For a moment, the forest was silent except for the crackle of the bandits campfire.
Then chairs scraped and boots thudded against the dirt as every man in the camp shot to their feet, panic widening their eyes. Some reached instinctively for their weapons. Others raised trembling hands as if to ward off the sight.
"You...You…" One of them stammered, but the words choked in his throat, spilling out in a pitiful half-sentence.
"W-What...What is—" Another croaked, but his voice broke before he could finish.
The leader himself felt his mouth open to bark an order, any order, but no sound came out.
He'd seen slaughter before. He'd seen men gutted, women's throats slit, entire caravans butchered in the name of plunder...But this?
This wasn't human.
And seeing the boy before him, the artifact he was holding slipped from his nerveless fingers, clattering against the stone beneath and he barely register the sound around him.
