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Her master looked concerned and grave. She watched over the kingsman during the midnight dash to the old farmstead.

Beaten, bleeding, broken and yet his body refused to die, to give up, to simply let go. His eyes opened briefly focusing in on hers. Eyes greyed by pain, simply looked at her with a hurt so profound in his gaze and then he smiled. Before his eyes closed, warmth filled them. This battered man had the same warmth like her master.

"Just alittle longer luv..." he whispered. "Not yet..."

Vahlia was unsure if he spoke to her or if he was deluded by the pain. However, a shadow ahead caught her sight. She looked up seeing the wooden archway to the farm. Already the farmhands had packed their lives away upon the only means of escape. They were leaving just as the cart pulled into the main farmyard. She watched their fearful faces as they looked back only briefly.

Her master and another hand helped carry the Kingsman out of the cart and towards a small hovel. They disappeared within while she stood there watching the others hurry. Her eyes looked at the area shivering as a chill ran down her back, hairs pricked up along her arms.

A fragrance so familiar yet far away scented the air. The feeling of the air felt charged as if a storm was soon to come. Vahlia felt lost in the darkened dawn a buried nightmare too familiar crept into her life.

"Vahlia!"

Looking up she saw her master standing at the hovel. Hurrying across the yard, she approached the hovel of stone and loam. Her master looked inside where the hand was laying eight large round stones above a frame of metal. The man then poured old ash and soot upon within the circle of stones and then laid burnt wood in such a way that a fire was made and burnt out.

Her master held her shoulders to catch her attention. "I need you to stay here on the farm until I return. Can you do that for me?"

Vahlia nodded looking at her master's eyes. He smiled and as he left there was a sad smile to his lips. She wondered at this as he leapt upon the seat of the wagon and goaded the horses forward to leave the farm back for the inn.



Darkness surrounded her but she could hear noises...no...echoes. She felt so warm and...not so good. "Rex?"

"Quiet...rest," whispered in front of her. She was being carried...upon his back. She was wrapped against him.

Water...they were walking in water. She could feel the cool touch splash upon her feet as he ploughed ahead in the darkness.

She could hear the horses ahead of them. Nervous, tired, anxious...the air murmured their fear. In the darkness...they soldiered on and she shuddered. Somewhere ahead a scent of burnt wood drifted like a ghost to them.



Smoke drifted up with the red sun boiling the horizon with a fever of such stark fury. Her master had not returned. She stood there watching, her body tense with emotion but not a flicker of the energy left her.

Hoof beats...she heard them running, horses running tiredly towards the farm. There were too many of them to be her master's. She felt hollow and cold all at once realizing the doom that rode near.

‘Monsters...no more monsters!'

Gritting her teeth she hid inside the home of the farm, grabbing a broom from the doorway.