This profile was copied automatically from the old chat.
Another entry in
The road was supposed to be safe.
Even if it wasn't the safest part of the country, the road was supposed to be safe! There were even soldiers with us, a full squad of armed men who should have been able to stop them.
Why couldn't they stop them?
"UP! Bandits in the camp!"
The cry was enough to rouse Gil and her brother from sleep. Before she could stop him, Jan was up and out of the tent's meager security. She was only a step behind, though she nearly tripped over him as she pushed out of the tent, he having stopped, frozen, only a foot outside. Blood was everywhere, and men with wickedly curved swords were hauling people over against a wagon, and callously executing those who resisted. The soldiers, whatever few that were left, must have been fighting elsewhere, to judge by the din of battle that still filled the air, but clearly, the camp had been overrun.
It took more than a few seconds for shock to clear the haze from her still-sleepy mind, and a thrill of panic and terror to run down her spine.
He was shaking, she noticed, eyes finally traveling down to her younger brother, mere inches in front of her. Was he terrified? She was, Gileantheri's blood running cold at the casual murders happening before her.
No, his shoulders were hunched up, hands balled into fists, just like when he was about to argue with her about something, like when he got angry. Laying a hand on his shoulder, she pulled at him. They'd have to run. No time even to stop and grab clothes or their belongings. Running was the only possible option. Fears of being sold into slavery, or, worse, being killed along with her brother sent adrenaline coursing into her, and she pulled, harder. But he wouldn't move. And, even over the screams and shouting, she could hear Jan saying something. It was quiet, but the words twisted in her head, chilling her blood.
What was this? It sounded almost like..
The impact was stunning, like standing right next to a lightning strike. Gileantheri staggered, blinded and deafened by the.. what was it? What happened? She groped, reaching, for Jan, shaking her head to try to clear the moths that seemed to have suddenly infested it.
"J-jan?" She yelled, as her vision resolved into blurry focus, and her hearing slowly began to return.
When, finally, Gil was able to see again, the scene presented to her was the furthest from what she could have expected. Her brother stood, unscathed, wisps of smoke curling from his clenched fists. The ground was scorched and charred in a rough circle ten feet wide, the space within, including herself and Jan, untouched, unscathed. The campground, or what had once been the campground, was in ruins. Tents, smashed and fallen in, were still smoldering, the wagons charred and aflame.
And the people. Few were moving, and even those were twitching, or writhing on the ground. All were covered in ash, some from their clothes, or their hair. The bandits nearer the circle of charred earth were barely recognizable as people anymore. The severity of the damage seemed to lessen, the further away from the source that the body lay.
The muttering, the circle on the ground, the impossible flame.. It all added up to one thing. One horrible, impossible thing.
"Jan, you.. you..." She stammered, reaching out to touch his shoulder gingerly. The simple touch seemed to stir her brother from his state, and he jerked, before groaning, and collapsing.
The sight terrified Gil, who was afraid whatever horrible thing had allowed him to do this had stolen life from him as well. But, it appeared, it had only exhausted him, as he lay unconscious but breathing.
Overwhelmed by the attack, and her brother's use of flame, she slid to the ground too, pulling Jan's head into her lap, and staring blankly at the ruins of the camp. Someone would come. Someone had to come...
================================================
Another contingent of soldiers found them, the only survivors of a caravan of over a hundred. The scene, horrific as it was, told a tale that Gil hadn't even thought of hiding. That, and the way her brother's hands still smoked, clenched tight even in unconsciousness.
If only she'd known to hide her brother's strangeness, how it would attract the attention of the soldiers. Or if she'd run, then and there, taking him with her!
Instead, Gileatheri found herself roughly seperated from her brother, and held, protesting, as he was bound with pitch-black manacles, and pitched over the back of a horse, whispered orders hurriedly passed back and forth, before the mounted man galloped off, her brother in tow.
If only..
"Jaaaaan!! No, where are you-" A mailed fist knocked her cleanly out, and her own limp form was dragged into a saddle. The soldiers made a clean search of the camp, executing any bandits still alive, and finding no other survivors.
"Alright. Let's head back. We need to report this, and get a full contingent to find these bastard's hideout."
================================================
