Beliville, Black Pine County, Forest Sea Province.
This was an inconspicuous corner on the edge of the kingdom. Days of incessant rain had turned the dirt road at the village entrance into a quagmire that swallowed ankles whole. The air hung thick with the damp scent of pine resin and rotting leaves, while the tall conifers unique to Black Pine County stood like a black wall, trapping the tiny village within.
Seven or eight men in tattered clothes squatted by the mud at the village entrance, hugging their knees like a flock of drenched crows. Their eyes were sunken, fixed on the far end of the road.
A freight wagon from the Golden Sail Commerce Association was mired in a pit of mud, its axle groaning under the strain.
Besides the carter, two figures walked alongside the wagon, their trouser legs rolled high.
