Harvest day. The most anticipated day for the whole village comes today. The one day where the village connects with the rest of the world. Exotic goods and materials are brought from far away lands and introduced to their small community. Harvest day comes at the end of the crop season for the village and the festival begins shortly after. The festival lasts for three days and three nights and on the final night the village rejoices with its presents.
The purpose of Harvest day was to connect the neighboring towns. Communication between towns grew relatively difficult as bandit groups and degraded roads stopped most attempts of travel. Any mammal that left the village was declared dead if not returned by that night. The only mammals aloud to leave the village were forest scavengers and woodsmen, all others were stopped by the local guards.
To Judy, this wasn't a setback. Ever since she was a young doe, she and her sisters would venture out into the forest near their house to explore. That was when she was a kit. Now the forest was dangerous and most of her siblings declined her offers of adventure. Sheer determination drove Judy to keep exploring. She was known around town for her wayfaring abilities around the forest and the guards rarely stopped her anymore. Still, in the back of her mind she was terrified of the dangers the forest held.
Stories of her youth told of horrible things done to young kits who ventured beyond the village. Apart from the bandits, demons were known to patrol the woods and were considered a far greater danger than the bandits. The demons had no true shape or appearance, always changing from one form to the next. Her grandfather used to tell her, "They are mammals stuck between life and death. Never really having a place in the world anymore." Judy was told of kits being dragged off away from their groups in the middle of daylight, never to be seen again. Of course, nobody has seen one of the demons before for they would have been dealt with. Still, the very thought terrifies her.
Harvest day is upon Judy's village. The final night is tonight and all Judy wants to do is get home to her family and celebrate. However, Judy's current situation is stopping her. On the ground directly below her is a trio of bandits. Judy has been following these mammals for some time as she doesn't recognize their species. The three are all black, small, and have white stripes running down their back. Her gut screams for her to run back home to the safety of mom's burrow. But, her mind is running wild with questions and she must find out for herself.