“They say the sun is as white as snow there.” Rekor proclaimed.
“What? Where?” Jjend questioned in a trembling voice, he was already afraid no matter where it was that Rekor was talking about.
“On the other side, where they are from.” Rekor explained. “You know, the Radrei. Isn’t that right, Ajanni?”
Ajanni slowly turned away from the fire to face the men he is forced to serve alongside with, his new brothers.
“They also say the Radrei turn a man inside out and then use the corpse to nest their young, but you don’t hear me going on about it.” Ajanni detailed, turning back towards the fire with a smirk on his face. He hadn’t been happy in all his time of service.
He’d been away from his home, his friends, his family, for four years now and it was killing him. Only three days into his venture to the capitol, word had travelled to the surrounding Holds of the attack on his home. A Radrei Terraformer attacked the coastal towns and made it’s way past the sea wall and onto the mainland. It was finally stopped after unleashing an army of Lesser Radrei and destroying two villages, along with the expansion of his home village of Urobos. His family was to be the first to move into the new expansion of the village. When he had heard it he had attempted to flee out of their camp and ride to Urobos by sunrise the next morning. For his attempted desertion, the palms of his hands were cut open and he was lashed until he passed out from the pain. The next morning, he was forced to walk next to his horse and if he tried to rest, his new commanding officer would whip him again. Since then, he has not heard any word of his family, nor Urobos and has since dedicated and pledged his life to the Uniros army. But it still took all of his strength to not turn on all his brothers in arms, burn their camp, and ride off into the night, just so he can see if his family was even still alive. Just knowing would be enough. He would go back to the army and take the punishment, even if it meant his head on the block.
He sat here now, a little ways past the border wall of Robbes with half a dozen of his brothers on watch. A rebellion against the crown had sparked in the east and he and a portion of the army had been sent in to crush it. Many holds in the east had been taken but Robbes could not fall, at least the King demanded it wouldn’t. So now here he was, so close to home, so close to Urobos, just a couple days ride from here. And so the old thoughts rose back, thoughts of leaving. No, he could not leave, he couldn’t abandon his men, at least not now. So, he went back to sharpening a dagger against a whet stone, dreaming of home. All he had to do was survive the army, survive his fifteen years and stay out of trouble to not earn more. And if he were to die at the hands of a bandit or a rebel or gods forbid a Radrei, he would take solace in the fact that if his family was still alive, they would be given compensation from the crown and if they were dead, he would soon see them in the Other World.
His men had begun to settle down when an archer on the wall began to shout. He was screaming at the top of his lungs with all of his willpower and yet the men just couldn’t comprehend him. They could hear him and yet they couldn’t process the noise. Ajanni stood there for a few moments before realizing the wetness from his ears. He felt the side of his face only to pull back his hand to find blood trickling down his face. He looked around, bewildered and noticed Jjend and another man had fallen and the others were staring off just as he was. In the distance, he saw a shadow that blotted out a portion of the sky, cutting off the light of the stars. He panicked and grabbed Rekor, who was standing over Jjend with a twisted look of confusion. He lead Rekor by the arm into the gates screaming for his commander. He could not hear his own voice, only faint muffles of his screams and others from the village. Suddenly, a horrible, mind-numbing pain came to him and brought him straight to his knees. Then, they came. Radrei poured over the wall and on the far side of the Hold, a titanic Enforcer broke through the villages lifelink with little to no effort. It moved with the force of an army but was as silent as the wings of a butterfly.
Ajanni knew that an Enforcer shows up only to clear a path for a Terraformer, or break an army. Either way the men and the village were not equipped for such an attack. They were equipped to handle a small rebellion, not a Radrei ambush. The men were scrambling and attacking the Radrei. The town guard were attempting to lead a village worth of confused, panicked, and injured civilians. He and Rekor ran into the center of the epidemic and tore off a smaller Radrei from a fellow soldier only to realize that it was too late, the man’s chest had been torn open and his ribcage shattered, the Lesser was just feeding at this point. The Lesser Radrei was a sight to see. It’s legs were stunted compared to others, yet it was still the size of a large dog. What parts of it’s flesh that were exposed were a darkened, deep purple, designed for this sort of night raid. It’s “armor” was a twisted sight of jagged, yellowing bones that were as tough as steel. It’s face was a mess of writhing tentacles which covered it’s bright yellow eyes and flesh-tearing mouth.
It lunged at him and he narrowly dodged it. He had but a second to draw his blade and move out of the way from another pounce. He danced in a circle with the monster as it snarled and snapped while Rekor moved to flank it. It sent its tentacles at him with with the force of three men, but Ajanni was able to sidestep away and bring down his sword onto them, severing the tentacles. The beast swayed back and quickly got back into the duel by jumping at Ajanni, landing on top of him and pinning him to the ground. He wrestled with the Lesser, holding it back from sinking its teeth into his neck. He thrashed the beast around and Rekor came from the side, running his blade through an exposed portion in its armor. The Lesser squirmed and writhed before finally calming and withering away.
Ajanni stood panting over the horror of tentacles and bone and looked around to survey the mess around him. The Radrei outnumbered the Boros at least nineteen to one. Men, despite their most valiant efforts, were being quickly overpowered and slaughtered in the dozens. Before he knew what was happening, he could hear the sounds of battle. His hearing was back, a very small victory. This was snuffed out by the sound of the Enforcer’s deafening screech and its mighty hand smashing into the building right in front of Ajanni. He heard Rekor yell and turned in time to witness him be crushed by the Enforcer. Ajanni ran up against the side of the building in a vain attempt of hiding. He gazed blankly at the one sided battle. He saw the gate and all the villagers running through it being led by a few guards, he saw his dwindling manpower fighting the Radrei, and then, after a rattling sound of snapping wood and shattering glass, there was a crushing pain and he saw only black.
He awoke to see a dark blue sky through the wreckage of the homestead on top of him. His head was bleeding and his legs were almost unmovable, yet he moved the wooden beam off of himself. He sat up and crawled his way on top of the rubble. He sat there, waiting for a sound, any sound. But he heard nothing. No fighting. No villagers. No shouting. No life at all. He scanned his eyes over towards the opening the Radrei had made, only to see a colossal  Terraformer, planted into the earth, it’s size blotting out the morning sun. It’s spawning pods ranging in all shapes and sizes for new Radrei planted around its base and hanging from it’s branch like appendages that had disappeared into the clouds, but were evident by their dangling cargo. It seemed to go up forever, disappearing into the clouds. He watched in horror as multiple Enforcer’s emerged from within the Terraformer, their massive sizes dwarfed in comparison. Ajanni laid there on his stomach for what felt like decades as he watched multiple armies worth of Radrei being birthed in what was really a few hours. After awhile of watching, the Radrei gathered and began moving West, towards the rest of the kingdom.