Chapter 5: Sorrow Steps Through The Front Door

A Story by Ilerah

Dwenlin sees many things for the first time, including death, and life gets more dangerous.

Chapter 5: Sorrow Steps Through The Front Door

Each day grew more and more gloomy, with snow now falling from the heavens, and with bloodshed expected by all. The town was almost in pre mourning, and half a dozen families had left, including some of the elders. The young still played, throwing snow at each other, and the elderly. The elderly of the village mostly stayed inside during the cold days, and had negative views on the upcoming events. The village could no longer enjoy happiness, most, if not all were sad.

The men still laboured on through the winter, since they expected a fight, they were preparing defences. They continued, with Cate’s clothes keeping them warm, but it was slower with the snow.

The women were making bandages, and were gossiping as usual, they only left their houses to visit the others and talk over some tea and biscuits. People hardly talked about cheerful things anymore, the snow was no longer beautiful but depressing. When the sun came up a bit of hope seemed to poke through, only to be halted by the clouds.

Dwenlin and Bandes were getting ready for the busy day ahead. The denater had not returned for two weeks and they were getting nervous. So Bandes, Dwenlin, Grier, Grey, Grate, and two others Dwenlin did not know were going on a scout mission. They had decided they would leave for two days, and had a large area they would cover, in a radius around the village. Dwenlin was just getting ready for it.

“Why don’t we have multiple groups go out, then we would not need as far to cover?” asked Dwenlin, as he packed his bag.

“Simple, if multiple groups went out then we would not have enough men back to defence, just in case the denater attack we are the only group that is going out, also, no one else wanted to go find the denater,” replied Bandes, finishing his packing.

They stopped talking and looked over all they had, food, water, coats and blankets, Bandes was bringing an axe with him, in case it got messy he had said. They weren’t bringing much but the necessities and few of them. The two men, whose names escaped Dwenlin, were hunters so they did not need much food, just enough to get them through the first day.

They left the house, wearing warm clothing and large boots for the snow, Grey and Grate were waiting on the road near the beginning of the village. The hunters had just come out of their house and walked with Dwenlin and Bandes. All of them were waiting on the road, for the last of the group, Grier. He came running out of the forest, carrying an axe, and a large pack. He caught up with them, as they started walked.

Grey had a long coat on, going down to his ankles that flowed behind him, with fur lining the inside, he carried a sword at his hip, and his pack on his back. Grate had a thick coat made from deer fur, and a staff, which he said he would use for beating the denater back to the mainland, but they all joked it was a large cane. The hunters both had thinner coats made from deer skin, both carried bows and arrows and small packs. Grier with his long trench coat was the slowest of the lot, he blamed his larger pack and axe, but everyone knew he was just a slow walker. Dwenlin had no weapon, no way to fight. All he carried was his pack, upon his back.

The group trudged along through the snow, one of the hunters, who Dwenlin recalled was Hithley, had a map and was leading them along hunting trails so they could cover the whole radius they had marked out.

Hithley, a unique man in his thirties, with short black hair, no facial hair, and a crooked nose, which had obviously had been broken before. He was an average man in height, but walked with great stealth, though it did not look as though he tried to.

His hunting partner, Lioper, was quiet short, shorter than Dwenlin, but nearly twice his age, nearing his forties. He also moved with great silence, but was quick with his wit and humor. He enjoyed talking about nothing important at all, while his friend just sat there. Complete opposites they worked perfectly together.

The group had covered nearly the whole north section of the village, but decided to camp for the night. The hunters went out to find some more food, since they wanted it fresh, while the others set up camp. They had three tents set up, and a fire going by the time the hunters got back.

“We found these two bloody fast,” said Lioper, adding a funny accent.

“Faster than what may I ask?” said Bandes.

“Faster than… well just fast. We have only been gone for a little while you know.”

“I could fell a tree in that time,” said Mc Grier.

“Yes, well you don’t have to bloody well search for the blasted tree do you?”

“I dunno, depends whether I’m in a forest, or not.”

“I agree,” said Bandes, nodding his head in agreement with Grier.

“Well, for hunting this is fast, and if you’re in a plain of grass, it isn’t that hard to find a tree.”

