PROLOGUE
Screams of pain and battle were echoing in her ears, her people were great fighters, but they were struggling against an enemy that came out of nowhere. Night was at it's peak when the attackers ambushed the small village settled at the foot of the mountain.
It must have been the hunters, but she couldn‘t be sure for the thick smoke from fires spreading around.
She was just getting back from a walk deep in the forest when she heard the screaming. Pure terror struck her as she ran out of the coverage of trees. Bodies were scatered everywhere, no one was spared. Tears started welling up in her eyes but there was no time to waste.
Many of her people were still fighting as she ran through the village to her home, she still couldn’t see who were the ruthless murderers. She reached their house, it was dark, eerie calmness and quiet surounding it, a stark contrast to the lively home it used to be.
Hoping someone alive was inside, she entered.
She found her mother lying in a pool of blood and a small bunch of children cowering in the corner of her parents bedroom. Their doe-like eyes following her slim figure, straight long rusty hair falling around her face as she approached them slowly.
„I knew you‘d come daughter. Take these children and care for them as if they were your own,“ her mother spoke.
„You're coming with us, I can‘t do it on my own,“ said the young woman.
„You can, and you will, we haven‘t got much time. I need you to take these children and carry them as far away as possible.“
Megara didn’t want to leave her mother's side just yet, „Where‘s father?“ “He’s already awaiting me Megara, go now,” the tone in her mother’s voice was definitive, and so with a heavy heart and tears in her eyes Megara took the smallest of the children in her arms, the bigger ones grabbing her tattered dress, and ran into the woods behind their house.
They didn't look back, too afraid to glimpse the carnage behind.
Only when the children were panting heavily and barely walking Megara stopped and fell to her knees. She cradled the children closer to her and quietly cried with them for the lost lives.
For their people left behind.
