"Why don't you bugger off shrimpy!" the soldier scowled and spat in Uriel's face,
"Tonight I'm gonna teach your girlfriend here what it means to be a woman," he laughed.
Uriel's eyes went as cold as frost, and a strange light flickered across his hazel eyes, he didn't know what he did exactly all that he knew was that one second the soldier was standing in front of him the next second the soldier went flying back.
The soldier hit a stone wall with a solid thud then his body slid down leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Uriel's widened as he looked at Cassandra, only to find her gapping at him with disbelief, it was well known that he was strong, he had to be strong in order to be able to stand toe to toe with the man of Old Meadow.
Due to his small stature his strength always came off as rather deceptive but never had he shown such a degree of strength, he practically flung the man like he was a baby.
Cassandra's eyes looked around carefully, so far no one seemed to be paying any attention to the man in particular, with the crowd it was probably a little hard for anyone to notice.
She grabbed firmly onto Uriel's hand seeing the distressed look in his eyes, she didn't blame him it wasn't like he had ever killed anyone before, nor had she ever seen anyone die, but it was clear as day that the man was dead.
"We need to get to Mom and Dad," she whispered in his ear, trying to keep herself calm.
"But I…" Uriel stammered looking at the blood.
"Uriel we need to move quickly," she said clasping onto his hand with each passing second the worry in her eyes increased, it didn't matter if the villagers saw, they would probably be happy to see the dead dog, but if even one of the soldiers saw anything there was no telling what would happen.
Uriel absently nodded with a blank expression he had no idea how he did that, but now that bad feeling started to return, it was like a shrill scream in the back of his mind, and he could only imagine what was going to happen when the soldiers discovered the dead man.
What would happen to the village?
What would happen to the people who had taken him in?
Each question sent a fire raging through his mind, as he could guess exactly what was going to happen, they were all going to be killed and it was all going to be his fault.
Cassandra pulled him through the crowd seeing that he was out of sorts she took it upon herself to seek out their parents, pulling his hand behind her she could feel him trembling and shaking, and when she turned around to look at him she saw that his face was wet with tears.
"Lad, what's wrong?" Cassandra spun around as she heard her father's voice, she saw him running to them with her mother just behind.
"I'm sorry Dad," Uriel muttered and fell to his knees, his eyes rolled back as the guilt burrowed its way into his heart, it was too much, he couldn't handle it, his ears seemed to close over and his eyes blanked, he could barely feel the shaking as it started.
His guilt wasn't because of killing the soldier he couldn't care less about those scum, but in doing so he knew he had killed his father and his mother who had taken him in and given him a home.
He killed Cassandra the girl who loved him and was willing to spend the rest of her life with him, a child whose own parents abandoned him.
Zek held Uriel by the shoulders and tried to hold him still, but his body was trembling violently, "What happened?" Zek questioned looking at Cassandra for answers.
"I-I…" tears spilled from her eyes as she started to explain.
In the midst of her explanation the entire earth started to rage violently, suddenly everyone who was standing still started to bounce on the ground with looks of surprise on their faces.
As the seconds passed their surprise turned to shock then to fear, as the buildings throughout the entire village started to rattle like bells, then they started to bounce up and down with pieces of the homes cracking and falling apart.
Soon there wasn't a place that wasn't shaking, and the tremors spread from the village and travelled out further beyond until even the trees in the distant groves started to shake.
Zek's eyes widened as he looked at the catatonic Uriel and recalled a scene from several years ago when he allowed Uriel to join the men on a hunt into the Green Wood Forest.
This was all caused by his connection with that power, the mystical power of Eldrin.
"It's alright lad," he said grabbing Uriel by his shoulders and trying to shake him back to consciousness, "We'll figure it out, but ya first have to stop this, think of ye mother and my daughter, what will happen to them if you let this continue!" he shouted.
Uriel blinked as he only half heard the voice of his dad, but at the same time he also realized that there may be another way, if he just went to the soldiers and admitted what he did then they would kill him and only him, maybe that way they would spare everyone else.
As he opened his eyes he looked around in a strange state of confusion, the village looked strange several buildings had collapsed and the people were running frantically all over the place.
As he looked at the destruction he was reminded of a scene in the forest from a few years back and met his dad's eye, "Did I…" he started to ask.
"Relax lad," Zek pressed down on his shoulder and looked past him at the surrounding destruction, as soon as Uriel opened his eyes the shaking stopped.
"I know what I need to do," Uriel suddenly got up and started to look around for the knight.
"No!" Cassandra cried and threw herself onto him, using all her strength to hold onto him, she seemed to understand exactly what he intended to do.
Uriel tried to pry her off, but she proved herself to be frustratingly tough and clingy, the moment he got one of her hands off the other would latch onto him somewhere else.
But their little scuffle was cut short when a horse cry cut through the air, forcing the family of four to turn around with alert.
"That was Millie," said Cassandra she easily recognised the voice of her friend.
The family of four ran in the direction of the scream and quickly came across a scene at the bonfire.
There were over a hundred people gathered, as the family pushed their way forward they were met with two sights, on one side of the ground they could see Millie crying over someone in a frantic state.
And just a few feet away they saw Sean Jolter throwing his fists at a soldier, by his feet lay a broken pitchfork and his nose looked to have been smashed flat with blood covering every inch of his face.
Uriel had a bad feeling when he saw the body it looked scarily familiar, he raced up to Millie and looked down to see her hands covered in blood as she tried desperately to press a large wound closed on the chest of Alec.
"Alec," Uriel cried as he looked down at his friend, who lay weakly on the ground his eyes drifted slowly as he looked up.
"I… I'm sorry… soldier tried… touch… Millie," Alec muttered weakly with tears spilling out his eyes, "I… had to do…" his tongue stopped moving in mid-motion and his eyes went dull as the last of his tears hit the ground.
Uriel trembled with disbelief as he looked down at Alec, "There's no way, there's no way, it's just one of your pranks right?" he cried and shoved Alec hoping to see that mischievous smile then he'd give one of his winks and start laughing saying that it was all just a joke.
But as the seconds went by Alec remained still and with each second his body went colder, the cries of Millie sounded like a dreadful screech only interrupted by the sounds of Sean's fight with the soldier.
Uriel looked up to see Sean in an even worse state than before, with blood pouring out from several places on his body, but he refused to go down.
Shiiing!!!
Suddenly a flash of sparkling light erupted down the center of Sean's chest, he looked around with an odd look in his eyes as he noticed the world splitting in two.
Blood sprayed high in the air as the body of Sean Jolter split in half from the head down, blood sprayed in all directions, and standing under the shower of his blood was none other than Sir Lambert.
His eyes drifted around without a care as he whipped his sword and sent the blood that remained on it splashing onto the ground, as he turned a full circle his eyes landed on Uriel and a smile spread to his lips.