Chapter 2

I jump backwards and end up tripping, falling on my ass. I end up dropping everything in my hands but I quickly get back on my feet, grabbing the shield and the hand axe. I raise the axe and look towards the body. Well, it’s not a body anymore, the dead soldier I guess. Perhaps undead? The soldier isn’t moving anymore but that wasn’t just my imagination. There’s no way I imagined that. Holding the shield and the axe at the ready, I slowly circle around the soldier until I can see his frontside. His eyes are open and they’ve become white and murky. Seeing them makes me break out into a cold sweat. His mouth is slowly opening and closing as if he wants to speak. What is happening right now?

The dead soldier’s white eyes dart towards me and he slowly gets back to his feet. He slowly starts lumbering towards me. The way he’s standing and the way he’s moving is incredibly unnatural, as though he’s ignoring how awkward it would feel to move like that. Unnerving as hell. I slowly move towards him as well with my axe raised up high. I bring the axe down onto the top of his head and this seems to end his life, or maybe it ends his death. The rest of his body goes limp and I try to pull the embedded axe out of his skull. Right as I pull the axe out, his body twitches for just a single moment, as if he’s coming back to life, again. I’m already shaking like a leaf but this gets even worse and I can barely hold the axe in my hand.

Moving away from the body, I turn around and look all around myself. I can see movement from the corpse mounds. This can’t be happening. Think, what is this, why is this happening. I can’t think of anything. Wait. The horseman. The moon? Looking up, I see the most bizarre sight I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The moon is entirely red, a deep, dark, rich red as if the moon itself was bleeding. I can’t stay here. Fuck the armor, he can keep it. Running over to where I dropped the torch and picking it up, I keep my eyes on my surroundings making sure nothing is directly behind me. The dead soldier stands back up and that’s my cue to leave. I think this is the right way. I remember the forested area where the soldiers attacked us from and if I use that as a guide and keep it on my right hand side, I should be heading back to where we came from. I just hope Alain made it there safely. Wait, how long would he even wait there?

I slow down my pace as I head towards Alain’s meeting place. Even if he isn’t there anymore, Vilnau is still in this direction which is where I’d head to next. This is pretty dire though. I don’t have any food or water and I’m starting to get tired now. Hiding under the bodies and fighting the dead soldier kept me busy enough that I didn’t have the time to feel it then, but now that exhaustion is setting in whether I want it to or not.

We had breakfast at the rocky area right when we got up and then started marching right after we finished. We were attacked sometime in the afternoon and considering our marching speed was pretty slow overall, I should be able to get back there faster than when we marched from there. Thank the gods it's spring right now. If this was during the fall or winter, I’d freeze to death before anything else. Actually, my pants are pretty dry right now. I guess my piss dried up while all that was happening. I can barely even smell it now. I didn’t notice until now but the air smells clean again. My clothes and my hair still smell putrid but as long as I keep moving, I can ignore it for the most part.

After walking for a few minutes, there’s a pretty noticeable dirt path that I can follow. All that marching from all those levies did a pretty decent job here. Actually, maybe Lord Aldore just had us march on a route he already knew was here. Who knows? I do know that these boots are amazing though. They’re much better than the wraps I had on before. Gods bless the corpse I robbed.

It’s getting pretty late and I might not be able to sleep tonight. I was hoping I could go further toward the city’s center soon. Oh well. Looking up into the sky, I admire the red moon and wonder if it’s related to the dead soldiers coming back to life. Maybe Alain knows.

It takes me quite a few hours to reach Alain’s meeting point but I get there eventually. Looking around, I don’t see him. I also don’t want to call out to him in case there’s anyone else nearby that isn’t him. I hear rustling from a tree behind me and I quickly turn around, raising my shield and readying my axe. Alain pops his head out from the tree’s foliage, his short brown hair full of leaves, and waves towards me. He slowly climbs down from the tree branch he was sitting on and stands up straight, nearly half of a head taller than me. Walking over, I can see him putting a finger to his lips. He also gestures toward my torch and I stomp the flame out.

I whisper, “Is there anyone else around?”

“Nah, but I don’t want to take the chance. More importantly, you hurt? You’re covered in blood,” he says as his green eyes check me out from top to bottom.

“Nah, I think I got knocked out and woke up under a bunch of dead bodies. You tell anyone else to meet you here?”

“Yeah, I told a couple of the boys we know to meet up here while running around finding them but you’re the only one to show up. I think I saw you getting hit in the face with a shield and thought you died. I was going to wait here until tomorrow for the other guys. You showing up was a surprise.”

“I got lucky. Stabbed a soldier through his neck but he didn’t go down right away. Stood up like he didn’t feel a thing and smacked me in the side of the face with this shield.” I said, gesturing toward the shield in my hand. “By the way, when I was grabbing this shield after waking up, the fucker came back to life. You believe that?”

“‘Course, it's a blood moon. The dead won’t stay dead tonight. What are the fucking chances it happens the night we get attacked by Ribierian soldiers? We have to be the unluckiest bastards in the world. Also, I think I know how you lived. After seeing you get smacked, I saw a kid get up from the ground and stab a pitchfork through the guy’s neck.” Alain said as he imitated stabbing forward with a pitchfork.

