The Fire

Life, Trauma/ Loss

Fenneck and Vyndius face Pufuktin for the first time as Pufuktin kills the Petrov's and steals the baby, Kapelya Petrov.

Fenneck walked outside and into the snow. He and Vyndius were on their way to practice with some of the farmers in the Vallee. Fenneck was wearing his ring and Vyndius was keeping his head down to not be noticed in he and Gwynsickle's cloaks they were hard to see in the heavy snowfall. As they descended the mountain, Fenneck saw smoke coming from the Vallee and he looked down the mountain and saw a fire near the Petrov's farm. Fenneck's heart started to pound as he worried about the family of wood-elves and he instinctively started running. He led Vyndius out through the entrance, trying not to make too much noise as he ran across the stone and out and down the mountain toward the Vallee. When they exited the gate they saw Pyotr and Alina's longhouse up in flames. Nobody seemed to be doing anything. A couple guards shrugged as they walked by. "Gods be damned!" Fenneck exclaimed, annoyed at the pathetic excuse of protection the guards offered. Vyndius and Gwynsickle were already running into the longhouse and Fenneck followed them. He ran inside and coughed as his lungs filled with smoke and ash. The entire space was engulfed in flames and he could smell the different plants and fruits cooking beneath them.   Down the center hallway, framed in flames, was a KAV soldier in the black and red uniform with the blasphemous red star of Corellon Larethian on his chest. The soldier was the high-elf with a bald head and a neck beard that had killed his parents and had almost killed him. His eyes were silver and they seemed to stare into Fenneck's soul like daggers, even though he was invisible. The soldier held out his hand toward them and a huge gust of flames erupted toward Fenneck, Vyndius and Gwynsickle. Fenneck rolled out of the way and gasped in pain as his clothes started to burn from the fire.   He heard a baby screaming and felt a horror flood his body knowing Kapelya was still alive and inside this inferno. He stood up and watched as Vyndius shot a ball of ice magic toward the soldier. Fenneck drew his bow and tried to fire an arrow at the soldier, missing him from his blurred vision from the smoke and flames. Fenneck tried to run down the hallway, toward the soldier and the screams of the newborn wood-elf. He saw Vyndius disappear and appear behind the soldier and try to attack him but the soldier grabbed Vyndius by the head and syphon magic into the halfling. Vyndius looked dazed as he stumbled back and the soldier turned around. Fenneck carefully moved down the hallway and saw in the corner of the back entrance was Alina holding Kapelya to her chest and crying. Her eyes were full of terror and fear as the soldier leaned down toward her. Fenneck drew his bow but stumbled as a burning piece of the wooden ceiling fell and hit his back and head. Fenneck looked up through the smoke and watched as the soldier whispered something to Alina, causing her to collapse onto the ground. "NO!" Fenneck shouted. Vyndius tried to hit the soldier with his staff but was shot back by a gust of force from the disgusting monster.   The soldier pulled Kapelya from her mother's arms and smiled deviously at Fenneck before vanishing into thin air with the crying child. "No! No!" Fenneck shouted as he ran forward and hit the air around him looking for the soldier before running to Alina's crumpled body. He reached down and picked her up and moved toward the entrance as the ground creaked and cracked below him. "The floor's going to give! Get out!" he shouted to Vyndius who gave him a blank look and stumbled through the flames and out of the back door and into the snow. Fenneck moved as quickly as he could while carrying Alina. He finally stumbled out the house as the floor burst and the room erupted into wild flames. He saw the once beautiful sanctuary of apple trees and crops burning in the flames beneath the ground.   He coughed as he dropped Alina into the powdery snow and looked up to see Pyotr's ravaged body before them. His chest had been sliced open a few times and his blood was covering the snow. Vyndius was standing there looking confused and in pain. Fenneck put his head to Alina's chest and tried to find her pulse as he flooded her body with healing magic. "Come on, come on," he begged her desperately. Gwynsickle squawked sadly at the situation. Fenneck started shaking as Alina didn't wake up. "No no no." He ran over to Pyotr and tried to save him, also to no avail. He looked up at Vyndius who wasn't really responding to anything. "Vyndius! Do you know any spells or magic than can help them?" Fenneck asked him as tears started to pour down his cheeks.   Vyndius gave Fenneck a blank look and Fenneck realized the soldier must have cursed him or something. Fenneck started to shake again as he looked around. Luckily they were behind the farm now, away from the street so there were no guards or anything to arrest them for interfering with KAV business. Fenneck looked around to see if the soldier was still there. Suddenly he saw footprints approaching in the snow and Fenneck frantically drew his swords in fear and swung toward the invisible person. Erikur appeared and jumped back from Fenneck's swords. "Woah! It's just me-" he stopped in horror when he saw Pyotr and Alina's bodies on the ground. At that moment, a tiny little robin turned into Catherine who collapsed onto the ground in horror.   