The Things That Lurk

"urgh" I groan while opening my ever tired eyes to the dead body of the cannibal seeing the thing I pushed it so that I could move out the dune noticing my muscles feel more sore than they ever did tilling fields.

With some work and upper body strength I managed to pull myself into the cold night however before any relief could wash over me I noticed a most unfortunate fact. It was night. "Fuck me" I whispered noticing the Crows in the distance flying ever so high in the sky before swooping down into the ground.

"If the Crows are feasting it can only mean..." I muttered and as if on cue tremors in the ground began and my face fell before I broke out into what could only be called a dead sprint towards the road before abruptly stopping in my tracks.

In my line of sight I spotted what seemed to be an organized group of bandits a group of no more than 7 from a cursatory glance I dove into cover before they or their torches could spot me and hit behind a rather sizeable rock.

In the distance I could hear them jeer and laugh speaking of earlier travelers they had robbed and killed. "Ahh A good day for us brothers when we head back to the city ill buy us 3 nights at the red light district!" a particularly loud groupmate roared. "OY shut up if you keep it up you'll draw the damn dune crawlers over" a voice sounding more worn replied.

They began walking closer to the point I could see their shadows flicker near my rock from the torches shining light worried they'd come a little to close I held my breath. "A pity no more traders are using this path we may end up having to change location soon." " worse still the damn city is doubling down on anyone coming in due to that declaration of war from the Federation of Raka" "I wonder what gives them the gall to do so Evermore is a powerhouse of its own" "Nothing to bother for the likes of us brothers best we keep up the pace might find a wandering caravan." was the last I could make out before they seemed to walk out of earshot.

Digesting what I heard I began to move forward at a decent pace but remained extraordinarily vigilant of my surroundings soon I caught sight of the city. Evermore the city of crows. The rough black walls could be seen stretching far and imposingly across the land scape between two large mountains and stretching far beyond the eyes.

I picked up the pace and when I got within visible range I could see the guards tense slightly before relaxing at my size and age. They let me in after informing me to be careful and that I was instead of walking to any place to stay I went straight to the guard camp and informed the man at the station of the raid.

"I see its been hard on you young man" the older man said with a rueful shake of the head "We will send some men to take a look in the area for their tribe and wipe it out after this whole debacle ends" He said before reaching into a drawer for a while before bringing out 3 silver coins "because you'll need some starting capital especially here of all places ill give you this to start you off here" I shook my head desperately before saying "I would like to instead train with the guards here sir" he hesitated before nodding slowly "are you familiar with that blade son?" "I wouldn't say that but I know where the pointy end goes sir" he laughed at that stashing the 3 silver before saying "then you're better than half the recruits we around here lets get you situated shall we private?"