I Was At A Loss For What To Do, So I Started Something New Three months had passed without incident since the herd had torn through the town. Buildings still lay in crumpled masses, mere husks of stone and thatch, a testament to the lives that had been crushed underneath. Smoke billowed across the town, bellowing forth from the open fire that provided comfort and warmth to the few residents left, those who resolutely refused to leave the ravage that they still deemed home. And to call it home would seem a stretch to anyone else. What had once been a small yet thriving town was now nothing short of a ruin. The residents made do as best they could, many had dug almost liveable accommodation from the wreckage, removing the majority of the rubble from the buildings that were the most structurally sound and patching up the remnants of the thatch and wood roofs as best they could. Jovial laughter and coarse jokes could be heard emanating from the fireside, a sense of normalcy in a broken town. The people of this town were simple folk, they respected their homeland, living in relative harmony with the flora and fauna and wild cackling oddities that made up the creatures of the land. Others joked that these were backwards people; that they belonged in trees and burrows and not the homes of good honest folk. Darker tales alluded to violence and bloodshed, telling tales that the people of this town had taken the buildings by force from more civilised folk, but those tales of murder and cannibalism didn’t seem to sit well on their soft faces and gentle eyes. The laughter and homely calm was a stark contrast to the day of the incident. That day those great beasts had ripped down homes like they were nothing, uprooting the people of this town like trees ripped from the soil. Screams had clung to the air like a thick cloak of misery, choking down on the people as they tried to flee. That day the world turned red. Those who had tried to run were engulfed in despair that was as white hot as the flames, dropping to their knees at the massacre before them. Their eyes hurt, breath rasping in their throats as they watched the town melt before them, buildings burning with an intensity they had never seen. The flames were rage itself, as if emitted from a vengeful god whose hatred knew no remorse nor boundary. After the chaos passed ash rained from the sky, settling like blackened snow on the charred bodies of the townsfolk. Those who had run now returned, wordlessly clearing and burying the unidentifiable bodies of their loved ones, each face an unreadable mask as they set about their work. The tears had come later.