The Enigma Within

It was the ninth century, during the year 871. It was the afternoon of, April 10th, the spring exactly twenty five years after the new lord stepped into office, ruling the village of Zelfari and following the Great War, and the raid of the Vikings against their opposing sectors Anglesbourough, and Trichal, tearing their town apart from the continuous fighting, looting, protesting, and destruction, leading them to start from scratch due to the lords’ poor decisions on orchestrating the village through the right path. They get back on their feet in the rear of two and a half more years, refurbishing all the buildings and goods that were destroyed, giving the village people a new start at life now that things have died down and are going smoothly again.

It was a beautiful, hot day outside. The birds were soaring through the air over the big village, watching the people enjoy their life's journey.

The husbands were leaving their wives behind at home, kissing them goodbye, to work for the day while they watched the children, ensured the house was kept clean, and that there was food on the table when their husbands returned.

They flew and landed in the trees that were resting along the light-brown gravel paths, which had amazing greenery and flowers growing alongside them. Next to it were multiple rows of homes of different sizes and shapes fitting whatever the buyer was accustomed to. In front of the houses and on the side there were children seen running around chasing each other and playing some sports like baseball, quoits where two people try tossing three rings onto a stick poking out of the ground, and then some were sword fighting with sticks and having a great time.

The bird’s nest was resting on one of the branches where their family was waiting for them with their mouths open chirping desperately for food and attention. They fly into the nest instantly feeding them the food that they went to hunt for them, giving them all the love and affection that they needed before they leave the nest.

Underneath the tree was a bed of ten baby hedgehogs lying in their humble burrow or, what was left of them. A small dark figure quickly runs away, squelching, chewing, and swallowing something it had in its mouth, frightened by the other baby hedgehogs that were staring at it. The two baby hedgehogs walk up to their siblings and sniff the mangled ones confused about what just happened, backing away and searching around for the scent of their mama, distressed. They look in the direction where the figure runs out as it makes a loud screeching noise causing them to walk out of their burrow, chuffing, looking around to investigate what killed their family, and where their mother was. The figure continues to get away from them making weird noises. They stared bewildered at why it would do such a thing and why it didn't get them.

In the main circle of IronHaven, people were scattered around, getting good after good, to keep themselves and their families stocked up in case anything were to happen. On the inside of it, there were markets, churches, blacksmiths, fortune tellers, butchers, and many more, to fulfill the needs of the villagers living in Zelfari, allowing the markets to flow with revenue expeditiously. On the outside of the circle, there were also a few more little shops and a sprinkle of big places to get things from instead of going all the way into the circle, to the folks with social anxiety who don't want to get caught up with all those people, or not deal with getting pickpocketed since there’s been thief's lurking in the main area stealing and killing people for fun, and to feed their family since its hard for them to get a good paying job in the village.

Seconds later four people dressed in black hoods covering them from head to toe, holding knives and bows angrily walked up to one of the most prominent weapon shops outside of, the Iron Haven Market Circle.

It had stands on the outside and the inside along with the other shops that were around for anyone to look at if they didn’t want to walk into the store.

They approached and drew their weapons on the six to ten people who were, standing outside normally shopping enjoying the beautiful day unamused by the bandits thinking it was a joke. They glance around smirking at how calm the crowd was and how fast they were ready to ruin it. One of the tall bandits on, the inner left, walks closer to a semi-tall bald guy, giving him aggressive eye contact like he was gonna mess him up.

The man was shopping for expensive fur for his bed since his house is extremely cold for some odd reason. He then notices the bandit in the corner of his left eye walking close to him. he jerks his head to his left from the familiar figure, starting to panic leaving him frozen in his spot as, the bandit gets closer. His stomach drops, and his forehead starts to sweat profusely. The bandit gets closer to him as he slowly steps back in fear trying to figure out what to do; never being in a situation like this ever before.

"Uh." He hesitantly lets out.

"My time to shine!" The bandit expresses.

"W-What?" The bald man says scared and confused.

The bandit grabs the man by his arms with a smile, knocking his goods out of his hands, and aggressively throwing him to the ground like a rag doll. The crowd oThe crowd of people gasped in disbelief of what they were witnessing before their eyes. He pulls out his seven inch dagger from his right pocket quickly kneeling down instantly stabbing him in the side over and over again, listening to the man scream in agony. The crowd gasps and screams in terror with a few passing out. Some run away but, the bandits around stop them from leaving by stabbing them deep into their sides making sure they weren't going anywhere. Screaming in pain as they watched them twist the knife and pull out with no remorse killing them instantly. They look at all the peoples faces who looked petrified about what was happening.