Hey guys, here's the second chapter of the story. Warning: This is really dark, but essential to the story, so don't criticize me. Hope you like it!

Vengeance: Chapter Two

Night Blade

At the edge of the forest, the farmhouse was easily visible. Nohki, Bran and Darien were crouched down.

"Well, Bran's family is missing, so we should find them," Nohki said.

"Yeah," Bran said.

""Secondly, we should find the leaders of this town and assassinate them. I can turn into a rat and go around town and try to find them or I can go around and talk to animals to try to…"

On the forest side of the wall, a man and a boy were walking, carrying sacks of potatoes.

"Potatoes, I love potatoes!" the child said.

"Well, you know who makes the best potatoes. Your mom."

"I'm gonna shoot them with my bow," Darien whispered.

"No, don't. It'll just make things harder," Nohki whispered back.

"I'm so excited for potatoes tonight. This evening is going to be the best when Mom makes the potato soup."

They walked along the wall and then turned to go through an entrance in the wall.

"I hope the savages never come down from the hills," the boy said.

"Then we'll kill all the savages, son."

"Oh yay father. When I grow up, I want to kill all the savages."

They walked into the farmhouse.

"We'll burn their house down tonight while their sleeping," Nohki said, "I can go to the wall, and throw a little fireball over."

"Ooh magic, I like that," Bran said.

"I'm gonna go find some poisonous herbs in the woods, so we can poison people if we need to," Nohki said.

Nohki walked into the woods and scoured the ground. It didn't take him long to find what he needed. He came back to where Darien and Bran were.

"What did you get?" Darien asked.

"I got Thistle Root, Thorn Root, Black Widow Root, Green Fang Root and Yellow Tang Root."

"Okay, good, let's wait for the cover of night," Darien said.

Night had fallen. People had gone inside their houses from the farms. There still was some candlelight coming from the farmhouse, but it was a good to do a stealth mission. Darien looked at his fellow tribesmen.

"How do you want to go about this?" Darien asked.

"I like the idea of burning those houses down, but I'd like to sneak up there and look in the windows, just to see if Matilda and Steve are there," said Bran.

"Smart idea," Darien said, nodding, "I'm a pretty stealthy guy."

"If you want to do it for me, I respect that. It would be nice, because I'm pretty big."

"Let's go to the wall."

They snuck over to the wall. Darien's heart was pounding against his chest. The wall wasn't that tall. Sitting on a chair on the wall side of the house was an old man smoking a pipe. The only sound was of the man breathing.

"Okay guys, if you give me 15 minutes, I can transform into a rat, run over the bridge, scope out what kind of buildings are there, and come back," Nohki said.

"Are you sure?" Bran asked in his deep voice, "That's a long way to run as a rat."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"You don't want to check out inside of that house?"

"Look, unless your family is in there, it really doesn't matter. We want to find the people responsible for what happened. They deserve to die first."

"But remember what the medallion told you, that one of my family is near and the other is far."

"Oh, who's? Something movin' over there?" Darien heard the old man say. Darien quickly grabbed an arrow, loaded his bow and aimed. He fired. The old man's eyes widened at the approaching arrow before it his his face. His body fell over off the stool.

Darien jumped over the wall and walked up to the house. The intenseness of the situation made Darien want to hurl. He peered into the window.

Bran jumped as Nohki turned into a cat. Nohki blinked at Bran and then ran off. Bran looked around, keeping watch for Darien. He heard a door open by a smaller house not far from the one they were by. Bran peered over and saw a young boy come out.

Steve!?

The boy went up to the tree near the house and start pissing on it. Bran looked away.

Darien leaned on the house, unbeknownst that his bow was sticking over his back. It hit the window. Darien jumped. He had just alerted the house!

A child awoke and sat up. It was the young boy from earlier who wanted his potatoes.

I hope he had a nice meal, Darien thought.

The boy waved at Darien, smiling. Darien put his finger to his lips. The boy stared at him quizzically, but then nodded. He put his head back down and snuggled up. Darien looked into the window and saw four other beds, all except one occupied. Darien slung the man's body over his shoulder and walked over to the wall. He threw it over the wall.

