The depths of the night were lit up brilliantly with dancing flames. The smell of burning meat and wood mingled in the air, washing over the few individuals left to notice it. Upon a small hill, a dark robed figure sat upon a smokey horse, a black fog rolling across the ground around the mount. Baleful green eyes were focused upon the source of the flickering, ruddy light, and a dark chuckle of satisfaction emanated from the being. His head swung to his right, and he looked at a small, frail man who was currently wrapped in the fog, and trembling violently.

“So, you say that the entire village has been put to the sword now?” The voice that came from the dark rider was soft, but somehow off, wrong, like there was an unnatural resonance within it that grated upon the ears. The man that the being was addressing nodded violently.

“Ye-yes my lord. The only survivors are a handful of women and children, as with the other villages. We let them go per your orders.” The dark figure nodded and gestured dismissively.

“Go then. Tell the others that we will wait here. I have a suspicion that we will finally face an opposing force soon - we have been devastating this country long enough to draw the attention of someone.” The trembling man nodded and fled, escaping from the eldritch fog that flowed from the mount. The figure astride it let out another low chuckle and tightened its grip on the reins of its horse. “Let them come. They have no idea what they face.” The green gaze sewing back and the figure went still and silent, as he watched the village in the valley burn.

----------

“Undying Ones. You, and a small detachment of the zombies that we recruited here will be serving as an ambush force.” I could barely hear the Necromancer who was speaking over the crackling of the flames around us.

Three weeks ago I had felt an odd calling, a pull to the south, and I had followed it out of curiosity more than anything else. I could have shrugged the pull off, but I had been interested to find who or what might be able to create a draw that affected me. My curiosity had led me to a burgeoning army of undead entities - led by a figure that had sent a bolt of surprise down my spine. The thing at the head of the army was powerful, far more so than I was at the moment.

I, and others like me - people who danced back and forth across the divide of the living and the dead - had been ‘conscripted’ into the Lich’s army. I could see the others trying to fight it sometimes, but they all seemed enslaved to his will. I think it was only the fact that I wasn't an Undead in the same manner that they were that kept me from being swallowed up whole like they had been. So rather than draw attention to myself, I had gone along, putting up a charade that I had been enthralled like the others.

And we had been used like this for two full weeks now. The Lich was still building his army it seemed, and had been quietly razing the countryside to bolster his forces. He had a cadre of powerful undead monstrosities serving him already, these attacks were meant to sow terror amongst the populace, and to give him more skeletons and zombies to serve as cannon fodder.

I watched as two dozen zombies shuffled forward from the throng behind the Necromancers, and joined the two squads of the Undying that were here in the village. This was the first time that I knew of that we were leaving an ambushing force behind - did the Lich think we were finally going to be confronted? I tightened my grip on the straps of my shield, obscured from sight. It had taken great deal of self control not to strike out at the beings around me as we razed village after village - I didn't know if I'd be able to resist if someone came to help and we were meant to attack them as well.

“You will pretend to be dead. Bait as many in as you can before attacking. You will be left here for several days in case of pursuers. The zombies will be cued to you - if you attack, they will rise to do the same. Of you leave, they will follow.” The other Undying with me nodded, and I did as well - I had to be careful not to stand out. Not yet. Not until I had gotten close enough to do something about the abomination that led this army.


The village that we were now setting up in - well, that most of us were lying down in, or making it seem like we were dead in - had been the fourth or fifth that we had attacked. The south and east sides were surrounded by low, rolling hills that stretched for a few miles. To our north, lay a small stream that ran through a dense patch of woods and then down into the village. West, was farmland, though the crops there had recently been watered with blood. A large part of the Undying squads that had been assigned to the ruse were actually laying out in that farmland, amongst the crops - it would be harder to see that they were still alive if it was harder to see them in the first place. Only a few of us were actually within the village - the ones who could pretend to have grievous wounds, and the shuffling dead.

I myself was in a ruined house, a charred structure that was half-caved in. The fire still burned as the night grew deeper, edging towards the hours before dawn. I sat against a wall, sword and shield laying near my fingers. Part of a table leg had been stabbed through my shoulder, ‘pinning’ me to the wall I was slumped against. I could get free, but for now it would hopefully help sell the illusion of a fallen defender. I closed my eyes, and waited.