All Adventure Begins with Tragedy

Chapter II: alone

That morning's sunrise was surreal, but beautiful. I yawned and stretched before clambering to my feet. I was not prepared for what I was about to do, but I knew I needed to.

As I walked through the dewy woods the wildlife came alive around me. The bird song filled the air, and I could hear rabbits crashing through the undergrowth. It was very peaceful, tranquil almost, com paired to last night. I looked around, then suddenly the weight of what had happened. The forest reminded me so much Clare and our times together.

I stared down at the ground and tried to block out the sounds of the woods. It didn't work. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, for my people, my friends, my life. It was all gone.

As the palisade fence- or what was left of it- came into view, I loosened my sword in its sheath. I knew the village would be ruined, but I could never have prepared for what I saw next.

The whole village lay in ruin, smoke spiraled from each structure. The long house had caved in on itself. All of the crops were burned and trampled. The entire community seemed striped bare of any thing of use. From the evidence, it seemed my village people had put up a fight. And a good one at that. Bodies littered the ground. Most of them seemed to be human soldiers. They had armor that showed a yellow serpent imprinted on it. There were a few monsters scattered around, and two dragons. But when I looked closer I saw that every single person from my village was massacred. Most were barely distinguishable, but their cloths gave them away. Many had weapons next to them, men, woman, and children. There were easily double of the enemy dead, but the shear numbers had obviously overwhelmed my people.

I picked through the ruins, hoping to find something. It seemed the soldiers had not striped the town of all resources, and I found several crushed fruit, and two good fruit. There was an apple and a pear. I also found a messenger bag, flint, a canteen, and a cooking set consisting of several pots and a frying pan. I also found some bread, cheese, and a slab of ham. I put the food, cooking set, and flint in the bag, before slinging it over my shoulder. Then I went down to the river to fill up my canteen. Once filled, I tied it to my sling-come- belt.

Then I was finally ready to set off. I began walking down the river side, and made good time before night fall. I cooked a simple stew out of roots and what not I scavenged, so as to avoid breaking in to my rations. The next few days passed by fairly quickly, walking or jogging, then stopping to rest or eat, before continuing. On the fourth day I realized that it would be quicker to sail down the river. The only problem was getting a boat. Eventually I decided to make a simple raft. I stopped for the day to make it, and worked on it until the sun went down. The next morning I worked until lunch time, before estimating that us was water ready. I ate a quick meal then launched my craft. It was literally a square made from logs I had found, but it floated, and the current carried me faster than walking had.

That night I fashioned a fishing rod for my self with a springy stick I found, a few threads braided together from my own shirt, and a wire from the handle of one of the pots. The next morning I let the line trail behind me lazily, and I ended up catching a salmon for dinner. The days flew easily by. I had a lot of time to reflect on the events of what had happened, and plan for the future. My primary goal at the time was to reunite my self with Clare.

After a whole week of drifting down the stream, I found the first signs that Clare had gone this way. A wooden spar had broken off of the her boat then drifted down the stream before becoming intertwined in some branches. Feeling comforted that she had gone this way, I continued. There had been something bothering me for a while, and now that I had confidence Clare was alive, and I had the time to think, I realized what it was. When I had gone back to the village, there where no patrols, no guards, no evidence other then the dead, they had ever been there. I wondered where they had gone, then another though struck me. Where had they come from? How did they even know we existed? Why were they so far north? What were they doing even remotely close to our village? Hurrit, the country we were in, or so you humans call it, was inhabited only on  the southern boarder by barbarians. Small scattered tribes of people with strange customs.