It was a bright and sunny day at the gate city of Melgrace. The market buzzing with lively trade, the kids having fun at the palace park grounds. Near the west walls of the city, a family is happily packing goods which are to be sold at the city market. Trasidar Guards roam the streets in pairs to show that the people are secured during such horrid times of the Empire.

The mother finished helping his husband pack the goods and he prepare’s the horse to pull the cart.

“Maria, I’ll be back by sundown.” he said to his wife. Maria smiles at her husband while she wipes her hands. Her husband leans towards her for a kiss and she holds his face by the cheeks then gave one back. He whips the horse lightly and they started to head off. He waves at his wife while Maria wave’s back. She called her young son to tell of his father’s departure. Happily and cheerfully smiling at his mother, he quickly ran outside to wave goodbye to his father. His mother was startled on how fast his son went out to chase his father, but she only smiled and went back inside. The child continued running and waving at his father. While the father was amused by his son, he too waves back and the child finally stops chasing him. The boy still chasing his father waves at him until he disappears into a turn street. As there are many people around, he looked around to find his direction back home. Finally seeing his small house, he cheerfully waves at everyone, seeing some people he knew and was his friends.

“Hello Ms. Shire!” he screamed towards a young woman sweeping in front of her house. The woman looks at the running boy and smiles back at him. The boy stopped in front of her and Ms. Shire leaned forward to pat the boy’s head lightly as she was rather amused by the small boy.

“Did you chase your father again?” she curiously asked the boy. The boy giggled around before answering the miss.

“Yes! And today I was going really fast!” he proudly answered. The woman straightened up and was somewhat proud of the boy.

“Aha, good for you.” she answered while she played with his nose, “I think you better go back to your mother now Matty. Don’t want her to get worried don’t you?” she added.

The boy got upset and then blows his cheeks. The woman chuckled then pinched his cheeks, “You’re so cute when you do that!” she said, “Now run back to your house and I think your mother is waiting for you, ok?” she added.

The boy smiled at her then runs back to his house. The woman waves at the boy then continued her sweeping when a man approached him.

Maria went outside while wiping a cup. She looks around to see where her son is, then not far, she saw him running back towards their house. Matty suddenly trips and dropping face first on the road, everyone looks at the boy while Maria was shocked like a stone from where she’s standing. The boy slowly stands back up, pats his clothes to clean it up, checks his back, checks his knee, and his elbow for any scratches. Fully confident that he has no scratches whatsoever, he runs back to his mother screaming. Everyone else is relieved and continued on their daily routines including his mother. The boy jumps to his mother and hugged her tightly. Maria bended her knees as she looked at her son’s face, noticing dirt on his cheek, she cleans it up, and gave the boy a kiss on the forehead. Matty was smiling all the time while looking at her mother, while Maria pats his sons head then went back inside as her son grips her apron.

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His father arrived in the market and is ready to prepare everything he has. Today is different because of the soldiers being pulled out from the city a couple of weeks ago. He just finished setting up his little shop, before drinking some water that was strapped around his waist. He wipes the sweat that on his forehead and fixes himself up. After that he sighs while looking around his little shop, and checks if he forgets something. An old man then approaches his shop and looks at the things that he is selling. He notices the old shaking man with the walking stick.

“Ah, Mr. Abrock. I see you are trying to find something for the wife?” he politely asked the old man. With his hardly open eyes, the old man looks at him and smiled.

“I believe I may need another pot, Flect.” the old man said.

For a moment, he looked around for a pot. Finally finding what he needs, he hands it over to the old man.

“Here you go Mr. Abrock.” handing it to the old man and pats the old man’s hand, “And it’s Mark.” he adds. Smiling at each other Mark chuckled as the old man hands him over the imperial coins and slowly puts the pot at his backpack. He noticed the shaking hands the old man has, so Mark helped him on putting it on his backpack.

The old man then walked away now on his way home. Mark tends to his horse strapped on a nearby tree. He gave it some water for it to drink because it’s already mid-day. Then another man approaches his store once again looking for another item.

“Can I help you?” he politely asked. The man looks at Mark then quickly turned, facing the items to look if he has the things that he needs.

“Uhm Mark do you have some, uhm what do you call that?” he said while he tries to show him what he is looking for. Mark just shook his head for a moment then turned to look at the back of his little shop pulling out two things.

“Here you go.” he hands over a wok and a wooden spoon. The man laughs with Mark before he answered.

“I always forget what these things are called,” taking the wok and wooden spoon then hands him over some imperial coins for the items, “thank you again!” he runs back from where he came from.

