Torin Criss's Story

Torin Criss
Torin was beginning to worry. He and his small team had been searching for several hours for a rather large force of Human guerilla fighters dubbed by the Crown as "Heretics". The fighters were part of a large network of human's aiding the Ladren, and he was suppose to meet them in this area to take the freed Ladren slaves to the shore line, about two weeks away on foot, and from there the Ladren would take a boat supplied by the network to the Tropics. But the freed slaves and their escorts were late, and it was beginning to grind on Torin's nerves
"Sir! Come quick!".
Torin looked up from his map as the young but uncanny scout, Frederick came sprinting towards the vanguard and his small group of fighters.
Torin stood up resting his hand on his battle-hammer.
"What is it, Frederick?", the Vanguard asked in his baritone voice as he looked down at his scout.
"T-the Ladren and their escort, I've found them", the young man sputtered out, his eyes wide.
Torin raised an eyebrow, waiting for Frederick to go on.
Frederick continued to stutter, his mind going faster than his mouth could keep up.
"D-dead!", he finally spat out.
The eight men around the pair immediately looked to their leader.
"Show me", he responded, his voice dropped another octave.
Frederick spun and took off at a sprint, Torin and the other eight warriors on his heels. Within a few minutes, Torin began to smell smoke, and moments after that, charred wood and..something worse.
When he saw the burned clearing, Torin began to hear his pulse in his ears and quickened his pace, outrunning the soldiers and even the scout.
As soon as his feet hit the ashy ground, he whipped the battle-hammer out of its sling, preparing to meet any enemies that were still around, but all he and his elite group found were bodies, about half of them were charred, the source of the terrible smell from earlier.
He let his gaze roam around the carnage, both humans and Ladren covered the ground, some with bullet wounds, others had been butchered by sharp and blunt weapons.
"What happened?". Someone from the group behind Torin asked.
"What do you think happened, idiot?", someone else said bitterly.
"It's a massacre", said yet another voice.
"You think they took any prisoners?".
"No". Torin stated, causing all the banter to silence."If this is the doing of who I think it is, we won't have to worry about any survivors giving away our names". Torin had a good idea of who did this, only one person would leave this much carnage...especially when the Ladren were involved.
"Whys that?", Frederick asked quietly.
"Because there won't be any",Torin muttered, tapping a clump of ash with his boot.
After a few moments of silence, Torin cleared his throat.
"Gather the bodies, we will not leave them to be ravaged by animals". He said "We'll make a mass funeral pyre".
"What if we find the attackers?", asked Frederick
Torin stopped walking.
"Show no mercy, for they deserve none", he said coldy.