“How so, there aren’t any there,” said Grier, quiet confused by Lioper’s statement.

“Simple, since a plain of grass is all grass, which is knee height, if there is a tree it’ll be bloody obvious eh?” said Lioper, getting louder near the end to emphasise his point.

Everyone started laughing at his statement, while Grier sat on his log, thinking about what was just said.

The hunters got the deer skinned and over the fire on a split. The rest got some more stones, or logs to sit on. Soon everyone had a make shift seat and food on his lap. They ate in peace, other than Loiper talking nonsense, and telling terrible jokes.

They turned in early, and as the fire died they fell asleep.

They slept till Lioper started singing as he made breakfast, which they thought was ridiculous. They slowly got up and ate some breakfast, then packed up camp quickly and got going. They headed towards the town, going around it the opposite way they had come, and started searching the south side.

Lioper went quietly, which surprised most but Hithley. Lioper led them around the southern radius through hunter trails, the same way as Hithley the day before. They soon covered most of hit, not finding any hint of the denater, until they got to the last bit.

They reached a large clearing within a clump of trees, and noticed that this was the denater camp. The evidence was obvious, cold fireplaces, and tent stakes. They spread out, looking throughout the camp.

“If the denater are no longer here, and if they have packed up. Where could they be?” asked Grey, then realizing what he had said.

The group suddenly started running, towards the village hoping that they were not too late. As Dwenlin ran, he noticed smoke coming up from the direction of the village, and almost started to scream. He saw that the others had noticed it and started running faster. Grey unsheathed his sword, while the hunters notched arrows in their bows. Dwenlin looked and saw Bandes and Grier with their axes out, sprinting hard.

The village came into sight with pillars of smoke rising from the houses, red flames coming through the roofs. The group ran onto the road, noticing that the denater were still in the town.

Lioper drew, and released, killing a denater who held Cate by the arm. Grier ran and grabbed her, leading her out of the town, to safety. Bandes sprinted past a house, ramming into a denater who was watching with surprise as the group arrived. Grey followed behind Bandes, killing the denater with a swift stroke of his sword. They both ran over to Bandes house, as the hunters checked the others, and as Grate chased the remaining denater out of the village. Dwenlin followed Grey and Bandes, reaching the house last, entering it with caution.

He heard noise in one of the other rooms, and glass smashing, then reacted and ran outside. He saw a denater running away, south of the village, with Grey in pursuit. Dwenling ran after them, stopping when he saw Grey giving up, the denater had gotten away.

“Why was he in the Grehul’s house Grey?” asked Dwenlin when Grey walked back to him.

“He was killing the Grehul’s,” replied Grey, with a very straight voice.

“What!?” yelled Dwenlin, suddenly sprinting to the house.

He burst into the house, going over to Ame’s room. He heard whimpering and walked in slowly, seeing Bandes crying over Mareth’s dead body. Ame lay on the bed, crying loudly. Dwenlin couldn’t stand the pain he saw and felt terrible, though this was not entirely his fault. He sat down on the bed, and sat Ame up, then walked him over to his father. They sat down beside Mareth and cradled her body, crying over it. Dwenlin then left the family to themselves.

He went outside, seeing Grey telling the news to the group. This was not a happy day, the only survivors of the attack were Cate, Ame, and one other child, name Wasler. The group of survivors gathered in Bandes house, weeping over their loss. They then sent Wasler and Ame to bed, and buried the dead, which took some time.

“We cannot stay here,” said Grate, “They will return now that they know there are survivors.”

“Agreed,” said Grey, “If we stay they will find us, and we cannot have them find us.”

“We will leave tomorrow morning, no matter how hard it is, it should be done,” replied Grier.

“I agree, but then again I did not lose any family,” said Dwenlin.

“Lioper had a family, he had grandchildren. Hithley had only his mother, who was growing along in age. I had no one, they had all passed away. Grate had lots of relatives; the old man had mostly grandchildren. Grey had a wife, and a daughter. Cate had a father and mother, so everyone here had relatives but me, but we all lost friends,” said Grier, looking along the many new graves outside of the village.