Mark shakes his head while smiling and putting the coins on his stash. After that he looks left and right to see if there are any more customers charging in. As seeing the coast is clear, he pulls out his packed lunch and digs in.

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Back at their home, Maria also finishes setting up the table and is time for them to eat lunch. She wipes her hands with her apron and walked outside looking for Matty. She finds him playing outside with some other kids. Maria smiled at her son and she leans on the door watching him play. Seeing him so happy makes her feel the luckiest mother and the smile that her son shows every time of the day makes every day of her life worth it. One of Matty’s playmates points at his mother and he quickly looks to her. Maria signals it’s time to eat and Matty smiled back at her, he said goodbye to his friends and hurries back to his mother. He jumps at her while Maria caught him and they spin inside until they reach the eating table. She kissed him at the cheeks before putting him at the table. She sits right next to him and then puts food on his plate. Matty was just looking at her mother while she puts his food. They look at each other and after putting the food on his plate, her mother touched his nose then she too grabs some food for herself.

Matty grabs his spoon from the side of the plate and helps himself with the food. His mother stands up to get some water for her son. After getting the water, she sat back down and digs in while he drinks the water his mother gave him. Then he looked at his mother.

“Mama, how come you and papa never talk?” the cute little boy asked. Surprised by the question, Maria only beamed a smile to her son and drinks some water.

Matty just waiting for her mother to answer, she smiled at him then covers his ears with her hands then after that she covers Matty’s little mouth. She then pulled her hands back and continued eating while looking at her son. He turned his eyes to his food and plays with it.

“I’m sorry mama. I always forgot that you can’t talk.” he apologizes to her mother feeling sorry. His mother smiled at him and just stares at his son that time. She stops him from playing with his food and told him that it is okay by hand signals.

Matty then eats up the food already on his spoon then drinks his water. After that he turned toward her eating mother then puts his spoon aside. Maria looks at her son then waits for him to do something. Out of the blue, the boy points to himself, then unto his mother, and then draws a heart in his chest, then smiled at his mother.

Touched by what her son just did, she smiled at him and tears run down her face, she hugs her son and Matty hugs back. They stopped hugging and Maria told her son to continue eating while she cleans up.

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In the Imperial Guard Headquarters that sits in the heart of the gate city, beside the imperial palace were the governor lives. They are receiving different kinds of messages from different parts of the empire, from small park villages to an entire imperial city. From small to urgent messages the scout owl bears, they pay attention with outmost importance. Besides being a warrior on the frontlines of the battlefield, being a decoder is one of the most important positions any imperial guard or soldier can have. Everyone working here is coordinative, they organize how the message goes and when, the exact time it will arrive to its designation, the typical task a decoder does.

Beyond the eastern city walls, a scout owl is heading towards a park town, which connects them to the Talous territory of the Huertian Region. Upon the scouts arrival at the outskirts of the region, he was surprised because of some black clouds. Several moments pass when the owl returned and rests in the shoulders of a scout waiting on top of a hill. Even though a scout owl is just a mere magical summon by a magician, it can still feel and react like a real bird. He noticed that his owl upon latching in his arm, was shivering. He felt from it and the uneasiness of the bird worries him. Baffled by the reaction he checks it if something is wrong. The owl suddenly flaps like crazy and the controller distances himself from the bird until it flew down and began to show him some vivid images.

He was stunned for what he saw. Other than the black cloud, that envelops the sky and the great beyond. He saw the park town, burning and in ruins, smoke fills up the air. He even heard screams of pain and fear. Accompanying that screams are sadistic outcries, and bloodthirsty moans. He gulps and was sweating, his hands and feet are shaking. He also saw, people that are running towards west, the direction of Melgrace. It’s like they are running from something or someone. The images zoomed in and then he saw more people running for their lives, until he saw one man who tripped and was crawling in the ground begging for help. Then he was shocked to see a xerxecian soldier, approaching the crawling man. He begs for mercy as the soldier like an animal stalking its prey. He saw some soldiers that was chasing the other people away but focuses on this one horrific scene. The soldier pulls out his rusty sword, and pulled the man by its feet, it pulled him like a pig for slaughter. The man begs even more and much louder this time and then the soldier turned to him and stabbed him repeatedly. The man was screaming heavily before killing him and ending his pitiful life.

