Part 1: Burnt
As the figure rose from the depths of sleep, he rubbed the back of his hand across his face. Surprised to see his hand come back wet with tears, he struggled to remember what he had dreamed about.
Suddenly, pieces of his dream rushed back in a series of images. A burning tree, a burned down village, a graveyard, a bloody sword…. What do they all mean? Why did he keep having dreams?
"Brithan!! Get up! You promised me you would teach me how to play the pipes just like you do!" Brithan's younger sister Twyla yelled as she bounced into his room. "Come on! Hurry up!"
"Alright, alright" Brithan said smiling. "Just give me a quarter of a glass to wake up and get dressed."
"Yay! Just make sure it doesn't take you longer than that"
"I promise" Brithan laughed as his sister skipped out of his room, his dreams temporarily forgotten. He quickly dressed and went over to the mirror to study himself. Just barely 17, he was taller than most of the men in the town. He quickly washed his face to wash away the dust and tears that had collected over the night. His eyes were light brown as was his hair, which was cut moderately short. His face was without any trace of hair.
Feeling better after washing up, he walked out of his room into the main room to his waiting sister. Brithan lived alone with his younger sister who was 9 years old. Their parents had been killed in a barbarian raid when Brithan was 12 and Twyla was 4. The people of the village helped as much as they could, but everyone was having problems of their own. So Brithan had basically taken care of the two of them since.
"Are you ok Brith?" Twyla asked. "You seem distracted"
Brithan chuckled "I'm fine. Did you get the pipes out?" After her nod, he took the offered pipes and sat on the chair next to her. After doing a quick inspection of the pipes and cleaning out one, he looked over to his sister. "Are you ready?"
"Of course I am! I've been waiting for you."
"Ha ha. Ok, so do you remember your scales that you…." Brithan cut off his sentence.
"Brith?? Brithan? What's wrong? What happened?" Twyla looked around quickly. "I don't see or here anything."
"Exactly, all of a sudden all the noise stopped. It wasn't a gradual thing. It just stopped abruptly." Brithan got up slowly, motioning to his sister to stay were she was. "I'll be right back. If you think something is wrong, run quickly to the shed. You remember where the door is?" Brithan grabbed his staff from beside the door.
"Be careful." Twyla whispered.
"I always am" Brithan crept outside and closed the door behind him. Looking around he could tell that something was very wrong. There was no feeling of wildlife anywhere near the small cottage, or anywhere in the small village where the two lived. All the people were either still in bed or had taken their herds out and wouldn't be due back for hours yet.
Brithan looked down the road leading into the village. In the distance he saw dust trailing what looked to be a single rider, pushing his horse as fast as he could without killing it. As the rider drew closer he could see that it was Gwyn, one of the herders.
"Gwyn! Gwyn! What's happened? "Brithan ran over to the man as he jumped out of the saddle. "Why have you left your flock?"
"Rai… Raiders… coming… from the North" Gwyn said out of breath. After he caught his breath he continued. "Left the flock with my oldest son, Gabryl, told him to take the flock out of sight from the main road. Then took the horse and got here as quickly as I could. The Raiders are about half a glass behind me. We have to evacuate the village as quickly as possible!"
"Right. Can you go and make sure that Twyla gets out, I'm going to go ring the warning bell and then I'm going to see what I can do to slow down these raiders."
"No worries. I'll see that she gets out safely. You just make sure you make it out alright. Don't do anything stupid. She's already lost her parents; she doesn't need to lose her brother as well."
"I know. I won't do anything that will put me in any extreme danger." Brithan ran over to the bell tower and climbed the ladder as quickly as he could. Looking over his shoulder he saw the dust trail of more horses than what was normal of a Raider's war group. Brithan frowned, but kept climbing until he got to the top. Grabbing the mallet, he hit the bell in a series of four quick hits followed by two slow ones. He repeated this until he could see people rushing out of their homes. Looking at the road, he could see that the raiders were less than a fourth of a glass away.
After climbing back down the tower, Brithan rushed back over to his cottage. Seeing no movement in the cottage itself he ran over to the shed. Quietly he opened the shed door.
CRACK!! Brithan flew backwards after being hit forcefully in the chest.
"Brithan! Ohmygoshohmygosh! Are you ok! I didn't mean…" Twyla ran over to her brother. "Did I hurt you?"
Brithan got up slowly and coughed. "I'm ok… I think." Brithan laughed. "What did you hit me with? That hurt."
Twyla looked embarrassed. "One of the big flour barrels. I wrapped a rope around it and threw the other end around one of the high beams. It took me a couple of tries but I finally got it. When you opened the door I swung it as hard as I could."
