Chapter 1
Those Who Threaten Our Land came back today. No matter how many times I warn my people of the danger, they always come back by invitation. Do my people not know what happened to our eastern neighbors, Those Who Dwell in The Mountains? I’ve told them of my recent journey there, but they don’t believe me; my stories of their destruction and ruination hold no heed for the rest of my people, for I am just the resident crazy person, apparently. Even when I went there and back, returning with proof—a jacket identical to ones Those Who Threaten Our Land wear—they still didn’t believe me, my pleas falling on ears, as I now know, not known for hearing contradictory ideas.
I’ve been preparing for the worst now. If I can’t save my people, I can at least save my family—at least, those who I still have. Only my mother humors me; my father and cousins, mainly my father, treat me with contempt for disrespecting our new so-called friends. My cousins ignore what I say because it’s uncomfortable. I finished the tunnel that goes from our house to the bottom of the cliff we are on a couple of days ago. Which, even if Those Who Threaten Our Land didn’t exist, is good to have due to the occasional raiders. I’ve built a small, closed-off room down at the tunnel’s exit that’s full of supplied backpacks. The room has a main wooden loading bearing beam and some oil in it, so once everyone is through, I can light it up so the room and exit will collapse, preventing anyone from following us. I’m hoping that when Those Who Threaten Our Land do eventually attack, I can convince more than my mother to follow me so as to be able to carry more supplies for the inevitable trek. Now, all I have to do is wait for the inevitable.
It was dinner that night when the screaming started.
Everyone at the dinner table froze—my mother, father, cousins, and I. I was the first to react, getting up and moving to the trapdoor entrance, opening it in case this was the attack I’d been dreading.
“What was that?” My father asked no one in particular.
“Probably the Hiarot family, you know how—” An explosion, closer than the screaming, cut off my mother.
“If you want to survive, follow me.” I said, climbing down the ladder. I hope at least some of them follow me.
“Hey, wait!” my father yelled after me, “What about our neighbors?”
“If you must, stick to those next to us. I don’t have enough supplies for anything more than that. I will warn you, leaving now is the only chance for guaranteed survival.”
My cousins, paralyzed in shock, all came alive at the word survival. They scrambled from the table, plates, and utensils smashing onto the floor, running towards the trapdoor. I flattened myself to one side to let them through. They all quickly filed through, with the oldest one going last. He paused next to me for a second, then asked, “How did you know this would happen?”
I stared at him incredulously. He sighed, continuing his climb down, murmuring, “Right. Should’ve listened.”
I forced myself not to feel pride from that, for now is not the time. I peeked over the trapdoor entrance and yelled, “Mom, are you coming or not?”
She was standing at the doorframe, watching something, “Your father is currently at the door of the Raluj family.”
“Oh, good,” I replied sarcastically, “The family who never gave my warnings a once of thought are going to come with us, what joy.“
She turned around to glare at me, then turned back to track my dad’s progress, “They’re running this way.”
“All of them?”
“Seems so.”
“If you all aren’t climbing down here in 1 minute, I’m blocking the exit.” I climbed down to the bottom of the tunnel, where my cousins were waiting for me.
“What’s with the hold up?” the oldest one asked.
“The Raluj might be joining us,” I replied. “Did any of you touch the backpacks?”
The youngest sighed, “No, why would we? We don’t know what’s in them.”
“Grab the blacks one that are on the left. They are all full of food. Don’t grab any others yet.”
They all hurried to follow my instructions, and I looked up the shaft, anxious. No one is climbing down.
Worried, I follow my cousins to the storage room, finding all of them just outside it, adjusting their backpacks to be comfortable. I nod to them, then turn around, walk back to the ladder, and look up again.
The trapdoor is now closed, with my mother and the Raluj daughter climbing down the ladder. Worried, I wait for them to climb down.
“What happened?” I ask once they are down, “Where is everyone else?”
“Dead.” My mother replied, her face akin to a stone mask, “Those Who Destroyed Our Home came running towards them and started attacking. She only made it because she was blocked from sight by everyone else and managed to run away.“
I stared, shocked for a moment, then violently shook myself to clear my head. “Shit,” I mumbled. Then, louder, I asked, “Are they currently in our house?”
“Probably. I moved the table over the trapdoor before I entered and locked it.”