The image then zooms out and focuses on a group which is being slaughtered like pigs by the soldiers. And to his surprise he saw a man, riding a black, armored, red eyed horse approaching them, it was the red prince, Prince Tamiron. His eyes widened as he saw the scene, the soldiers looked at him waiting anxiously for his command. Tamiron just looked at the tied up prisoners while the soldiers’ saliva drips down from their fanged mouths like a very hungry wolf. Tamiron gets off his horse then approached one of the victims. After looking at them, he looked up and saw the owl, he smirks and then turned back and rides his horse. He signaled his men to kill them and then rides off along with two other soldiers. The soldiers stabbed them all at once, repeatedly. All of them scream of enormous pain that they felt over and over again. When the seemingly endless torture finally ended, the soldiers untied them and then dropped dead unto the ground like ragdolls. Then they feast on the flesh of the dead.

The sight of it was dreadful and was unbearable to see. But still he watches to know what had happened to that town, now desolated and wiped out. The owl then stops projecting the images and looks at its trembling master. Suddenly realizing what’s going to happen next, he quickly turned to the city and dashes off to report what had just happened. The owl flew and follows his master as they sprint towards the city.

He came in sight of the gate towers, one of the guards spots him approaching rapidly with his owl following behind.

“Open the gates!” he shouted several times as he waves to them. One of the guards in the towers caught what he was trying to said and immediately commanded the ones down in the gates to open it. One side of the gate slowly opened as the owl flew on top and heads to the Guards Headquarters. The soldier rushes and charges in as he dashed through the city. Everyone was looking at him in confusion while he passed by. The guards in the room noticed him first while some are closing the enormous gate. He’s almost there at the headquarters when suddenly his horse trips to a stray rock, he was thrown off and then falls hard to the ground. His horse was left lying in the ground while everyone was looking at him. He slowly got up and makes an effort to run towards the headquarters. He entered the room panting and gasping for air then drops once again to a table, he got up while everyone was looking at him.

“What in the world happened to you?” the head guard confused, asked.

Two guards help him stand upright and they gave him a glass of water. He drinks it and finishes the whole glass before putting it on the table. They were all looking at him as he catches his breath then finally stands up to deliver the news.

“They’re coming.” he said while he was still panting heavily. The head guard was puzzled as he thinks of what was this guy talking about.

“Who are coming?” he eagerly asked. The scout controller still panting answered quickly.

“Prince Tamiron! Along with his army!” he yells out. Everyone in the room was shock for what they heard while the head guard was dumbfounded. Seeing the reaction, he shakes up the guard to get him back to his senses.

“Did you hear me? I said he’s coming! He just wiped out an entire town!” he yelled again. Everyone scrambled while he calls his owl to show it to them. The owl flew down and lands on a table. The owl started to project what it showed him while everyone watches. It was very, very devastatin. It was disheartening as they shake in terror and in fear. They finished and they were all in shock.

The head guard is now panicking on what to do when the controller holds him by the neck.

“Call out for help!” he shouts to him. The guard shouts back as he stutters.

“T-t-that’s too late! It will be days before reinforcements arrive here! They are focused on protecting the capital city!” he shouts back. The controller was dismayed by the answer and has no choice but to let him go. The guards in the room where in entire disarray as on what to do, then the head guard finally got his senses back.

“Prepare the city! Evacuate as many as you can! Round up the militia cavalry and prepare the men of the city to defend it!” he shouts to his officers. They ran outside and jump on their horses as they gather up the entire force the city has left. He grabs his sword and goes out. The controller follows the head guard and he just glares at him.

“Bring your owl. Head back to the capital and show them what just happened.” he said in a louder voice. He takes a deep breath before he answered.

“No! I’m staying. I’ll defend the city with my life!” he confidently said.

The head guard slaps him and holds and pulls him towards himself as he looks at his eyes, “That’s an order soldier, now move!” he shouts, pushing him to the ground. He just looks at him with a dead cold winter stare while he crawls to his horse and saddles himself up and heads straight to the capital.

He then orders the remaining men to prepare the soldiers and the militias to defend the city. All of the city’s volunteers now gears up to defend their homes, their wives and their children from an impending horror. The cavalry now rush up in the eastern walls as they made drills to prepare themselves. The families of the city, the women and specially the children begin to flee. As some women cry out to their husbands begging them to come while the innocent ones doesn’t have any clue of what’s going on. Some children were crying while some was left alone. There are those who will just grab them and lead them to safety. A woman tries to find her child while she screams her name. This scenario was all over the city as it slowly sinks in to mayhem. The head guard checks if his men are ready. He can see that some of them are afraid, their eyes show their fear of death. Some are even shaking but he can’t do anything about it because this is their duty their city.

Twilight is upon them when black clouds starts to roll up and cover the entire city. They all saw the angry clouds with thunders echoing out of them. The guards started looking up as they know that their enemy is near.

Mark who was still at the market was packing up when he notices the guards talking to everyone part of the militia force before running again. He just looks at them before he returned packing.