Fenneck removed his ring and started crying as he met Erikur's eyes. "I... I tried to heal them but..." He looked down desperately at Alina and Pyotr. Erikur leaned down and studied the bodies for a moment. "What happened?" he asked Fenneck sadly. Fenneck shook his head. "There was a soldier, KAV, he... he..." Fenneck tried to control himself as tears flooded his face. Catherine looked up in concern at Vyndius. "Vyndius, are you okay? What happened?" she asked him softly. The halfling looked up at her and shrugged sadly. Erikur looked around and started crying. "We need to bury them. Before we get caught," he said turning to Catherine who nodded, tears in her eyes. "At least they're together," she said, sniffling through her tears.   She turned and waved her hands at the ground and magically created a grave as the dirt moved out the earth. Fenneck shakily helped Erikur carry Alina's body over to the dirt and gently lower her into the ground. They heard the roof of the longhouse crash behind them and they hurried to Pyotr's body and carefully picked him up and laid him down, next to his wife. Fenneck looked up at Erikur sadly and Catherine waved her hand as the dirt filled in around them.   "Where's Kapelya?!" Erikur suddenly asked him, turning toward the longhouse as he realized the baby was missing. Fenneck started crying again as he thought about the perfect little girl in the arms of that monster. "He took her," he told Erikur as tears started pouring from his face. "The soldier. I couldn't stop him and he disappeared," Fenneck cried. Erikur wrapped his arms around Fenneck and squeezed him tightly, rubbing tears from his own eyes. Catherine sent a flurry of snow to fall over the mound and leaned down and touched the earth. As she pulled away a sapling started to push its way through the snow, marking their grave. Catherine turned and studied Vyndius carefully and turned back to Fenneck and Erikur. "We need to go. Erik?" she asked him expectantly. Erikur nodded and took Fenneck's hand in one and his sister's in the other. Catherine held Vyndius and Gwynsickle leaned against her as Erikur transported them into their living room.   Catherine immediately pulled Vyndius over to the couch. "Erik, come look at him," she begged her brother. Erikur leaned down and looked back at Fenneck. "What happened to him?" he asked, before turning his attention to the halfling. Fenneck shrugged and shakily walked over. "The soldier touched his head and it looked like he cursed him or something," Fenneck explained fearfully. Erikur closed his eyes and focused his magic into the halfling for a few moments until finally Vyndius blinked and seemed to wake up from his weird state. Catherine sighed with relief.   Vyndius looked around and started crying. "What... what happened? What happened to the baby?" He turned to Fenneck who gave him a small shake of his head in defeat. Erikur stood up and paced the room for a moment. "You two should stay here. Lay low. Don't leave until we find out who this soldier was," he decided. Catherine nodded. "You both need rest," she said, rubbing Vyndius's arm comfortingly. Fenneck started shaking and Erikur went to him and pulled him into his chest. "Come on, Fen. There was nothing you could have done," he tried to assure him. He turned to his sister. "I'm gonna go lie down with Fenneck, will you watch Vyndius and let me know if he needs anything else or if the effect doesn't wear off?"   Catherine nodded and Erikur guided Fenneck into his room and sat him down on his bed. He closed the door and started taking off Fenneck's burned armor as Fenneck sat there shaking in shock. As he gently tended to Fenneck's burns Fenneck slowly came back to reality and he looked into Erikur's eyes intently. "He's a monster," he said quietly. "Who?" Erikur asked him. "The soldier. The KAV soldier. He killed her by whispering something to her, Erik. He fried Vyndius' brain. He killed my parents. He took Kapelya and just... vanished." He shook his head. "He's a monster," he said again. "He used magic. I've never seen a KAV soldier use magic before." Erikur frowned. "What did he look like?" he asked. Fenneck scrunched his face in disgust. "He had a beard, but he was definitely an elf. He had silver eyes and a bald head." Erikur nodded slowly. "He's been around before," Erikur said. "Alexei said he was the soldier who passed through years ago looking for Vyndius. There's something different about him," he said, gently closing the wounds on Fenneck's chest with a warm swirl of magic. Fenneck nodded. "They're all monsters. The KAV. That should be the first thing to go when we pull this off." Erikur nodded in agreement. "I saw what they did to your parents," he said sadly. "It's awful. The things they do... Their goal is to sniff out anything good and pure in the world," he said as his hand rested on Fenneck's forehead to close a scratch Fenneck had gotten from the fallen roof. Fenneck leaned forward and kissed Erikur softly. "I'm so scared, Erik," he whispered to him. Erikur nodded in agreement. "Me too," he said, looking fearfully into Fenneck's eyes. "Look, there are wards and alarms in place in case anyone tries to break in, okay? We're safe. You're safe here." He kissed Fenneck again and pulled him into bed. They laid there holding each other through the night, trying not to think about the horrors out there in the world. Fenneck cried most of the night as he imagined the horrible things that monster was doing to Kapelya and the evil things he'd done to his friends and family.