“Good that you found the lock. Should give us enough time to get far away.” I stood silently for a second, debating what to do. “Follow me,” I said, then started walking towards the supply room. I looked back to see the Raluj daughter blankly staring at the wall, not having moved. I turned towards my Mom, “Mom, tell the cousins to grab 2 yellow backpacks and a green one. You, grab another green one and a purple one. If they ask, the yellow ones have hunting supplies, the green ones have cooking supplies, and the purple ones have sleeping supplies.”
She nodded, “Got it.” then ran towards them.
I went back to the Raluj daughter, who was still staring blankly at the wall. I put my hand on her shoulder, gently shook her, and said, “I hate to say this, but now’s not the time to grieve. We need to get to a safe place. Once we’re there, you can grieve all you want. We all will.”
She continued staring at the wall for a second, then looked at me. She opened her mouth for a second, then closed it and shook her head as if she didn’t trust herself to speak. Then, slowly, she began to walk towards the exit and storage room. I followed her there.
Once in the storage room, I grabbed two purple backpacks and went back out to the hall. My Mom stood there, explaining what happened to my cousins. They all stood there with varying expressions of shock, none of them taking it particularly well. Justifiably so. The Raluj daughter walked up beside me, carrying the last two backpacks—both gray. She looked at me and said, “Thank you.”
I nodded, not knowing what else to say, then turned towards my remaining family, “Time to leave, everyone. Once you exit, there will be a tree stump to your right. I will meet you there after I collapse this tunnel to make sure no one can follow us.”
Everyone nodded except my oldest cousin, who asked, “What about everyone who could be alive?”
“If they were already near our house when we left, everyone else is probably dead. Now, go!”
They all started walking towards the exit. The Raluj daughter paused at my side for a second as if to say something, then quickly walked to join up with the rest of the group. I walked back towards the storage room, grabbed the oil and lighter I had stored, doused the load-bearing beam with the oil, then set it alight. When walking towards the exit, I could already hear the beam groaning.
I felt a wave of air pass over behind me when I walked out of the tunnel. I looked back to confirm the tunnel had collapsed, and it had. I turned to see everyone looking at me expectantly.
“Where to now?” my Mom asked.
“My plan is to head to our western neighbors, Those Who Live Off The Plains,” I replied. “Once we get there, I don’t know. Rest, definitely. But should we stay there? I don’t now.”
“I have some relatives from there,” the Raluj daughter said, her voice still quiet, “They might be able help us.”
“Well, now that sounds like a plan. Off we go?” I asked.
Everyone nodded in assent, so we walked towards our faraway neighbors, knowing that we had just spent our last day in what we all had called our home for our entire lives.
Chapter 2
Even though our town is right next to this forest, people rarely ever go into it because, well, it is at the bottom of a cliff with no easy path down. And no one really had a reason to go to it due to there being much better wood a medium length walk starting from the other side of the town. And this forest isn’t the most friendly—one of its main features is its high amount of poisonous plants and animals. What’s nice, in a twisted sense, is that it is really hard to get poisoned through the skin in the forest; most of the plants and animals’ effects only occur through ingestion, or if you get it into your bloodstream. This doesn’t mean, however, that there is no wildlife that doesn’t transmit its poison this way, albeit rare.
We were experiencing the forest’s displeasure firsthand when the rough path I had created had managed to cover itself in one of the few plants that shouldn’t be touched: hardfringe vine. It was originally discovered in a nearby desert where it was thriving, giving it its name. Then through sheer dumb luck—or misfortune, if you look at it from literally any living being’s perspective—the planet managed to escape the desert, becoming a scourge to the surrounding communities, including us. While I am slightly exaggerating that it ‘shouldn’t be touched’, it can give painful rashes that last for days almost immediately after contact, with severe cases having the rashes never go away–with the permanent rashes giving no pain, luckily—or you could have zero effects at all when touching it.
“Hey Ithrik, I’m pretty sure our path is completely blocked by some hardfringe vine.” Cabel, my oldest cousin, called to me from up ahead where he was scouting.
“What you do you mean ‘completely blocked’,” I called back, “I walked this path only a month ago.” I quickly moved my way up to him, far out front of the rest of the group. “Oh, that’s how.”
In only the month I had left this path alone, a large swath of hardfringe vine had overtaken an area of the forest so large that it was impossible to see where it ended.
I sighed, “I must’ve missed a small patch of it when creating this path. Shit.”
My Mom walked up to both of us, “What’s going on—Oh, never mind. I see. Well, I came over to tell you that Rithbel is complaining—“ she coughed, ”Sorry, saying that Rithbel is talking about setting up camp soon.”
