Fire.
Tons and tons of flames were all around Rowen as he watched the home of his entire childhood burn to the ground. Just a day ago, he and his family were living so happily. They were all together on their small section of the world living a life of peace and solitude in their small town. That was until the Rothersburg knights arrived.
They had arrived in a small military fleet of about thirty men, all donned in silver armor and swords at their hips, wearing the crest of Rothersburg, one of the three nearby kingdoms. It seemed like any other military convoy that had passed through the small village before. They had stopped to spend the night and get some food on their way back to whatever kingdom they had originally come from.
When they first arrived, our village mayor had made his way over to the knights sitting on their horses. It started off as a simple conversation that all the villagers watched silently as they went about their day.
That was until the conversation turned violent.
Within moments of speaking to the mayor one of the knights drew his sword and cut straight through our mayor not even having a moment to realize what had happened to him before he fell down dead at the scene.
As soon as this happened, screams erupted throughout the village, turning the entire place into pure pandemonium. Rowen had been present for this as he had came to the square of the village to get some food from the market for his parents. He was 18 years old now and was expected to take on these kinds of chores. It just turned out that this particular chore would be his last.
Despite being far enough away from the mayor when he was cut down to run away Rowen did not make it far before he heard other screams. Turning behind him as he ran home he watched as the group of knights started making their way through the town, cutting down every person in sight without any remorse. As this happened, other knights came in armed with torches setting every building they could find on fire.
'I have to make it home and warn them!' Rowen screamed in his mind as he forced his body to move faster than it ever had in his entire life.
He knew that if he took too long, it would be the end of not only himself but everyone that meant something to him.
As Rowen made his way through the town his home finally came into view. The only difference was that when he left, his house was not on fire.
They had multiple units.
Multiple knights were surrounding Rowen's house as the roof caved in under the constant attack of the flames. As Rowen took in this shock he looked lower from the roof where a few bodies lay. Bodies that he had hoped would at least be up and moving. Possibly running away to meet up at a future date.
The happy memories of the day before played in Rowen's mind as he had spent time with his parents and brother living their lives in peace. Those once happy faces were now stuck in horror face first on the ground missing any resemblance of life.
All Rowen could do was scream in horror as these images came through his eyes unwillingly. As he was about to go hoarse from the yelling he felt a thud on the back of his head and his mind went blank.
*****
"Wake up peasant!"
*SMACK*
Rowen was jolted awake with a hard smack to his head bringing him straight back to life as he sat up, hitting his head once again on something hard and metal.
"Ow!" Rowen yelled in pain as he held his hand to his forehead trying to rub away whatever brick had just hit him but as he opened his eyes he realized there were metal bars in front of him bringing all of those painful memories back to the forefront of his mind.
"Finally you are awake be sure to get in line with the rest of them or we will have to make you just like the rest of your disgusting village." A voice spoke to the left of Rowen as he turned and looked to see one of the Rothersburg knights from before staring at him with clear disdain.
It was at this moment Rowen realized he was in a large metal cage filled with tons of other people. Some seemed to be from somewhere similar to him while others Rowen wondered where they had come from.
"Are you listening you little shit!"
BANG!
Another sharp pain shot through the back of Rowen's head as the hilt of the knight's sword was shoved between the bars striking Rowen once again.
This repeated damage threw Rowen's vision off for a moment as he had to go to one knee to keep himself from passing out once again.
"He has got it I will make sure." A rougher voice spoke up making the knight look up in shock before grunting and walking forward to the front of the cage where horses seemed to be pulling it down a road.
Rowen looked up to try and greet the stranger who had seemingly helped him but almost fell over once again when he saw the face of the person. This stranger seemed to be a man in his mid to late thirties with more scars than Rowen cared to count.
"You need to make sure to pay attention now kid you are not in your village anymore. They could have killed you for something simple like that." The man said as he offered his hand to Rowen which he grabbed to stand up.
"My name is Bergiel what is yours." The man asked in a hoarse voice obviously showing he hadn't spoke much in a long time.
"My name is Rowen. Rowen Nightgard."