It was night when they came. Hordes of pale figures, slowly, but surely spreading across the town. I remember how I asked what’s going on. How my father was unusually tense. Then it all fell apart.
I saw how the opposing house’s family opened the front door. I also remember how one of the dark figures simply hooked the man at the door and dragged him away. Then a pair of other pale figures entered the building and repeated this with anyone they could find. No man was spared, no woman, no child. Even animals were taken with them.
When my father realized what is going on he was startled. But he was quick. A few moments later he shouted for everyone in the house to come to him, while being careful not to be heard outside.
It was pure luck that there was a secret passage under our house. Father opened the hatch and quickly made us all go in, while holding two torches in his hand. Our house was wooden. Even the rooms were filled with wooden furniture and sometimes cloth.
After we had entered the passage he left one of the torches behind on a cupboard, making sure the house will take fire.
We hastily fled through the underground tunnel. Back then I didn’t really have time to sift through all that was happening. I simply did what I was told, hoping that someone else knows better.
The tunnel ended some distance further from the town walls, on the brink of forest.
Our father quickly led us to a dirt-walled house in the forest that very few people knew of. This house is very hard to notice if you don’t already know where it is.
In the house were supplies; food and everything else that it takes to start over.
Considering the situation, we had quite a lot of time to pack up some supplies and leave.
Still, as we left those lands behind we saw lots of destroyed towns and villages. It appears that the pale folk had attacked many settlements at once.
Wherever we went we saw burned fields, destroyed villages and towns in havoc. We saw very few people and they were all hopelessly confused.
Eventually we reached the mountains. It is noteworthy that it was not the usual mountain pass where we went, as it would be too easy to guard.
Instead we moved through the wilds and crossed the mountains from a completely different place than usual.
A week after we started fleeing:
“I hoped we wouldn’t have to come, but here we are,” said my father, to apparently no one.
A figure started moving. It now stood up. Just a moment ago it seemed like there was just a bush, but now there was a figure that resembled a strange combination of man and tree. It responded:
“Greetings, Hankel. You arrived a bit earlier than I guessed. “
“Earlier?” my father asked, confused and cautious.
“When I told you of the necromancer, I expected you to more wary. After all, you did not believe me. Thus, I expected you to take more time to arrive here than it did. “explained the druid.
My father simply stared at him in surprise, not having any idea what to say.
We had arrived at a druid’s… home. I’m not even sure how it should be called, as it is literally in the middle of a forest and has no considerable walls or roof.
In any case, the druid hosted us. He made sure we have food to eat and a place to sleep. This was definitely the most unusual housing that I had seen, but everything worked out. It appeared as if the nature itself was taking care of us.
By now I have realized how wise my father was. He seemed to have planned for everything, revealing that he was aware of what was going to happen.
It was also incredibly wise to burn the house, as the pale figures were going to set anything to fire anyway, in order to not leave any evidence of what had happened. There was no reason to believe that anyone survived. Well, probably no one did, except us.
All this gave lots of time to get out of the area and into safety.
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