“The youngest of us, and yet the most tired,” Cabel chuckled, “I assume that cough was on purpose?”
“Only slightly,” my Mom said with a smile, “This forest isn’t treating my lungs with an ounce of respect.”
“Well,” I said, “Good time as any to make camp, seeing that the sun is in fast decline. I was hoping to get to the camp site I made that’s only a little further ahead, but that’s fine.”
“I’ll tell the rest of the good news.” Cabel said, then ran back to the rest.
While walking back to the soon-to-be campsite, I asked my Mom, “Do you know of what could’ve caused the hardfringe to spread this fast? I only know that it spreads this quickly when provoked, but not this quickly.”
“How fast?” My Mom asked.
“Less than a month.”
Her eyes squinted in thought, “Well, Farmer Kuylut had an infestation of the stuff appear randomly one day years back. It took almost an entire month to get rid of all of it, with multiple people getting really bad rashes due to us not being familiar with it. We we’re luck to get no permanent rashes. This growth might have a similar cause.”
“Any idea of on what caused Farmer Kuylut’s infestation?”
“Nope. Unsolved and unknown to this day. Your father spent some years trying to figure it out, if you remember. You might’ve been too young, though.”
“I’ll make sure to ask … him …” I trailed off, having forgotten the earlier events of today until now. “Shit,” I mumbled. Then, voice creaking slightly, “Let’s get to making camp, shall we?”
Since both my Mom and I carried all of the supplies needed to set up camp, everyone else was waiting for us to start. No one except Cabel was speaking, who was trying to start a conversation with Rithbel and Wrylen, the Riluj daughter, to no avail. Rithbel’s head was drooping in exhaustion and Wrylen was staring at nothing, mind still replaying the horrors of this morning.
Arriving at our soon-to-be campsite, I noticed Ylbel, the middle cousin, was missing. I wasn’t too worried since I had just seen them before talking to Cabel, but I was still worried.
“Where did Ylbel go?” I asked Cabel.
“They said they’re going to get firewood.” Cabel replied.
“That’s good. I did pack one of those portable cookers we got from the town over, so we shouldn’t have to use as much firewood compared to a normal campfire,” I replied, “Wait, since when did Ylbel know how to find firewood?”
“Since they went looking for some about 2 minutes ago.”
“I told them the basics and what to avoid,” Rithbel interjected, voice quiet, “That should be enough for now.”
“Besides, I think it’s mainly for some alone time.” Cabel said.
“Yeah, that’s entirely fair,” I replied, “Well, we can start setting up without them”
Setting up camp went as smoothly as it could have given how not ideal our spot was. Since Cabel and Wrylen both didn’t know how to set up anything in a campsite, I showed them how to do almost everything—find a good spot for a tent, place the supports for the tent (I packed tents that are basically patch-worked hides held up with a couple nice, wooden sticks. If no good sticks can be found, they can be easily used as sleeping bags. Not the most comfortable, but one of the most durable and easy to transport), etc—and by the time I finished showing them how to do everything, my Mom and Rithbel had set up tents for everyone else and made a spot for a campfire. Ylbel still hadn’t come back from gathering firewood.
“Hey Cabel,” I asked, “Do you know which direction Ylbel went?”
“Uh, maybe?” He spun around, trying to remember. “You see those trees over there in the distance that kinda look like they’re creating an arch?”
I looked in the direction he was pointing, “Yes.”
“They went that way, I think.”
I nodded and said, “Thanks. I’ll be back soon.” Then headed off in the direction Cabel pointed to.
The hardfringe vine hadn’t seemed to infest this area of the woods yet, even though a short walk to the right revealed the patch of hardfringe vine that was blocking our path. Whatever the reason for it to spot where it did, it gave me something to think about while I was walking to the arch made by the trees. Once there, I started calling out Ylbel’s name.
“Ylbel, where are you?” I projected, “Everyone’s getting worried.”
Once I was certain I had heard no response, I started walking forward, through the arched trees, calling out Ylbel’s name left and right, hoping for an answer. I continued like this for about 5 minutes, growing increasingly worried, until, when I was just about to call their name again, I heard quiet sobbing to my right. Immediately, I ran to it, finding Ylbel sitting on a rock next to some firewood, sobbing their lungs out.
I walked up next to them and said, “Hey Ylbel, you all right?” Then immediately regretted saying that because they were so obviously not all right. Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice me or what I said, so I just leaned over and hugged them, trying to convey all of the sympathy I had.
