The light shined through the fibers of the tent, waking Derrick. He looked around to realize the sisters were missing. He dressed himself and stepped outside the tent.
What he saw was absolutely horrific.
Severed heads and lifeless bodies littered the ground. The town was aflame, and the smell of burning and decaying flesh assaulted his nostrils. Where was Alina? Where was Luminita? Were they alright? What if something had happened to them? He hoped they managed to escape. But if they did, why was he still here? Wouldn’t they have told him? Something was wrong. Before he could raise his voice to call their names, the ground shook with the thunderous sound of giant hooves. Derrick turned to see a massive raider atop a massive steed, with a black, horned helm masking his face. This terrified Derrick, but even worse than that was the realization that Alina and Luminita were tied up in baskets on the sides of the horse.
The massive animal stopped in front of Derrick. A whip cracked out of nowhere and hit him in the side of the head. He fell to the ground with an ungraceful thud. The dark figure got off the horse and untied Alina. Derrick knew what was to happen next. He tried to get up, but the wound on the side of his head had dazed him to the point of immobility. Derrick watched in horror as Alina was brutally raped. The figure clad in black armor struck a sobbing Alina in the back of her head, knocking her to the ground. Then, the monster moved towards a terrified Luminita. Derrick had to say something.
“Why are you doing this??” He screamed , frantic.
The figure in black stopped, turned and advanced towards Derrick. He kneeled, and grabbed the young bard by his shirt collar. Then Derrick saw the most horrifying thing yet: the black clad monster before him removed his helm, and showed his face….It was Derrick’s face, light flooding out of his eyes.
“You had them,” Said the monster, “Now it’s my turn.”
Derrick screamed louder than he ever had in his life. Suddenly, all was dark again, and he felt delicate hands on his chest. There were quick footsteps, and the lantern light returned, to show a nude and completely unharmed Alina before him. He looked at her, then at Luminita, both of whom had extremely concerned expressions on their faces.
It had all been just a horrid dream.
“I was…he was…” Derrick said, reality coming back to him and the dream fading away.
“I….it was just a dream.” He looked at the two worried sisters.
“I am…sorry, for waking you…”
They calmed down and rested next to him once more.
“What…what was it?” Asked Luminita.
Derrick thought hard. “I can’t remember.” He said. “But, it’s over now.”
And with that, the three went back to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Wake up!!!” Screamed a terrified female voice.
Derrick awoke to the sounds of total chaos. At first he wondered if this was merely another dream, but he soon got rid of that notion. Alina screamed at him: “We have to go!!!”
He got dressed faster than he ever had before, grabbed his lute and weapons and ran outside.
The sight he beheld was truly unbelievable. Walking corpses wielding swords were invading the city of Adrian! Derrick’s eyes began to glow, he could feel it. He looked at the sisters, both of whom were utterly terrified.
“Come on! Follow me!” He yelled over the din of battle. Deciding they had no better option, they followed Derrick, who did his very best to protect them from the walking dead.
“Which way is the quickest way out???”
“This way!!!” Alina yelled, pointing south.
Derrick and the two sisters powered their way through hordes of hollow, undead bodies and maneuvered their way past screaming townsfolk, leaving a wake of bones and rotten flesh in their wake. Eventually there was an exit, and the walking corpses became less and less. The horde was obviously attacking the city and only that. Derrick didn’t have time to wonder why; he had to get Alina and Luminita to safety. When he got them far enough away that the City of Adrian was a dark spot in the distance, and no living corpses could be seen, they stopped to take a breath. Nothing was said for a long time. They all turned and stared back at the city, smoke now billowing upwards from inside, and bowed their heads in sorrow.
All of a sudden, Derrick realized that Kerdik was most likely still in town. He thought about his options, then made his decision.
“I have to go back.” He said.
“What???” yelled the sisters in unison.
“My friend is in there. He can handle himself I’m sure, but I need to know if he’s alright.”