Brithan looked over to the left and saw the barrel slowly swinging back and forth. Brithan laughed. "And I was worried about you. Maybe you should be the one protecting ME." His expression turned somber. "We need to get you away from here. Gwyn is heading over here as soon as he can. I wasn't planning on coming back quite so soon but I wanted to make sure you were safe."
"Can't I go with you?" Twyla frowned. "Why aren't you leaving with Gwyn and me anyway?"
Before Brithan could answer, a high pitched scream pierced through the silence. Both of the siblings ran outside of the shed and turned towards the road. At the edge of the village, the first few buildings were on fire.
"Twyla! Run back to the shed, get one of the travel packs and run as fast as you can out of sight of the road. I don't know what happened to Gwyn but you have to get out of here now."
"But what about you?"
Brithan shook his head. "Don't worry about me." He didn't quite know what he was going to do either, but he didn't want to worry his sister by telling her that. Neither was he going to tell her his fears about the too - large Raid group.
After watching his sister head back towards the shed, Brithan rushed towards the fires and the waiting Raiders.
Once he got closer to the burning homes he slowed down. No point in alerting the Raiders of his presence earlier than needed. Looking around the side of one of the cottages he saw a group of the raiders. The four of them looked to be wearing the plain leather armor normal for the Raiders. What wasn't normal were their weapons. Raiders normally carried nothing more than a long knife. These four all carried a mixture of weapons, from battle axes to flails and even a broadsword.
"This is one of those times I wished I could wield a sword." Brithan whispered to himself. Ever since he could remember, he could never hold onto a bladed weapon without suffering from excruciating pain. No one had ever been able to tell him why. Both of his parents had been trained in the blade, and his sister had no problems holding on to one either.
Brithan watched as the Raiders drew closer. When they were about seven feet away from his position, he jumped from behind the building. He quickly took out the closest Raider with a thrust to the throat. Even before the Raider was down, Brithan had already moved on to the next attacker. After a quick strike to the knees followed by a direct strike to the face, the second Raider was also down.
By this time the other two Raiders had gotten over their surprise and were closing in on Brithan from both sides. The Raider nearest to him was holding a wicked looking axe. The other remaining Raider was the one with a broadsword.
Thinking that the one with the broadsword would be the slower of the two, Brithan shifted his weight for a better strike. Before he even had a chance to strike, the Raider's eye rolled into the back of his head and blood foamed at his mouth. Confused, Brithan jumped back as the Raider's body collapsed forward.
Standing there behind the body of the Raider was Twyla carrying what looked to be the sword of the first Raider he had killed.
"Twyla? Wha…."
"Brithan! Look out!"
The forgotten Raider had snuck up on Brithan and was preparing to strike when Twyla's warning snapped Brithan out of his daze.
Quickly rolling to the side, the Raider's axe sliced right where Brithan's head had been a moment before. Not anticipating the evade, the Raider stumbled. Twyla quickly got rid of him with a strike to the back.
"What are you doing here? I told you to run and hide."
Twyla looked down. "I was worried about you, so I followed you. When I saw you in trouble, I was afraid that they were going to…"
Seeing the tears start welling up in his sister's eyes, Brithan walked out to her and hugged her tightly.
"Thank you Twyla. You really did help, and I'm sorry for yelling at you." Brithan release his sister and looked straight into her eyes. "But there are more Raiders out there and you really need to get safe. You may be nine but that won't stop the Raiders from killing you, and in direct fighting you wouldn't stand a chance against one of them…"
"Well, what do we have here?" Brithan and Twyla both jumped and spun towards the voice. It belonged to one of the biggest Raiders Brithan had even seen.
"Twyla, stay behind me." Brithan stepped in front of his sister.
The Raider laughed. "Not much you can do… You're outnumbered." As if on cue, 6 more Raiders appeared from around the buildings. "Give us the girl and I'll make your death quick and painless."
"What do you want with my sister?" Brithan's mind was racing. He needed to stall for as long as he could.
"Why should I tell you?" The Raider smirked. "Knowing won't keep you alive any longer." Suddenly the Raider rushed forward, smashing into Brithan, sending him flying into a tree. Brithan's vision seems to blur.
The next few moments seemed to pass by slowly. Brithan watched as Twyla started to rush towards him. He tried to yell out a warning, but a wave of black washed over him. When his vision cleared enough to see, Twyla was in the arms of the lead Raider. The Raiders face was bloody from where her nails had dug into his skin.
Brithan watched in horror as one of the other Raider came from behind and clubbed Twyla in the back of the head, knocking her unconscious. Brithan tried to get up, but the movement sent another wave of blackness through his mind.
He felt himself slowly falling to the side. The last image he saw before the darkness overwhelmed him was that of the burning tree above him.