Darksiders

Its early morning on the dark side of the planet Stasis and the creatures stir from their sleep. A herd of apox is already grazing in a field while the alpha male stands on a rock overlooking the herd, watching out for danger that might be lurking in the forest not far from them. There’s a slight breeze and the leaves rustle in the trees the alpha apox lifts his tail and stiffens his neck moving his ears towards the forest. The breeze fades away and the leaves become silent, the alpha apox relaxes and returns to watching the herd. The herd continues to graze and after a few minutes they start to move on, the alpha apox leaves his rock as another breeze appears rustling the leaves again. As the breeze fades away there is a thud the herd looks in the direction of the sound and sees the alpha apox lying at the base of the rock with an arrow in it. Just as the herd starts to run as they realize they are in danger two bright lights shoot through the air followed by blasting sounds ringing out and another apox drops dead in the field. The herd takes off running in the opposite direction of the shots. As the herd enters the forest on the other side of the field four men exit the forest and head towards the two fallen apoxen. The first man is the shortest and youngest of them and carried a rifle and several knives attached to his a belt, his black hair is short and spiked upward towards to form a mohawk. The next man is slightly taller and older with a bow and a quiver of arrows on his back; he removes the hood of his cloak to reveal dark brown hair that touches his shoulders. The third man is relatively the same height and carries a rifle as the first man does but has a handgun on his side instead of knives. The last man is much taller than the rest and more muscular with his hair shaved off his head and a thick black beard, carrying an ax in his hand. “Took you long enough to take that shot Henry.” Said the first man as he examined the alpha apox grabbing it by the antlers looking at its eyeless face only grey fur, nostrils, a mouth, and ears that are located behind the antlers as he finished examining it he moves on the next apox. Henry retrieves his arrow from the dead apox and places it in his quiver then looks at the first man through squinted eyes. “You’re one to talk at least I hit my target Rodney.” Henry says with a raspy voice as he moves the body away from the rock and next to the other apox. The others laugh at the remark while Rodney becomes red in the face with anger. He was about to start gutting them when stopped by the large man. “Wait. Allow me to say a prayer.” Said the large man to Rodney who rolled his eyes as he stood up and backed away from the bodies of the apox. He bent his head down and clasped his hands together whispering a small prayer that none of them could clearly hear. When he finished Rodney sighed and shook his head as he went back to what he was doing before being stopped by the large man. The process of skinning and gutting the apox took several minutes to complete. The others had made a fire and were cooking breakfast while they waited for him to finish. Once Rodney had finished storing the skin, antlers, and meat of the apox he joined his fellow companions just in time to have a hot breakfast. “Jorge, why is it that every time that we kill something you always have to say your little prayer?” asked Rodney. Jorge looked across the fire with a spoon full of soup that he was blowing on. He didn’t answer right away instead he continued to eat his soup. Finally he responded to Rodney’s question. “Because no one else will pray for them that is why I pray when something has lost its life.” His voice was deep and clam. Rodney accepted his answer with a nod of his head and an ok. Not long after they finished their breakfast and cleared out the area of any sign that they had been there. They grabbed their gear and started to head off in the direction that they had come from earlier in the morning. The dual moons were shining bright but did not make it very bright in the forest or the open field, the stars could be seen as clear as the moons were. The birds are awake and singing their songs aloud giving the dark forest a brighten tone to it. The group was on a trail now that was worn down from constant use of animals and other people that traveled through the forest. They walk the trail for a few miles before they came to another trail that was wide enough for a vehicle to travel on it. They headed left on the larger trail no longer in a single line but taking up the entire trail. They stayed on the trail for several miles before they came to a cross road with a sign pointing to the right that was labeled Tracton. “Are we there yet?” whined Rodney. The others looked at him with annoyed faces. “Are you kidding me? Are you a child Rodney? We’ve walked this path a thousand times and still you whine about it. Grow up before I beat you to death.” Said Henry sounding fairly annoyed with the questioned Rodney had asked. Rodney looks at Henry with a serious face and says. “I dare you.” Henry curls his fingers into a fist as Jorge steps between them shaking his head. Henry shot a look at him put relaxed and started to head towards Tracton while Rodney shot his tongue out at him. Jorge sighed and started to follow Henry down the trail, Rodney look over at the other man who had his arms crossed chuckling in with his head down. He looked up at Rodney and extended his arm forward for him to start walking down the tail after the others that had a fairly good head start on them. Henry was way ahead of the group for some time before Jorge urged the other man to go talk to him. He sped up his pace to catch up with Henry. He glanced back to see the other man catching him slowed down a little bit. “I’m fine Wallace I wasn’t actually going to hit him. It would be a waste of energy to do that. I was just reminded him of how childish I think that he is that’s all.” “If you say so Henry just checking for the big guy back there that’s all.” Wallace said. “Figure he’d be concerned about us. So what do you think we will get for the skins and meat that we got off the two apoxen?” asked Henry. “We’ll find out when we get to Tracton now won’t we. So you calm enough to be in the same area as Rodney again or what?” Wallace asked him. Henry nodded and they stopped and waited for Jorge and Rodney to catch up to them. Once they caught up to them Henry walked on the other side of Jorge away from Rodney to keep himself from arguing with Rodney. They stayed separate for the remainder of the trip to Tracton to avoid any kind of argument. It had started to snow lightly by the time they had gotten to the outskirts of Tracton. Tracton was a small town in the middle of the forest with one road in and out of it. There were only eight or nine buildings found in it and two little shack-like structures on both sides of the road that were for the guards that stood guard at all times. The largest building was found in the middle of town which was the inn and next to it was the saloon, across the road was the general store. The other buildings were either homes or other business in the town. As they approached the town and were met by both of the guards who recognized all of them and allowed them to pass without question. They headed to the general store to sell their pelts of the Apoxen they had taken down earlier that day. As they entered the store they were greeted by the owner who was an old man that wore a tucked in plaid shirt with jeans and had a pair of glasses on his head.