The Hunt Begins

Evrah descended the final few feet and landed on the outer edge of the bank of the Keepers River. Flames danced along the waves, prancing from one piece of debris to another until a single flame and fire became one. It was building in heat and intensity.

She stood, staring, calculating a way through the gauntlet of liquid inferno and waves. Each time she found a way through, the wind brought more debris and complications.

Tracing the water's edge, she paced, looking for a way into the village that wasn't burning. Her need to get to her family and this obstruction was getting worse by the second, as was her frustration.

Her last thought before jumping in. This just may be how I die..so be it.

She stayed underwater as much as she could, bobbing up every few feet to see where she was. It was a slow task, but she focused on the progress to steady her nerves. She kept her head low, as the winged destroyers flew overhead, still blasting flames at anything untouched or moving.

She ducked into a small hollowed-out spot of a floating tree trunk when they would dive closer to the ground, searching for who knows what.

It was insanity.

Flapping her arms, just under the surface to keep herself afloat, she had made it about halfway. Evrah swam to a nearby log and draped her tired arms over the top, for a brief reprieve. The flames and winged destruction had sated for the moment, but the cries of her people did not. The closer she got the more she could hear them.

From this distance, she could also hear the soldiers giving orders and making foul comments.

She kept just her eyes above water, using the large log for cover as she slowly made her way across. She moved with the waves and steady current to keep from looking unnatural and getting noticed.

However, Evrah was losing patience with each cry and outburst she heard, making it harder and harder to keep her slow pace. Every few feet, she would have to stop and collect herself. She tried blocking it out, but the woes were all that could be heard in the rumble of collapsing buildings and flames burning out.

Almost there...

Underfoot, she finally felt soft, muddy ground. She had made it across. It was hard to get her footing in the slush and viney bed of mud and root. She crept as quietly as she could, on all fours, onto the dryness of the bank. Hiding behind a fallen tree, she lurked in the shadow and smoke, looking for the best way in.

The town looked nothing as it did before. Smoke, ash, and burning embers were all that lay before her. Winged Death had succeeded in wiping out her village. Among the smoke, silhouettes of bodies moved but it was hard to tell who was friend and who was foe. On occasion, the act of defiance or brutality gave her the answers, but not often enough to give her confidence in making her move.

On her hands and knees, she crawled from one hidey-hole to another. Trees, buildings, and sadly, fallen villagers, offered her a place to hide as she maneuvered from the river into Forrest Keep.

What seemed like hours, took a whole of a few minutes but every inch came at the cost of her sanity and her soul. Her sanity pushed her to abandon this fool errand and her soul cried out in agony at the morbid scene. She could not stop, and she could not explain the pull from somewhere within to keep going.

To get there. To find them.