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tonight. He walked across the porch and stepped down onto the ground opening his senses scenting the air and listening. He recognised the scent of an approaching storm. /It’ll be here late tomorrow or the day after. It’s gonna be a big one/ He was already making plans for stringing ropes to the corrals and the barns so they could feed and care for the animals during the storm without getting lost. / Need to bring in more firewood/ he noted/gonna have to keep the fires going through the storm for the Companions and children/ He quickly made his way to the corrals and barns scanning everything quickly. Nothing seemed out of place. /Nothing is out here/ He stood beside one of the barns a listened carefully to the night and scenting, straining eyes. /Just your imagination/ he scolded himself. He turned to go back to the house and his warm mate and froze. / What was that?/ He listened intently trying to put a name to the sound he faintly heard. His nostrils flared as he scented the night. /I know that sound/ It was a metalic, clinking sound, metal against metal. None of the tools were left out. Tools were too valuable to be left laying about. Besides there was no wind. Gorge spun around in a circle trying to pinpoint the direction the sound was coming from. /Oh Hell , I think it’s coming from the woods. Weapons! It’s weapons! They’ve found us How? We were so careful. Magic. Khyle, I’ve got to get Khyle and the boys to the the caverns. Got to warn everyone I can/ Gorge spun about and with vampiric speed he was through the door of their house and into the the bedroom where his mate lay sleeping. He shook his mate out of sleep with a desperate roughness." Wake up Khyle, right now!" "You have to get to the caverns with the boys."Khyle sat up, half asleep. "What Gorge?" "They’ve found us dammitall. Get dressed and get the boys up. Get to the caverns now, I have to warn the others!" Chapter 2: Prologue 2 Back to index Disclaimer: all characters belong to their original creators. I am making no profit from them. All original characters are mine. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased is purely coincidental. No harm is intended to any person real, created, living, deceased, or any financial/corporate entity by the publication of this story. It is a fiction, therefore a product of my imagination only and should not be construed as a reflection on the character, personality, sexual preferences or religious beliefs of any real person or place, living or deceased, actual or created. Acrid smoke still curled into the cold air from burned buildings. The smell of burnt flesh and death was brought to the noses of the attackers on the bitter predawn breeze. Over all the smell of blood was a coppery tang in the chill air, and other less pleasant odors that came hand in hand with bloody battlefields or a massacre of innocents. Corpses of the slain lay here and there on cobblestones and in doorways, between buildings, cut down in the effort of fleeing the carnage. They lay in grotesque poses of death revealing their hideous death wounds to uncaring eyes. Their dead gazes staring blankly at nothing. Most hadn’t made it out of their homes but were trapped inside and burnt alive in the surprise of a night attack in winter. One particular armored figure sat his restive horse in the midst of the destruction and surveyed the activity around him with a grimly set face. A number of armored men were still moving amongst the slain with drawn daggers. the blades flashed as they caught the predawn light, slashing a throat or piercing a breast to the heart, making sure of the dead. There would be no mistakes, no mercy, and no survivors. A tall dark haired figure with a beard separated himself from the rest and turned his footsteps toward the horse and rider. The horse chuffed and side stepped, tossing it’s head and digging at the ground with a large hoof, as the man on foot came closer. The mounted man, murmured quietly to the animal, running a hand down the side of it’s neck, calming it and soothing away it’s fright. The smell of blood
and death so close still causing it’s eyes to roll slightly and it’s nostrils to flare in agitation. "Well, is it finished?" he questioned the approaching man. "Aye, it’s finished, none escaped from here." He was answered with a conviction that came with experience.. "Excellent, I’ve grown weary of this endless campaign, captain. These were the last. I’ll be happy to inform the Council that these evil perversions of nature and abominations have finally been eradicated. You and your men will be generously rewarded for your efforts. You have the thanks of the council as well as mankind in keeping humanity and the world safe." The man on foot agreed ", No one will find a trace of them, they’ll disappear from history. The fields are sewn with salt, no one else will settle here if crops can’t be grown in the soil. There will be nothing left to identify who was settled here." He continued his voice taking a sardonic tone ",The safety of humanity and the world isn’t my concern. We were hired for a job and we did what we were paid to do. I’ll leave the deciding of good or evil to others. I’m just a simple soldier." The mounted man considered that for a moment, gazing