In the vast desert, two frail men were sitting on the cold sands--- anxious, hungry, and exhausted, they seemed wary of their surroundings, they wore clothes of a dark yellow shade, as if trying to hide or keep a low profile, on both of their belts hung dull blades with broken handles and rusty edges
To break the silence, the one who seemed the oldest and most mature spoke" I heard the mountain men are seeking another trade with the Kazar kingdom across the sea" he said, sadness painted across his face
"Those cursed slaves, they are Merly delaying their doom. If they wish to kneel that low for a spit of mercy, let them be" the other one replayed as his face filled with anger
"Don't you think we should---"the first one began before the other cut him off, saying
"What?! Beg them for mercy? For shelter? I rather see my face eaten by maggots before I kiss their ground"
"And what will we do, huh? if we don't find a group, we will soon join the dead We can't even find the black Sheep men" said the older man, frustration written all over his face
"The mountain men are the closest, and the only certain group we know the location of, maybe if we ask the leader for forgiveness, he might grant us shelter" continued the old man
"You know well that he would love to see the numbers fall, food is scarce, and the earth refuses to paint itself green anymore. On top of that, The Kazar Kingdom control all the supplies coming our way" said the younger one, his anger growing with each word
Right then and there both of them went alert as the sand begin to rustle, fear swallowed the colour from their eyes, they knew that was danger
As the older one faced his back for a moment, checking around him, his head fell to his knees as the rest of his body followed. Scared and powerless, the younger one started sprinting, hands tightened around the hilt of his sword
"I hate this, what did I ever wrong them with, to get banished twice, and on top of that I need to bear such agonizing death" he said voice cracking eyes wide teeth's screaming, right before he fell down
He was too scared to stand up, all he saw is a human like black figure in the dark, with wide white eyes, getting closer right before reaching and snaping his neck
In the shores an expensive looking ship was setting sail towards the beach of wish right across existed the vast desert, 4 ships in total, the first one that docked a shore had a man stepping out, he seemed to be in his 20s, alongside him stepped down 3 escort knights of his, he was greeted by a group of people their numbers around the 30s
Out of the crowd stepped a young man masked with clothes of desert colours
"Welcome my lord, sorry we haven't prepared a feast for such gentlemen" asked the young man
"No need to worry yourself, my name is Torden, from house Waster" replied with a friendly smile on his face
"I am honoured, lord Torden," said the young man
"Anyway, Let's stop the small talk my lord, We have a long way ahead of us"
"I'm glad we got to the point" Said lord Torden "Of course as agreed the food and weaponry supply well set a sail to the sea until we come back safe?"
"Oh no, I already know of thus so don't worry. After you?" as from the crowd horses brought up front a carriage
Torden climbed up the carriage with his escort knights, as both the ships and the carriage set march in different paths
Right before the carriage started its march Torden asked of the young man
"And perhaps how long could the walk take for us to reach our trade?"
The young man smiled lightly and said "3 days walk if luck comes to worse my lord" right before he closed the door for them
The day passed, Torden noticed that only he and whoever sat beside him ate from their own food, he tried handing some to a passer from the crowd, but he was ignored
"I don't think they like us that much" said One of the knights
"Obviously, if you were thrown to be eaten by wild animals, you wouldn't like the ones who exiled you would you?" said Torden
As the sun started digging its grave beneath the sands, while the people sat down making their rest comfortable for food
The people ate far enough from the foreigner traders The young boy from earlier brought his and sat alongside the knights and lord
"I hope my Lord would let me set alongside him for a moment," said the young man
"Oh, make yourself comfortable young man, by the way, I noticed you're the leader around here can I perhaps know of your name, easier for communication, "said Lord Torden
"Oh, sorry I forgot to tell you that, my name is Ron, I don't have a surname though" replied the young man, as he continued apologizing saying, "And I sincerely apologise for the behaviour of my comrades, they tend to have a hard bone towards new faces"
"I'm used enough for such looks so don't worry about it, so the place of the trade is your centre base or...?" said Lord Torden curiosity on his facial expressions
"Sadly, not my lore, we are heading towards a decoy camp, a ghost village of many we use as track erasers for valuable trades like these," said Ron filling into Torden's curiosity even more
"And why is this? Is it perhaps that you two have bandits of your own?" asked Torden as the night got darker and darker
"Smart guess, but that's not all my lord, although they steal out of hunger, they mostly pillage because of anger buried under their skin" replied Ron looking at the campfire
As Torden sat back down, Ron Stood up and said "I guess that's enough chatting for the day, we have a long walk tomorrow morning, get some rest"
By the morning everybody started packing up for the march, just then a screaming sound out of one of the tents pierced everyone's ears
As Torden hurried up with his knights towards the sound he saw a young boy moving in agony, his eyes splitting apart as foam escaped his mouth , right behind them his mother was being held as she begged for her boy to be spared
Chains brought the boy to his knees as he whispered in Brocken voice, hungry, hungry sometimes going silent, sometimes whispering again, while the men brought away from the camp
Torden went up to Ron and saw him ordering some men back to the camp
"Oh no, did he?" Torden asked this time not out of fear, but out of worry
"Yes, he got infected, and this one is very fast" Replied Ron as the men put down the boy in the middle of the desert
People formed a circle around him as the mother was being stopped from running up to him, as the men Ron ordered went back, they gave him a sword and a bottle, it was a clean sword, not like the other rusty ones everyone had, it looked expensive as if not being used for battle
Torden understood what was going on right then, so he stood back into the crowd, and watched
Ron stepped up and unsheathed his sword, The mother screams went louder as she begged
"Pls send me with my boy away, just please don't-" Without hesitation the sword struck down the child's neck, the mother fell silent, as maggots left the body from both her child's head and body, just for Ron to pour whatever was in the bottle onto the body and burn it away
The day went silent, the marsh was quitter than usual, at night when Ron came to eat next to Lord Torden and his escort knight none dared a talk, left with deep into their own thoughts