A Prince and His Knight

[Quatre Winner]

Kai was having the same thoughts, wondering how many of these creatures there were and what they were after. The dead had been left, so perhaps that was all that mattered. The thought of demonic beings eating these bodies was horrifying enough, but to consider that the creatures weren't even hungry but wanted to destroy for the sake of it was chilling indeed.


With the prince held against him with one protective arm, the other clasping his sword, Kai moved through the room carefully, stepping over the bodies and making a clear path for Devan. While he hated to leave the dead lying there like common carrion, there was no time to spare for proper burials. If he was correct in his guessing, there would be many more unburied bodies the closer they got to the border. Being a man who believed in duty, he just hoped the dead would forgive his haste, and the haste of their prince. Quick work now would mean less dead in future…hopefully.


As prince and knight reached the front doors, Kai went through the same protocol of holding Devan behind him and peering out cautiously. Just as before, he saw neither hide nor hair of the beasts, nor any other living thing for that matter. The rutted dirt road outside was silent, as were the shops and boarding houses that shared space with the inn. Kai was quite disturbed to notice just how deadly silent it was.


"No birds." he whispered. Even in Autumn there should be a riot of them flying about and singing. There was no sound at all coming from anywhere, which set his teeth on edge. Even the air was still; not a breeze to whistle in their ears.

 

[Tinker Bell]

Devan felt sick just leaving the bodies like this. He told himself that he'd make memorials either in the Capitol or every affected town. Both sounded good too. Loved ones had been lost and people needed a place where they could go to remember them. He would be the one to do that.


Then Kai mentioned how there were no birds. "No anything." He mumbled, his head against Kai's back in case something was there. "It's as if these creatures killed everything in their path, animals included." He heard no signs of life. Not even insects. Even the wind had fallen silent. He was running through everything he thought it could be.

 

[Quatre Winner]

"Or scared the animals into hiding." Kai agreed, moving carefully out into the empty street. Still nothing, just the heaviness as though a storm was about to descend, but not a breeze rustled leaves or grass. Kai drew Devan close to him again, but instructed the prince to draw his weapon and keep it out. The silence became more and more oppressive with every step, and he fully expected something to leap out at them, but it never did.


Ahead and behind lay the main thoroughfare of the town, small though it was, crisscrossed with muddy ruts and grass tufts and smelling of the usual horse dung and other small town scents. Except….no bread from the bakery, or meat pies, or anything that usually went with a bustling and hungry town. All the smells were stale and cold and starting to rot. Kai noted a few bodies in the road, but more were piled in the shadows of buildings, on doorsteps and in corners, like their escape had been cut off. The grey light of the overcast sky made it look worse, somehow. Strangely, the only bodies were human, at least as far as Kai could see. No dogs, cats, birds…he had a vague hope that the horses might be safe somewhere, though who knew if that was the case.


"It looks like a raid, but nothing seems to have been taken." he murmured. Some shop windows were broken, but the contents remained, even if they'd spilled out onto the mucky road.

 

[Tinker Bell]

Devan drew his sword when Kai told him to. Although he was also still very prepared to use magic. He could see all the fallen innocent lying dead in the shadows. He didn't like it. It was like they didn't want any survivors.


"They were on a mission." He said. "They're goal wasn't to take anything and only kill if someone got in their way. Death was their objective." His voice was quiet. He didn't like this. It was too horrible.


"But why?" He didn't understand the thinking behind it. "Why kill so many?" He didn't see a point.

 

[Quatre Winner]

Unfortunately for Kai, he could see several points, none of them very pleasant. "To play on our fears, to stir us to panic and lessen our ability to fight back."


The knight looked away from a body closer at hand, skirting around it toward the stables, which were as silent as everywhere else. Though he didn't see any dead horses yet, the creatures had not been discriminate with their human victims. men, women, children, old and young; Kai saw even a few pregnant women lying near the home of a local midwife.


He carefully blocked Devan from that sight, and from as much of the carnage as possible, but there was just too much of it. Yet some must have escaped, because even a town this small should have had bodies choking the streets. Kai turned away from this thought and continued into the dark space of the stables. As he expected, all the horses, including those from the palace, were gone. Moving deeper into the structure, he noticed something strange.


"No blood." Indeed, not only were there no bodies of horses, the only sign of gore was near the entrance. There were signs of panic, a lot of mess, but not one drop of blood. The knight kicked away clumps of straw and shifted overturned troughs and buckets, but no sign of any horses being killed could be found.

 

[Tinker Bell]

Devan tried hard not to look at the lifeless bodies on the ground. He was relieved when they made it into the stables. No one was dead inside. He looked around, still ready for just about anything that may have jumped out at them. He stayed right next to Kai as his eyes scanned the stables. No death in here. Why were they avoiding animals?


