What the hell have I just witnessed. I need to do something. I can’t just stand here. I ran over to the door… shit… it opens inwards… umm. I tried to stand on a chair and operate the handle with my foot but failed miserably. There was no other option, I was going to have to try jumping out of one of the windows.

  I kicked a chair over to the window near the door, which was fortunately open. I jumped outside and actually managed to land on my feet this time. I looked over and shouted.

  Dwynfel: “Kiyui!”

  Kiyui lifted his head from Lou’s neck… he had almost chewed his way all the way through. Lou’s head was hanging on by a thread. Kiyui’s mouth was dripping with blood and had chunks of flesh hanging out the side of it. I’m scared… what do I do?

  Dwynfel: “Please… you need to stop.”

  Kiyui turned, he pulled his weapons out of the dead men next to him and began to charge towards me.

  Dwynfel: “Don’t do this!

  As Kiyui got closer to me, Gevaudan suddenly looked up at the sky and howled. In that moment he erupted in a flash of bright white light.

  When I could see again, Kiyui was unconscious on the floor. The weapons he had been wielding had become blood stains on the ground, slowly being washed away by the rain. The tattoo on Kiyui’s back had returned to normal… although the lines coming out of it were slightly longer than they had been previously. Feiffer had returned and was licking the blood off the ground next to the remains of the mob. The cut on Kiyui’s arm was deep and bleeding heavily.

  What the hell do I do? I can’t even use my arms… fuck… I don’t know what to do… I want my mum… I need my mum to be here… she’d know what to do… I need somebody to tell me what to do. Tears started to flow down my face as I stared at the boy who had cared for me so diligently for the past week… the boy who had done everything for me… the boy who had played music to me until I fell asleep… my friend… one of my only friends… bleeding and unconscious in the rain. I collapsed in a heap next to him. I placed my body up against his in a pathetic attempt to keep him warm and I just lay there… crying… hoping that my mum would get back soon.

  I don’t know how long passed. It felt like an eternity. I kept turning to check if Kiyui had woken up but he never did.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Confused voice: “What’s goin on ‘ere then?”

  I looked up… my vision was blurred by the rain… eventually I managed to make out the figure… it was the farm hand that my mother hired when I began adventuring.

  Dwynfel: “Derek?”

  Derek: “Aye…”

  Dwynfel: “I thought you left.”

  Derek: “I did. Can’t says I approves a this goblin thing… but… jobs is few, n’ I’m skint. Now, your friend don’t look too grand. I suggests we gets ‘im inside.”

  Thank the gods… Kiyui might actually have a chance now. Derek picked Kiyui up and carried him through to my bedroom, bandaged his arm, dried him off, put a night dress on him, and wrapped him up warm in my bed. Feiffer curled up at the foot of the bed. Derek helped me put some britches on… which was beyond awkward. He then walked over to the window and looked out at the carnage that Kiyui had left behind.

  Derek: “I assumes they didn’t much approve a the goblin thing either.”

  Dwynfel: “What on earth are we going to do about them?”

  Derek: “I’ll feed ‘em to the pigs… pigs’ll eat owt.”

  Dwynfel: “They were people… villagers with wives and jobs… one of them left… they’ll be missed… we can’t just make them disappear.”

  Derek: “I recognises a few a them… twats they was… wives’ll be glad they’s gone. Rain’s already disappearin’ most of it… pigs’ll do rest. I suggests you is gone by the time anyone complains...”

  He made his way towards the door.

  Derek: “…n’ I’ll take you up on that pay rise.”

  He went outside and began dragging the corpses through the rain and throwing them into the pig pen. After he had finished, he simply waved at me… tipped his hat and walked off home.

  I couldn’t help but think what an odd man he was. When my mother first decided to hire a farm hand, we thought that we would get some inexperienced young kid who she would have to train. But Derek had run a farm previously in his old village. He moved here after it was destroyed by lizardmen. He was already in his forties when we hired him… big beard, but it was well groomed… quite a serious looking man… although his accent made him sound a bit dense, he was actually very knowledgeable… smelled of manure, which wasn’t unusual for a farmer really.

  My mum paid him a bit more because of his experience, but for what he did across the farm it always felt like we were taking advantage a bit. He would always refuse a raise though. I guess he didn’t want to take money away from a single widow and her son who was just starting out. I’m glad he seems to have gotten over that. I wonder if he is right about the pigs. He was certainly right about the rain; it had washed away pretty much all of the blood before my mother and the others got back. Now I’m going to have to tell them what happened… shit.