Bran walked over to the edge of the wall and saw that the boy was not his son. After he was done pissing, he went back in the house. If only he could find his son!

Nohki liked being a cat. It was weird though, having four legs. He went into town and ran for the nearest tree. He climbed up it, to the topmost branch and looked around. Before him were the ruins of an old church. On the ground under the ruins, a guard was beating a slave, making him lift heavy crates. Blood seeped out of the marks the lashes of the guards whip made.

Across from the church, right by the tree which Nohki was on, was a bar. Nohki could hear an uproar of laughter. Below him was a wagon, which had a man sitting in the front. It was the merchant! Nohki growled in anger. He wished to turn into a human and murder that bastard.

He sat there calmly, smoking a pipe.

He will die first! Nohki thought.

The door of the house opened and out stepped the boy in his nightgown.

"I knew you were real," he whispered, "I knew there was a man who lived in the woods."

Darien put his finger to his lips and ducked down behind the wall.

"Grandpa, he's real…Grandpa?" The boy listened. Darien swallowed. The boy farted. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow," he said. Afterwards he walked into his house.

Bran snuck over. "Your family wasn't in there, but there were four people."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Totally sure."

"Yes."

"Okay. I trust your judgement."

"Good. They weren't in there, but let's check the other house."

Darien ran up to the fence near the other house. He looked and saw a light on. He hopped over the fence, not making any noise. He snuck over to the house and peeked in. There was some fog on the window. All Darien could see were two lights. He gave up on trying to see more and ran back to Bran. There he saw Nohki, human again, standing next to Bran. Nohki filled Darien in on what he saw.

"Wow, that's crazy," Darien said. Then he turned to Bran. "I couldn't really see anything. I couldn't tell if your family was in there or not."

"I'm going over there anyway," Bran said, "Nohki, wanna come?"

"Yeah sure."

They walked over to the house. Bran peered in. He saw two people. Neither resembled his wife or son. He turned to Nohki and gave him the thumbs up. Darien came up to them.

"Wanna just go in there and murder them."

"Yeah. We could do it all quietly. I can kick that door in."

"That means that our…"

"These aren't enemies, they're children," Darien said, "We can deal with the town, let's just leave these people."

"No, Darien," Nohki said, leaning over towards him, "The children will die too. They all die. We agreed."

Darien swallowed.

"You've never been a father. You don't know what it's like to have your child taken away from you," Bran said.

"They took my child, I'll take theirs."

"Okay. I'll stand watch out here. I'll stand by the fence. Anyone who comes out of that door who isn't you, I'll put them down."

Nohki grabbed the door handle and tried it. It was unlocked.

"Unlocked!" Bran said.

Nohki leaned in on the door and pushed it open a crack. The door creaked loudly. The people inside didn't wake up. Nohki looked in. Inside were a woman and child, sleeping, along with a chest. Nohki went in, followed by Bran.

"I'll take the child," Bran whispered to Nohki.

They walked up to the beds. The woman opened her eyes, which widened. She took a deep breath, as if to scream. Nohki put his hand over her mouth. She grabbed it, pulled it away, and screamed. Nohki grabbed his weapon and sliced her neck, which started bleeding over the bed.

Meanwhile, Bran raised his greatsword, ready to bring it down on the boy. The boy's eyes opened and a look of terror spread across his face. Bran brought down his sword and stabbed the boy in the face. Blood splattered all over.

Bran walked over to the chest and opened it. There was only one thing inside, which was a potion of invisibility. He took it.

Darien was worried after he heard the scream. Was anyone going to hear it? A few seconds later, Bran and Nohki walked out.

"How'd it go?" Darien asked.

"Not perfect, not poorly," Nohki answered.

"I heard a scream."

"That was the mother," Nohki answered.

"I was afraid it was one of you."

Bran raised his eyebrow. Darien made a quiet laugh. "Just kidding. Come on. What'd you get."

"A potion of invisibility," Bran said.

"What? Peasants have these?"

"Probably an heirloom," Nohki said.

