The Hit.

[miltonyorkcastle]

Sederan refugees pour into the bordering kingdoms. Tales of death, dragons, and lost loved ones fill the eyes and roll off the tongues of the scattered desert people. Each story is more devastating than the last. Some question the truth of the stories, but then, the refugees just keep pouring in and officials don't seem to be taking the situation lightly. Troops from around the world shuffle around villages that have never seen a real army, not even in the days of Bloodstone. That something is happening cannot be denied.

The refugees' stories of loss spread like wildfire, the latest gossip in those places untouched by the GDC, fuel to the fire of those that are. Amidst the stories, the gossip, the tales of people swallowed whole by dragons, a song is heard, cropping up in as many taverns across the world as the rumors bleeding out of Sedera and Hilm and Nesar. The song has been heard before, but when it first appeared, the war had only barely begun, the atrocities not yet real. But now people take notice, the melody as subtly haunting as the words. Now the refugees carry the song like a banner, singing themselves to sleep with it.

It is a song of the massacre, and the wanton taking of life is so heavily laid upon the listener as to cause a discomfort, a desire to bring an end to the source of the slaughter. Despite this, the request for the song grows, and it has of late become a regular sound at the end of the day.

Various musicians and bardic talents take credit for the material, but a few admit that they learned the song from a worn bard called Willie.


[SIZE=18]"Say, Petey, you hear that new song Ugly Bart's been singing down in Hurm?"

"That the one all sad-like, bleeding and fading and whatnot?"

"Aye, that's the one. You hear what that song is supposed to be about?"

"Well, no, but I imagine you're about to tell me, eh?"

"Pits, Petey. Now I ain't, not if you don't want to hear it."

"Bah, you old fart. Don't be like that, Jake. I want to hear it, okay?"

"That's what I thought. So there's this Cult with dragons and dragon-men, and-"

"The song mentions both a Cult and dragons. I thought you were going to tell me something about the song I didn't know."

"Gods blast it! If you already got it all figured out, why am I even talkin' to ye? Ye cut me off. I was prefacing."

"Alright, alright, my fault. Go on."

"Right, where was I?"

"Dragons?"

"Dragons! I heard that the song was first sung by a fellow who survived one of them dragon attacks we always hear about out of Sedera. He was havin' this concert in the oasis, and them dragon-people came in and killed everybody! Women, children, too. Bart says he could see it in the eyes of the man taught him the song. Real visions of death."

"Uh-huh."

"No lie! A real eye-witness to a dragon massacre."


"If it was a massacre, how is it he survived?"

"I dunno! Maybe he's one of them stonebound."

"Or maybe it was all made up. They're called 'storytellers' for a reason."

"Well ain't you just the cynic of all cynics. You gonna tell me all them things we hearing about from Sedera and Boyer and Sucession- all sides- be just made up?"

"I'm sure some are true, and I'm sure there are many an entertainer looking to make a coin or two off the plight of dead men."

"Bah, you got no faith, Petey. None at all. Bart told me this fellow was willing to pay Bart to teach the song, not the other way around. Bart said that after hearing the song, the truly haunting melody, he just couldn't take the poor man's money."

"It is well written, I'll say that much. I just don't like all this talk of doom and gloom. Are things really that bad?"

"Maybe not for you and me, what with the likes of the Sabre and Morgensen and Red Bear around, but I tell ye, if the stories are true, them Cultists don't care who ye are or what yer doing. We could be sitting here drinking a pint and them dragons just swoop in and make us crispies for the fun of it, I tell ye. I don't know about you, Petey, but that song makes me want to pick up an axe and have a go at the rotten creatures what done such a thing and would do such a thing to any old person just having themselves a normal day."[/SIZE]