Maria who was anxiously waiting for her husband as her son is sleeping. Some of their neighbors’ begs them to come. Maria refuses and she protests that she will wait for his husband. Her neighbor smiles at her and said good luck and goodbye before they finally left the city.

Outside the city beyond the hills, is an immense and overwhelming force of xerxecian soldiers led by the red prince himself. All with his glowing red eyes riding his death of a horse and then came to view the gate city. They stop their tracks as the prince gets down from his horse then walked forward. He looks at the city as he raises one hand, signaling the trebuchets to get ready. Before he could signal to fire, a loud bang came from the sky. He held his head up high to see what was going on and there from the sky. It glows red all over, the guards, citizens, xerxecian soldiers and Mark saw it all. The sky spits out a raging fireball that passed by the entire city and hits the western gates, destroying it leaving it to rubble. Now everyone is on a mass panic and disarray as it is the only way out and now they are sealed off. They all heard the loud bang as it echoes throughout the entire city. The city is now in a complete and utter pandemonium. Prince Tamiron calls out his siege machines, his trebuchets. He commands to go forward and it rolls down the hills in a perfect line. The second battalion of these dreaded machines came out. With his malicious smile he walked out in front of them while his closest guards follow. He signals to light up the projectiles. They start to glow in flames while the look outs of the city saw it. Tamiron signals to fire. Like letting loose of a rubber band on a sling shot, the fiery rocks hurdle to the city. In a bright flare, the fireballs hit the city with force and hit a lot of targets. They continued on showering the city with burning rocks. The Prince was pleased and orders to halt their attack.

He turned back and said, “Load the projectiles,” with a graveled voice, “destroy the eastern walls.” he ordered. They start to load the trebuchets and then lit it up and waited for the prince’s command.

Tamiron who was in his horse orders his men to follow him, the army slowly marches towards the city. The guards felt the thunderous march by the army and the head guard signals his men to prepare. Some were praying to the Gods and Animos as they wait for their unfriendly visitor. Prince Tamiron, with his soldiers rallied behind him signals the trebuchets to fire. They start to fire the fireballs unto the city once more, hitting the walls and destroying the gates. Tamiron charges on with a battle cry and the army follows to enter the city. The trebuchets continue bombarding the city when the guards finally head’s out to defend it. They came in clash with Tamiron’s army and it finally starts with a bloody fight to the end.

All can be caught in the battlefield was the screams and plea for mercy by the guards as they were overwhelmed by the forces the Red Prince have. As they overwhelm the defending troops, some of the soldiers enters the city and began to wreak havoc to those who were left behind. The soldiers terrorize the city and they soon envelop it with fear. They kill at will those who were innocent or not, they behead those who dare stands on their way and they kill even the youngest they came across. They swarm unto the city like locusts eating away the fields.

Mark at the time rushes with his horse as he charges towards his family as he passes-by some of the soldiers all around him killing everybody in sight. As he hurtles his way, a soldier jumps in front of him and surprised Mark. It struck the horse with its spear instantly killing it, thus throwing Mark unto the street. He stands up and makes a run towards his family when a pack of soldiers surrounds him. He was panicking on what to do when the soldiers suddenly stab him all at once, instantly killing him, swift and silent.

Maria, who was certain that his husband is clearly not coming back quickly gets her son from his bed and carries him out of the house. She was running as she witnesses the burning houses that surround them. Matty was wakes up, as he was horrified to see his home as it burns and turned into ashes. The xerxecian soldiers reach them and blocks Maria’s way. She tries to go back but she only came to face another one behind her. They both approach her quickly. Matty was wrapped and covered in a cloth when Maria throws him far away from her. She looks back and forth on the soldiers when one of the soldiers tries to approach the cloth. Maria realizing that her son’s life is in danger jumps on its back and hits the back of its head with a stone several times. One of the soldiers pulled her, and throwing her at the road. She crawls away from them when she saw her son, slowly crawling for safety under the enormous pile of debris. One of the soldiers pulls out his sword and without a thought, stabs Maria at the heart, and leaving her lying there. Maria who was still breathing the last breaths of her life saw her son, who was peeping from behind a door, crying and looking at her mother. Maria then smiles, as she was successful of protecting her son. She then slowly closed her eyes and sleeps for eternity as afterlife is now waiting for her.

Tamiron jumps on top of the governor’s palace, and overlooks the destroyed and burning city. He gazes upon every part of it as his evil smile portrays, another city has fallen on the hands of the Red Prince.

End of chapter VIII

Next Chapter: Chapter IX: Apple