Richard was walking in the direction of Ryzeon, he had been on the road for two days and was now seeing the village from the mountain path he was on. " People in this part of the world really have a different definition of the word 'village'. Not beung engaged in the war and being at peace for a hundred years, the country of Triskal had no need to requisition the men and the towns and villages were bigger than anything Richard had ever seen. Ryzeon was a 'medium' sized village with an approximation of four hundred villagers. Their main source of income was the vineyards and farms. The quality of the soil and the intense care of the people of Ryzeon was so high that most of their crops would survive even during the winter. Many of the smaller villages relied on them for their survival. The region was working as an all functioning ecosystem in which Cicsera was the heart. The town, which was literally the size of a capital from where Richard came, had a near approximation of nine thousands citizens. People from the five main villages would sell their goods to the town and at the same time would get a profit from selling it to the smaller ten villages around them. Ryzeon for their grapes and cerals, Azaglea for their coal mines and jewels, Hyrith for the mass population of demi humans was a trading place for exotic goods but also a slave trade post, Poratif for their quality stables who were selling horses to the town guards and workhorses and finally the village of Gorenguard which was specialised in digging into an old volcano which is rumored to have been a dragon's lair since it is filled with rare ores.

  Richard was now a few hours away from the village, he decided to take a slight break and relax against a tree. He took out some bread out of his bag and started biting at it. The sun was high in the sky but not warm. It was one of those typical bright winter days. All the leaves were gone from the trees. He was now daydreaming about having Bella in his arms, he wished he could have stayed. From the corner of his eye he catched a small dark shape creeping up on him from his right, he looked to his right and discovered a small child looking at him from behind a tree. He was dark skinned and seemed to not be older than eight years old. He was looking at Richard with care. Richard stood up and took a step towards the child.

  " Hey little one. "

  The child hid even more behind the tree, who could blame him? Richard was a tall man in all black and covered in blades. He kneeled and held out his hand with the piece of bread.

  " Are you hungry? "

  The child shook his head. He was just looking at Richard in silence. Something felt wrong about this situation. Still with one knee on the ground, Richard focused on the vibrations of the ground. The child wasn't alone. When he stood back up the child had vanished into the forest. " What a strange encounter" thought Richard. All the presences around him vanished too. He took his bag and resumed his travel but was now more aware of his surroundings. Richard got stopped at the entrance of the village by two guards.

  " Hey there stranger, state your business. "

  " I have been sent by the duchess of Cicsera to deal with the witch. "

  " Oi! We have been expecting you! Go see the chief up there. "

  The man pointed at a big house on top of a hill at the end of the main avenue. He nodded at the man and started walking towards it. Along the way, Richard noticed that the duchess didn't lie, not a single child was in the town. The younger people he could see were around eighteen years of age. Everyone was waving and smiling at him on his way. The chief's house was a big wooden lodge with carved pillars at the entrance. The lodge was topped by a wooden sculpture of a deer head and in its handles were cyan ribbons floating to the cold wind. Richard knocked on the door and a pale blonde woman opened and told him to come in. As he stepped inside, he was relieved that he didn't need to be in the cold anymore. The inside was spacious, four pillars carved in the same pattern as the ones outside were holding the whole structure, a small fire was at the center of the room and doubled as a cooking station. By just looking around Richard noticed there were multiple rooms and a cellar. In front of him was a man barely older than him, he had quite the thin slender build, his light brown hair was held in a braided ponytail. He was holding a baby in his arms. As he saw the stranger that had just stepped into his home, the man placed a finger on his mouth to signal Richard to be quiet. The woman next to Richard slightly pulled on his cape.

  " Follow me, my husband will see you on the balcony. "

  Richard followed the woman and she opened a door that was leading to a balcony that gave view on one side of the village. There was a small table and two seats. She took his hands in hers and smiled at him.

  " Would you like some tea or something to eat mister? "

  " Just some water please. "

  " Are you sure you don't want anything? We have food to spare. We have some dried deer meat. "

  At those words Richard could not resist any longer.

  " I will go for some deer meat. "

  The woman clapped in excitement.

  " Yes! And you have to taste the wine with it! I'll be right back. "

  She left him on the balcony almost hopping around the place. " She seems a bit too happy for the situation these people claim to be in. ". Richard peeked at where she was going, the man gave her the baby and started walking towards the balcony. He opened the door and greeted Richard with a handshake.

