On The Run

         It was almost midday, but very little light was able to pierce the heavy clouds of the approaching summer thunderstorm. I observed this as my twin sister, Janitte, and I were attempting to fight our way home along a clear forest path against the heavy winds that were accompanying the storm. When we heard the first rumblings of thunder, I heard Janitte mutter the phrase that we all learned at a very young age: “When the purple lightning flies, the ghouls start to rise.” If you don’t know what I am talking about, you should consider yourself blessed. Ghouls are creatures that look like short humans from a distance, and like stubby monsters with twisted human faces up close that try to eat anything living they can get their hands on. We are also taught that when ghouls do rise, that we should seek shelter in the closest place with a sturdy door and never to go without some sort of weapon. I carried a shortsword and Janitte carried a dagger.
         As we approached the edge of the forest opening up into the farmland that feeds our village, we saw lights shining over the wheat and barley. I turned to Janitte and said, “Somethings not right, whenever a storm approaches, the only the temple is allowed to shine a light to guide anyone in the fields. Why would they be showing so many?”
         She fingered her dagger as she said, “ Look at the size of some of those lights, Karel, they seem to be far to large for being just a torch by a door.”
         I looked again and realized that the temple light looked big enough for us to be at the edge of the village, I turned and said, “You can’t be suggesting ghouls, can you?”
         “Yes.”
         “But why would they burn down the buildings?”
         “It probably wasn’t their intentions to, but I’m sure a few cooking fires got out of hand in the panic and caught the rest of the building on fire.”
         We paused our conversation at the sound of distant moans and looked out at our, apparently, burning village. Janitte’s eyes widened as if she saw something and I thought I noticed some movement in the darkness. My rising hopes were dashed as a flash of purple lightning illuminated a churning mass of ghouls heading straight towards the woods we had just emerged from. For a few minutes, we just stood there, stunned until the next flash of lightning showed them to be advancing rapidly. Not a word was spoken between us as we turned tail and ran back into the forest, the wind at our backs almost giving us wings.
         We were able to reach the densest part of the forest when exhaustion and an uncertain path forced us to stop. There we rested until we caught our breath and then we carried on at a much slower pace. We were about a three-quarters of the way through the forest when the ghouls caught up with us. It wasn’t the full mass that we had seen earlier, but it was still a rather large number. Hiding behind a tree, I dared a look around to see how close they were and found myself face-to-knee with a ghoul. Before I had had a chance to think, my hand drew my sword and ran it through the chest at the point were a normal man’s heart would be. It was enough of a blow to cause the ghoul to fall dead instantly. I looked over at Janitte and saw that she had also looked back and found herself in need of her blade. She had just tripped the goblin and slashed it across the back of the neck, severing its spine.
         Afraid of attracting the attention of the other ghouls with our killing, we decided to abandon our hiding spots. We both took the chance, though, of relieving our victims of the satchels that they carried, hoping that they would contain some values and maybe even something that would give proof of our village’s destruction. As we left, a heavy rain started to fall that we hoped would help cover our tracks.
         By the time of nightfall on a normal day, we reached the other edge of the forest and the town that lay there. This was a town that could afford to have walls and that made it easy for a human to gain access. All we had to do was find the small door that lay to one side of the main gate, give a patterned knock, and supply our names and place of origin.
         After we gave our names and town, they extended a torch out to ensure that we were human. With our identity confirmed, they let us in. An elderly man came over and offered his hand, introducing himself as Chorris, the captain of the guard. After we both shook his hand, he asked, “What we want to know is what two youngsters like yourselves would be doing out so late in a storm.”
         “Well, sir,” I said, “my sister and I were on our way home from market in this very town when the storm blew in. By the time we had gotten out of the forest, the lightning was already flashing.”
         My sister then said, “Then I noticed that the lights that marked our village-”
         “What do you mean, 'lights'? Only one light is supposed to be showing one!” Chorris broke in.
         “I was just getting to that. The lights seemed awfully large, and I suggested ghouls.”
         “I doubted it until we heard groaning and a flash of lightning lit up a mob of ghouls crawling through the fields toward us.”
         “Then we turned tail and ran until we couldn't run anymore. In the short time we rested, some of the ghouls caught up to us. I took out one with my dagger, and Karel took out one with his sword, that's where we got these.” She held up the satchels we grabbed.
         Examining the satchels closely, Chorris said, “You kids were lucky to get out of the forest alive. I recognize the Twount family crest on this and the slash marks from a ghoul also.” He dug around in it and pulled out a money sack and tossed it to us. “You can keep this, but we need the bag for evidence.” I gave him the bag I held and he gave me the money and a couple of purple stones that were in it.
         As soon as we left the guard station, we headed for the nearest in, a cheerful place called the Happy Hawk. It was there that we got a hot meal and a room for the night. It was only after being asked that we told of our villages fate. This earned a toast to the memories from everyone present. I think I caught Janitte wiping a tear from her eye. We finished our meal and headed up to our room, where we both had trouble sleeping.