Lahan entered Drerno quietly in the late afternoon. The village was one of the bigger ones in the valley; it was made up of seventy-some-odd houses. Most of them were rather simple as their walls were little more than hardened dirt and the roofs were of straw. The only notable exceptions were the overseer’s and the blacksmith’s homes which were at the very least painted white, had two floors and were surrounded by walls.

Most people had already returned home after a day of working the fields. Lahan glanced around somewhat nervously. Two Vorethians stood at the village entrance. One was picking his nails without showing much interest in his surroundings while the other, their commander, if Lahan’s memory served him right, was quietly staring in the distance. He also spotted three others in the square.

 

Just as he was putting the swine into their pen, Lahan heard a voice: “Hey, you!”

Lahan stopped himself. That square jaw, bald head and bulky frame were easily recognizable from even one glance. It was the Vorethian commander.

“Yes, sir?”

“You were grazing your animals to the north-east of here. Am I wrong?” He asked.

Lahan replied as calmly as he could, almost biting his lips from nervousness: “That’s so. What to help with?”

“Thank goodness.” He sighed with relief. “Two of my morons were to inspect that mine of yours or whatever. They should have returned by now. I think they may have wandered off hunting or something. Lazy folk, am I right?” The commander chuckled slightly. “By any chance, have you spotted them?”

Lahan nodded in reply: “No, I haven’t.”

The Vorethian looked at him inquisitively and then waved his: “Very well. Sorry for disturbing your work.”

 

 

At home Lahan could finally see his family after the whole day.

“Hello.” He said.

“Nice seeing you.” Marrik, Lahan’s father, greeted him. “Come here, boy. I think you’re hungry.”

Marrik gestured towards the food he was eating. The man was sitting on a short three-legged chair next to the fireplace. Lahan grabbed another and accommodated himself next to his parent.

“Oh, my!” Marrik’s wife, Kliera, exclaimed as she neared him. “I see why you were late this time. What the hell left such a scratch?! It’s looks deep…”

 “It’s not much to say. Just some nasty critters.” Lahan waved his hand. “By the way, I almost forgot.” He took a small wooden doll out of his pocket. “I promised to make some toy for Lili, didn’t I? It’s not my greatest work, but I am sure she’ll enjoy it.”

He gave it to the toddler to play with. She giggled, as she grabbed it. It was a happy sight.

“Why didn’t you bring the animals to the village? You could show off to the others as a hunter. That’d be great gossip…” She acted somewhat inquisitively.

“Nah. I don’t think it’d be that appreciated.” He smirked.

There was no need for his family to know more.

 

Next morning Lahan woke up a wreck. What followed didn’t help either. It was rather loud outside, which woke him up early. To his surprise he saw the Vorethian commander in full armour on a makeshift platform drawing attention to himself.

 

“Two of my men have gone missing…” He proclaimed. “…and we will be searching for them. Anyone who wants to will be allowed join us. Any information will be rewarded. I’m making you free from whatever work you’ve got for the day, if you are helping. I hope I’ve been clear.”

 

Lahan’s nightmares were slowly coming true. Dozens of thoughts were racing through his mind. He was certain that after even a brief search they’d find the corpses; he hadn’t been able to drag them that far off the road after all or at least he thought so. The question was if they’d be able to come to the conclusion that it had been him. If not, who would they put the fault on? Would the whole village be punished? This was how he came to the conclusion that he’d probably need to do something.

 

Meanwhile one of the women nearby, Avya, spit in response, showing her disinterest. Lahan could overhear her saying something along the lines of “Why should we care about Vorethians?” to the man next to her, a member of the militia the lord used to have before the Vorethians came. Lahan was uncertain what he was doing nowadays. She had pronounced the last word with particular spite.

Luckily enough for Avya the foreigners either didn’t notice or chose to act as if they didn’t.

 

After that proclamation Lahan left Drerno almost immediately. He didn’t rush too much as he had seen the Vorethians still preparing themselves and didn’t want to put much attention on himself.

He reached the pasture from yesterday and immediately noticed a sign of his sloppy work in covering everything up; he tried to tell himself that it was so because he knew what to look for and most people would just pass without paying any attention, but that didn’t help much.

There was a rather noticeable spot of dried blood near the road, which he hastily covered up with some dirt and then went towards the forest.

 

He found the corpses rather fast as they were probably less than a hundred meters from the road. Too small of a distances for his pleasing. The sight itself was also quite disturbing, even though they had been more or less untouched by the wild animals.

 

Just as he was wondering how to properly hide the bodies, Lahan heard the branches of a nearby bush moving. He turned to see a female silhouette.

“What have we got here?” She asked.

The woman was about the same height as him, but slightly brawnier. Her hair was short, poorly taken care of and blonde in colour. It took him about a second to realize that it was Avya.

She looked tired and sweaty as if she had ran all the way from Drerno.

“H-how?”

“How I found? I noticed somebody running away from the village immediately after the Vorethian had finished babbling.” She said. “I assume you are the one who killed those guys?”

He nodded: “They… attacked me. I was lucky.”

Avya shrugged her shoulders: “Very well. I’ll be asking later. I saw the search party nearby. If you plan on moving them, better hurry.”

“Agreed.”

Just as he was saying that Lahan noticed the first signs of others’ presence as he heard the Vorethians for the first time.

“Hey, you two, found something?”

Lahan was fell terrified, realizing he had more or less just doomed himself further by trying to cover it up further. Noticing his reaction, Avya padded him on the back as to show she’d handle it.

“Yeah, better see for yourselves.”

 

As they approached Avya started coming up with a story: “We found them deep in the forest. It seems like they’ve been attacked. Ugh, it looks like it’s been a surprise attack. How else would they stab somebody in the back of the head?” She pointed at the respective wounds. “Or this slashed throat?”

 

“Raina… Ezekiel.” The commander whispered after seeing the whole thing.

The other knights looked just as shocked as him at the sight of their fallen comrades.

Their man nodded in agreement: “You seem right… Thank you. I think I have an idea who was. Will you bring their bodies back? We will be busy having a “discussion” with your lord.”