He looked at Alina and Luminita. “This is where we must part ways. Farewell.”
And with those final words, he ran back to the city, not once looking behind him at the shocked gypsy sisters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Derrick didn’t allow himself to wonder what would happen to the sisters. When thoughts would creep up and make their way in, he’d dismiss them by reminding himself that the girls had made it this far, and could surely handle themselves. Kerdik, however, was trapped in a city swarming with undead creatures. So, that was his main priority.
When he reached the gates, his eyes began to glow once more. The sight of fire and death surrounded him. He felt horrible about the ones that had fallen at the hands of a rotting skeleton, and tried not to imagine what it would be like to have that image as the last thing they saw – the image of a decrepit corpse smiling its hideous smile as it cuts them down.
The smell of rotten flesh became stronger as he got deeper into the city. He saw a corpse starting to attack a poor young woman, and he ran over as fast as he could. He swung his staff sideways, knocking the monster’s head off. The hideous creature stumbled about swinging its sword in a frenzied manner, without any sort of direction or aim. Even after decapitation, these creatures could still cause harm. He then brought down his staff on the still moving skeleton’s spine, shattering it. So, that was it: shatter the spine. He ran over to another skeleton, knocked off its head and shattered its spine. It was a fairly simple procedure. As he moved on it got easier and easier to do. He even incorporated tricks into it after a while, he’d decapitate two skeletons and attempt to shatter the spines simultaneously. They may have been many, but to a natural-born warrior they were easy to destroy. He began to fall into his role as a warrior, too – running and jumping off walls in order to gain momentum and tear through the shambling corpses more quickly. He almost had it down to an art form, until an excessively large and meaty corpse got in the way of one of his jumps, knocking him awkwardly out of the air. Derrick, slightly dazed, turned in time to see the giant corpse raise its extra large blade towards the sky. Right before the creature could bring it down, however, an arrow flew out of the smoke and hit it in the chest, throwing off its center of gravity. The thing let out an awful, blood curdling sound – some kind of hiss-scream – and took a step back. Suddenly Kerdik emerged from nowhere, jumping off the wall and using the momentum to cut the walking cadaver in half with his axe. Derrick, not wasting the moment, leapt to his feet and regained his composure. Kerdik seemed to have picked up on the same method - as he destroyed another monster, he aimed for the corpse’s spine also.
He turned to face Derrick. “Let’s get out of here!!!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.
Derrick yelled back, “What about the townsfolk?” as he ripped apart another corpse.
“There’s too many, no way we can help all of them!!! We’ll be killed too if we stay!!!”
They killed a few more live corpses as Derrick surveyed the city, now completely in shambles.
“Alright!!!” Yelled Derrick. “Let’s go!!!”
“Good man, follow me!!!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They managed to make it out of the city alive, and not more than slightly bruised. They began to walk as far away as they possibly could.
“What were those things?” asked Derrick.
“Hollow. I’ve never seen them before but I’ve heard tales. They are the minions of Shadowlords.”
“Shadowlords? Hollow? As in, from the Ancient War?”
“Yes. I’d never expect to see a real hollow in my life, but there they were.”
“And they work for the Shadowlords, which means there are Shadowlords, which means we may encounter one of them too…”
Kerdik shuddered.
“Let’s hope we don’t.”
They walked in silence for some time.
“We need help. If there are indeed Shadowlords behind this, those things aren’t going to just attack Adrian. There may be another war on our hands.” Said Derrick.
“….I hope there isn’t.” said Kerdik, looking Derrick in the eye. The young bard was surprised to see something he had yet to see in Kerdik: Fear.
Kerdik looked away. They walked on quietly, both pondering what that attack could have meant.
Finally, Kerdik looked up and said, “Nevertheless, we need to talk to the King about this. War or not, this is bigger than the two of us. And indeed, if there are Shadowlords behind this, these attacks will not cease, but get worse. I don’t want to think of it like this, but if there is a war on our hands, our country will need to be prepared.”
