Necromancer's Descent

10 - Village

There's a village.

I finally found a village.

Shortly after the poison finally wore off and my eyes finally stopped glowing, I caught sight of a wooden palisade wall.

'I'm saved!' Is what I prematurely yelled in my mind... but currently alone and fazed with the cold gazes of the village guards I find my former excitement premature.

"U-uhm... which village is this?"

The guard just turns his face away from mine, while wincing in disgust. The other one is stealing spiteful glares at me, whenever he thinks I'm not looking.

'Go away'

Is what their eyes are saying. No confusion or surprise, so they likely don't know this body.

Even so, they aren't attacking me or preventing me from going inside. It's pretty clear that they don't have appraisal, so they shouldn't see through Theodore if I bring him along another time. Though they might try to talk with him if I don't make up a good excuse.

I was a bit hesitant to go without Theodore, but since the hunters hadn't reacted before they saw Theodore, I bet on the possibility that the guards couldn't see through me either.

Even so, this welcome is quite... unpleasant.

I watch the guard hesitantly, and it's pretty obvious that he's reacting to the scars on my face. That said, this seems like more than just disgust and displeasure at the sight.

I stare at the guard in front of me for a couple moments and then go towards the gate while watching them the best I can... just in case they change their minds, but neither of them stop me from entering the village, despite their disgusted and agitated looks.

I squish my mutilated cheeks with a sigh once I'm through the gate, my heart sinking slowly. What did this girl do to get tortured like this, and to be looked upon like that by others...?

I take a deep breath to somehow shield my heart against the future meetings with people I'm going to have. Even if the guards did nothing, that doesn't mean that others wouldn't.

I look around the village as I walk through it, trying to push the guards' hostility out of my mind. It's not a very big village, and while the center seems pretty dense, the rest of the houses seem spread messily along the muddy path to the entrance.

Since there were guards outside I was expecting to see a few people here and there, but the streets are empty, and there is no light from the matte ivory windows of the houses I pass by. It's almost like a ghost town, though the buildings seem well maintained.

That aside, most of it really looks like you would expect from video games. The non-translucent windows; the cute timber frame houses; the dirt paths and guards lingering by the exits...but there's a proper wooden palisade around the village, and the all too familiar, yet faint stench of death lingers in the air.

My skin crawls.

A village shouldn't smell like this... but there were guards outside, so it's alright, right?

I stop up, as I reach the center of the village... four paths cross here, and I can see exits by all of them. On my right is a bridge crossing the river I've been following. In front of me is a small church, and on the left, a grey fort looms in the distance.

I don't want to go near it. Its dreary grey walls and lack of fantasy-like elements makes it more like a war building or prison, than a fantasy world castle... not that it doesn't make sense that they would build it like this because of the monsters...