Prologue - I

It feels very cold tonight and the moon shone very bright. I sit on a wooden couch by myself and hope to hear news from my dad and Getta. I feel more anxious because I have spent  two hours without a single one of them come back. I stand up and try peeking through the window which is at the end of this room. In the far distance, I see crowds of people, that are still waiting of something, with their torches. I know that something which have never been expected is coming to our village. Perhaps the same feeling is felt by Joanna, who also does a similar thing like what I am doing now, peeking through her window in her house which is in the right side of my house. Distress and fear pervade her face, similar to the shape of my face at this time.

Sitting down again on the wooden couch to hide my existing anxiety. No signs of somebody approaching my house, so do my dad and brother. The darkness of the night covers the silence of this village. Instead of a good sign, this kind of condition is never expected. Getta has a big body like many of men in my father's family that have blood of Tiran, but I am still not confident with his ability to fight with the sword. As a modest peasant family, my father did not raise us to fight. And he did not ever estimate the situation like what is coming right now.

Not long after I sat down, I go back up after hearing the commotion outside my home. Do they finally come ? Do they really come? The feelings of tension and fear envelop me. Shouting of spirit and fear, that are very noisy, are sounded from a distance outside of this timber house. I cannot bear to see what is going on through the window. I can only stare right in the old door which is on the left past the window where I spied before. Either wait for the return of my father and brother or wait for something no one expected.

It seems clearer the brawl outside my home. The sound of every people who scream with fear and run without any clear direction are began to be heard. I plump back sitting on the couch after two or three people running by rowdy in front of my house. But what makes my body harden with fear, even my tears and sweat come out very rapidly and mixed into one, are the words that I hear from anyone who professes outside,

" Kneeling in the heat of the fire, receives the love of blood and the empty soul … .. ! "

"Aaaaarrgghhh ... ....!", Shouted very loudly, one of them who run with fear before finally lost his voice and cannot be heard again.

"Please, I don’t, help…..!”, shouted another one.

" Covered with anger and regret, live in the shadow of disappointment with the black of heart, the mighty of all, Ay ... .. ! "

Not finished yet listening to the words he uttered, they disappear immediately and never speak again. What happened out there, and what lies in front of my house. Cries of the terror will be heard continuously more and more obvious. Fraction voices of glasses, and the cries of the cattle that also run, show me the kind of catastrophe that is happening outside my house. Slowly and certainly, the shout and cry voices of the knights, the prayers of the wives, to the cries of the babies who are united with his mother's anxiety are disappeared one by one as swallowed up by something. One by one, one by one, and the voices are lost. Silence covers and darkness comes. What really happened?

I heard some heavy footsteps getting closer to my house. Continue to approach the door. I have never heard of these footsteps. I cannot move, my legs are felt very weak and have no energy. What kind of creature would actually appear in the door of my home.

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The time was already 04:30 A.M., the sun has not showed its existence completely. I did not use to wake up this early, but the uproar outside really made me awake. I immediately wash my face and change my appearance before approaching my father who is sitting on an old wooden chair on the porch of our house, accompanied by a cup of hot tea which he is really like.

"Soon the night will come, keep sitting at home and watch everything around you. Do not trust anyone. ", He said and broke the silence of the morning.

Yes, I realize the words of my father, maybe tonight is the time. Eight hours ago, under the pouring rain, a Bard was found lifeless at the right part to the Temple of Ethyre, which was not far from my house, flanked by an old and shabby inn and Hereff’s house which his cattle pen was attached with the left part of temple wall. Bard is the rover who came from the East Aldae, the oldest country in the world of Nhegwards. Although as a rover who travel most of parts of the world, almost no Bard came to our village, Tummerfall. Of course they will not be impressed by what is existed in our village.

Crowds immediately came to the scene. And none of us could hide our feelings of anxious and tense on our faces. Father Avenicus Olodae, the oldest pastor in our village, my dad, Cisero Jvostar, and Hereff gathered around the body of the Bard. One by one they knelt down and began investigating the anomalous body. The brown-skinned Bard did not usually look so pale and white like this. In fact, it almost competed the white skin of Father Avenicus, which is a Teteros, that most of them are the civils of Proderim, the neighbor state of Aldae, known for his white skin.

"It’s impossible for a Bard to waste his time just to come to Tummerfall, and even previously none of us saw any arrival of this Bard in this village. What do you think, Father? ", Said Hereff as he shifted his gaze from the body toward Father Avenicus.

While the body was being undressed, he replied, "All of you have to be ready and well-prepared, the darkness has come." It sighed, "Perhaps this is a sign of them."

"What do you mean? Describe to all of us!" continued by dad with a sense of curious and scared.

"They come back, the fighters who hid behind the shadow, Aydelmn . ", he said while pointing a circular symbol containing a vertical eye which the parts of the top and bottom cut off the edge of the circle, which was clearly etched on the back of the body of Bard. "They will soon come to this village, this is a sign of them."

A moment of fear pervaded all who were there. I did not know that one who called Aydelmn that I heard recently, but I felt very frightened. I thought Getto, who was right next to me was similar like me. I did not know if he knew about Aydelmn or not, but I knew that he felt the same fear that I felt. Silent and more silent than ever, none of us were talking, only scared and felt very scared. And of course we realized that something would come to our village.

Don't forget to check my Indonesian version in http://thebladeofaldaeid.blogspot.com/