Someone, some thing, was screaming, or was it screeching? He couldn't focus on the sound, his senses foggy, as if he were half asleep. He tried to move but found his arms and legs bound and his head seemed to be covered by something. It stunk. A sudden jolt caused him to violently heave from side to side, bumping into others around him.

"Where am I?"

"What is going on?"

He tried to talk but found that his mouth and throat were painfully dry and began swallowing to try and produce some saliva. As he was attempting to shift his weight whatever was carrying them suddenly let out a groan of protest, though it wasn't a groan from a living creature, but rather the wood it was made from trying not to break apart. The fog that was wrapped around his mind began to slowly thin out and soon he was able to mostly remember their situation. They had been captured by kidnappers and were being moved somewhere. He had been crammed into a wagon with other children but that was the last thing he could remember.

In fact after each wagon was packed as full as possible a canvas was draped over a wooden frame to cover the merchandise, in this case children, from the weather. However, the kidnappers had an extra use for the fabric cover. After all the sides, front, and back were tied down two lanterns were lit inside that caused a near odorless smoke to gradually fill the interior. Soon the children started to nod off and after a few minutes every child in the wagon was limp and sleeping. Of course none of them knew this was the reason they oddly feel asleep each time they were moved, and only awoke once it was time to unload.

This trip was different though, as the canvas covering that had contained the smoke in the past was now torn down the center and was letting it out. A terrible drumming vibrated in his mind and now he heard screaming, this time from people, after the sound of splintering wood erupted from somewhere. Others in his wagon began to stir and ask questions themselves, the jostling they were experiencing suggesting they were moving at a high rate of speed.

"What is happening?!"

He finally called out after pulling the sack from over his head and looked around. From behind him, in the direction he felt like they were traveling, someone barked in an angry voice.

"Hey you! Don't take off your hood. Everyone sit down and shut up!"

He had been about to add a promise of pain if they didn't listen but a ear piercing shriek from somewhere to their left cut him off. He spun around to look forward and was about to scream before his body was suddenly yanked up into the air. Ethan watched the body disappear and could just make out a massive black something wrapped around his squirming body. A fountain of blood erupted from the body a second later and the lower half fell out of view as the upper half fell limp. He caught movement back near the front of the wagon and saw a smaller body move to pick up the fallen reins.

"What is going on?!"

He called out while flexing his muscles with enough force to snap the rope holding his arms and legs together. They tore with ease, his desire to maintain the secret he was an adventurer no longer a priority. When he didn't get a response, not even a glance, from the person up front he simply launched himself forward and caught the back of the bench they were sitting on. The wagon was rather large and he was a bit surprised to see four horses were pulling when he poked looked out front. He had simply cleared several dozen bodies in his leap and while the driver wasn't fully aware of his location they were still unnerved when he appeared. Looking up he could see traces of the sun on the horizon but without knowing the time of day he wasn't sure if it was dusk or dawn. Finally he turned his attention to the cloaked figure holding the reins after he pulled himself into a sitting position next to them.

"..... You?"

Unnerved meet confused, confused meet unnerved. The hood hiding the figure's face had just fallen back from the air rushing past them and revealed a young girl. More specifically it was the girl he saw hiding just inside the entrance of the guild hall on the first day he arrived in the city. His confusion only grew as he studied her and for some reason he instantly realized that she was also the source of the strange presences he felt during the first day or so. She didn't feel the same as the sensation the night before the kidnapping though, that was something completely different.

"It doesn't matter right now, we are under attack!"

As if on queue an explosion erupted in the distance behind the wagon, in the direction that they were running from. Standing on the bench he tried to look for the source and felt his breath catch in his throat as he saw a massive scorpion looking creature silhouetted against the flames.

"Is that....."

"Yes, an afflicted monster. There are a lot of them. They attacked the camp."

"What?! Did everyone get away?"

"I... I don't know, I was assigned to this wagon. Everyone scattered when it was attacked."

Ethan heard her words but didn't really process them. His mind had gone autonomous when he heard her uncertainty about others getting out. It took less than a second for him to decide his next course of action and he yelled at her before leaping off the wagon.

"Get back to Cloudcrest, ask to see the guild master, tell him Ethan sent you! Warn them!"

He hit the ground and immediately rolled before taking off back toward the chaos they had left behind. The wagon had been traveling nearly blind so they weren't on a road, thus thick blades of grass slashed at his clothes and face as he raced back toward the fires. Even though the explosion had since died down he could still see the flames. Movement to his side caught his attention with just enough time for him to raise and reinforce his arms. A massive black pincer had been the source of the attack and slammed into his body like a club from the darkness. Instead of running he was now sailing through the air, the impact from the pincer causing a stomach slapping sensation to flow through his body, before he once against found himself rolling through the grass after bouncing off the ground. After several rotations he was able to bring his leg down and managed to dig his boot into the ground, bringing his body to a skidding stop, his weight on the remaining knee and palms.

"That wasn't nice..."

He said himself with a grunt before shooting to his feet and running toward the camp once again. Behind him he could here the sound of poles piercing the ground as the monster skittered after him.