A Flower Blooms - A Prologue To RtW

The sky was still dark, though the hint of light was beginning to appear from over the horizon. Already, the witches were hiking up the path slowly and quietly. They stuck close to the rock face as they moved closer to the cave entrance. As they finally approached the den, Rachel prepared her projectile to strike at any waiting scout.

However, there was no one waiting outside the cliff entrance, and the sun was now beginning to rise up. The sky brightened, but Jane motioned for everyone to wait. Still, no one emerged.

Finally, Jane gave the command. "Claire, fill the cave with fire."

The witch obeyed and flames began coiling around her, forming into a long stream. Then, it shot out into the cave. Though the flame was out of sight, Zero could imagine it twisting its way through the cavity in the rock, burning through anything in its way.

However, there were no screams heard, nor the clanking of people making a mad scramble for weapons. Instead, there was growling.

Noticing something was wrong, Jane immediately shouted out. "Back up and prepare to defend." Then she retreated toward the back of the group.

Several demonic beasts climbed out of the cave. One looked like its fur was slightly burnt, but it was clearly more enraged than actually impeded. They turned toward the group and immediately ran forward.

Several metal balls shot through the sky and battered the beasts. The creatures growled as their faces were pelted and smashed by the objects, but after spending a few moments swatting them away, they continued their attack.

Zero raised her sword as the closest creature rushed toward her. She ducked to the side to avoid the charge and sliced sideways, scoring a cut in the side of the beast. But that wasn't enough to stop it. It swiped its claw toward her, and she blocked it with her sword while letting the force of the strike move her backwards. Though she avoided the brunt of the strike, her arms still stung from the impact.

The creature reared up, presenting an imposing figure. The dark fur of the beast contrasted against the sky as it reared up. Its body was as thick as a large tree and it cast a long shadow in the morning light.

The beast came at her again and she moved out of its path once more as she prepared to strike at it again. But this time, the beast shifted at the last moment, directly blocking the hit and stopping Zero in her tracks. It shifted its weight forward to attack, but it stumbled as one of Rachel's metal balls hit it in the face.

She backed up a few steps, circling around to the side of the creature. Then, she stepped forward, making another long cut. Zero danced back afterwards, avoiding the beast's thrashing. The creature turned toward her, growling in anger as it fixated totally on the target in front of it. It ran forward toward her in a direct rush.

As the demonic beast approached, Zero jumped to the side, causing the creature to miss her. In its charge, it stumbled on a rock in the ground behind Zero, causing it to fall to the ground. Zero took advantage of this distraction to dart forward, slicing at its neck.

The beast tried to avoid it, but the sword still left a deep gouge in its flesh. It made another attempt to attack as it was bleeding out, but this time Zero was easily able to dodge it. The creature fell to the ground, and Zero stepped forward and stabbed it through the eye.

With the creature killed, Zero stepped back and took in the situation. There was a demonic beast standing motionless. Elaine had frozen it to take it out of the battle for the time being. Meanwhile, Kelly was trading blows with a demonic beast. She was blocking its claws with the sleeves of her coat, and it seemed to be enough to hold it off.

Then, Kelly quickly rolled out of the way as Claire blasted the creature with a stream of fire. It caught alight and howled as it tried to run forward. Its charge was stopped by Rachel's timely intervention, and a few steps later it fell dead.

The last demonic beast finally unfroze and it began attacking once more. Zero ran toward it, catching its attention as she slashed open its side. It chased after her, and she jumped out of the way as it careened past her. A jet of flame hit the creature, but it managed to stumble behind a rock for shelter.

That didn't save it however. It was already heavily injured, but as it was regaining its bearing after escaping from the flames, Zero jumped onto the rock before dropping down, stabbing the beast through. Finally, the area fell silent.

"We should check the cave," Jane said. "The demonic beasts should have all been lured out, but we should check to be sure. Be careful in case there still is one lurking in there."

They entered the cave cautiously as Claire lit a fire to provide some lighting. There was a burnt corpse of a demonic beast laying near the entrance. There wasn't much else to see, so they moved deeper into the cave. Then, they came upon a gruesome sight.

