When I tell you I saw a demon today, Mardy, I do not lie.
You remember those two monster hunters that take up residence in my guest house from time to time? The ones who till the fields and pay a nice sum for their stay?
Well, they returned from a job of some kind last night. I'm not able to say what kind, but I knew they were in from the lights in the little house's window, and the Pale Cub banging on the old Oak out in my main field.
Anyways, I shut up my gates about mid-sunset, no more than a few hours before the night could fall - sun was burnin' my face, if I looked eastward I'd be blinded by it, I swear! Got into bed with the wife about ten minutes later. Sun still settin', shinin' through the window, swear to ya.
But all a sudden, in a moment, the sun was gone.
I watched as my own shadow on the wall was covered in the night. I thought some great beast had blotted the sky out, or maybe the moon was over the sun again, like that one time from when we were kids.
Swear to The Dreamer, Strahta, The Slabs, and... well, I even swear to The Oathsome and Midway... that sun dropped off the face of the world, and the moon shot up as if out of my own sling.
Next thing I know, in a blink, my guest house is on fire! It looked like a bonfire, wild and fully roaring. No time to catch alight piece by piece, just a sudden fireball... next to my best crops!
Of course, I'm throwing my jacket on over my evening gown at this point, ready to run out over two muddy fields in my damn slippers.
Missus is all "Are there bandits?" Oh, I wish, love. It's all dark magics at this point.
Still, I have my sling, you know? I oughta be able to defend my own crops from such things, I used to do fine against wolves in my day, remember?
Meanwhile, she's all "please don't go out there" this, and "you'll be killed and turned into a mist creature" that.
I'm not really listenin', ya know? She must've forgotten about my sling...
So, off I go.
The first field, my beautiful radish field, is uphill, and as I approach the crest I see that my crops have, actually, caught fire.
At this point, I'm sprinting. You'd've thought me half my age if you saw how I moved I tell ya - wrinkles and white hair no more!
I'm going to save every ounce of wheat I can for this upcoming season. People rely on this wheat. There's lives at stake.
But, that fire, it made me slow down a moment. It was so strange.
The way it caught light... It wasn't natural. It was in a pattern of some kind.
A big circle, with a square inside of it. It looked awful familiar. Maybe your smart son, Falkstead, might have some clues to it? I'm not too well-read myself these days.
Hear he deals with a lot... Wish him the best from me, aye?
Back to the story, sorry.
I can hear screamin' as I approach. A whole bloody mess it sounded like. I try to stay away from screamin' in the night, it's not really in my stars to look for trouble.
But with my sling whirlin' I'm invincible.
By the time I get to the field, I'm creepin' along. I know I'd been runnin' before, but there was somethin' eerie about the air. Like, somethin' had been here and sucked the life outta the place.
Then, I saw that boy.
Oh, the poor omen boy was all torn up and bleedin', like he'd been set on by a pack of wolves. I don't know when he got those wounds, maybe they were from the demon that had burned my dang fields, but they were definitely open, and definitely dirty.
He had some strange walkin' stick with him. He leant on that thing as if it supported the whole world around him. And, when I went to help him, I couldn't lift the sprout!
I'm an old guy, sure, but I haven't lost my muscles! Hours every days walkin', tillin' fields, tending to the cows and sheep, it takes a lot to do it all. But the boy was immovable, like a boulder! I swear he must've weighed twice what he looked, at least!
What was strangest, Mardy, was this:
Them fires? Gone.
I swear to ya. Gone. By the time I'd gotten that boy outta the field, they were all ashes.
Lucky break for a farmer, I know it was a wetter week, but there was a real risk of that blaze spreadin' to all my crops.
The boy was unlucky though. His old man musta been in that blazin' house. I saw the thing topple and crumble in on itself there and then, as if it had burned for hours.
And that boy, he was like iron, Mardy. He'd been screamin' all for help, sure, but with the house's remains in his eyes he was steady as the Bulwark, friend. He just stared at it.
I would've cried, as one should! I shed tears at my own father's funeral, even my old dog's burial was a tough day for me and my family.
His arm - weird symbol on it. Looked awful similar to the fire circle I'd seen. Marked by somethin', I reckon.
Can't be somethin' good...
I got him on his way quick, as a Jackal cuts through dirt!
No dark spells in my farm, his fault or not!
He looked awful lonely, he did. Like a wounded pup. He was still tryin' to pull the burned wood and rubble out and fish for his old man in the mess... could barely even stand and he was tryin' to find him.
I couldn't stop him, I tell ya, as strong as he was heavy - got a lot of large beams moved, too.
In the end, I stayed there with him through until the mornin', watched as he pulled it all up piece by piece.
Missus had my bleedin' head for that stunt, though! Thought I was got by the bandits she was worried about.
Anyways, he's headed your ways, Mardy, East. If you see him, look out for him would ya?
'ta,
Gerald Geraldson Beginshold
[Seized as a Vital Document by Paladin Morticina and her forces in the town of Endsham, on the 60th day of Harvest, 20 PA.
[Advisory: A team of missionaries should be deployed to this "Beginshold" family at once, and see to it they come to see The Truth.]