The clouds on high was swirling thick with darkness, between each burst of rain that fell onto the muddy ground the villagers scambled below - hiding under make shift shelters, inside of their wooden homes and even in the local church and Inn.
A girl giggled madly as she hopped up and down on a puddle, sending the dirty splash of the water to spray up over her well cleaned gown, which her mother so tenderly cared for.
"Look at me, Mommy!" The brown eyed girl cried, looking over to her Mother whom took shelter under neath the small open Inn's over hanging roof.
"Come out from the rain this instant!" The Mother frowned, although chuckled as she watched her daughter's care-free attitude. "You'll catch a cold, and you'll only moan about how ill you are later!"
"No I won't!" The girl smiled back to her before twiling in the puddle with her more than drenched peseantry leather shoes. Hopping upon one leg she now moved away from her Mom, giggling and merrily moving down the main dirt road that ran through this village. The rumours and fears of an undead army unscathing their everyday lives - after all, they had nothing to fear!
A bump! The girl was sent down into the mud, her hands moving out as her body skidded from the Brown Monked form, which now stood looming over her in it's darkened shadow.
The girl was suppressing the urge to cry as she stood, rubbing the globules of mud onto her already drenched and muddy dress! A look up to the figure, and noticed nothing more than a hood and a strange darkness which hid the features...
"I-I'm sorry..." The girl said timidly before then giving a little bit of a curtsy. Then, moving to turn away from the 'scary-person' the girl moved in a slightly more than quickened pace back up the road towards where she had left her Mom under the shelter.
The brown robed monk stood there though, it's head tilting back as she watched the girl move away... The hood's darkness following her in it's unmerciful gaze... Then it took a step forward; the sound of boots thudding loudly upon the ground with a wet and strange sounding 'squelch.' Hood now moving from the girl which disappeared from it's sight - side to side, at the buildings... And then back around it's shoulder...
For behind her... Further monks came. Black Monks... A sea of moving black now descending towards the unfortunate patrons of this village.
Slender hands moved up to remove the hood, her blood red eyes stareing forward at the ground blankly. It looked as if she was deep in thought, her spray of wet orange hair being whipped behind her in a gust of icy-wind, the Black Monks came to swarm behind her, waiting for the order to attack - their snarling and roaring causing the settlers in this village to stare out from the windows, shocked... Gasped... The army was here!
They ran out of their houses and away the offending intruders! No one took up arms against them - they had indeed heard their Mistress's terrible grasp upon the Undead, of Demons... Of Shadows and knew they stood no chance against them! Screams, horrified groans... Whatever the noise, these people made, it showed they were scared to death.
Emma, stood there, still she stared to the ground - blood red eyes now slowly bringing up their gaze to the screaming villagers, her foxling ears slowly perking up and her tail; which laid hidden underneath the monkish robes, swayed excitedly, watching them run.
Then, extending a hand out towards them, a ball of burning fire erupted from into her palm that the rain could not simply be put out. Then, bringing her body to twist to the side she launched her hand out toards them... Steam rose up into the air as the fireball cuts through the rain and wind right into the back of an unsuspecting man, the ball burned it's way into his chest and let loose an explosion of promethian flame which burned and singed his innards. Smoke, rising up from his lips and nose, he fell to the ground in a skidding of mud, and laid there, burning from the inside out.
And with that the Black Monks let their hoods fall. Their skeletal faces stareing out towards the crowd... And then, with a howl and sickening roar they launched forward - some moving to hands and feet like savage animals, some running upon their human legs... And heck, even the odd child-like Monk was using the very right shadow arm to launch themselves into the air and down into the crowd's center... Tareing flesh with their skull's bared spined teeth, some of the monks were even fortunate enough to keep some skin upon their faces in a gore of rotting flesh.
Emma stood there though in silence, eyes slowly dropping to the ground... The droplets of water rolling down her cheeks and nose, to drip from her chin sombrely down into the growing river of blood that flowed down away from the crowd to her parted feet.
Their screams... In some sickening way it made Emma grin... Bareing her animalistic teeth as her blood red eyes glowed, letting loose a fire in her pupils which burned... Strangely like her Mother's.
"... I'm sorry," Is all she whispered, moving down to kneel one knee into the bloody muddy river below, placing the whole palm of her hand into the redness she drew it back, and rubbed index finger to thumb - feeling the strange mixture of earth and human.
Upon her orange haired head, sat a crown for herself. A silver crown resembling that of which looked like her Mother's. A silver ring, with four spikes protruding up - not as high as her Mom's though, but not tall enough to impale right through the hood unlike her Mother's crown did.
The village was burning by night fall, the rain had stopped and the blood could no longer be washed away. Every villager was gutted by the time the rain had stopped, the Black Monks dragging away the bodies back to the Fort. Emma had wondered why her Mom didn't simply take over the settlement, instead of slaughtering them to bring them into the fold of her growing masses of Black Monk troops...
