As I ambled towards the main hall, a deluge of thoughts about our sacrifices in the war besieged my mind.

  In the street, a figure approached me, its green eyes and short brown hair catching the light.

  "Hi!" Arthur greeted me cheerfully.

  His smile faltered as he studied my expression.

  "Is something wrong?" he inquired.

  "Radak has fallen," I replied, the weight of our losses heavy in my voice. "Our warriors are spent and wounded."

  Aner's voice reached me from behind.

  "You're right; we're in no shape to fight for the next week and a half," he declared. "For now, we must depend solely on one another."

  I turned to face him, noting his blonde hair, longer at the back and shorter at the front, and his blue eyes that still burned with unwavering resolve.

  "Go, assist the others," I instructed them. "I must speak with the king and will return shortly."

  With that, Arthur and Aner hastened towards the barracks, while I entered the grandeur of the main hall.

  The hall was a fortress in its own right, adorned with Colart banners, guards brandishing spears, and a bridge arching over a moat. Constructed of gray stone, its gates towered five tares high, a fusion of wood and iron. Inside, portraits of the king adorned the walls, and massive three-tare gates led to the throne room, guarded by a dozen sentinels. I caught snippets of the king's conversation with one of my comrades.

  "Nakarats may resemble us," the king mused, "but make no mistake, they'll slay us given the chance."

  "I understand, but the thought of killing someone so similar to ourselves..." my comrade hesitated.

  "We do what we must to survive," the king replied firmly. "Should you wish to lay down your arms, inform the city commander, and you shall be released from duty."

  "Thank you, Your Majesty," Cradem responded with gratitude.

  I slipped out of the hall, waiting for Cradem to emerge.

  Confronting him at the gates, I challenged his resolve.

  "Are you truly considering fleeing from danger?"

  "I seek to bring joy to my family," he countered.

  "And will they rejoice in your absence from the war, in your retreat?" I pressed, my voice rising. "Will they honor a hero who never was?"

  He faltered, and I seized the moment.

  "Fear of death paralyzes you! Remember our fallen brethren! Vindicate them! Exterminate their murderers until none remain!"

  With a shove, I left him behind and returned to the king.

  "Your Majesty," I began, kneeling before him, "Captain Alexander Radak entrusted me with this for you."

  I handed over the aged scroll Radak had given me.

  The king perused it and nodded solemnly.

  "At Radak's funeral, all will be revealed," he assured me.

  Acknowledging his words, I rose and departed.

  Outside, the laughter of children playing stirred memories of my own youth in Neither Land… but such thoughts were a luxury I couldn't afford.

  That's when I spotted a Nakarat lurking near the inside of the wall.

  Confronting him, I taunted, "Plotting your victory, are you?"

  He lunged, sword drawn, but I deftly disarmed him.

  "Spare me your life, and I'll take only the gunpowder," I bargained.

  Reluctantly, he complied, handing over a pouch.

  With the gunpowder secured, I returned to the barracks.

  Inside the stone edifice, I greeted Aner and Arthur. "I've procured some gunpowder. With it, we can orchestrate an explosive demise for our foes."

  "Similar to my torch exploit at the camp?" Aner queried.

  "Precisely," I confirmed. "We could obliterate the entire Nakar encampment."

  "Shall we depart now?" Arthur inquired.

  "Yes, but you shall remain," I decided. "Your recent wounds are still tender."

  "And why does Aner accompany you?" Arthur protested.

  "Aner is battle-ready, and time is of the essence," I explained.

  With that decision made, Aner and I set out to retrieve our steeds, leaving the confines of Sharode behind us once again.

  “How will we find the encampment?” Aner inquired, his gaze fixed ahead, the blue of his eyes stark against the dusky landscape. “The encampments are adept at concealment, nearly invisible to the untrained eye.”

  I offered no reply, my mind not even grazing the surface of his query. Instead, I immersed myself in the rhythmic cadence of our horses’ galloping hooves, a sound that filled the silence between us. We continued in this wordless state until we were certain that not a soul in Sharode, or its vicinity, could discern our presence.

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  “The raid was merely a pretext,” I confessed as the forest’s outline came into view, “My true intent was to have this moment with you.”

  “Does this concern our squad? Or the question of who will assume captaincy?”

  Aner’s question laid bare the truth—that we were leaderless, without a captain to marshal us beyond Sharode’s gates, to strategize our missions, to be the face of our unit, to lead us to victory.

  “No, it’s about whether you’ll visit your family in two weeks’ time.”

  “I’d prefer to remain at the barracks, alongside you, rather than return to my family,” Aner admitted, his voice a complex tapestry woven with threads of sorrow and resentment.

  “I’ve always sensed a tension between you and your parents,” I observed, “though the nature of it has eluded me.”

  With each passing second, with every uttered syllable, Aner’s grip on his reins tightened.

  “Ah… If only my parents embraced the ways of the Colartians rather than the Nakars,” he lamented.

  “Aner?”

  “Arthur’s father is a doctor, mine is a—” His confession was cut short by an ominous rumble emanating from the valley, a stone’s throw away.

  ***

  “You’ll recover,” Arthur assured Gavor as he stitched the gash, “Give it a week or two at most.”

  “My gratitude, Arthur. When that axe struck, I feared my arm had been severed.”

  “Don’t thank me,” Arthur replied. “I’m just glad you’re fine.”