  " Welcome friend, my name is Solus, I'm the village chief. The creator heard our prayers and finally sent someone. Please have a sit. "

  Richard sat down, the lady came back with some wine and dried deer. She then proceeded to grab his hand once again.

  " Here, I'm sure you will love it! " She then turned to her husband " Anya is sleeping better than ever, that medicine that Selena gave her is life changing. Call if you need anything." She gave him a quick kiss and walked away.

  Before he started speaking, Solus poured some wine to Richard and himself. Richard took a sip of it and the woman wasn't lying, it was indeed one of the best wine he ever tasted.

  " So, I heard you were having troubles and I've been dispatched by the duchess to deal with it. What can you tell me about the witch? "

  Solus tilted his head to the side.

  " The witch? "

  " Yes the witch, the one that abducted all the children of the village. "

  " Oh you mean Selena? She didn't abduct them, we gave them to her."

  Richard was completely lost.

  " Wait, but didn't you call me here to kill her? "

  Solus was astonished.

  " Hummm, listen friend, I don't know who told you this but they spoke out of their ass because we sure as hell don't want to get rid of her, she saved our village! "

  " Ok then I need you to enlighten me on the current situation and to why I'm here. "

  Solus then proceeded to explain the situation from the very beginning

  " It was about a year ago, this young lady straight up came to the front of my house and said she wanted to work for this village for free but nothing manual. She is a dark skinned woman in her thirties. I had nothing to do with someone that couldn't use their hands! So then she told me she could do magic and she wasn't lying. So she lived in the stables for quite a while and earned her keep, she then went into the forest after asking us if it was ok for her to requisition a part of it as her own terrain. Since she had been here for a while, most folks around here saw no problem in that. Now the current situation started about a month ago, one day, my eldest son came back with a sting mark that had a strange pattern, like three small points organised in a triangle. He had some fever, he couldn't ingest any food and was delirious. Soon we realised that he wasn't the only one but whatever he had was spreading to the other children. At the same time our crops started dying out and we saw the origin of the stings. Insects big as my fist crawling in the ground, we managed to push them back and somehow stings to adults don't affect us as much, they hurt like hell and will get one big fella bedridden but won't have them worse. "

  Solus paused and pointed towards an enormous tree with many black ribbons on the branches.

  " Over there is where my fourteen year old boy is now burried, he was the first to be hit but not the first to go. No parent should ever have to watch their own child fade in such a way. We couldn't even give the dead children a proper burial, we had to burn them. Each of those ribbons is one of our children. Selena was gone on a trip to Azaglea. By the time she came back, fifty children had passed. Once she had arrived she did everything she could, she told us these insects are a mutated variant of some she had seen in her own country. She called them zenkabs, the ones we fought were apparently workers, soldiers are about the size of an adult human like you and me and they are supposed to have a queen. She knew how to treat the children but she needed to take them all away from the village because what the zenkabs do is sting their prey and then track the pheromones impletend in them to track them. So they would have kept coming to get the infected children and take the healthier ones at the same time. So since she is busy treating our children we asked for help to kill the queen of the zenkab. Here is the whole story. "

  Stolen story; please report.

  Richard took a sip of wine and took a deep breath.

  " Well that is definitely not what I was expecting but I prefer killing monsters to killing a witch that's for sure. I will help but I need to meet with Selena before anything. She might have a special way for me to get rid of the queen. "

  Solus let out a sigh of relief.

  " May the creator be praised! I feared you might have been a coward scared by the change of job, the sun is setting and you might be tired from your trip. Please will you accept to spend the night in my humble home? "

  " I think I will. "

  The both of them stood up and headed back inside to have dinner. Later that night Richard woke up to Solus and his wife talking in a language he couldn't understand. They seemed agitated. He noticed something he hadn't seen before. Both Solus and his wife had a mole on their hand, such a particular trait. He went back to sleep but stayed on his guard. He woke up the next morning to Solus's wife cleaning the front of his door. She smiled at him and grabbed his hands once again.

  " Good morning good sir, how are you on this beautiful morning? "

  Something seemed strange, this woman was way too happy, he wanted to see the witch as soon as possible. But he had to make sure of something, he put his hand on the woman's chest.

