Zarketh

The night was cold as ice and black as hell. Dark clouds covered the half moon, the stars barely visible in the night sky. The air was still, the noises of the forest and the distant lands beyond reverberating softly in the night. The water, sparkling intermittingly through the enveloping mist, sat quiet as the land around it. A figure appeared between the dark trees, its footsteps hurried. The figure was covered in a black cloak and gloves, melding with the misty night. The dark cowl lifted, giving a brief glimpse of glowing, pupil-less eyes and the soft outline of a female face. She ran on, her breath coming in sharp pants. A small town lay ahead, and she glanced just once over her shoulder before slowing, her chest heaving. The houses were dark, the streets deserted. She was alone. She entered slowly step by step, her head whipping from side to side, until she reached the center of the town. She stopped to catch her wind. The grave-like silence was deafening and weighed down on her like a suffocating blanket, and she suddenly found it hard to breathe. Her glowing eyes glanced from dark alley to alley, as if expecting someone—or something—to leap out of the shadows. After a long moment of silence, she let her shoulders relax and head droop, sighing. I think I lost them, she thought as she studied the dust-covered ground. Her breathing evened out and she looked back up, eyeing the roofs of the nearest buildings. I can’t be here… She turned around and started off in another direction, her footsteps steady. She passed the dark entrance to a closed bakery when the sound between a growl and croak made her freeze. Turning slowly, she looked behind her into the mist rolling purposefully at the town’s entrance. Three sets of glowing, yellow eyes appeared floating in the blackness before slowly manifesting in to decaying, blackened faces in the mist. Her eyes went wide and mouth gaped, and she took an involuntary step backward. The creatures took shape as they stepped closer through the mist, revealing dark plated helmets and armour with cleavers and shields in their clawed hands. They ambled out of the mist towards her, acid dripping from their mouths and leaving smouldering holes in the ground where their saliva landed. Frozen at the sight of them, she stood in place even as they neared. A scream caught in her throat as the nearest creature raised it cleaver over its head. The creature gurgled and started to bring the cleaver down, the blade glinting in the faint moonlight, when the rattle of a doorknob and the creaking of a door in one of the houses to her left caught its attention. The creatures all turned as one and the woman finally broke from her shock and turned as well. A tall, dark haired man stumbled out of the open door wearing nothing but his sleeping robe and rubbed his eyes. Dropping his hand to his side, he blinked. The woman continued to look at him, anticipating. The creatures stood motionless, their decaying bodies creaking in the stillness of the night. Suddenly, the man panicked and yelled, “Undead!” The man’s cry ripped through the air causing the stillness of the night to be broken by the roar of the Undead. Soon, candles were lit and doors were opening in every house in the village. The clanging sounds of metal filled the air as the man ran back inside the house. The woman took another step away from the creatures before her and the Undead turned their heads to pin her with their gazes. Their glowing eyes darkened and one creature roared and charged. Stumbling backward, she screamed as she saw the cleaver arcing toward her. She closed her eyes, expecting the sharp impact of the blade, when she heard the clash of metal on metal. Her eyes popped open to see a villager before her, his worn out sword scraping against the creature’s cleaver. He swung at the Undead and chopped off its head. “Take that Undead fiend!” he yelled, his chest heaving in his ill fitting plate armour. The other two Undead gave an ear piercing roar as their companion fell to pieces at their feet. A sudden darkness overtook the town, a heavy blackness blotting out the few visible stars, as the other villagers came out with pikes, shields, and torches. The woman didn’t think. She didn’t even look over her shoulder to see if the creatures were following. She just turned and ran out of the town and back into the forest. She kept running until she heard the Human screams tear through the night. She stopped, turned around, and panting, listened her head bowed. A moment of silence and stillness was all she could give them. And then she ran again. She ran, regretting what she had done. Gasping for air, she finally found herself in a clearing atop a hill and she turned back once more to look down upon the town. The darkness that had settled over the town was gone now; the houses burning brightly in the night, the flames arching high and licking at the dark clouds. The screams were only now beginning to quiet and she knew the deaths of those villagers were her fault. And then she heard it. The loud, night piercing roar and she knew: it was coming after her. She sent a silent prayer into the night for the souls of those villagers and then she turned and ran. She had to keep moving. She knew she had to keep moving, no matter what the cost. And someday, she had to believe that someday she would escape the Undead menace that followed her.