One year. It had been one year since Iris Gwenneth became the first heroine of Eldia --one year since her life took a dramatic turn for the better. And in this one year, she'd found meaning in the days that had once had none. Iris had a new job, one...
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A/N-- Hey check out the doodle! I got bored and decided to do a little sketch of Hench! Hope you guys enjoy!
Everyone stopped immediately, taking in the awful sight of corpses. Everywhere. They littered the ground for hundreds of feet. The smell... oh gods, the smell. Judging by the rot and by the number of vultures picking at the remains, these people had been dead for a while... left to bake in the sun.
Azabela was the first to speak. "What is this?" Her voice was a whisper, a reflection of the horror she felt.
Hench took off first, pulling out her warhammer and taking off through the sea of the dead. Sorella quickly climbed back into the wagon, trembling as she took her seat. Iris and the huntress drew their weapons as well, following after Iris's guardian. The women didn't suspect that the attackers would still be here, yet it was always better to be safe than sorry.
After a few minutes, none of them found any signs of anyone alive.
"This is unspeakable," Hench said as they gathered. "Who could have done this? And why?"
Azabela placed her bow back on her back. "I can look around the area. Might be able to find some tracks somewhere."
"Do that," Hench agreed quickly. "Be careful. Don't pick any fight you can't win and don't get caught. Iris and I will look around, see if we can't find anything. Come back within a couple hours if you don't find anything. Come get us to go with you if you do. We don't need to separate. Getting too far from each other is begging for trouble."
"Understood."
The huntress stalked away, searching the ground with precision. In the meantime, both the guardian and her trainee picked through the bodies. Iris looked over them for a long minute. In her times as Rogue Captain, she'd done a lot of scouting missions. By extension, she was good at pinpointing details.
Iris and Hench both spread out a little bit, surveying the carnage.
It only took the girl a little bit to find something very weird about the corpses. Among them were a vast assortment of people: there were old men and women, middle-aged men and women, even young adults and young children. What struck Iris funny was that there were no girl-children among the dead... only boy-children. There were no young women here either. Iris looked around at some of the young-adult men and noticed several were still wearing bonds of marriage around their necks.
So where were their wives?
Iris looked over at her mentor, who didn't seem to have come to any revelation. "Hey! Need you!" the rogue called.
A minute later, the guardian walked over to stand by Iris's side. "Find something?"
"A lack of something, actually," Iris explained, "Look around. There are no young girls among the dead. The only women here are older."