  " I slept well, can I ask you a question hmmm .. "

  " Iléana "

  " Iléana, where are you from? "

  She had a slight pause. She seemed more serious.

  " I'm from here, I was born in this village like my parents and their own parents. Why do you ask ? "

  " Oh nothing just making conversation, I'm gonna grab some breakfast and depart.

  Iléana stood there staring at Richard while he was getting his breakfast ready, he could feel her gaze on his back. " I was right, something is up, she said she was born here but her heart didn't skip a beat when she answered me. She said the truth but somehow she was speaking in a foreign language that I've never heard someone speak. ". Solus was nowhere to be found inside the house, Richard finished eating and prepared to go out. When he stepped outside he came face to face with a tall bearded man that was coming inside.

  " Oi stranger! You must be the one sent by the duchess to help us! May the creator be praised! "

  The man tried grabbing Richard's hand but he dodged him. The man looked at Richard in the eyes, for a split second Richard could see anger in his eyes but then the man smiled at him.

  " Sorry young man, I may be too eager to meet new faces ahah! Now if you'll excuse me I have business inside. "

  Richard carefully let the man go inside. He looked at his hand and he had the same strange mole on his right hand. Richard carefully made his way through the city, the people were all of a sudden way less friendly to him. He took the main avenue towards the exit of town and asked the town's guard in which direction the witch was. The man who the day before greeted him with a big smile was completely stone faced.

  " We will lead you to her, follow us. "

  He then whistled at two other guards and they all departed. The four man party had entered the forest but Richard was feeling uneasy, something was wrong. The two behind him started whispering in the same language Solus used the night before. Suddenly all the guards froze in place, in front of them was standing the small boy Richard had encountered yesterday. The guard in front of Richard took his spear and took a stance to throw it at the boy. Richard grabbed his wrist and planted the spear in the ground.

  " Have you lost your mind?! It's a child! "

  Behind him the two other guards started charging at his back. He grabbed the man by the neck and threw him at them. " I'd rather prefer to avoid killing them, yesterday they were acting normally. "

  One of the assailants charged head first at him, he sidestepped the spear and grabbed it, he then pivoted on his right foot and used the momentum to throw the man head first into a tree. The shock knocked him out cold. Richard then broke the pointy base of the spear off. The two other guards charged at him, he rotated around the first one and in the same movement delivered a heavy blow to the temple of the second. He then ducked under the spear blow coming at him and grabbed the man to strangle him with his own spear. Before the man lost consciousness, Richard threw him against a tree, he needed answers.

  " Why did you try to attack this boy?! "

  The man stared at Richard without answering.

  " Why did you attack him?! Answer or I swear I'll send you to the creator right now! "

  The man started hissing at him and speaking this weird language he heard before. Richard punched him a few times.

  " Answer! You son of a whore! "

  The man looked at him and smiled with his bloodied teeth and then spat at his face. Richard punched him harder this time to render him unconscious. Before standing up he looked at the man's hands. He had the same mole on his hand as the others. He stood up and checked the other 2 mens hands, same thing. " I can't go back to the village but I don't know where the witch is exactly. He once again noticed the little boy looking at him from behind a tree but this time the boy was smiling at him.

  " Do you know the witch Selena? Can you take me to her? "

  As an answer the boy started running and waving at Richard.

  " Guess that means yes. "

  He followed the boy in the deepest part of the forest. They then stumbled upon huge stones with runes on them. They passed them and kept on walking. Richard was feeling observed and for a reason, upon closer inspections, many children were around the path he was walking on, hiding in the trees or in bushes. They finally arrived at a mansion in the middle of the woods. " Not very hidden " thought Richard. A young man at the entrance panicked and screamed when he saw Richard.

  " Intruder! HELP! "

  In a matter of seconds, Richard was surrounded by three young men and two young women all younger than seventeen years of age. All pointing wooden spears to his face.

  " I come to see Selena, I have business with her. "

  One of the girls behind him slightly poked at his back.

  " We should kill him where he stands! "

  The boy on her right nodded.

  " Yeah I agree let's just poke his eyes out! "

  Clearly they weren't going to listen. He decided to use a little trick, he took a coin out of his pocket and threw it as high as he could in the air. In the second of distraction this action allowed, he cleared his mind, took a deep breath, erased his presence completely and walked past the boy in front of him. When the coin landed on the ground, Richard was on the porch of the house looking at the confused teens. Both hands on his hips he couldn't help but laugh.

