The Demon Plague

Mysterious Goings On (recap)

The 33rd day of Winter started out like any other; Korryn Kurwaer awoke before the sun and crept out of the house to light the forge ready for another day of smithing, leaving his wife, Maria, to round up their six children and hopefully get most of them to school. Janiin, Pizom and Terryn seemed intent on getting in their mother's way, baby Lu was quite content babbling away to herself in her cot and Daviel tidied up the trail of chaos his younger siblings left wherever they went, humming to himself. Only the eldest, Ceaghlei, was missing from the breakfast table.

"You'll never make anything of yourself if you spend all day in bed, dear," Maria commented, wandering past her daughter's doorway as she placed steaming bowls of porridge on the table. "Why don't you go with Janiin and the boys to school today? I'm sure Kerys would be delighted to see you."

"Mum, you know I don't go to school anymore," Ceaghlei yawned back, stretching and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She'd always hated school, from further back than she could remember. Since her 12th birthday she'd been trying to escape that hell hole, to see more of the world, but the farthest she'd made it was the edge of the forest, just behind her father's smithy on the other side of the river.

"Well you can't spend all day in bed. If you're not going to go to school, the least you can do is give your father a hand. He won't admit it but he's not as young as he once was." At the mention of her father, Ceaghlei was suddenly wide awake, leaping out of bed and pulling on her makeshift leather armour. Her dad was her favourite person in the world, and she loved nothing more than working the forge with him, forming slabs of useless metal into swords and shields and spears. Well, except testing them. That was the one time she let her childlike imagination roam free, turning the trees around her into bandits to be caught and fearsome monsters to be slain, letting loose her one true passion in life: becoming the ultimate warrior.

As she finished lacing up her boots, her mother was herding her siblings out the door. Daviel, Janiin and Pizom stood in a line, hands joined, ready to be a little walking parade through the village, but Terryn ran back inside and gripped his sister's legs in the tightest embrace he could muster. She smiled down at the top of his silvery head and gave it a little pat.

"Go on, Terr, off to school with you." With one final squeeze, he let go and scurried back to his mother's side, waving at Ceaghlei as they made their way into the village. She picked up a bowl of porridge from the table and paced the kitchen as she ate it, wondering what her father would be working on today. Yep, this was a perfectly normal day. Or so everybody thought.

***

In the Eerdal forest, not far from Palewood, a peg legged halfling and a rotund dwarf were arguing.

"Eric, where's the map?"

"I definitely had it..."

"Well what did you do with it?"

"...when I took a dip in that river..."

"Maps don't do well in rivers, Eric."

"Maybe it fell out of my pocket."

"While you were in the river?"

"Yeah!"

"And floated downstream?"

"Oh...yeah, I see the issue here."

"Really, Eric? Do you really see the issue? We are stuck in the middle of yet another godforsaken forest with absolutely no clue where we are or where we're going!" Suddenly, Barrett heard a noise, like wood snapping, above them and took a couple of large steps to one side. Eric didn't.