That they did notice, since after I hugged them, they hugged me back and continued sobbing. After an indeterminate period of time, with them sitting on the rock and I standing next to it, their tears began to slowly dry up, then stop.
Then they slowly disentangled themselves from me and said, softly, “Thank you.”
“Anytime,” I replied.
They sat on the rock for a second, silent, then said, voice still a little creaky, “While I was gathering wood, I randomly thought, ‘This would be a fun activity to do with Dad’, then, well … I realized that would never happen.” They sat silently again for a bit, “I think I’m fine now, but I don’t really know.”
“Well, you’re better than you were a couple minutes ago,” I replied, “So that’s good. Just remember, I—we, all of us—are here for you.”
They smiled, “Thank you. And so am I for all of you.” Then they stared at the firewood for a bit. “I think we should bring this back now.”
“Agreed.” I said, “By the way, I packed a portable cooker, so this—the gathering of firewood, not the sobbing alone on a rock—won’t be necessary all the time.”
They perked up a little, “Neat! I’ve always loved those things; they’re so cool.”
I smiled and chuckled, “Please don’t tinker with this one, even though I know you want to.”
That got a slight smile out of them, “I’ll do my best,” They said while picking up the firewood, “By the way, are you all right? Need a shoulder to cry on like I did?”
“No, not yet,” I replied, then chuckled dryly, “I’ll probably not be able to sleep tonight, though, so if you hear someone pacing around the campsite, it’ll probably be me.”
“Good to know so I don’t assume its a monster prowling around,” they said, securing the firewood around their arm, then started walking back towards the campsite.
We walked in silence together for most of the walk back, the sounds of the forest calming me down. I’ve always loved nature, and especially loved exploring—something that got me in lots of trouble as a kid—so this walk was a nice reprise of my earlier escapades.
Nearing the end of our walk back, Ylbel asked, seemingly randomly, “Have you walked the path to Those Who Live Off The Plains before?”
“Partly,” I replied, “The path out of the woods, yes, many times; past the woods I have not really traveled. That’s why I brought a map.”
“That’s good. I was worrying that we didn’t really know where to go.”
“Only slight.”
“Wonderful.” They said. “Oh, one more thing, are there any settlements between us and Those Who Live Off The Plains?”
“No,” I replied, “The map that I got is pretty recent, and besides, the land isn’t the most inhabitable, so that why—”
“Hey Ylbel! Hey Ithrik! You’re back!” Cabel interrupted, spotting us from his seat at the edge of the camp, “How’d the wood collecting go?”
I shot a glance at Ylbel, trying to see if they were fine with me saying what happened, who then responded, “It was going good, but then I spent a good period of time sobbing on a rock. So, overall, not terrible.”
“You should show me that rock sometime,” Cabel replied. “Oh, Ithrik, your Mom found the hunting supplies and shot down an athrel. She’s currently trying to set up the portable cooker.”
I looked over Cabel’s shoulder, finding my mother staring at the two pieces of the pot and burner pan that make up the portable cooker, “I see. I’ll go help her.”
I left Ylbel with Cabel, then walked over to the center of the camp and sat down.
“Is Ylbel all right?” she asked.
“Yes, they just needed some time to let it all out,” I responded.
“Good, good. I think the portable cooker is broken.”
“What?” I looked down at the pieces. The two pieces of the pot looked all right. The burner pan, however, looked dented. I picked it up, examining it, “Damn it.”
“I tried it out,” she said, “and the oil doesn’t flow to the middle section of the pan anymore, so it’s practically useless.”
I sighed, “Well, we still have the pot, I guess. Hey Ylbel, we have a use for the firewood tonight.”
Ylbel looked over from their conversation with Cabel, then walked over. “What did you say? I couldn’t quite hear you.”
“The burner pan of the portable cooker is broken, so we need to use the firewood instead.”
They looked down at the firewood they were carrying, then back at me, “I kind of forgot I was carrying this,” they said, then dropped all of it.
Ylbel and I set up the fire (It was more like I coached them through the making of a cooking fire) while my mother dissected the athrel, discarding the inedible bits by flinging them as hard as she could through the trees. After not too long, we had a stew made from dried vegetables, athrel meat, and some water being cooked up by a healthy fire. Cabel, Ylbel, my Mom, and I sat by the fire, waiting for the stew to finish cooking.
