The day arrived. It was finally time to begin the search that everyone in the village had been dreading.

Everyone did not trust the eleshards then, and everyone resented them at that moment, but we couldn't deny the conditions we faced. We were cornered between stragglers and the barren lands. The lands we prided ourselves on before the shattering, dedicated to crops produced by our own hands.

But not even our strongest could grow crops from ground drained of life. Our only option was to ration what we had until we found a group to join, banding together to steal resources from others, like rats fighting for scraps. Or search the mountains for the few eleshards left in them, and survive as a family.

The decision was final. A team of three volunteers were to explore the mountains and search for any eleshards that could still exist out there. I took the first chance to join. My father wanted to protest, but if my reassurance that it was my choice to take the risks didn't make it final, then the dry heaves of his coughs would. They reminded me of his state and the urgency of our situation, where both residents and refugees suffered.

My father should be the proud leader of our group of survivors, but here, everyone was hesitant to volunteer; they witnessed a strong man become a weak elder.

If he was not sick, he would lead us to safety.

If the horses he cared for had not gone lame in these stressful times.

If the search had not come at such a desperate time for our village

If the ground our people had cared for, gave us plentiful crops and never gone hollow

If all that were true, I would be at my father's side instead of laying the lives of the innocent on the line... to the lives of who Jacob had said to the village, "a possible preserved few".

Jacob, a cartographer, volunteered as we expected. He was the one who pitched the search at the start. None questioned why he was second, or why his body buckled from the thought of leaving the sanctuary of our withering village. Everyone knew his character in such times, ever since the moment he claimed his career as a caravan cartographer. Even if making claims are cruel for the sake of pushing aggression and relieving grief, we all have strengths and faults. I only wished people took his faults as his only acceptable strengths. If David did not volunteer and join us last, I would have worried the village would be ripped apart from within by its own people, and not withered remains of the ground.

Once we had departed, I knew the lives of everyone in the village were in our hands. While Jacob tried to comfort me, trying to reassure me of our search and the chances of our success. David could only focus on the road. The trees nearby, in their bundled formation, made his emotions leak from his war-stricken face, and revealed his distaste for the unknown.

I always wondered about David's career in combat, ever since he entered our village seeking refuge months earlier. Everyone figured, given his looks and the experience he wore, that the finale of the grim tale plaguing our home would be near before a soldier of experience would chose to rest his sword and lie with refugees. We thought he would rather fight for king or company, rather than stare at the trees in diluted fear. I shuddered to think what could be in the forests that could make a soldier leave the battlefield and his brothers in arms.

We had been taking caution for two days when Jacob said the mountains would be upon us. As he began his observation attempting to recount the caravan maps he made in his life, my eyes drifted to a castle far from the road... Or. more accurately, the decayed, broken shell of a castle that stared at me like a grim reminder of all those who help hope, and lost. When the shattering happened, people in the village expected royals, nobles and the sheltered who lived in castles and cities to suffer the most, being most dependent on the eleshards for their day-to-day life. I respected my elder's belief in reliance of a person's own strength, and their disgust of the growing obsession of eleshards, as such I never realized how cruel we treated those in the cities, and how we were in no condition to mock or gloat the consequences, but looking at the hollow castle, it felt as if I was staring at a hanged corpse, one too similar in build to myself. I felt its cold eyes staring into my own, pleading for me, for anyone to avoid its fate and not join its suffering, in our dark times.

We were Deep in the mountains at nightfall. We stared off at the mountain valley where our hopes rested. Jacob spoke of his curiosity about the extent of what could still lurk out there, given the chance for food and hunting game seemed gone. That was when we heard clear conviction in David's mouth.

"Crows. Crows are what lurk out there in the dark now."

To say that Jacob and I were stunned would be an understatement. We had never heard him speak of his career as a soldier before becoming a recluse refugee within our village. Never knowing if he served for king or profit.

The scratched helmet and tattered cloth hanging on his armor made his life an unintentional mystery, that everyone always wanted to know but were too afraid to answer.

Now, after everything, we were finally able to hear of a mysterious pack known as "The crows". From what David was able to recall, they were human-like creatures that lurked around the dark of the forests shortly after the shattering. They were pitch-black creatures with sharp. claw-like hands, looked as if they were constantly ready to slash out a person's throat when given the chance. Their lower half was more humans, as far as David could recall, with thick heavy boots that kept it sturdy and intimidating. Despite that, their bodies were thin by comparison, like they were drained themselves, and if it was not for the black cloth that easily covered their whole body, there would be nothing left to hide the bones in their thin frame.

