Chapter 2: Dandren Village!
It happened on a rainy day, a rare occurrence in this part, as if it foreshadowed the sorrow that was going to happen that day.
Adamus, being the responsible and never-slacking young man, had, despite the reprimands of the small number of villagers, gone to the forest to procure some medical plants for his sickly grandmother and also to get some wood to pass the cold night in peace.
And calamity struck while he was away.
'If only I was there then.' he thought to himself.
This was something that always haunted him.
If only he were there, if only he had died alongside them, he wouldn't feel so much sorrow, but alas, he was alive, and he will take this burden with him and use it as fuel to make his will burn, to make his legs move.
He had that scene, that day, etched in his mind like a dark painting: every drop of rain, every drop of blood, every corpse, he remembered everything, but strangely, there was no human body.
It wasn't a human act; it wasn't something done by some sick psycho who got off on killing people; it was a natural calamity, but nonetheless, it took something great, something of significance, from his life.
He wished he had seen more, he wished he had heard more, or known more, but what can a human in a weak body and an illiterate mind do? As sharp as he was, he knew not even how to read a single word.
When he came back and saw the ruins caused by the rampant wild beasts, his strength left his body and his drenched figure fell to the ground with everything that it held.
As an 18-year-old, he could take on two adults and still... He was powerless at that moment.
He remembered how he got up after that, regardless of how dangerous it was if a couple of beasts remained alive, and ran to the rubble, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"Ma! Ma! Uncle Dev! Second Mother Lisa! Third Mother Hana! Little Dave! Please, anyone!" Rubble after rubble, it took him no more than a few minutes of running for him to run around the entire village, shouting with all his might, his hands bloody from lifting rubble.
When he came to his house, he started frantically lifting the rubble, hoping to at least grasp the figure of his non-biological grandmother, who had taken care of him since his youth despite the hardships and her old, sickly body.
But he saw nothing, nothing but a broken bed filled with blood and matters.
This was all it took for Adamus to fall to the ground; this time, he was unable to raise up.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHH!" He cried; he roared, his eyes bloody, and his tears covered his face.
"WHHHY? WHYYYYY? Why? Just... why?"
For a while, he lost himself; he shouted at no one and cried his eyes out, till at some point, voices were heard behind him.
"Lord Ouloba! There's someone alive here!" A soldier, he was wearing an armor and his sword was in his hand as he ran to Adamus' side.
By then, the young man learned everything. The fact that a beast tide had passed through here slaughtering every single one. The villagers had no time to escape before they were run down, and every house was ruined to no end; even those inside weren't spared.
Adamus had some doubts; he looked at the soldiers as if he was ready to find fault with them and die even just to kill a single one if he so much as doubted them.
But when the lord held him in his chest and cried for him, the young man couldn't care anymore.
After that he learned that the lord and his army hadn't been here by coincidence; reports of such attacks had happened around a few villages before, some of which Adamus had visited before for trades, and while on their way back to the town, he saw how they were all destroyed, not a single being alive.
And his village had the same fate. The young man then went on to get a few of his belongings and some money he had amassed that he planned to use once he was in the village.
After that, once they reached the town, the baron wasn't as stingy, giving him a small house to live in and some money, which Adamus decided to save up to start his business, as he had bigger plans.
Before leaving, the baron told him that if he wanted anything else, he should come to him, and that if he believed in himself, he could even try to join his army, which Adamus made his goal.
That day, he had lost everything but gained something more important; he gained a goal, a will, and hope.
That day, while coming to the town, he made an oath.
"I...
Will leave my own mark in this world!"
------End------