Torches on the Horizon

Haruki was startled awake from a deep sleep, with the frightful sound of a cockatrice crowing right next to his head being the cause. Instead of roosters this world had scaly cockatrices, but thankfully these sorts didn’t have the ability to petrify humans on sight. Their crow packed a particularly nasty punch, though.

He shooed the creature off, his spine still shuddering from its scary howls.

It took him a moment to remember where he was. Shades of pink and blue light from the sunrise trickled into the barn he was sleeping in, jogging his memories of the previous couple nights.

Instead of just going around asking to be hired, he had started offering to work for a day in exchange for a meal and a place to sleep. He hoped that by working for them for a day he could prove that he’s worth his salt and impress one enough to hire him.

Still, only a small number of farmers were even willing to take him on for a day. Some days he had no choice but to sleep outdoors.

He thanked the family again for hosting him for the night and left, off to look for the next opportunity.

As the fall planting season had just started, he began to accumulate some experience tilling and seeding the fields at the farms that let him stay for a day.

Finally, after about a week of searching around he found a farm that let him stay for more than a day. It was a very large farm, almost industrial in scale, with a large number of tenants living on the land and managing the fields.

The rich family who owned it always seemed eager to take on new employees. Although a vagrant like Haruki seemed questionable at first, they couldn’t resist his offer to work without additional pay.

In a sense it was sorta like a voluntary form of slavery, but Haruki was grateful for whatever opportunities came his way. A man with no background and no place of his own doesn’t have much room to be picky.

His first day of work there impressed one of the farm managers enough to let him continue staying.

I may be a nobody, but I guess I’m not quite worthless any longer, he told himself.

He worked hard tilling the fields each day, steering a heavy plow as it was pulled by a pair of rindwyr back and forth across the fields.

For now, living itself was enough reward for him, higher ambitions could wait for later once he’s earned them.

He used to hate the tough labor of life on the farm, but when his very life is on the line the work he completes each day gives him an odd sense of purpose.

***

It was a cool night in early October. After finishing the work for the day, Haruki had taken up the habit of strolling around the large grounds of the farm while watching the sunset.

He passed one of the large barns on the property, stopping to play for a bit with the friendly barn cats. For some reason cats were the only familiar animal he knew of in this world, although here they had 3 tails.

From atop the barn’s loft he gazed through a window, watching as the sunset trickled down below the horizon.

He laid back on a bale of hay. Screw it, I’ll just sleep here tonight, he thought to himself.

As the sky darkened outside the window, he began to notice a string of lights around the horizon, slowly moving closer.

This sight caught his attention, and he began to become curious as to what it could be. As the lights gradually got closer, they kept growing in number. It became clear to him that this must be a large number of men carrying torches. He wondered who they could be.

The procession of ghostly lights eventually reached the far end of the farm, walking along the road just beyond the fields. Haruki climbed down from the barn loft and headed out into the fields, to try to get a closer look.

He followed the horde from a distance as they snaked along the path towards this farm’s manor and the local village. He wanted to figure out who they were, and what so many people were doing out here in the middle of nowhere late at night.

He followed them all the way to the village, where a terrible sight awaited him. Part of the manor was up in flames, and he could see the tenant farmers scurrying about as the large mass of torch-bearers descended on their little village, where Haruki had been only hours before.

Just like when he had encountered that strange monster when he first arrived in this world, Haruki’s instincts were telling him to immediately flee. However, as much as he wanted to run, he was equally determined to see for himself who exactly it was that was attacking them.

He got much closer, hiding behind the cover of a thicket of trees to avoid being seen.

From this position he could just barely make out the metallic forms marching below the lights of the lanterns. They all appeared to be large men in suits of armor, each soldier heavily endowed with chainmail coats and various metal plates. Above their heads they all carried a tall polearm.

Haruki heard a scampering noise in the bushes beside him, a form came rushing out of the bushes towards him. He froze, fearing that his life was about to come to an end.

“Haruki!” a voice whispered.

Haruki looked closely at the person before him, being able to make out through the faint moonlight the rough appearance of one of his fellow farmhands he had met recently, a man named Otto.

“Otto, what’s going on? Haruki asked.

“Shhh! Shhh!” Otto hissed back at him. “Be quiet, they’re close.”

“Who are they?” Haruki whispered.

“They’re soldiers from the capital. They came here on their way off ta’ the west to fight the demon hordes, demandin’ we hand over all our grain stores to feed them. When the lord refused, they began attackin’!”

“The capital? Then why are they attacking us?”

“It’s not like any a’ them in the capital give a hoot about us country folks. Come on, we better get outta’ here quick!” he continued.

He began to run off back in the direction Haruki had come from. Haruki just stood there.

He turned around, waving his arm. “Come on! You don’t wanna die here!”

“Go on without me, Otto,” Haruki whispered back. The man ran off.

Something had begun to bother Haruki about the direction the army was marching in.

If they continue going in the same direction, they're headed straight for Johannes’ village!

A deep sinking feeling appeared in his gut, like a heavy lead ball.

He darted off in the direction of the marching army, following them from a distance.