“Yes we all lost many but we should still leave, we have laid them to rest but I don’t want to join them,” said Grey, as he looked down at his daughters grave.

“Where should we go?” asked Dwenlin.

“Well we cannot go to any city. Since we defied that miserable tyrant, we will be wanted in a normal city,” said Grey.

“But if we are wanted then where can we go?” asked Dwenlin.

“Simple, there are other places that have defied the denater, and they have made cities, large cities, havens for people like us. Come inside and we will find a map to look at,” said Grier.

They walked across the plain, and entered the torn up little village. They walked through the empty streets till they came to the Grehul’s house. Inside, Bandes and Cate sat in silence in the kitchen, while Ame and Wasler slept in Ame’s room.

Grier stepped over to the small desk right of the door, and opened one of the drawers, finding a map of the island fast. He walked over to the table, were the others had made themselves comfortable. He opened the map and spread it out across the table.

Everyone moved in closer looking at the map, “This may not be perfectly accurate,” said Bandes.

“Ah yes, well how old is this map?” asked Grey

“About five or six years I would think,” replied Bandes.

“Well, this city,” said Grey, pointing to a city in the south east corner of the island, “was founded almost seven years ago, so that much is accurate, we are in luck it would seem.”

“Ok, which city?” asked Grier, since Grey had removed his hand from the map.

“Arborith.”

“Oh, I have never heard of it.”

“Well we do live remotely, and they have almost no contact with outside cities, except their allies,” said Grey

“Anyways, how far is that?” asked Dwenlin, moving on to more important things.

“Well we are here,” said Bandes, pointing to the right side of the map, though there was no name were his finger landed, “We are not big enough to go on a map, but we are around this area.”

“Ok, so we have to go across the whole island?”

“Almost, it takes almost a week to move across the farthest points on this island, so this will be four or five days,” said Bandes.

Everyone nodded with agreement, then Grate spoke, “Of course we will have to be careful, normally Bandes would be right, expect that we cannot travel by roads.”

“True,” said Lioper, “We will have to go through hunting paths, and forested areas, no roads made by man. I can attempt to lead you there, we should take this map though.”

“You do not know the hunting paths there,” said Hithley.

“I can still try to lead us in the right area.”

“Anyways, we should start to get supplies ready. We will need some water, since there is only one river on the way. We can hunt for food, but there are other things we will need,” said Bandes.

“Agreed, water, tents, weapons, and good coats, it is getting colder,” said Grier.

“Where will we get weapons from?” asked Cate, “you and Bandes have your axes, Grey has his sword, and the hunters their bows. What of us?” she said, motioning to Dwenlin, her and Grate.

“I will use this trusty staff of mine,” said Grate, with a proud smile on his face.

“You can get weapons from the dead denater, we kept them,” said Grey.

“Ah, I see,” said Cate in response.

They left the table, the hunters collecting the tents, and packs for everyone, while Bandes and Grier went to get water for the group. Cate and Dwenlin went through the denater weapons, there were mainly swords, though two had spears. Dwenlin took one of the swords, and kept it as his own, while Cate took a spear. Then Cate led Dwenlin to her home, were they collected the remaining clothes that had survived through the attack. They all met at the Grehul’s house, were Grey and Grate were waiting for them.

“I grabbed all the surviving coats and hats from my house, just in case we need them,” said Cate.

“I also grabbed all the weapons that I can carry from the denater, since I think it would be nice to give them to the rebels, plus Grate may change his mind,” said Dwenlin, smiling at Grate, who shook his head.

“Good idea Dwenlin, they may want some form of payment from us when we join with them,” said Bandes, “Me and Grier got us enough water to hopefully last us three days, until we get to the river Newss. Let’s hope it lasts us that long.”

“Well, seems we have everything, the hunters got the tents and packs that we dropped while running to the village. They went to bed already, outside. I am going to follow, we should leave early tomorrow,” said Grey.

The group followed his example and headed to bed, were they fell asleep quickly, except Dwenlin. He knew little of this world, and a good amount of this confused him. He had no idea that people in this world could be that evil, to kill a whole village. He hoped that they would last till Arborith, and fell asleep slowly with these thoughts in his mind.