Of Blood And Iron by J.D. Hill

Author:J.D. Hill [Hill, J.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2023-08-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Seline felt a painful throbbing in her chest as she laid on her stomach. She was entirely surrounded by tall, swaying grass. Peering over the crest of a hill at the valley below. Hazel laid beside her and the pair stared forward in dreadful horror. Before them lay the endlessly sprawling mass of tents, fires, men, and supplies. The Mathian army pervaded the entire horizon.

What Seline and Hazel had hoped to discover over this hill was the town of Pytho. From discussions with their fellow escapees, it should have been one of the larger villages in the area. The pair hoped it could have allowed the group to rest and recuperate before pushing to Valencia. Having previously stopped at the ruined village of Lille, their supply situation was healthy enough to endure the entire trek. They had traveled parallel to the main road and veered off yesterday to determine if Pytho was still a viable escape option.

But their reconnaissance revealed the village was no more. The Mathias army had mutated the very ground it had once been erected on. Its old low walls were a simple ring of rubble, barely taller than the ocean of tents. These tents formed a rippling circle that expanded outward from the ruined ring. The earth had been trampled into a muddy soup and every tree that speckled the plains was reduced to cinder. Layers of tents and supplies circled towards the center, before finally the burnt out husk of the village formed the eye of this storm. Thousands of animals and wagons were coiled in a tight spiral around those ruins.

Above all this, the air had congealed into a thick, musky poison. The plethora of fires and waste of war had transformed the sky into a blackened, cloudy miasma. And the winds wafting this concoction towards the pair of women almost choked them with its filth and ash.

This army had transmuted into a monstrosity, a hulking, poisonous goliath. One that had been simply consuming every scrap of land it marched upon. But now it had chosen to rest, and its fetid rancor had been swelling in an ever-increasing sphere. Corrupting the world itself as it lay idle. Infectious tendrils spreading well beyond its immediate reach.

Hazel was the first to speak, her voice tired and bitter. “It looks like they’ve found a nice and cozy place to rest and piss themselves. These bastards are Hael bent on ruining everything they touch.”

Seline responded, her tone completely crushed. “They seem intent on countering every decision we make. This is beyond a blockade, this is impassable. We’ll have to travel a couple of days west to completely avoid this.” Seline was ragged. Her previous attire had ripped so many times she was left wearing a spare man’s shirt and trousers. Even then, her clothes, skin, and hair were covered in grime. She still felt a boundless determination to save her villagers, but something had broken inside her. She could feel its shattered pieces piercing her soul at all hours.

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