A young girl, barely thirteen, stirred in bed. There was a commotion outside that woke her from her peaceful slumber. The room was dark, it was still night. She looked to the other side of the hut, where her grandfather slept, and saw that his bed was empty. She heard screams coming from nearby, and immediately shot up in bed. She went to the doorway, and held back the cloth curtain that covered the entrance. She could see fire in the distance; a man she recognized as a teacher came running from its direction yelling, “They’ve broken through the barriers! They’re coming in hordes!”
The girl had no idea who the teacher was talking about, but he was usually a calm and collected man, and now he had been reduced to a blathering imbecile. More familiar faces came running from the fire, all looking just as frightened. She watched as they all ran past her hut, some of them carrying small children that weren’t from their families. She stepped out to get a better look of things, and saw men marching in the distance, coming from the fire. The fire was blazing high and had somehow turned blue. These were not men she recognized, and they held weapons in their hands. As they grew closer, she noticed something else peculiar about them, their eyes glowed.
She knew what they were, they weren’t men at all; they were vil sangs. She knew all about demons, and how to destroy them. The sun wouldn’t rise for hours, and would be no help to them. They would have to dismember or destroy the heart of each and every beast. Their numbers were great, but they were the weakest of all the demon types; if her clan were to survive a horde of any type of demons, these were the likeliest kind to beat.
She saw men from her clan coming back with weapons in their hands; axes, blades, and spears, all preparing to do battle. Some women and children still ran by. The vil sangs were growing near. The girl stood still in her place, frightened by the overwhelming sight, until a familiar voice shouted out, “Sarain!”
She turned and saw her grandfather racing toward her. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her away from the chaos. He didn’t take her far, but he took her to a clearing out of view. He looked around and saw a pile of crates the clan used when moving to carry produce. He took the lid off one and placed her inside.
Sarain crouched down while asking, “Why are you putting me here?”
He gave another quick glance around and said, “You have to hide. The others don’t realize that you can’t out run these beasts. Staying put is your best chance.”
“What about you?” she asked with worry.
“I’m not exactly hiding size, besides, I need to fight. I probably have more experience than anyone else here,” he told her. He picked up the crate lid and placed it on, and told her, “Try not to make a sound, and don’t come out until sunrise.”
“Yes, sir,” she shakily said from inside. Sarain watched through the cracks between the panels of wood on the crate as her grandfather picked up a spare blade someone had left behind, and headed back towards the battle.
She was left alone to hear shouting and clangs from metal nearby. The sounds were getting closer. Eventually she saw people moving into the clearing; the battle was coming nearer.
A boy named Orran, who was only a few years older than Sarain and whom she considered a friend, held a sword preparing to fight the vil sangs off. Other men, most of them grown, also stood with Orran waiting for the assault. Soon the demons flooded in. The vil sangs moved faster than men, they flipped and sliced their blades wildly through the air. Many men fell early on, bodies slashed to bits. But a few held their ground, one being Orran. Though he was young, he fought well, having trained immensely; he was the top in his class. Sarain had sparred with him a few times, but he always took it easy on her even though she would be trying her best to beat him. She suspected that he knew she liked him although she put great effort into hiding it. She watched as he swung his sword with great force, slicing away at vil sangs. He thrust the blade through the chest of one, and it dropped dead before him. Slowly but surely the vil sangs numbers dwindled. Survival was looking good for the remaining clan.
Suddenly a loud horn blared, which was followed by a low rumble. A bright blinding blue light flashed from somewhere close by, but was out of view to Sarain, and when she could see again, she saw that the area was now surrounded with demons. Monsters of all types; claws, fangs, horns, and scales; every kind of unimaginable horror existed in and around their camp. Some beasts pounced on all fours, some flew, and others stood and ran like men.
Sarain’s clan members fought as these new intruders bit and clawed them. Men collapsed, torn to shreds, others yelled as they were being eaten alive. Sickening cracks and crunches echoed in her ears as she closed her eyes to shut out the images of blood and gore. Screams rang out from women and children some place in the village, who like her grandfather had said, couldn’t out run the demons.
Sarain trembled in her box, but while she was full of fear, something urged her to open her eyes and look on. A few demons did lie dead, but most of the bodies were that of her people. Not many were left standing, but those who were, were all looking at the same thing. She couldn’t see what it was, but noticed that the demons had stopped fighting and were now surrounding the group that was left. She saw Orran standing near, he was drenched in blood and sweat, but he was still alive, and Sarain was thankful for that. Her grandfather stood further away, one of his arms looked badly clawed, but he seemed unfazed. A few other men and a couple of women remained, holding weapons, still ready to fight.
Finally the object of her clan’s attention came into view. It looked like a man, no, it had to be a vil sang, but the other demons, the full blooded demons, cowered to him in such a way that went against nature. This half demon was massively tall, much more than a man could be, and for a vil sang he looked more like a beast than that of a man. He somewhat resembled a gargoyle statue.
Sarain strained to get a better look, but with legs in the way, was unable to do so. The clan began to rush the colossal creature, striking him with their blades, but they didn’t appear to cut. His skin was like stone. The beast lifted his sword and swung it with stride; he sliced a man clean in half. The clan continued to try and chip away at the demon’s flesh, but he swatted away their attempts, while grabbing and crushing a man’s throat in the process.
Sarain’s heart began to race and her stomach grew sick when she saw Orran charge towards the monster. He yelled and thrust his sword at the creature, and hit its arm. Its skin cracked and a trickle of blood seeped out the wound. Orran had injured him, it was just a small scrape, but it gave hope to defeating the beast, because they now knew it could be injured. The creature seemed displeased with Orran, who had become the focus of his interest; he swung his sword at the young man. Orran jumped back, but the tip of the demon’s blade grazed him across his chest, cutting into him. It wasn’t a fatal wound, but in the moment Sarain saw the blade hit him she without thinking let out a gasp. Orran’s eyes and attention immediately went to Sarain’s hiding spot, and in that split second, the beast took charge and lunged toward him with incredible speed. He took a hold of the boy and sank his teeth into his neck. It clenched its jaws down, and Orran’s sword dropped from his hand. The demon shot his head back up and let Orran’s body fall limply to the ground. He landed with a thud, and Sarain had to bite down onto her lip to the point of bleeding just to keep from screaming out. He didn’t move; she turned her tear stained face away from the heartbreaking sight.
After a moment she looked up, back to the battle, to see only her grandfather left standing with the beast. Everyone else was dead, and all the other demons remained surrounding him. How did so many fall so fast? She couldn’t bear to see the same fate fall upon her grandfather, but there was nothing she could do. She only had basic training in fighting, and wasn’t even in the top of her class. How could she possibly save him?