  A lot of noise was outside the window of the small, cozy room with some candles on the walls and flipped over crates for chairs and barrels for tables. A large closet was standing tall, full of gear, provisions, and tools. Its doors were wooden on the outside edge and glass in the center, allowing to see its contents.

  Some warriors inside the room hurried outside, and the noise began inside the barracks too. Someone bumped into Arthur and pushed him off the crate, the needle stabbing his hand.

  As Arhur got back up, his palm red with blood, he saw the tension of war in a single image out the window as two castle guards wearing light leather jackets same as the warriors’ only without the chainmail under it hooded against the blazing hot sun holding a Nakarat warrior by his tho arms.

  His green eyes showed something in between fear and confidence as warriors from different barracks gathered around them.

  When a jail wagon transferring prisoners of war out of Sharode to Ratmer, the main prison of Colart, stopped. Worse. It let them out. As armed prisoners jumped out the wagon went twenty five more tares then stopped again. The guard holding the Nakarat's right hand got his arm sliced clean off with the shoulder Arthur gasped knowing that he couldn't help him. No, not just him. No one could.

  As the Nakarat was running in front of the five surviving prisoners out of eight, and the ground got soaked with blood, Arthur decided to rush out the door trying to help the wounded. His heart raced in his chest, he was shivering from all the severed limbs, and the blood, and the organs on the ground.

  Why did you do this, why?

  Meanwhile, the Nakarat, his long blond hair flying in the air, was two tares away from the jail wagon when the closest prisoner was seven tares away.

  As soon as the Nakarat got into the wagon he closed the door and told the driver to go, leaving the prisoners to their fates. As a distant rumbling shook the earth

  ***

  “GO!” I yelled “We’ll cover inside the forest!”

  “What is that?!” Aner's voice was higher than it should. “How do we cover from something we don't know?”

  He was right. We couldn't cover from something we couldn't even see but even though it was unknown galloping through the forest seemed like the safest thing to do.

  “How the hell did that rumbling appear from nowhere?” Aner had one hand on his sword. “We should go check rather than hide.”

  “I think the cause of the rumbling is right behind you.” I said, pointing at a giant black thing that had black fur and was towering at thirty five tares with a head of five tares. It had empty black eyes with a wet shine in them, and it was almost impossible to see them. Its head was flat on the top. “And it's coming towards us.”

  A singular warrior stumbled upon the giant which grabbed him, opened its mouth and ate him alive.

  Without any explanation Aner charged at the giant. With his sword out.

  “He's gonna bloody pay for this!”

  ***

  All the prisoners tried to hide around Sharode. Three were shot down by the guards. Two are left. Hidden.

  More doctors came to help the wounded alongside Arthur but nobody survived. Nobody.

  “How are you doctors but can't fucking help a single wounded?!” The city commander scolded them. “How are we spending money on you for you to bloody fail?!”

  “They are all dead!” Arthur snapped. “And you should be looking for the prisoners right now, rather than watching us clean the mess they made!”

  That shut him down and he went to see the garrison.

  As he went he tried to make up a reason to execute him. Fortunately for Arthur, without success.

  ***

  When the city commander got into the walls where the garrison was located, he found their commander playing cards on a round dark oak table that had stains of wine on it, and was chipped at edges from age. One of its legs was too short so it had a wooden piece under it. Five chairs were placed around it made with the same wood. Each was chipped on their backs and sides like they fell a couple times each. Along with the garrison commander, four garrison warriors, their steel armor glinted in the light of the small square windows in the walls, and the candles on shelves and tables.

  Rich bastards, The city commander thought, if they lived just through a fraction of the hell we live in.

  “Rakfurt,” He addressed the garrison commander, “I need to talk to you.”

  An explosion rattled the ground, sending tables and cupboards flying to the floor, glass shattering and wine spilling. The garrison erupted into chaos, searching for the cause of the explosion. But there was no explosion…

  ***

  “Aner!” I charged towards him, then, I saw his face. He was in fury, like he despised the giant from his very first heartbeat. That’s the moment I realized he was not going to turn back, I knew that attacking the giant would just kill us both. But still…

  “May Carat bless us” I muttered, taking my bow out and releasing two arrows at once.

  As the arrows hit the giant’s eyes, it responded with a growling sound, and started swinging its massive arms in the general direction the arrows came from. This gave Aner the chance to climb onto the creature’s head and drive his sword through its skull. The ground began to soak with the giant’s blue blood, a final roar escaped its mouth, and it collapsed onto the ground with a thud that echoed through the valley, and rattled the ground.

  As Aner slid off the giant’s head, I let out a shaky breath. But then the impossible happened. The blue blood on the ground shimmered and vanished, as if the earth itself rejected it. Before my eyes, the wounds knit themselves closed, and the giant stirred. A low growl, more chilling than before, escaped its throat.

  “What the–?!”

  ***

  What on earth are they doing there?! Arthur thought, They weren’t supposed to blow up the entire forest.

  A low growl coming from the direction of the nearby valley sent chills down Arthur’s spine. It seemed like no creature, no matter how horrible, couldn’t create such a sound.

  “Gavor, gather the troops” He finally said, “We’re setting out to find Herald and Aner”

  After the troops were gathered and ready to battle, Arthur studied them and frowned; There were only five warriors in front of him, the rest were injured or killed.

  As they were ready to set out, an arrow whistled through the air and landed at Arthur's feet.