Snippet #2811541

Many centuries ago it was not uncommon for a village to be found in its own smoldering ashes along the vast stretch of the southern King's road. In fact, it had earned its nickname "Ash Road" for a reason. The forest that towered around it was dark and full of unknown creatures, and the valleys that surrounded the rest of the pass as empty as they were quiet. The local villagers and settlers alive today had never seen a village burst into flames, nor its inhabitants be slaughtered by beasts of the night. Yet old folk lore carried with it the echoes of the past. Stories of demons and angels that dwelt within the dense canopy of the forests, luring unsuspecting travelers into their depths. Of elves that scurried in the bushes and stole naughty children away at night. And of the most unnatural of beings, able to raise a whole settlement to the ground with merely a word spoken on the wind.

It had been one thousand, three hundred, and twenty seven years since the last attacks. Over a millennium of peace, life, and growing recklessness of humans venturing deeper and deeper into the wilderness. They've cut down trees, shrinking the forests. And was it their imagination or did the trees grow back faster and taller within the following years? It didn't seem to matter as the settlers simply built more, expanding their villages and growing their populations.

Then one day it happened. An earthquake shook the villages surrounding the forest, toppling both man-made structure and natural growth alike.

That was two weeks ago.

Tonight, as the last sunset darkened the skies, they came. First it was the winged creatures in the sky, swooping down to set fire to every roof within sight. So much fire, driving men, women, and children out of their homes, away from everything they held dear to them. Yet the creatures did not attack, did not kill, did not harm anyone who could move quickly enough from the flames.

But this was not all. From the depth of the forest there came armies of dark-clad creatures that could only be described as armored men with horns growing from their brows and glowing eyes that could send a chill down the bravest warrior's spine. It was them that blocked off routes of escape, that herded the people into their place of submission between the flames and the demons, with nowhere to turn to for safety.