Three Against the Hag: Thrax, Sarah, and Mady's Mission

Thrax’s steps echoed down the cobblestone street. He had been the Warrior Monk of this village for many years. The townspeople looked to him for guidance, and he did his best to provide it.

When he heard the screams, he knew that something was amiss. He took off at a run toward the village square, but by the time he had reached it, there was nothing left to do but attend to what remained of the villagers. The bodies of those who were killed were already gone. There had only been eight of them left in total, and the Hag had taken care of most of them all on her own.

Thrax’s eyes scanned the bodies that were left. It seemed she had left an adult male behind for him to pick up at his leisure. Thrax walked over to one of the bodies and rolled it over with his foot. “Is anyone alive here?” he asked quietly into the dead man’s ear as he set his staff down on the ground next to himself.

There was no response from any of them, not even a moan or a twitch. They all just stared vacantly up into the sky with blank expressions on their faces. Thrax had seen death before, but it still made him sad when it happened in his town. He bowed his head and closed his eyes in a prayer for those who had died, asking The Maker to watch over them as they moved on from this world and into The Light beyond this life.

When Thrax opened his eyes again, there was a girl standing in front of him. She couldn’t be more than 18 years old- probably still a child by most standards, he thought to himself with a slight smile- but she was tall enough that she still barely came up to his shoulder. Her hair was long and blonde, flowing down across her shoulders in perfect waves down her back. Her skin was pale and flawless, except where blood smeared across her face from where she had obviously wiped her hands across her cheeks in an attempt to clean herself up after seeing so much death around her without knowing what else to do about it. She wore rough clothes that looked like they would have been appropriate for farm work or riding horses through rugged terrain: blue pants with brown boots; black shirt; brown belt and holster; tan vest; brown leather gloves; brown bandana around her neck; and some sort of hat on top with a wide brim that covered her face so that only part of one eye could be seen peeking out from under it as she nervously looked around at everything else going on around her while Thrax studied her silently up close like this for several moments before speaking again.

“Hello there,” Thrax said as he stuck out one hand toward her while keeping the other firmly clasped around his staff sitting next to him on the ground, “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before, miss…?”

The girl flinched away from Thrax’s hand like he might have tried to slap her across the face instead of offer to shake it if not for how quickly she pulled back from him when she finally got over herself and realized what he had meant by offering his hand like that in greeting instead of trying to reach out for her throat instead with his fingers curled like talons like she imagined one second after jumping away from him like that all frozen in place just staring at him hand outstretched toward her as if wondering why he wasn’t trying to strangle her instead while she stood there frozen staring at him dumbly standing there with both hands firmly gripping onto his staff resting against the ground right beside him thinking maybe I should go ahead and die right here because I don’t think I want anything more than this moment right now ever again after all based purely off my first real interaction with an actual living breathing human being who isn’t dead all because I accidentally flinched away from shaking his hand when I didn’t mean too in the first place before realizing what I was doing wrong and turning beet red from embarrassment before thinking maybe I should just pretend nothing happened here so I can save both our feelings at once by walking off somewhere else alone without having anyone see me anymore ever again especially since this is my fault entirely based purely off my own stupidity and stubbornness which is something I really need to work on about myself if I want anyone else to ever like me ever again or want me around them even just once after all excluding my parents who raised me and loved me unconditionally believing in me no matter what because they always told me they believed that someone like me could change the entire world if given half a chance which is something I definitely plan on doing later on tonight once we get rid of this Hag monster thing person walking around murdering everyone we love all because we live here together as friends working together as neighbors helping each other out when we can all throughout our lives helping us grow stronger day by day until today when monsters walked among us killing us when we least expected never even having seen something like this coming none of us thinking someone would do such horrible things stop living their lives with loving hearts anymore no longer having anything going for them later on tonight hoping we will survive this night under these circumstances before going home sleeping soundly knowing we are now safe thanks to you making sure no more horrible creatures will walk among us killing our kids stealing our lives away from us forever allowing us enough time left over for me to do what needs doing later tonight when I know we will be lucky just being able to stay among each other safe and sound given enough time left over once you have finished taking care of everything going wrong tonight which is something you promised you would do earlier today back during breakfast while we were eating together laughing talking looking forward seeing what lovely surprises tomorrow will bring us all wishing each other goodnight promising ourselves that we would see each other again tomorrow morning waking up together deciding whether or not we should go see a movie or eat dinner or read books together or keep working side by side growing closer together getting stronger together bit by bit every single day knowing every single day is another gift The Maker has given us keeping us safe every single day growing stronger grateful along the way thankful every single day thankful every single day thankful every single day thankful every single day…!