Where the Wind Blew

The group had to travel by foot since they had lost their horses in the battle. When Nina and the knights arrived, they found that the entire place had been torn apart. The ground was charred and riddled with holes and huge slashes. The nearby buildings were destroyed and in place of where they once stood were piles of rubble.

"Over there!" Nina pointed at a person lying on the ground. They were under a half-destroyed house that looked very unstable and might collapse at any second. The knights ran over to the body and saw that it was soaked in a pool of blood. As the group got closer, one of the knights pointed out something odd. "Say, was blood always this dark?" The blood was very dark red and almost looked black.

Another knight noticed something else unusual about the body and immediately reached for his sword. "Horns!" he shouted. The rest of the knights stopped in their tracks and quickly reached for their weapons as well. One of the knights held out her arm in front of Nina and stood in front of her, ready to protect her in case something happened.

Siegfried drew his greatsword from his back and cautiously approached the body. He gave the body a kick and rolled it around to reveal the demon's face. "It's dead," Siegfried said. The knights eased up a little but still kept their weapons drawn as they approached the body as well. The demon's eyes were opened and had a horrified look on his face. He had cuts all over his body and his clothes had tears all over them.

Nina stood a bit away from the group. She couldn't stand the sight of blood and kept her back turned. While the knights were examining the body, she looked around the area to see if Kies was anywhere.

"What kind of thing is able to do this to a demon?" a knight asked. The body had a giant gash on its chest and the knights were convinced that whatever killed the demon couldn't have been human. The wounds didn't look like they were made by a weapon. Furthermore, none of the knights could sense any trace of magic on the body either.

"Did the demon get done in by a beast?" someone offered.

"It looks that way." The rest of the knights were thinking the same thing too. The slashes all over the ground and houses looked like they were made by claws and no weapon can make such a wide gash either.

The knights finished examining the body and were just about to search for clues of the whereabouts of the civilians when they heard the trotting of horses. The knights looked in the direction of the sound and readied their weapons in case it was the enemy.

The knights soon saw the horses with people on top of them but they couldn't identify who they were because of the sunlight blinding them.

"Hold!" a female voice at the front of the group yelled. Siegfried recognized the voice and waved his hand for knights to lower their weapons. The horses trotted at a slower pace until they were just in front of the knights.

"Commander Rui." Siegfried saluted the woman in the front of the group and she saluted him back. They were also knights.

Now that they were closer, Nina could see that the person on the horse was wearing the same armor and badge as Siegfried and he had just called her commander. Nina was surprised. There were only three in the kingdom and they were well respected for their strength and leadership. She had known Siegfried since she was a child because her father was friends with him, but she didn't know that he was a commander. Come to think of it, she didn't even know what his first name was either. She'll have to ask him about it later.

Rui surveyed the area and asked, "What happened here? It looked like a tornado had gone through this place."

"We don't know," Siegfried responded. He explained to Rui that they had only recently arrived themselves and that they found the place like this. He also told them about the demon and how they believed that all of this was done by a beast. After he finished explaining, it was his turn to ask the questions. His group had been moving around the entire time with little clue of what was going on. "Seeing that you're here, I trust that the palace is fine?"

"What do you mean?" Rui looked at Siegfried with a confused expression. "Is the palace under attack!?"

"It might be, we intercepted a group of Otanian soldiers and discovered their plans to invade the palace."

"I see, so it must have been them that blew the hole in the wall."

"What?"

"We found a huge hole in the wall in the direction we came from. There were a bunch of slaves there with weapons. We thought that they were the ones that blew the wall open and were trying to escape, but as it turned it, they had no intention of running away. Instead, they attacked us, which was strange. We didn't even know how they managed to get their hands on explosives but if the Otanians were involved then it makes sense." Rui explained. "Anyway, the palace should be fine. Faraway is there."

Rui paused for a second to think if there was anything she was missing and then said, "We also found a bunch of civilians crammed together in one of the buildings there. I think the demi-humans were planning to use them as hostages but there weren't they didn't assign any guards there to look over them, which was weird."

"Was there a boy my age with gray eyes, short black hair, and this tall, over there? Nina interrupted. Nina waved her hand over her head to indicate Kies' height. She had been silently listening to the conversation for any information that might help her find Kies.

Rui looked at Nina then turned back to Siegfried, her eyes seemingly asking him 'Who is this?'

"Ah, this is the daughter of Counselor Trevan. She's trying to find her friend." Siegfried explained that they got separated during the festival and that Nina couldn't find where Kies was.

Rui took a moment to try to recall all the faces she saw and then shook her head. "No, I don't think that I saw him. What about you guys?" Rui turned to the knights behind her and they all shook their heads as well.

"May I go there right now?" Nina urgently asked.

"I understand that you're worried, but it is really dangerous right now. Please head home for now. We are currently identifying the hostages to make sure that there are no spies. We'll send them home after they are cleared," Rui told her.

Before Nina could protest, Siegfried put up his hand and said to Rui, "I'll take her there to have a look. She won't rest until she finds him." Siegfried turned to face his knights and said to them, "The rest of you, follow commander Rui."

"Yes sir!" The knights shouted in unison.

Rui lent Siegfried and Nina a horse and they got on. "Alright, let's go."

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!