at the destroyed settlement around him before replying ",What will you do next captain?" The armored man turned to look over the scene as well before anwering " ,I think I’ll wait and see what happens, there is always work for mercenaries, It’ll find me. I won’t have to look." He continued with his accounting ", We need to move out before long, there’s a storm brewing and it’ll be a big one. We’ve taken the food and grains from the barns and loaded them into the wagons, as well as the firewood. The only thing remaining is to burn the carcasses of the dead." The mounted man looked at the captain considering his words before replying " Very well, carry on. I need to witness the very end, the council doesn’t want the bodies to be identified." The captain walked away raising his voice in a shouted order ",Gather the carcasses and put them in the unburned barn. Leave the hay in that one." He stood watching as his orders were obeyed. The men began gathering their grim harvest of flesh. Soon the last of the bodies in the open were carried to the one remaining unburned building along with the carcasses of the animals that were slain. When the last of the bodies had been dragged to the barn and flung with uncaring hands through the doors, the result was a large pile of mingled humans and animals. The smell of death was a nauseting stench. The captain carefully controlled the expression on his face as he ordered the torching of the barn. One of his blood smeared veterans came forward with a torch and tossed it into the the barn, and two others quickly closed the doors and secured them from the outside. The hungry flames caught in the dry hay and within moments the barn was an inferno, burning with such heat that all the mercenaries standing around the building had to back away. The captain shouted to the mounted man his voice carrying clearly over the roar of the flames."We’re done here." The mounted man nodded once, shouting back ",very well. Farewell and godspeed to you and your men, captain." He turned his horse toward the trees and the direction that would take him back to the home of the Watcher’s Council. He drew his woolen cape around himself and kneed his horse into a canter. It was a long trip back to the council, and he was carrying news. The captain took one last look around at the decimated settlement and the still burning barn and spoke to his lieutenant ",Get the wagons moving. I want to be well away from here before we need to find a camping spot good enough to weather the coming storm. We’ll need to set up the tents. When the storm is over we’re heading home to rest the men before the next job." The lieutenant walked off shouting orders to the wagon masters. The wagons were lined up quickly and moving out a scant hour later carrying the looted food and grain from the destroyed village and tired, blood stained mercenaries. Silence descended when the last wagon trundled out of site through the trees. The only sound discernable was the crackling and popping of flames and the settling of burned wood. There was no one to see when the unburned parts of corpses shimmered and disappeared.
Page 1 and 2: Companions by wolfmama Summary: Xan
Page 3: He chuckled again as he quickly pul
Page 7 and 8: They had carved out small rooms wit
Page 9 and 10: working. She unwrapped the bundle a
Page 11 and 12: Potter’s field. There was no one
Page 13 and 14: disappointed with him again, if the
Page 15 and 16: laced up the front and had diamond
Page 17 and 18: should be, but all the good and non
Page 19 and 20: Chapter 6: Companions 4 Back to ind
Page 21 and 22: needed attention and needed it quic
Page 23 and 24: fumbling in his pockets for his fag
Page 25 and 26: the public at large, hoping that so
Page 27 and 28: tape showing the night’s sales. H
Page 29 and 30: chest, and then he continued. "I ca
Page 31 and 32: different route to the fortress eve
Page 33 and 34: old as, or even older, than the Mas
Page 35 and 36: into the wild to live or die by the
Page 37 and 38: all inclusive and words can’t exp
Page 39 and 40: get there." "The last time I saw Al
Page 41 and 42: ound the bend?" "The clothes, Spike
Page 43 and 44: unning over his naked form and his
Page 45 and 46: Spike’s hand felt around the floo
Page 47 and 48: around his neck and wrapped his lon
Page 49 and 50: Xander finally broke away to catch
Page 51 and 52: tip of it in. Xander ’s back was
Page 53 and 54: They both missed the bright light t
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pot, because we may be busy later.
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sprang open, then it sighed through
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and sighed heavily. "Reckon we can
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over his shoulder and played with t
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human blood since he gets it for hi
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nervous system is rewiring itself,
Page 67 and 68:
Xander’s face was a study in conf
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"Alright let’s get this done, so
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drastic." Andy reported tiredly. "B
Page 73:
weight and silkiness of it caressin
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