The ride back to the town was a long and tiring one, but fortunately we encountered no more crazed, flying creatures, nor the men who sent them. We slowed to a walk about a mile out to give the horses a rest, and ourselves a chance to speak.

    "What do you think that was?" I asked when Aldyth moved Bethor to walk by our side.

    She looked down at the reins for a moment before shaking her head. "I haven't the faintest idea. I've never seen anything like that before in my life...in fact, I was hoping that you would know."

    "Me?" I asked incredulously.

    "Yes," she looked up at me with a smile that failed to reach her eyes. "I was thinking that it may be in one of those books you're always reading. Have they no mention at all of giants with wings and teeth? Think hard, Eli. They could disturb the deepest predators of the forest; there must be mention of them somewhere."

    I thought for the longest moment before shaking my head. "I'll have to check when we get back...I do not remember..."

    Aldyth nodded slowly. "Alright then, Eli." She looked ahead and clicked Bethor's reins gently. The two of them took the lead, leaving me alone with nothing but my thoughts and the unusual silence of the forest -- and the horse.

    "What could happening?" I asked Ashless quietly. She didn't appear to understand the question and simply tossed her mane. "Lot of help you are," I muttered before urging the mare forward.

    Her hair fell in a dank curtain over her face, and she barely moved to acknowledge me when the horses fell into step with each other. "Eli?" She whispered.

    On any other day, I wouldn't have heard her. Her voice was to soft, but even the wind seemed to fall silent to her words. "What is it?" I asked nervously.

    "What did they mean by...stragglers?"

    My hands tightened around the reins, forcing Ashless to a stop. The horse whinnied indignantly, but suddenly my heart was racing to loudly to care. "We need to go," I gasped and lashed the reins down against Ashless's neck. "Now!" Her hooves pounded into the earth, mirroring the blood screaming in my ears.

     The voices in the forest were searching for stragglers.

    And stragglers could not exist unless the masses have moved on.

    Unless the masses were gone.

     We were using the main path now, pushing the horses as hard as we could toward Gris. The silence grew louder in my ears as I urged Ashless to go faster. Suddenly Aldyth's horse reared onto its hind legs and let out a mighty scream. She shrieked and  clung on in surprise, but hadn't the time to collect her wit before Bethor reared again. Ashless ground to a complete stop and cantered back several step as Aldyth went flying.  I leaped from the saddle and raced to where Aldyth was slowly trying to sit up. "Be still, be still," I panted.

    "It's alright, Eli. I'm fine, really. Help me up," she assured me as she massaged her scalp.

    "Are you sure?" I asked and helped her to her feet.

    Aldyth combed her dark hair out of her face with her fingers. "Yes, it's not like it has never happened before." She turned to look at the horses who were skittering back nervously some distance farther than we had left them. "Something is frightening them. I doubt that they'll go any further, at least not willingly."

    "My house is not far, we can run from here," I panted, making note of the familiar scenery.

    She nodded and smoothed her dress. "Yes, we will do that. We go."

    "And the horses?" I asked.

    "They're wild at heart, they'll be alright." With those words, she dug her hand into my arm and pulled me into a run. For the second time that day, I found myself chasing the stable girl through the autumn forest. We took no council in stealth as our feet tromped through the leaves and twigs. If there was something out there looking for us, then they would have heard us from a mile off, but at that point nothing could bother us less than the idea of being caught. We were almost there. No matter what faced us when we arrived, we felt comforted in the knowing that we were almost home again.

    By the time we were out of the woods, my heart was ready to burn straight out of my chest. We shared a look before jogging across the field toward the cluster of houses where I lived. I knew something was wrong when I heard the silence. Normally the place was surrounded by the sounds of screaming children, bleating livestock, and Mother complaining playfully of her ill fortunes, but when we arrived, there was no other noise but the crunch of gravel beneath our feet.

    The back door creaked on its old hinges. My lips hardened into a line with the knowing that my mother never left it that way. She always chided us for leaving the doors open, like an invitation for the world to pause and see how well off we were not. For a moment, all I could do was stand there and watch it swing, but then Aldyth came up from behind and placed her hand on my shoulder. "Maybe Ismay went out to play and forgot to shut the door. She's a child; children forget things. Or maybe it was hot inside and your mother wanted to air out the house." I knew that she was trying to make me see some light, but excuses quickly turn to lies the one moment one stops believing the truth.

    But still I couldn't help but cling onto them. The moment I stepped from my spot was the moment I left my world behind. If I never moved, then maybe I could convince myself that Ismay was just playing and Mother was still calmly inside making the night meal. She'd scold me for not bringing home any meat, but at least she would still be there to speak of my wrongs.

    Aldyth seemed to understand my plight for she wrapped an arm of comfort around my shoulders. "You cannot stand here forever, Eli. At some point the past will catch up with us, and we'll have not the time nor the desire to greet it pleasantly."

    I took a deep breath. "You don't have to come with me, you know."

    "Of course I do," she chided. "If you pass onto the floor with shock, whom else will be around to drag your unconscious self out of the way of falling trees?"

    "It was one time," I muttered.

    She shook me gently. "And it's one time I'll remind you of for as long as we both shall live. Off with you Eli, before the thing with wings comes back."

    It looked like a tornado had swept through the house. Furniture was knocked over, glass was shattered, and my family was nowhere to be seen. I knew I should have been shocked, but all I felt was a cold numbness, creeping into my chest. As we walked across the main room, shattered glass crunched beneath our feet. "What could have happened?" I breathed.

