Bernuna was burning.
Quite literally, in fact. Nearly the entire town was up in flames. Horses, chickens, and people ran this way and that in purely chaotic fashion. Not far behind them were cruel, cackling soldiers, swinging their mases and flails at the nearest victims. They pillaged and plundered, their celebrating forms silhouetted against the flames that danced in the night. At the far end of the town, two men stood atop a hill, each on horseback, surrounded by attendants holding torches. Neither had said much since the assault had begun, they had only stood, stonily, giving orders every once in a while. They were brothers, twins in fact, identical in name, but as with many identical twins, they tried their hardest to look nothing alike. One was taller, and well kept, his dark goatee neatly trimmed, his clothes unwrinkled, his face, expressionless. His brother, on the other hand, was fully bearded, and his hair was longer, and he was a good deal more agitated. Unfortunately, it was the latter who was the proclaimed leader, being the eldest by three minutes, though he rarely did anything without consulting his brother.
A page came clambering up the hill, "My lords,"he cried, "we have taken the town!"
The tenser brother replied, "How many of those...things...are still alive?"
"Most of them have fled into the woods, my lord."
"Give them chase, then! General Caspian himself ordered that every last one of them should be killed!"
"My lord, they know the woods better than we do..."
"Do not make excuses! I want every last one of them destroyed. Use any and every man available."
The page scurried off. "Aram," came the calm voice of the younger twin, "perhaps we should ask the locals where the creatures are known to live."
Aram smiled evilly at his brother, "They'll never tell us, you know this, Ardis."
"They will, or they shall suffer the consequences."
They turned back to the bedlam. Aram's fingers twitched as he said through gritted teeth, "I wish them all dead."
"Brother, dear, if we kill them all, who are we to rule once this war is over?"
Aram nodded, forgetting this valid point Ardis had brought up before, "Your words are wise, as always. May I at least kill one of their demonic beasts?"
The other smirked, "You have my full permission."
They laughed. Silence filled their void. In the background, they could hear the screams of the dying.
"Soon,"Ardis said, "Soon those talking animals will be destroyed. Soon those goat-legged demons, and the horse-men, and all the like shall be but a memory. And this land will be ours!"
"It is fruitful,"Aram replied, "ripe fot he taking. Never have I seen a land with such bounty. Even our homeland in Telmar could not possibly provide us with what this land shall!"he shifted in his saddle, and told his brother, "Take over from here, will you? You know how I hate to miss out on a good slaughter."