky as the others were taken as serfs to work on the land of a disgraced baronet, who had some connections with the town master.
Soon evening came and after Nikolai finished the small meal provided for him by the older stable hands, which contained an apple, a small block of some hard cheese and an even harder slice of bread. All in all, a meal that left Nikolai satisfied as he did not always get fruit, and had to buy it with his own earnings if he wanted to.
Usually Nikolai liked working at the tavern, as he got to eat some leftovers occasionally and keep tips. But above everything he liked hearing the stories of the Adventurers. They would often come visit the tavern after completing a well paying bounty or assignment.
The tavern, The Beer Belly as it was also called, was packed to the brim. Nikolai did not have a single rest the entire evening. He had to bring beer to the town folk who decide to celebrate and refill their beers, all while trying not get pushed around or knocked over and spill the precious beer.
The Beer belly was a popular destination, which had decent places to sleep, alright meals and most importantly cheap beer. For these reasons it seemed like Nikolai would not be able to go to the festival as the patrons were to drunk to tip and when they did so, the other servers would snoop in and help themselves to 'their hard earned pay'.
Nikolai was growing frustrated and impatient as it had turned dark outside and the festival seemed to be in full swing. While he was stuck in the overpowering odour of sweaty and drunk men, Nikolai was tapped on the shoulder
"Hey kid."
"Oh, greetings Stable Master Cedric." Nikolai quickly saluted the man who had provided him with a roof over his head, kept him from starving and gave him work.
The Stable Master was not a kind soul. He was a violent alcoholic and had beaten many stable hands and prostitutes while drunk. However he was excellent at caring for both common messenger horses of the town and private horses of lesser nobles, which sometimes commissioned him to come to their estates. This combined with the fact that Cedric was childhood friends with the Town Master resulted in almost no consequences for his little escapades in the brothels and stalls.
Cedric called Nikolai over and handed him a green coin, called a Copper Green and a dirty looking coin called a Iron Mud, which were named as such because the rust made it seem like the coins were muddy.
Nikolai instantly started protesting when he saw that he had received a whole Green. This was simply too much!
"Sir, I only get four Muds for a shift of six hours. I cannot accept this, as I am already in your debt."
"Just give me a beer and you can take it then. Go enjoy the festival, kid."
Cedric lost both his wife and his young child due to complications with the birth. He had a weak spot for Nikolai because his own son would have been around Nikolai's age. He did not consider Nikolai his own child however as that would be disrespectful to Nikolai's deceased father.
Nikolai did not hesitate anymore and gave the beer he was carrying to Cedric.
"Thank you so much, Stable Master Cedric!"
"Don't be out too late." Cedric chuckled as he saw the
Nikolai was finally able to finish his shift and collect the four bronze Muds from the taverns owner and Coin Master. He had been working overtime to either get paid a Mud more or be tipped a one so he could pay his daily rent of five Muds.
Nikolai finally left the establishment and went to enjoy the festival. As soon as he stepped outside the stench alcohol no longer lingered in his nose and was replaced sweet and fatty smells of by the many food stalls.
The streets on both sides of the road, usually meant for carriages now had many people walking over it and the many lanterns provided adequate lighting for Nikolai to see everything around him. Lots of women, dressed in some light green and orange colours, different from the usual grey. Lots of children his age eating some snacks walking with their moms or running around in groups. The men were mostly drinking in taverns or visiting the brothels.
Nikolai was not stingy as he had earned five muds and Cedric had him a Green, which was ten whole muds. Nicolai purchased a portion of pork belly for four Muds at one stall and a small steamed potato with black olives and corn, a dish called Kumpir, for another three iron coins. Nikolai rubbed the fat and grease on his finger from the pork in the potato and had maybe the best meal of his young life so far.
The great highlight of the night however would be buying a ticket for the alchemist firework show. He had been wanting to see it for as long as he remembered and he had used his last three Muds in return for being allowed to Alchemy Guild's large garden. The garden was currently not growing anything, which was why the alchemists allowed guests to their otherwise lush garden.