Standing there now, the very last person in the village alive... Or so she thought. A noise came to her ears and the fox-ears twisted towards it's source, to her head moving with her ears secondly.
There, under the rubble of wood sat two figures. A woman. And a girl... Blood red orbs met the brown's of young girl's and she stared... Tears in both the human's eyes, Emma turned to face them.
"...N-no... Please don't hurt us!" The woman trembled upon the ground, caged in by the fallen rubble of the Inn she hid under to stay away from the rain previosuly...
The daughter had berried her face into her Mom's bust in fear, trying to hide away the sight of the fox-girl clad in the brown monkish robe and odd small crown upon her head.
Emma simply parted her lips... As she whispered out to them. "I am sorry," and began to advance towards the trapped two.
"NO!" The woman screeched, turning her back away from the danger to her daughter's life, not caring for her own any longer, "You can kill me but not my daughter... Please!"
Emma paused her steps now, as she tilted her head down towards the crouched two, still trapped in that pile of rubble. No survivors. That's what her Mother had said... But, she gave a simple nod, holding her hands out into the rubble, knowing full well the child could get out but the Mother could not.
"I promise, I won't hurt her..." Emma's tone soft, gentle, she even offered one of her kind smiles as her hands moved to grasp the child's waist lifting her out from the rubble.
"Mommy!" The girl cried, now trying to wiggle out from Emma's grasp, as she held the young girl tightly to her chest, stepping back from the rubble, to stare upon the woman's face. Smile slowly fading away, Emma glanced towards the rubble above her... And they caught alight with flames.
"I am sorry," Emma offered again, watching the woman sadly, with the writhing child in her embrace, forceably pressing the girl's head into her shoulder so she could not watch her Mother's squirming...
The fire had touched her skin, and she howled from the pain... it consumed her arm... Her face, and then her whole body. Her screams were now, inhuman, she lashed around in the small cage of burning wood... Her skin bubbling and crackling, as her face seemed to melt away alittle somewhat from the bone - the smell of burning flesh causing the child to heave in her arms, to squirm and turn in Emma's tight embrace and stared at the horror, of her own Mother, burning before her eyes...
"Mommy!" The child's voice echoed, among the crackle of the fires that consumed the village and her Mother.
The morning came. The clouds of smoke from the village could have been seen from afar... And laying there, in the mud close to the skeletal remainds of the child's Mother... Was a young body with her neck split wide open.
One hundred and eleven bodies join the fold.
A girl giggled madly as she hopped up and down on a puddle, sending the dirty splash of the water to spray up over her well cleaned gown, which her mother so tenderly cared for.
"Look at me, Mommy!" The brown eyed girl cried, looking over to her Mother whom took shelter under neath the small open Inn's over hanging roof.
"Come out from the rain this instant!" The Mother frowned, although chuckled as she watched her daughter's care-free attitude. "You'll catch a cold, and you'll only moan about how ill you are later!"
"No I won't!" The girl smiled back to her before twiling in the puddle with her more than drenched peseantry leather shoes. Hopping upon one leg she now moved away from her Mom, giggling and merrily moving down the main dirt road that ran through this village. The rumours and fears of an undead army unscathing their everyday lives - after all, they had nothing to fear!
A bump! The girl was sent down into the mud, her hands moving out as her body skidded from the Brown Monked form, which now stood looming over her in it's darkened shadow.
The girl was suppressing the urge to cry as she stood, rubbing the globules of mud onto her already drenched and muddy dress! A look up to the figure, and noticed nothing more than a hood and a strange darkness which hid the features...
"I-I'm sorry..." The girl said timidly before then giving a little bit of a curtsy. Then, moving to turn away from the 'scary-person' the girl moved in a slightly more than quickened pace back up the road towards where she had left her Mom under the shelter.
The brown robed monk stood there though, it's head tilting back as she watched the girl move away... The hood's darkness following her in it's unmerciful gaze... Then it took a step forward; the sound of boots thudding loudly upon the ground with a wet and strange sounding 'squelch.' Hood now moving from the girl which disappeared from it's sight - side to side, at the buildings... And then back around it's shoulder...
For behind her... Further monks came. Black Monks... A sea of moving black now descending towards the unfortunate patrons of this village.
Slender hands moved up to remove the hood, her blood red eyes stareing forward at the ground blankly. It looked as if she was deep in thought, her spray of wet orange hair being whipped behind her in a gust of icy-wind, the Black Monks came to swarm behind her, waiting for the order to attack - their snarling and roaring causing the settlers in this village to stare out from the windows, shocked... Gasped... The army was here!
They ran out of their houses and away the offending intruders! No one took up arms against them - they had indeed heard their Mistress's terrible grasp upon the Undead, of Demons... Of Shadows and knew they stood no chance against them! Screams, horrified groans... Whatever the noise, these people made, it showed they were scared to death.