Maybe there was no reason. Then he saw them. The horses were in the corner of the stables. They looked spooked, but they were fine. He slowly made his way over, cautiously calming them down. They would be no use if they were panicked. He just had to hope that he could figure this out soon. He glanced back at Kai. He had no idea what they were dealing with.

 

[Quatre Winner]

Kai frowned, and though he didn't sheathe his sword, he tried not to approach the horses as though he was going to skewer them. Devan was the natural choice to calm them, so the knight held back and for now, alert in case danger suddenly threatened.


"See if you can get them calm enough to come out." Kai suggested. "We'll have to bring them all with us." There was no one left in town to care for them, after all. He was thinking of what to do with the horses in the long run, but nothing came to mind, apart from handing then over to escaping peasants. Anyway, they had much more serious things to worry about. None of this made sense to him as a whole picture. Certainly the level of slaughter could mean a scare tactic, but there had been no looting, and the animals, or at any rate the horses, seemed totally unharmed. Scared, yes, but not touched at all. Had other beasts, like cows and cats and dogs and such, escaped as well? Or had the unknown creatures attacking teh village simply missed the stables, or left for the next town before they could get to the horses? So far, their enemies' movements made little sense, and Kai felt frustration mounting as he couldn't figure out what was going on.


Meanwhile, the horses were starting to warm up slowly to the prince. Though not exactly brilliant with weapons, the prince had a naturally sweet spirit that seemed to call out to others, even animals. Traumatized as they were, the horses were more likely to respond to Devan's calming nature than even their own masters at this point. The two from the castle nickered almost as soon as they saw him, moving with cautious motions toward him, and drawing teh other horses into a little group before the prince. The horses mouthed gently at his clothes and hair, and butted him with their heads, almost seeming to need his reassurance that all would be well.

 

[Tinker Bell]

Devan let the horses surround him. He tried to calm all of the down. He murmured hushed 'it's okay's. It took awhile, but he calmed them all down. It made him feel calmer too. When it felt like everything he knew was changing it was reassuring to know that some of the things he knew hadn't.


Finally all of them were calm and so was he. He then led them to their food and made sure each of them ate. It wouldn't be good if they didn't eat. Especially since they were not going to have a relaxing trip. Then he wondered if the horses had seen the creatures.


"Do you think the creatures were seen by the horses?" Devan suddenly asked Kai. His voice was still soft though. He just wanted to bounce ideas around, even if Kai wouldn't approve of them. He had to try anything he could think of.

 

[Quatre Winner]

The prince of Frieden had always had a special talent to calm and comfort those around him, human or animal, and now was no different. The knight standing behind him, facing toward the stable doors with his sword drawn, let Devan go about his work without interruption. Though Kai exuded calmness, it was not of the kind the horses needed. When Kai was calm, he slipped into himself. When Devan was calm, he somehow shared that with others.


All the horses that had been there the night before seemed to be accounted for, including all their tackle. As Devan fed and watered teh horses, Kai went about gathering up the supplies that had been left, saddling and bridling the horses that would allow him to get near them. There were a few he had to leave for Devan to do the honors. In any case, all the horses would have to come with them, and soon.


"I don't know if they saw anything." he answered Devan, turning so their eyes met over his shoulder. "It's possible they did, or that they just sensed the creatures like they would sense any predator. There's no real way to know." Not unless animals could talk. "The door was open and yet they stayed in the stable, which must mean something."


Kai did not at all mind open discussion, even if he often sounded rough, or like he was shooting Devan's ideas down. Though the prince usually didn't, Kai had no problem with his own ideas facing criticism. He was far more into healthy debate than others seemed to think, when the subject was not impossible. Of course, now that he knew magic existed, perhaps he'd have to revise that attitude. Discussing things with Devan was quite enjoyable, really, something he wanted to continue to do.

 

[Tinker Bell]

"I...I think there might be something I can do." Devan said hesitantly. He'd gone about saddling up the horses too afraid to go near Kai. "I don't know if it'll work, but it might. And if the horses saw whatever these things are, I might be able to as well." He glanced over at Kai, trying to gauge his reaction.


"Physically it's completely safe." Devan wasn't going to get into mentally. Mentally it could be dangerous. Not deadly, just dangerous. He might get something he didn't want or the mind he was entering could fight back. Even seeing these thing could be scarring. Although Devan would have to know what they looked at some point. Better now in the light of day than the middle of the night.


"We need to know what these things look like." He said. "If the horses saw, I could get into their minds and see for myself. Maybe we'd knew what we were fighting then."

 

[Quatre Winner]

(Just a heads-up; I'm going to be gone for a few days, but I'll be back either this weekend or Monday. See you then!)

 

[Tinker Bell]

((Okay...see you then...))