“Where are Rithbel and Wrylen?” I asked after realizing I hadn’t seen either of them since I came back from finding Ylbel.
“They both went to sleep shortly after we set up the tents.” My Mom replied. “Rithbel wanted to help more after setting up the tents, but he was clearly exhausted, so I forced him to sleep. Wrylen, on the other hand, just disappeared into ones of the tents as soon as all three of them were up.”
I grunted in reply, not knowing how to follow up after her reply. The conversation stopped after that, with all of us just sitting around the stew pot, waiting for it to finish cooking. The sounds of the forest complimented the crackling of the fire and boiling stew as if the insects themselves were weaving a melody out of the fire, the occasional popping of the stew the only interruption. We continued listening to this impromptu song for a while until, after some time, the stew was finally complete. We all had some, of course, but even though it was good, I still didn’t really taste anything since my mind was wandering.
After we had all eaten our fill, we silently went into the tents, ready as we’ll ever be for the first night of our journey to Those Who Live Off The Plains. Ylbel, who I correctly assumed I was sharing a tent with, lay down on one side of the tent, adjusted themselves until they were comfortable, and then instantly fell asleep. I still don’t know how they do that. Ever since their childhood, they’ve always had this ability to fall asleep basically on command. I wish I had that ability now, with my mind racing through what I could have done differently to prevent what had happened today. But, against my prediction of not being able to sleep, I managed to, relatively quickly, drift off into an uneasy sleep.
Chapter 3
I awoke in my bed at home, feeling alright, then got out of bed and went to grab myself some food. It wasn’t until I was sitting at my usual seat at the table, eating my usual breakfast of assorted vegetables, that I noticed something was off. I sat there, disconcerted, unable to puzzle out what was wrong. It wasn’t until I went outside to clean the dish I had used that I realized what was wrong: I seemed to be completely alone.
Instantly, I dropped my plate, not caring if it broke or not, and ran back into the home, checking to see if anyone else was there. No one was. I ran back out, running to our neighbors the Raluj family. Again, no one was there. I started going from house to house, checking, hoping that anyone, anyone at all would be there. No one ever was. Each and every house was entirely devoid of life besides my presence. I wandered my way back to the center of the town where the town hall is. It was the last building I had to check, so I was a little anxious to see if anyone was in it, but when I checked inside, no one was there. Not knowing what to do, I sat down on one of the benches, thinking about what to do next. After some time, still with no idea of what to do next, I smelled smoke coming from the doorway.
Suddenly alert, I ran outside, finding every single house in front of me to be on fire. I turned around, only to find that the town hall itself was now on fire. Completely shocked, I stood there for a while, dumbfounded. Then panicking, I ran around the town hall to see if all the houses surrounding it were on fire. Every house behind the town hall was on fire, too, confirming that. Desperate for an out, I frantically looked around, eventually finding one. I immediately ran towards it, only slightly comprehending that I was running back towards my house.
I ran through the fiery corridor that was my only escape, the smoke so thick I had to squint and cover my eyes with one of my arms. After a while, my eyes started pouring tears, trying their best to cope with the tremendous amounts of smoke that no simple arm and sleeve could block. I continued like this for a while until I hit a rock, tripping and falling to the ground. When I got up, the smoke had cleared somewhat and I was looking at my house, unmarred by the fire. The house wasn’t alone, however, as to its side was a pile of … something. It was hard to make out, so I walked closer to it.
It didn’t take me long to figure out what the pile was made of. It was a pile of bodies. Specifically, the bodies of everyone who lived in the town. I simply stared at it, unable to figure out how to react, the putrid smell of decay and burning flesh now violently hitting my nostrils. Unable to do anything else, I looked closer at the pile of bodies, and I saw some familiar faces: my Father, the leader, and some of my friends. All of their expressions were ones of betrayal, their judging eyes looking at me even though they were dead. I forced myself to look away, trying to save what little composure I still had left. I couldn’t run, the path behind me was now blocked by the fire, I couldn’t go forward, our house was on a cliff, what am I supposed to do, where am I supposed—
I jolted awake, Ylbel kneeling next to me with a concerned look on their face.
“I woke up for an early morning stroll a while ago,” They said, “And when I came back, you were thrashing around on the floor. Are you all right?”
I inhaled, filling my lungs to capacity, and exhaled deeply, my heart still racing from the nightmare. I repeated that until I felt as calm as I could be after having a nightmare of that scope.