For more expensive tickets, there were carriages available to transport the women and younger children. But since Nikolai had only enough to enter, he would have to walk a few kilometres to the Alchemy Guild outside of Asphodel town, the town he was in.
After an hour of walking Nikolai still was not at the Alchemy Guild and he started to get cold, as there was no large crowd of people. The night was chilly and Nikolai's warm breath started condensing in the air.
After some more time he could see the dimly illuminated tower of the Alchemy guild in the distance. He started running and blowing into his hands to keep himself warm. This soon turned out to be a mistake however.
In the dark Nikolai had started going in a straight line and was no longer following the outlines of the path he was walking on.
Nikolai stepped on wet grass causing him to slip, twist his ankle and hit his head falling backwards.
The boy was laying in one of the many green fields around Asphodel, unconscious and concussed.
A lone Alpine wolf, whose brown red fur was charred, was very satisfied with a free midnight snack he found.
~
In the western region of a small mountain range in Lumivera the bandit population had grown into multiple strongholds. These bandits lived in the mountains and demanded toll fees for 'using the roads they kept safe' and would sometimes plunder small villages on outskirts of the mountains. The bandits were not the only inhabitants of the mountains however, as many magical beasts and wild animals roamed the Pine forest to the east of the mountains.
The most noteworthy were the Alpine wolves. Their population had started growing larger due to the high amount of corpses they could scavenge.
After a little while the wolves had started to become more aggressive and would often ambush the wounded survivors of any clash, be it merchants or bandits, to claim more fresh food for the cubs.
At least until the one-eyed chief, Sanarul, was forced to start hunting the strongest individual wolves, which left him with more scars yet again.
The result of the chaos in the mountains and woods was that many smaller and weaker packs retreated out of the forest and further into the grassy plains of Lumivera's southern province. The few surviving stronger individuals joined this exodus and became the new leaders of what was left of the packs.
A small city called Green Fields, in particular, was bothered a lot by this. Many farmers living around the city had started losing a lot of livestock due to the aggressive starved wolves. This caused the City Master to commission a bronze rank request to the adventurers guild. After groups of Copper adventurers returned with heavy loses and heavier injuries, most of the adventurers avoided the commission.
The City Master had become desperate as he feared he would not be able to pay sufficient taxes if the wolves were allowed to run rampant in his area. Just as he started despairing, his assistant knocked on his door.
"Sir."
After knocking again and getting no response, the door was pushed open forcibly by a man. The City Master raged.
"How DARE you!"
But just as quickly as he erupted, he silenced himself. In front of him was a man. But no mere man could shut up the City Master. In front of him was a mage. Large crimson robes covered the body of the mage until his knees and the hood covered casted the face of mysterious figure in a shadow.
The City Masters heart sunk even further when he saw the robe had a three circles on the left side of the chest.
"How dare I, huh?" the mage seemed not amused, "good luck with wolves."
"No, no, no, sir mage. I humbly apologise, please. I beg of you get rid of these damned wolves."
"Sterling."
"I don't understand, sir mage."
"I want a Silver Sterling."
The City Master gulped. It was a huge number, a Silver Sterling. He had made less than ten Sterling in his two decades as City Master. A Sterling was more than ten times the sizeable bounty he had commissioned, but he knew that he could not afford to let his long term economy suffer for a necessary investment.
And most of all a three circle mage could not easily be offended.
A single one with enough preparation had the power to erase a small City like Green Field. Depending on the specialization of the mage, they could wipe out a small legion of thousands of common soldiers. The Garrison chief of Green Fields only condensed his seventh mana node recently, which would put him in slightly advantage against a two circle adept mage.
The City Master sighed and cursed his luck internally. Merchants had stopped visiting Green Fields as the mountain bandits had increased to troublesome numbers and now the wolves hunting in his domain.
If the big merchant groups would visit his city again, it was worth paying a Sterling, if only barely. The City Master would need to pay to remaining tax from his personal wealth of single digits worth of Sterlings.
"Could I ask your name, sir mage."
"Have the Sterling ready for when I return."
With those words, the high mage left.