Emma, stood there, still she stared to the ground - blood red eyes now slowly bringing up their gaze to the screaming villagers, her foxling ears slowly perking up and her tail; which laid hidden underneath the monkish robes, swayed excitedly, watching them run.
Then, extending a hand out towards them, a ball of burning fire erupted from into her palm that the rain could not simply be put out. Then, bringing her body to twist to the side she launched her hand out toards them... Steam rose up into the air as the fireball cuts through the rain and wind right into the back of an unsuspecting man, the ball burned it's way into his chest and let loose an explosion of promethian flame which burned and singed his innards. Smoke, rising up from his lips and nose, he fell to the ground in a skidding of mud, and laid there, burning from the inside out.
And with that the Black Monks let their hoods fall. Their skeletal faces stareing out towards the crowd... And then, with a howl and sickening roar they launched forward - some moving to hands and feet like savage animals, some running upon their human legs... And heck, even the odd child-like Monk was using the very right shadow arm to launch themselves into the air and down into the crowd's center... Tareing flesh with their skull's bared spined teeth, some of the monks were even fortunate enough to keep some skin upon their faces in a gore of rotting flesh.
Emma stood there though in silence, eyes slowly dropping to the ground... The droplets of water rolling down her cheeks and nose, to drip from her chin sombrely down into the growing river of blood that flowed down away from the crowd to her parted feet.
Their screams... In some sickening way it made Emma grin... Bareing her animalistic teeth as her blood red eyes glowed, letting loose a fire in her pupils which burned... Strangely like her Mother's.
"... I'm sorry," Is all she whispered, moving down to kneel one knee into the bloody muddy river below, placing the whole palm of her hand into the redness she drew it back, and rubbed index finger to thumb - feeling the strange mixture of earth and human.
Upon her orange haired head, sat a crown for herself. A silver crown resembling that of which looked like her Mother's. A silver ring, with four spikes protruding up - not as high as her Mom's though, but not tall enough to impale right through the hood unlike her Mother's crown did.
The village was burning by night fall, the rain had stopped and the blood could no longer be washed away. Every villager was gutted by the time the rain had stopped, the Black Monks dragging away the bodies back to the Fort. Emma had wondered why her Mom didn't simply take over the settlement, instead of slaughtering them to bring them into the fold of her growing masses of Black Monk troops...
Standing there now, the very last person in the village alive... Or so she thought. A noise came to her ears and the fox-ears twisted towards it's source, to her head moving with her ears secondly.
There, under the rubble of wood sat two figures. A woman. And a girl... Blood red orbs met the brown's of young girl's and she stared... Tears in both the human's eyes, Emma turned to face them.
"...N-no... Please don't hurt us!" The woman trembled upon the ground, caged in by the fallen rubble of the Inn she hid under to stay away from the rain previosuly...
The daughter had berried her face into her Mom's bust in fear, trying to hide away the sight of the fox-girl clad in the brown monkish robe and odd small crown upon her head.
Emma simply parted her lips... As she whispered out to them. "I am sorry," and began to advance towards the trapped two.
"NO!" The woman screeched, turning her back away from the danger to her daughter's life, not caring for her own any longer, "You can kill me but not my daughter... Please!"
Emma paused her steps now, as she tilted her head down towards the crouched two, still trapped in that pile of rubble. No survivors. That's what her Mother had said... But, she gave a simple nod, holding her hands out into the rubble, knowing full well the child could get out but the Mother could not.
"I promise, I won't hurt her..." Emma's tone soft, gentle, she even offered one of her kind smiles as her hands moved to grasp the child's waist lifting her out from the rubble.
"Mommy!" The girl cried, now trying to wiggle out from Emma's grasp, as she held the young girl tightly to her chest, stepping back from the rubble, to stare upon the woman's face. Smile slowly fading away, Emma glanced towards the rubble above her... And they caught alight with flames.
"I am sorry," Emma offered again, watching the woman sadly, with the writhing child in her embrace, forceably pressing the girl's head into her shoulder so she could not watch her Mother's squirming...
The fire had touched her skin, and she howled from the pain... it consumed her arm... Her face, and then her whole body. Her screams were now, inhuman, she lashed around in the small cage of burning wood... Her skin bubbling and crackling, as her face seemed to melt away alittle somewhat from the bone - the smell of burning flesh causing the child to heave in her arms, to squirm and turn in Emma's tight embrace and stared at the horror, of her own Mother, burning before her eyes...
"Mommy!" The child's voice echoed, among the crackle of the fires that consumed the village and her Mother.
The morning came. The clouds of smoke from the village could have been seen from afar... And laying there, in the mud close to the skeletal remainds of the child's Mother... Was a young body with her neck split wide open.
One hundred and eleven bodies join the fold.