A Ranger from Kvatch

1 - The smell of smoke

~Delwin's POV~
3E 433, 1st First Seed, Middas

Never ever in my life, have I smelled such a disgusting thing before. The taste of roasted chicken with sweet honey and burned fabric was in the air.

A few seconds ago, everything was all right. I was inside my dreamscape and slept peacefully.
That was, until I smelled it, the claws of smoke reached into my room, and started to stab my nose with their smell.
At first, I thought, that I have slept through the day and my Ma would be coming every second to me, with a plate of her wonderful roasted chicken that she was cooking right now, but I couldn't have been more wrong. 2 Seconds after the first taste of the smell I realised how wrong I truly was, when my ears started to recognise a new sound.
I was shocked, the sound I heard was a bone wrecking scream of a woman, down on the street.

Slowly, foot by foot, I made my unsteady way to the window, until the woman came into sight. She was surrounded by 4 creatures, I've never seen before. The eyes of those monsters were blood red, their feets and legs have been switched into legs of spiders and they were armed with 2 meter long lances.

Behind this horrific scenery, I saw the town. Once, it was a wonderful and beautiful city, but those monsters have turned every beauty into fire and pain. My heart was torn apart in this very moment, every braincell started to ask, why does this happen to me?

Only mere thought later, my brain started to kick in again, and a realization hit me right from behind: where are Ma and Pa?!?

I turned around and went straight to the stairs and downstairs into the kitchen. It was destroyed and only a few things reminded of its old function. A Fireball must have been hit straight our house. On the ground there were two burned body's. As I went to look further who they were, I recognised the smell of honey and grilled chicken again, and it gave me the chill.

One body was turned around and looked down to the ground. The other was burned down to the bones by the fireball, with no indication as to who he or she were. But was not left unnoticed by me, was the fact, that both were holding their hands and I realised, they were my parents.

Purest Anger filled my lungs and pushed every other emotion away. "Hoooooow!!!" I shouted, to give my emotions some space. Full of despair and anger, I kneeled down, next to those two dead corps of my parents. My head sunk down, till my chin touched my chest.

I don't know how long I've sat there. Has ist only been a few seconds or hours, but after some time, I looked at the bottom, surrounding me, and saw something blinking under the table. Curiosity filled my mind again, so I crawled to the table to look after this blinking thing.

The blinking transformed into a silver cross. It used to belong to my mother, and she wore it every time I can remember. Because it was the only thing that was left from them, I took it into my pocket as something to remember me of them.

I promised to myself, to never let go, until those monsters were dead and gone for good. But who was I, to promise such a thing? Me, who is a boy of a poor age of 16 and 4 Months.

The Roof over my head gave a screeching sound and a few pieces of burning hay came falling down. I realised with a shock, that I have to go. After one last look, through the destroyed kitchen and to my dead parents, I stood up and made my way through the door, onto the street.

First, I looked around, over the street. The Monsters have gone away, and left only the dead body of the woman behind. But it was but truly her body. Only a few pieces of meat remained attached to the bones. The rest of her body was completely eaten except for the bones, that showed a few small bites, and from those nearly every one was broken in the middle to get to the mark. Those monsters have to be stopped by someone!

I went looking for the gates, in hope to pass easily through them. I walked down the street only to find a giant red eye at the gate, surrounded by those monsters. It seemed, that they come directly from this thing, I don't want to think about the fact, that there are probably a lot more.

The only way for left, was up to the castle. I hid inside the shadows. Became each if them, in the hope to not get caught by the monsters, that murdered my family.

After what seemed like hours, I've made it to the castle, without being seen. But as I went over the drawbridge, I heard a cracking sound, from beneath my feet. The moment when I reached the middle of the bridge, I cracked through the wood and while I fell, I thought, "Is this the end? Have i failed at the very beginning?" But there was no room for one more thought, because the world went black and I lost control of my senses and was out.

The first thing I noticed again, was not cold or pain, but a warm feather blanket and a strong bandage at my left leg and both arms.
A lot of questions flooded my mind. Where am I? What happened? And. Why is there no pain?
But I couldn't ask them aloud, because the sleep took me again in its strong grip and lead me away, back into the darkness. One second before I closed my eyes again, I saw a pair of sparkling green eyes, looking worried at me. They seemed familiar to me.