�I�m sorry for the intrusion,� said the tavern owner again. He had kept repeating it as he refilled drinks since the drunk girl had shown up and wrecked their otherwise perfect evening.
�What a horrible little wench, I don�t see why you shouldn�t just kill her, she ruined our lovely meal,� said Xandra.
�Xandra!� hissed Caden as he looked at the shocked _expression on Cahira�s face. �I am here to protect these people from people such as��
�Yourself,� said Nerys. �Caden likes to see himself as a savior daddy figure.�
A chuckle went through the ranks and Caden tensed. �Hardly. I am here to investigate the Undead. A side mission is to keep at least a majority of the villagers unexecuted beneath my command,� said Caden.
Undead? Cahira�s interest was peaked and for a moment she forgot herself and situation. �You came to investigate the Undead? Are the rumors true?� she asked.
�Hurray, our little Wenchie-Woo has found her lost voice!� giggled Xandra.
�You don�t really believe that nonsense, do you?� demanded Ifor of Caden.
Caden nodded his eyes become hard. �My father has fought them. They are no longer legends of pagans but enemies of the King,� he said.
�Tell me bar wench. Isn�t it said amongst the masses that the Undead have risen to fight the One God�s men for the pagans?� asked Nerys.
Cahira�s eyes widened and she sloppily spilled the wine she was pouring. Quickly she began to mop up the spill while mumbling apologies over and over. Caden shot Nerys a look of annoyance while Nerys merely smiled softly.
�Answer the Lady, girl,� demanded Ifor.
�Yes,� said Cahira, �and no. The legends say that the Undead rise when the Gods battle and long has it been since they fought against each other. Many say that now the Gods have an enemy, the one who wishes to be the One God, and he sent his men into our land to destroy all who worshipped others before him. This angered the Gods and they began to organize to fight. In the unrest and emotional upheaval in the celestial space has once again created a rift in the spectral world and the natural world allowing the host of demons to enter with ease,� she told them as she looked into the deep dark interested eyes of Caden.
A nervous laugh issued forth from Ifor and became hearty as Xandra and soldiers followed suit. Their laughing didn�t bother Cahira, for Caden wasn�t laughing at her; instead he was digesting this information slowly in his mind. She felt a stirring in her stomach as she allowed herself to watch him for a moment. He was physically desirable, in ways she hadn�t imagined. He didn�t look like a typical village boy. He had the look of a celestial being built of magic, such as an elf.
�Has anyone seen these Undead?� asked Caden.
Cahira nodded. �A few. Travelers during the Harvest Festival said that they had reached Kagota, a village in the Southern Plains near our Eastern Forest area,� she said.
�The land is divided in five sections, correct?� he asked.
Cahira nodded again drawing closer to him. �The Homestead is in the center it is the Holy place where the Gods� dwell. There is the Northern Mountains, the Eastern Forest, the Southern Plains, and the Western Waters. Everything is divided then into smaller sections within each area,� she said.
Caden nodded. He wished he had his map with him. �The Undead started coming from the Homestead?� he asked.
Cahira shook her head. �No. They call the Homestead a place of refugee. It is rumored that the catacombs of the Northern Mountains bore them, however, all sightings of them have come from the Southern Plains near the Western Waters in the area called The Lonely Marshes,� she said.
�The Lonely Marshes� Ah! Yes, Acipulo Marhes, the large desolate ones? My father has traveled there and faced the armies of dead there,� he said.
�The most recent rumors came from a fur dealer from the most southern village of the Eastern forest region called Uguma. It�s a border town between the two regions. Apparently, the Undead have massed in the Southern Plains in an area called the Broken Heart, which is a desert near the outlying skirts of the temperate forest called the Fingers which forms the border between the Eastern Forest area and the Southern Plains area. From the Broken Heart they have traveled up the Fingers and into the Eastern Forest near the Misty Hollows, which is a ten day journey from us, the Half-Life Gale,� she said.
�The speed they are traveling isn�t a fast speed. My father reported outbreaks nearly a season ago, in the Western Waters,� he said.
�Why split their forces?� asked Nerys interested.
Ifor snorted. �They�re animals of legends. Brainless brutes the lot of them, they wouldn�t know tactics if it snuck up behind them and rammed them in their assholes,� he replied. �More wine, wench!�
�I disagree. My father reported them to be fearless in battle. They attacked with no fear of death and no care for grace. However, they had no need. A single touch of their acidic vomit turned his men against each other. They weren�t all together mindless, however, for they knew how to keep from getting outflanked,� caden said. He paused to drink for dramatic effect making sure to eye Ifor, Nerys, a few key soldiers, and finally the little bar wench a moment before continuing. �My father pulled back his troops behind a low rising river and quickly rallied them. Upon which the troops were ordered to quickly death march through the brush nearly a half days walk down stream. There he hoped to take the invading armies by surprise. Only what did he find? He found that the Undead had placed what seemed to be a unit to protect its flanks! Realizing the Undead were well positioned, he then had his unit retreat back to the nearest outpost to regroup and rest.�
�Which leads to the question, who rules the dead?� asked Nerys.
Xandra looked over to Cahira. �Don�t you pagans have a god for that too?� she asked.
�No,� said Cahira.
Xandra looked confused and disappointed. �You don�t?� she asked.
�We have a Goddess of the UnderWorld and her name is Cornelia,� said Cahira softly.
�She carries a scale which your life is weighed upon,� said Caden.
Cahira nodded surprised. �She gives you the chance to speak on your behalf to determine on which of the three levels of Death you become. Abomination, where the evils goes the traitors and the viciously criminals are kept. The Half-Life, as our village was named, for those whose lives ended too shortly to create an impact on the life stream or who are too afraid to reach their potential and life in mediocrity. Then the Life Stream Core, were those who have reached perfection become like gods and no longer are reborn,� she said.