"We have another house to hit," Bran said, "The night-the night is young!"

Nohki chucked. "The night is young and so are our targets."

Darien looked at them queerly. They both laughed. "Let's go."

They walked up to the other house. "There's a door in the back," Darien said.

Nohki and Bran went to it while Darien went to the other one facing the woods. He grabbed the doorknob and leaned in. It was unlocked and silent. Darien stepped in. He saw Nohki and Bran enter the house.

In the house were five beds. Two were occupied by adult men, one was occupied by a woman, the other by a child, and one was empty. Bran motioned to the grown man he was by, who Darien thought of as the uncle. Darien motioned to the father, which left Nohki was the mother and son.

Nohki shrugged and gestured to the mother and son. They got ready to strike, when Darien noticed the father's eyes open. The father grabbed a sword from under his pillow and moved to strike Darien. He jumped out of his bed. "Aaah! Savages!" he shouted, trying to attack Darien, but missing.

Nohki saw the uncle wake up and grab a whip. "Savages!" he shouted, looking at Nohki. The uncle tried to hit Nohki, but missed, cracking the whip instead. He started to stand up, but Nohki took his short sword and slashed the uncle across the chest.

Bran saw the uncle awake and ran at him. He stabbed the uncle through the back and out the stomach. Guts flew everything, as did blood. The uncle toppled over and Bran got his first good look at him. The man looked strong and beastly. It was strange Bran was able to kill him so quickly.

Darien took out both his short swords and stabbed the father. As his blades hit, the father screamed and started bleeding everywhere.

Nohki ran up to the father and tried to hit him, but missed, swinging above his head.

The father looked from Darien to Nohki, trying to figure out who to hit, since they were both savages. He finally went for Darien, and fell short.

Bran noticed the mother and son getting up and backing against the wall, screaming. Bran decided to go for the father. He charged at the father and hit his face with the side of the sword so hard that the father's face caved in. His teeth fell out. More teeth for Bran's necklace!

Darien turned to the mother and son and charged at them. He stabbed the mother through the shoulder, who screamed, and nicked the kids arm. He held his arm. "The man from my dreams, why are you killing us?"

The mother fell over. The kid looked at her and started screaming. Bran ran over with his sword and cut the kid's head off.

Bran sighed. He had just cut a kids head off! But they killed his tribe! The adrenaline rushed out of Bran's body and he sighed again.

"Papi?" a muffled voice said. It sounded like Steve! Bran ran outside and noticed a back shed. He ran to it, Nohki and Darien following. Bran kicked in the door and saw Steve standing in there, crying.

"Papi!" Bran was overwhelmed. Tears threatened to roll down his cheeks. Steve ran out and hugged Bran. "They wanted me to work on their farm, and grow all their potatoes for them," he cried.

"Did they purchase you?" Bran asked.

"Yeah."

"Don't worry son. We put them-They won't be seeing any more sunrises."

"They bought me for 10 gold pieces. Don't let them beat me anymore." He leaned over so that marks could be seen.

Already, Bran thought, Only after a few hours.

"Well, we killed the man with the whip."

"They said I would never see you again. They said I would die here."

"Well, they're liars. Your father would aways come back for you. Don't you worry," Bran said.

Nohki turned to Bran, who was hugging his sobbing son against him. "We can send him back to my tree," Nohki said.

"Send him to your tree."

"Yeah. Hey, Lil Steve, you know the way to my tree."

Steve looked at Nohki and nodded.

"I'll go back to the tree. Is anyone else alive?"

"Myra's there," Darien said.

"Where Mommy?" Steve asked.

"Mommy is next on the agenda son, don't you worry."

"I don't know where she went," Steve said.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Bran asked.

"On the wagon, she was on the wagon."

They stayed there for the next half-hour, comforting Steve, and then sent him on his merry way to Nohki's tree. Then they turned towards the town, the next slaughterhouse.

Hope you made it through this chapter! The next chapter is dark, but a little less. At least the ending was happy right. Next chapter coming out soon. Note: I still haven't gotten any ideas for Jurassic Island. Leave them in the comments. R&R.