When we wanted to know about its face, that's when I knew that was what made David rest his sword. His eyes shifted in an instant, accompanied by the small twitch in his hand and arm, as if he was ready to strike against a foe already in reach. He struggled to give proper, complete words to describe the face's shape, and it left me more cautious than when we had left the village. I had a dark feeling we were being tested, and what we would face would determine if our village lived to see another day, or rot and decay like many others during the shattering.

We had set up camp shortly after, feeling it was the safest spot in the mountains, We made shifts to keep watch so there was always someone to warn the others. By the time it was my turn, sounds could be heard from nearby. I called the others to join in the search, and by the time we reached the source of the sounds, we saw them. The crows, three of them, and Jacob, David and I saw the face of nightmares. It was like warped leather stretched into a grim visage, strange lumps protruding from where its jaw resided, fog-like breath expelled from them as the creature breathed in almost painful heaves, like a beast muzzled keeping its entire mouth shut against its own wish and feasting only any pray with sharp fangs hidden within its own face. I hoped that this was not the beast that a soldier fears, and that we instead bear witness to deranged survivalist who put faith and God in their methods of survival. Looking at David, though, I saw a man trying to regain the strength in his hands so he could be ready to kill in a vain attempt to prevent his death at the hands of monsters.

We were all hesitant, unsure if attacking was the best choice or to return to our camp and pray they would never reach us, then I saw one of the creatures pull from its back a glass-like cylinder device. Crude in shape yet still constructed, it pierced the ground, and what looked like pure energy filled the glass to the brim like liquid in a cup. My eyes widened, staring at the land that was pierced and became gray... the land we had been watching for so long, dying before me. I knew then the search was truly desperate from the start, desperate for a chance to survive, desperate for hope. desperate for anything.

We readied our swords, ready to fight, but before we could plan our attack, David Charged. Screaming, "I refuse to die in fear !" As the fight for our lives had begun, we clashed steel to steel, surprised by the way they confidently help weapons in their claws. There was intelligence in the monsters that people feared even before the shattering, and every second was a struggle. One mistake could mean death, and we pushed for survival.

Then, Jacob bled. His throat was slit in a quick slash from a fine dagger by the beast he challenged, and then, death was upon us, and so was rage. David charged in retaliation. He pushed his sword through the monster's middle, and he used the momentum to push the killer off of the mountain and towards the deep area below. I took this as an act of hope and I struck my own foe/ It's resilience was stronger than any soldier I had heard of , and made me consider whether it was trying to survive just like us, weakened and afraid. I could not think about it... it was me or him. And in truth, it was the beast or everyone else.

I slashed the creature in its chest and saw it stumble and fall to the ground before my own eyes. I had taken a life. I stared at the blood on my blade and saw red. My mind took over my body, and everything became silent. Then, I felt a stinging pain in my body.

Like us , the final crow took revenge over anything else. In my pained state, I saw the creature staring at me. Spitefully hatred flared in its black eyes, and I heard David yell as he charged at him, "Not again !"

Ge tackled him, ending the crow by taking both their lives at the bottom of the mountain.

My body flared in pain as the wound from my back was set deep. I feared despite all my effort and the sacrifices of Jacob and David, I would become lame. Then I saw the cylinder was still on the ground, pure energy flowing within, and hope entered my body one last time. I hoped it could be used to give the village a fighting chance and planned to bring it back. But before I could return, a bright light erupted near me, blinding me for a second. Once it ended, I gazed at tall knights in near-golden armor, glancing at the nearby land, and then at me and my stained blade. Before I could do anything, a new pain entered my body, and a knight with a metal weapon hissing with steam aimed at me. Once Again, I was near death.

I was only able to watch as the knights took the cylinder for themselves. It became more clear as pillars of light erupted from the sky, landing at the rest of the mountain's valleys. of how hopeless we truly are. My only regret was that others would suffer for this search. My village, my home, would not survive. They would be left to wonder what remained of our search group. Cruel be this new land in our desperate search for hope and survival against the dread of the shattering! All I could do was stare and gaze at the true end of us all.