    Aldyth ignored my question and kicked one of my sister's dolls into a corner. "I think.....we should...leave..." Her voice had in it the dying whisper of burning paper.

    A little voice in the back of my head argued that she was right, that we didn't know what was still hanging around, waiting to haul us off like the rest of them, but in reality, all I really wanted to do, was turn back to a time and place where this never could have happened -- or least to make it so I was in a position to do something besides be too late.

    I faintly noted Aldyth rushing around behind me, but I could not comprehend what she was doing and did not particularly care.

    They were gone.

    Aldyth grabbed me by the shoulders and whirled me around to face her. "Eli, come on. Standing around here will not do them any good. Let's go into town, we have to at least try and look for them!"

    Her words snapped me out of my daze. "Right, right -- what are you doing?"

    She thrust a couple belts and a large bit of waterproof fabric into my arms. "Pack light."

    I nodded and spread the cloth down on the floor before running to the dining room to grab a couple water skins from under the counter. I saw a loaf of day old bread and decided to grab that too. There used to be some dried meat in the cupboards, but whatever had gone through here taken it from the premises. There was some rope hanging by the door, rope always came of use at some point. I quickly tied up the sack then ran to the room I shared with my brother, Barric, to grab my bow and quiver.

    With my stuff packed and my quiver slung across my back, i went on my way to check on Aldyth, when I happened into my parents' quarters. On a whim, I quickly ducked inside and opened the chest at the foot of their bed. Inside was the usual bobs and trinkets they hid from the eyes of the world, but underneath everything was an old belted dagger. Barric, Ismay, and I discovered it when we were snooping around looking for sweets. Every once and a while, we'd take it out and stage fights like we were heroes trying to save the world. Ismay always got stuck being the damsel and the idea bothered her to no end. The dagger would be our mighty sword, our weapon of justice.

     Now seemed like as a good a time as any to take it out again. . "Aldyth!" I called toward the main room. She came hurrying in with a similar satchel slung over her shoulder. "Here," I handed her the dagger. "In case we meet anymore trouble that we cannot outrun."

     She took it silently and pulled it from its scarab. It had a leather wrapped handle with simple blade forged of iron that was about and a half times the length of my hand. She stared at it for the longest while before fastening the belt around her waist. "Thank you.... I will work it off when this is all over."

    I snorted and closed the chest. "You can run around swiping our food, but your conscience feels indebted for accepting a dagger?"

    She flushed and looked away.

    "No really, it's alright. We'll see about it at the end, shall we?" I rose to my feet with my sack and quiver shouldered. "C'mon. Where are we going first?"

    "My family's house," she said immediately. "I need to make sure that Noah is alright." I nodded. It was common knowledge that Aldyth wasn't very fond of her parents, but there was little that could separate her from her older brother. He had raised her all on his own for almost as long as Aldyth could remember.

    The two of them lived in a small bunk across the plaza from the Ferndale's stables. Her parents were never around, preferring to travel the world instead of look after their only children. When Noah turned twelve, they left him alone to care for seven year old Aldyth all by himself. Gris has seen none of them since, though their children remained relatively well taken care of.

    Neither of us wanted to stay in that house any longer, so we moved out soon afterwards. We walked along the sides of the main road, keeping out of sight of the main road. The silence of the day persisted as the two of us slowly made our way into town. As it did with my hoise, buildings looked to be destroyed from the inside. Neither of us had much to say as we ducked through alleyways and made use of the shadows that plagued the seemingly abandoned buildings. Aldyth's house was only a little ways further when we heard the heavy weight of boot steps trudging through along the road behind us. "C'mon," I hissed and dragged her across the street before we could be seen.

    Once across, we hugged the walls of her house and listened hard, but the foot steps seemed to have disappeared. We remained still for a moment longer before making a mad dash for her back door. Like my own, it was hanging wide open like someone had left in a hurry. Aldyth ran ahead of me and burst into the house in a silent manner that only she could accomplish. I trailed behind slowly as she scampered through every room in a mad frenzy. My heart sank at the familiar scene before us. Smashed eat ware, overturned chairs, remnants of an old life tossed about like trash.

    I didn't stop her from kicking an old table in frustration. Or for tromping around like a mad woman looking for her only family under beds and in cupboards. Her house was even more destroyed than mine was and Aldyth let her anger show. I backed away for a moment and allowed her to let loose her rage. In a back room that had somehow survived the carnage, there hung a couple of worn cloaks -- though to whom they belonged to, I had not the faintest idea -- which I quickly rolled up and slid into my pack.

    Suddenly a dark shadow swept over the back window. I dove behind a table that offered me little protection and froze as someone smashed their fist through the glass. The next thing I knew an oil lamp was being thrown into the room to the mad laughs of a deep throated voice. The lamp smashed against the floor and ignited in a burst as the wick caught on the oil.

    The flames raised faster than anything I'd ever seen before. I hardly had enough time to break from the room before it was fully swamped with fire. "ALDYTH!" I screamed, not caring if anyone heard me. There was a smash from the other side of the house where I could only assume they were throwing in another lamp. "WHERE ARE YOU, ALDYTH! ALDYTH!!"

A/N
Edited. Edited Twice. Three times. I combined chapters three and four right here.
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