“What happened to the kid?”

“Saw him get run through with a spear from someone else.”

“Damn… I saved his life from the shield guy and then he saved mine. Fucking tragic. You know that kid joined the army so he could save money to save his dying mother?”

“Shit really? That’s sad as all hells. So what do you want to do, Augustine? Stay here for a while and see if anyone else survived or do you want to leave? I’m going back to my village regardless, I’m done being a soldier.”

“Oh, uhh, right. Shit. That means we’re deserters now right? Fuck, I even remember Sir Serra telling all the levies that deserters would be executed gruesomely. Something about pikes too, fuck. Godsdamnit, what am I going to do now?”

“Mm, we’re not deserters until we refuse to go back to the army I think. Everyone else ran away, they’re not going to find every single person and execute them. Well, hopefully not but if we show up in a big town in the future they’ll arrest us and maybe kill us on the spot.” Alain said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter to me though, I’m going back to my village and staying there for the rest of my life with my dad.”

“At least you have it figured out. I don’t have a place to go back to and I’d rather die than go back where I was before. I don’t want to go back to the army either, if we were the ones on the left side column of the march, we’d already be dead. We’re nothing but fodder to the nobles. We gave up our lives and our blood just to keep the nobles safe. Even if I went back, I’ll just end up dying meaninglessly somewhere else. I’m not going back.”

“If you want, you can stay with me and my dad. Our house isn’t anything special but we can find a spot for you.”

“...Thanks man, I really appreciate that. Should probably tell you this but my name’s not Augustine, it’s Isaac. When I signed up for recruitment I lied about being 15 winters and used Augustine as a fake name in case they ever found out my age.”

“Wait, how old are you?”

“I’m 14, so just a winter too young for recruitment this year, but I couldn’t wait another winter to get out of that house. Augustine is the landlord who took me in when I was a kid but the fucker has a temper. Take your left hand’s fingers and fold them up with your fingertips touching the top of your palm, like this. See my ring and pinky finger? They don’t point straight down anymore because one night he broke both of them and they healed wrong, pointing in different directions.”

“That’s fucking awful, shit. Fuck, I should’ve used a different name. That’s so stupid of me.”

“Nah, if they ever found out you’d be fucked. Also, whatever fame or renown you get would get put under that name. Using a fake name is a last resort, desperate kind of thing.”

“Ehh, it doesn't matter. If I used a fake name at least I wouldn’t be a deserter. All they’d know would be how old I am and what I look like. There has to be thousands of kids that look just like me.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Do you have any food? I haven’t had anything since this morning and I’ve been busy running away from dead soldiers and shit.”

“I have some berries here, my dad’s a woodcutter and when I was a kid he taught me what I can eat and what I can’t in the forest.”

“Thanks, have any water?”

“Remember the stream past that hill we used this morning? Just use that. If we’re going back to my village, it’s going to take around five days and we’ll have to stop by any streams or rivers we find for water and then get whatever food we can from the forest.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in a bit. I’ll probably wash up too, get all this filth off me. Wait, should I be worried about that blood moon thing if I’m going to the stream?”

“You really don’t know about the blood moon? All it does is make the recently dead come back to life and make monsters more aggressive. If you stay out of the forests you’ll be fine. Stay away from animals just in case, some monsters look like normal animals from far away.”

“Got it, thanks. Augustine kept me locked up in his barn at night, seeing the moon was rare by itself, never seen or heard of a blood moon though. If I ever get the chance, I’ll slam this axe right into his fat belly.”

I walked towards the stream Alain pointed me towards, munching on the black berries he gave me along the way. A little sour, but not bad. When I reach the stream, the blood moon is directly above me, giving off enough light that I can barely see my reflection in the water. Blood and grime covers the entirety of my face but my green eyes stand out from the filth. Having the same eye color as Alain was what led to us speaking with each other in the first place. We only kept talking because we found out we were pretty similar in a lot of ways. Especially in our cursing. The kid swears every other word and whenever I spoke, I noticed I started swearing more as well when he was around. I guess the company you keep around yourself influences you whether you want it to or not.

The blood in my hair doesn’t really change the way it looks. My blood red hair is one of the main reasons why no one else at Abermock took me in and since Augustine had the biggest farm in the village, he was always willing to take in orphans like me for more farm hands. Well, farm hands was the nice way of saying it but we were just Augustine’s slaves living in his barn. He even called us his wage free workers. The bastard. I guess my hair color made the other villagers think of the god of blood, one of the evil gods, and they stayed away from me. I’d have preferred that over the beatings.

After washing off the filth on my face and in my hair, I spot a handsome young man staring back at me. Hey, it’s my face and I like it. Alain has a face that you don’t mind staring at for a whole day. Thomas always had a smile on his face and no matter how bad your mood was, sitting next to him around the campfire made you feel better instantly. Although he was older than most of us and said he was in his late twenties, he wasn’t a snob about it and took care of all the others like a big brother. I’m gonna miss him. I’m pretty sure I saw Charles in the same corpse mound as Thomas when I was checking the bodies for boots. Charles had a face that sort of ticked people off in the wrong way. It didn’t help that he had a nasally voice and always talked badly about others behind their backs. I’m not gonna miss him.

