n i n e

I push Allys behind me, "Oh my God, what is happening? Allys, don't look," I whisper. I watch our bows dim down as we slip into the darkness.

So they do dim down, but I still don't know how.

I feel her hide herself behind me as she softly whimpers. I try to divert my eyes but I cannot pull them away as I watch the scene before me in the shadows of the village. It very hard to see as I get glimpses of what is happening. The moonlight indistinctly shines across the ground all around us as soft breezes blow my hair around my vision. The strong stench of dirty humans and metallic blood fills my nostrils. The same stenches that filled our home. I reach up with my other arm not holding my bow up to my mouth and I try not to feel ill.

Soft moans and screams are muffled in the wind, like they are in the distance, and like they are trying to be heard but are being stopped. There is a human on the ground, leaning against the nearest house, cowering in fear as another human has a sharp and shiny bladed weapon raised in the air above them. That human is chasing the other human violently and I faintly see dark splotches of red stained on the weapon as moonlight reflects from it.

Is that blood? Is that human trying to kill the other one? Why?

The trembling human whimpers as the other human attempts to attack them with their weapon. The weapon makes contact to skin and a high-pitch scream of agony fills my ears as the sickening sounds of a weapon breaking skin is heard. The human keeps striking the other and brutally continues killing the other until the screaming subsides. A bone-chilling shiver runs down my spine as the silence embraces me and I do not look back up to where the murder took place just now.

"Follow me, Allys. We need to get far away from here,"

Allys swiftly follows me as I silently trek through the shadows and she tightens her grip she has on my hand. I block the view of the humans as I pass them, trying to make it through the village without being detected. I cannot believe I just witnessed a murder. What has happened here in this village to cause everyone to flee? Is it because the humans are at war and this was one of the villages that got destroyed? This village is not intact anymore as all the homes are in pieces and are mostly scattered all over ground.

Now the humans that are left here are committing crimes. I have only seen those two humans since we arrived here and as we pass them, the one who killed the other is rummaging around in the items that belonged to the one they killed that are scattered around the ground where they were chasing the other. I feel nervous and slow my pace when we get near where they are, as to be as silent as possible so they don't notice me.

When I think we are far enough away from him, I feel Allys pull me back towards her as I feel myself begin to stumble over something that is hidden in the shadows on the ground in front of me. I cover my mouth with my hand to keep me from calling out and Allys manages to keep me from falling. However, the human grunts and when I turn back to look at him, he is looking towards our direction. His face is shadowed, so I cannot see where he is looking. He must have heard us.

Dammit. My clumsiness is causing us more problems. Like that is anything new.

He grunts again and drops the thing he was holding in his grimy hands, "Is someone over 'ere?" I hear him say slowly, like one would say to their prey.

Allys grips my arm tighter than she was a second ago and I hear her whimper lightly once again, "You're going to have to kill him too," She says as softly as she can.

My stomach flips over as I watch the human begin to tread over to our location slowly. I grip my bow tighter as I realize Allys is right. Either that or we are going to have to run for it. And we all know that is the best plan for telling every human that we are here.

No. If I don't kill this one. Then he will kill us both. There is no other choice. I must.

The human starts slowly, taking every step with caution and care. But without any warning, he takes off towards us at such a high speed that it takes everything I have not to scream out as loud as I can. I feel my heart speed up and I swear I hear Allys say something.

I need to shoot him right now!

But before I can bring up my bow to aim towards him, he rushes past us like he was not even coming after us at all. I stand there watching where he just was for a moment before I shake myself from the trance.

I spin around as I drop my bow to my side and see that human barreling towards another human that is now in sight across the way close to another pile of debris. Thank goodness he did not run right into us just then. He surely would have known we were here then.

I reach down to grab Allys' hand and pull her down further into the tall grass around us. It is slowly dying, but it is somewhere to hide within the shadows. The human reaches the other one and I hear more screams fill the silent village. More disgusting sounds of a sharp blade tearing skin apart fills the air as the screams abruptly end. I shut my eyes tightly and cover my face with my arm again while repeated sounds of the blade hit the remains of that human.

What sounds like thick liquid splatters against the ground as the constant loud thwack sounds change to soft thuds. Allys continues to whimper into my back next to me, "When will this end? Make it stop, Alexis!"

When the sounds end, I open my eyes in time to see the human completely in view, lit up with moonlight, and he is covered in bright red liquid. He reaches down around the corpse and picks up multiple things before turning back towards us. I hold back the gasp in my throat and silently shiver while watching the human trudge back towards us. His sharp red-stained weapon swings back and forth as he walks while he grunts with every step.

Please don't find us. Please don't find us.

When he gets uncomfortably close to us, I see what he is holding in his hands. It's food. Bags of food is being dragged along around him as he trudges back. He's killing for food? This war must be forcing them into a state where food is scarce. Possibly because villages are being slaughtered.

Luckily, he slogs past us, thumping the ground with every heavy step reminding me just how close he is and he doesn't look down at all. I slowly watch him reach the other corpse and he fills up his bags with the remaining food he took from his dead prey.

Finally, he turns and leaves the area and escapes from sight into the shadows further back into the village. For once, I finally feel my nerves relax as I slowly sink into the tall grass.

"It's over," I say in a whisper, "Let's stay here until we know it is safe,"

The stench reaches my nostrils, stronger this time and Allys begins to cough behind me. When she stops moments later, she pulls my sleeve. I turn to look at her and I notice her red eyes and her cheeks are stained with dried tears, "Are you okay?"

She nods weakly, "Stay here, I see some bread the human left behind. I am going to get it,"

Her eyes widen, "Be careful, Alexis,"

I nod firmly and slowly look around us before slowly standing. I keep low to the ground as I slowly make my way to the single bag of bread lying in the moonlight. I rush past the corpse, covering my mouth as I go with my arm and finally reach the bread.

Before I grab the bag, I faintly hear a whimper from around me and notice it sounds like a human. I freeze in place as my body stiffens. I glance around quickly and hear the soft whimper again. This time, it is followed by a soft and caring voice, "Mommy is 'ere for you. Daddy will return with the medicine soon. Just hang in 'ere,"

Medicine? Is someone ill?

I grab the bread and slowly stand up. When I glance through the hole in the wall of the home nearest the one I am next to, I see a female human holding something gently in her arms. The look on her face looks disheveled and worried as her eyes stays focused on what she is holding.

When I take one slow step in her direction, her eyes slide up and meet mine instantly.

The look she gives me is both surprising and saddening, shattering my heart. My heart sinks when I notice her face looks battered with scars and streaks of dried tears. Then my heart completely breaks in two when I finally see what, actually who, she is holding.

A young child. A small human girl. And she looks near death.

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Will Alexis and Allys help this human?

Feel free to leave a vote and comment if you want to see more!

See you in the next part!

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