Rebirth

Ilios gripped the wood of his bow tightly, his other hand holding an arrow, ready to fire. He peered around the corner of the old brick wall, waiting for the first dark magician to appear. This place smelled of death, and its appearance matched. The ground was long since charred by a great fire that happened years ago, the soil now black and devoid of life. Half crumbled buildings were strewn about, turned gray from the ash of the fire. Ilios hated this place. He missed the scent of life and the green of plants, however this mission was important to him.

He had been informed by his man on the inside of the human clan that there were dark magicians meeting in the ruins of this village and performing some kind of ritual. The informant did not know what kind of ritual, however, so Ilios had come to watch it himself. He took a moment to adjust the dark cloak around him, making sure none of his vibrant colors were peaking through.

Ilios waited a total of 2 hours, and his muscled began to ache from being tensed in wait. Finally, just as he was growing restless, he heard the first footsteps of a human. His senses grew sharp once again and all the fatigue left his body. He watched as the dark magicians slowly gathered around in a circle, and the last to arrive was a human much taller than the rest. He carried something over his shoulder, and a sense of dread filled Ilios.

As he watched, the large human dropped what Ilios was sure was a body on the ground in the middle of the circle, and then ripped the bag open. Ilios instantly felt rage building inside of him as he recognized the hooves and tail of one of his people. He had to close his eyes and steel himself so that he would not jump out and slaughter all of them right then.

As he watched, the magicians began chanting in unison. A purple fire began spreading under the body and around the inside of the circle, forming some kind of rune on the ground. After a few moments, the rest of the bag disintegrated, and a faun rose from the ground. His eyes widened as he realized what they had done. The faun was different- the entire torso was missing, and only its spine remained. There were some ribs that remained, and their legs were missing flesh. Ilios couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. He realized that the magicians were still chanting. He had to put a stop to whatever they were doing. 

He aimed for the magician furthest from him, releasing an arrow. The arrow hit its mark, and a body dropped to the ground. The magicians faltered, and looked around for the source of the arrow. In the midst of the confusion, he managed to fell two more of the magicians before he saw a blazing blue fireball coming straight for him. He rolled out of the way, and pulled out his sword in preparation for close combat. Two of the magicians were casting more fireballs, as the third remaining magician was checking his comrades to see if any of them still lived. Ilios rushed them before they had the chance to finish their spells, and quickly cut through them, whirling to face the final magician. 

Before he killed him, he thought, he might as well try to get some information. He held his sword up to the back of the magician’s neck, and barked “Who is giving the orders for this?” There was no response, and the magician’s body slumped over. Ilios rolled the magician over, cursing as he saw the magician’s mouth foaming with some sort of poison. He had killed himself. 

Ilios turned back towards the undead faun, still holding his sword out in case the undead tried to eat him. Instead, he found the faun was sitting on the ground, crying and looking around at the bodies of the magicians, clearly terrified. Ilios slowly put his sword away and stepped towards the faun. “Can you speak?” he asked, keeping a distance but speaking softly. The faun nodded, and tried to say something, but it came out in a croak. Ilios supposed their vocal cords would need time to reform. “Will you come with me?” he asked. “I’ll take care of you. It’s not your fault they did this to you.” The faun hesitated, but nodded, slowly getting off the ground. Ilios would find out who did this, and he made it his mission to help the faun who were forced back into this world.