Once I drank my fill, I stood up and was about to head back to Alain when I spotted a white rabbit across the stream from me. Looking over, I can actually see an entire group of rabbits drinking from the stream on the other side. I don’t really have a reaction to them until I see the wings. Every single rabbit has a pair of white bird wings on their backs, some folded up, others spread wide. I scramble to pick up the shield and axe I tossed aside earlier and put up my guard, watching the rabbits cautiously. I think the noise I made scared them off as a few of them turned around and ran away while the rest started to flap their wings and slowly glided away from the stream. I guess they’re not the aggressive ones around here. Right as I’m about to relax my arms, I hear something running up behind me.

Turning around with my shield raised up, something hits my shield and knocks it out of my hands. Although whatever hit me wasn’t too strong, my grip on the handle wasn’t strong enough and it made me drop the whole thing. It probably didn’t help that my hand was sweating from the rabbits either. After dropping my shield, I swing the axe in my right hand and miss whatever attacked me completely. Before I can fully see what’s attacking me, it rushes at me again and raises its club wanting to smash in my chest. It’s short, green, and kind of looks like a human child. Why is there a goblin here? I’ve never seen one before but the villagers at Abermock talked about them sometimes and used them to scare kids. If you don’t finish your chores before dinner, I’ll leave you by yourself out in the forest where the goblins will eat you. Fuck this, I’m running away.

Before the goblin can hit me, I turn around and start running. Looking back I can see it chasing me, but I’m definitely faster than it. I really don’t want to leave that shield. Turning right, I run in a circular arc back to the shield and snatch it off the ground. Okay, second chance. This time I grip the shield as hard as I can with my left hand and wait for the goblin to reach me. This isn’t a soldier, it’s a goblin. Even the adults in Abermock could deal with goblins, why can’t I? This time I can fully see what I’m up against. It still looks like a human child, just green… misshapen… and ugly. The top of its bald head can probably reach my waist. Its long, sharp ears are pretty noticeable. Its eyes are pretty big compared to its head and where the eyes should be white like people, its eyes are yellow. The center of its eyes is pure black, unnerving me slightly. It has two arms and two legs, though they look a bit short on that small body. Its hands and feet have sharp, yellow nails that I would prefer staying away from. I can see its fat belly as well, it reminds me of Augustine somehow. Below that belly I can see the goblin’s cock. I just noticed but apparently the little monster is completely naked, and has a cock. I don’t know why that’s so surprising to me. I mean all monsters are born in some way right? It makes sense they have cocks as well.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, the goblin finally reaches me and slams his wooden club into my shield. This time I’m able to hold steady against his strike. He probably should have tried to hit something else, but he might have expected me to drop my shield again. Wait, how smart are goblins? Right when I feel impact from the shield, I swing my axe from the side and feel impact there as well. I had to bend my knees slightly and adjust where I swung otherwise I was going to miss again. I don’t know where you’re supposed to be looking while you’re fighting and the entire time I’ve been staring into the goblin’s eyes. The anger on its face is quite human-like. From this close up, I can see blood red veins on the yellow part of its eyes. When I hit it with the axe, it shut its eyes from the pain. I also heard it yelp when the axe landed. I wasn’t sure how to follow up after hitting it with the axe, I didn’t think this far ahead. I sort of just stepped backwards with my shield and axe raised high.

Looking at the goblin prostrated on the ground in pain, I see its left arm lying on the ground right beneath it in a pool of red blood. Holy shit that was a good swing. I didn’t realize it before but cutting the goblin’s arm off covered my axe in blood and my grip’s a little slippery. Before long, the goblin grabs its club back up and slowly stands back up before lumbering towards me. There’s an empty look in its eyes this time and I can even see tears rolling down its face. Interesting. When it reaches me, it swings its club again, but this time, there’s no strength behind it and I swing the axe again, this time aiming for its head. My small hand axe, normally meant for tree branches, lodges itself halfway through the goblin’s neck, getting itself stuck. I need to work on my aim. The goblin loses all strength and goes limp, falling backwards and taking my axe along with it.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I turn around and make sure I’m all alone before stepping on the goblin’s chest and yanking the axe loose. Once it’s out, I wince from the pain in my hand. It looks like I used too much power swinging that axe and the skin between my pointer finger and thumb tore slightly. I guess I’m more used to swinging a hoe rather than an axe. The stream’s cool water feels great against the cut and I walk back to my first kill.

Seeing the goblin lying there staring at the sky with its lifeless eyes sends my feelings into turmoil. The hell is wrong with me? It’s a goblin for the gods’ sake. Ignoring those feelings, I grab the club and start heading back to Alain before stopping abruptly. Hmm. The dead won’t stay dead tonight. Does this apply to goblins as well? Might as well. Walking back to the goblin, I kneel down next to it and hover the axe over the remaining part of its neck still attached to the head. Raising it up for a better swing, I manage to sever the neck, sending the head rolling away. Finally I get back up and start making my way to Alain again before stopping abruptly, once again. Hmm.