There were bloody bones scattered across the ground along with pieces of torn flesh. There were multiple bodies lying on the ground, mangled beyond recognition.

For a few moments the group stared at the bodies silently. Then, Jane spoke. "It looks like these were the villagers. Unfortunately we were on the wrong trail. There aren't any weapons here, so they are not the bandits we are looking for. Still, it was good that we managed to eliminate the demonic beasts before they could cause more damage."

Why would the demonic beasts be out here?" Elaine asked. "More guards may be necessary to protect these villages."

"Unfortunately, that won't be possible," Jane said. "The demonic beasts normally don't make it this deep into human territory. The soldiers in the front lines are normally able to stop them from passing. But this year it seems that there were so many of them that some slipped past. And the fact that we are under so much pressure means that no help can be dispatched."

"Then if we hadn't killed these creatures, they would probably be roaming around for quite a while wouldn't they," Zero noted. "There might even be more out there."

"That is true, but we have to stay focused on our primary task first," Jane said. "We've reached a dead end right now, so we are going to have to look again. There isn't any point in doubling back and searching from the start. Any trail has long since gone cold. We should go visit some other villages for information" She led them outside and began looking around.

"Which direction shall we head in?" Claire asked.

"From the map, we should be around here somewhere. We should first head to this town." Jane pointed toward the southwest. "It should be in that direction."

They returned to the camp site and gathered up their supplies. Then, they began walking again.

***

It had been two days since they had stumbled upon the demonic beasts. They had traveled along the forest trail. Finally, they were about to reach the village.

"The village is just ahead, but I'll go up alone first to check things out," Jane said. "A group of women traveling like us would be very suspicious, so I'll just go in myself and pretend to be a part of a larger group of refugees. With the disturbances recently, there are bound to be unfamiliar faces around. I'll get some information and come back."

As Jane walked off, Elaine sat down on a nearby rock, followed by the rest of the witches taking off their packs as well and resting. "I guess it will be a while before she gets back," Elaine said.

"I hope she doesn't run into any trouble," Zero said. "Who knows what might happen."

"I am confident she knows how to take care of herself," Claire said. "Since she decided on this course of action, it will be alright. We should be more worried about someone finding us. We aren't exactly inconspicuous."

"Any random traveler might come across us I suppose," Rachel mused. "Though I don't think there would be any in this weather."

A little later, they heard footsteps. They tensed up as they began thinking of what to say to whatever traveler was coming. But as it turned out, Jane had already returned.

"Let's go," Jane said.

"You are back early. What happened?" Zero asked.

"The bandits got here first. We will be going after them now." Jane turned around and began leading them toward the village.

As they exited from under the trees, the village began to come into sight, or at least, what remained of it.

In the place of houses were instead blackened husks, the burnt out remains of the wooden structures. The entire village was silent, save for the sounds of the wind. To the sides there were bodies laying around, the wounds caused by swords and spears clear.

The bodies were unburied and not covered by anything, not even a dusting of snow. The state of them was quite clear, and there could be no doubt as to what the cause of death was. They were killed by other people. And it was quite recent.

"There are many monsters in the world," Jane said. "The beasts we fought before would be called monstrous by most. Yet, that is not all. The darkness in the hearts of men can create those who are no less monstrous. The result of that is what you see here. There are many whose duties are to fight against evil of all kinds. We too have those duties. We are a precise instrument, excising this infestation from the world. Now, is everyone ready to do their part?" Jane glanced toward Zero.

"Of course," Zero replied, being the first to speak up. "Though this is my first time carrying out these duties, it is at the same time also familiar to me. I am ready for this."

"I will do as I am commanded," Claire said.

"Of course we must bring justice to the criminals," Rachel added. "They must not be allowed to continue with their vile actions."

"Once we get to them, they won't last long. They won't know what hit them," Elaine said.

Kelly nodded.

"Great, let's get going quickly. The faster we start, the closer we will get to tracking them down," Jane said.

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