  " If I was there to kill you, you would be dead already young ones, so now please put your weapons down I mean you no harm. I just want to help you deal with the zenkabs."

  At the mention of the creatures, the teens relaxed a little bit. The door behind him opened and a dark skinned woman with short hair and hazel eyes appeared.

  " Show me your palms stranger, only then will I be able to trust you. "

  Richard didn't want to upset her, he held out his hands and she looked at them carefully. She had a sigh of relief.

  " Children, he isn't one of them, you can all go now. " She looked at Richard. "You, follow me upstairs" .

  He followed her but noticed the house had apparently a basement. Inside the house were many of the children from the village. The older ones tending to the needs of the younger ones. She led him to a small living room with a few chairs.

  " Please sit. "

  Richard took a seat and decided to remain silent until the woman introduced herself.

  " My name is Selena Dibalta, alchemist but most would just say witch. "

  " Pleased to meet you, I'm Richard Regeaj. I seem to have stumbled upon a problematic situation but I'm not sure who to trust anymore. I was told to come and slay a witch that was abducting children, then I was told to kill a mutated species of insect that gave kids a form of disease. Can you enlighten me please? "

  Selena sat down.

  " The second story is closer to the truth, zenkabs aren't simple insects, they are a parasitic species. They are known in my country for being able to wipe out whole villages with no traces. Once the first person gets stinged, they have to be treated or killed immediately. Any person that comes in contact with them will get infected with a zenkab larva that will enter through the palm of their hand and leave a trace of their passage. Most host bodies change and become nutrient for the larva until it decides to return to the nest, to be fed to the queen. Solus, the village chief, before he lost himself to the larva, decided to make the whole village a quarantine zone and to give me their children so I could treat the sick ones and keep the healthy ones safe. I cannot take on an entire village of zenkabs host nor do I need to. If you kill the queen, all the Zenkabs will lose their purpose and the larvaes will all die with no repercussions to the brain of their hosts. "

  Richard sank deeper in his chair.

  " What I don't understand is how did they manage to get here. I guess the village chief decided to tell me the truth in the hope I would lower my guard but when they noticed I didn't get infected they all became suspicious of me."

  " The most plausible cause is probably some merchants that got them from an exotic country and got turned into a host somehow. Then, due to the different climate they adapted and mutated to become even more violent and to infect faster. It is quite strange that you didn't get infected but that works in our advantage. The problem we face is that I cannot leave this place, I maintain a constant veil around this place and only Sepu can lead people through the veil. "

  " Sepu ? "

  As he said the name, the young boy that led him here appeared from the shadows behind her.

  " This boy ... he is a nightwalker isn't he? "

  She took the boy on her knees and kissed his forehead.

  " You seem knowledgeable. But what do you know exactly of the nightwalkers? "

  " They are called a race of demons that moves through the shadows and sucks the life out of the people at night in order to survive. They make the best assassins, impossible to follow or to sense most of the time. I know from an old friend in the army that they are often sold as slaves to many kingdoms. "

  Selena raised an eyebrow.

  " You sure do know a lot, it is true that Sepu is a nightwalker but they aren't demons and they don't suck on lifeforce. The people that call them demons are from Fardug. They are just a special kind of demi humans that do not look like ones. Even the demi humans consider them anomalies. I met Sepu nineteen years ago. "

  Richard was shocked, he looked like he was eight and she looked thirty.

  " Both of you seem way younger. "

  She had a slight smile.

  " Strong witches can use magic to speed up the regeneration factor of their bodies to the point that they can limit aging. Nightwalkers have a longer lifespan than regular humans, nineteen years to him is like two or three to us. I took him in and raised him like he was my own son, he had been captured and enslaved. These savages had no pity even if he looked like a child, they ripped his tongue out. I send Sepu on errands to fetch other missing children and to warn wandering travelers, he is the only one I can trust to do this while I'm stuck here. He also recently found the nest. So I have one question for you mister Richard. Will you help me save this village? "

  Richard took a deep breath, he then had a vision of Bella, his mind was set.

  " I will. Time to go slay a queen. "