Andal peered from behind the tree at the house on the cliff. Nobody was outside, so he scurried to a window and knocked on the shutters. A boy just slightly older than Andal pushed them open. "Hello Lars! Is your dad sober?"


    "Yes he is, and my mom just went to your house to talk to your mom. Hold on, I''ll ask him."


    Lars closed the shutters and disappeared inside. Andal waited quietly, thinking Lars would be right back. A minute later though, he was still waiting. At least it was a nice day out.


    They lived on the coast, the cliff Lars''s house was on was at the edge of the water, so Andal was accompanied by the crashing of waves and the low roar of the ocean. though, normally there would be dozens of seagulls in the skies. Today they were empty, and silent. There was a mist rolling in from the sea, and the day was overcast, so he thought that perhaps the seagulls knew it was going to rain somehow.


    Lars opened the front door and ran out, hurrying back to close it, then out to Andal again. "Sorry, he made me knock the mud off his boots! He said we could play though."


    "Yay! What are we doing?"


    Lars grabbed Andal''s arm and pulled him as they started running, "Let''s climb king willow! You haven''t climbed him yet, right?"


    "No, have you?" He asked in disbelief.


    "Last week!" Lars said proudly.


    Andal was shocked, "The whole thing?"


    "Yea the whole thing! Today we''re both gonna climb it!"


    Andal was silent as they stutter-stepped down a hill. He stopped running, "What if we climbed the oak by the butcher''s instead?"


    Lars stopped too, "Why would you want to climb that one? It''s smaller."


    Andal shifted his feet, "I know."


    Lars walks back and tugs on Andal''s arm, "Don''t be scared, it''s just another tree. There''s lots of footholds." Andal was hesitant. "And I''ll be right next to you anyway, so let''s go!"


    Andal let Lars start pulling him, "Okay, King Willow then. But, isn''t there a Haverdash house right next to it?"


    Lars tried to hide a smile, "Andal! No being afraid!"


    Andal didn''t know why Lars would smile about that, but it made him uncomfortable. Andal knew very little about the Haverdash, but they were sternly warned to stay away from Haverdash buildings. The Haverdash were offered land across the sea by the king four generations ago, and he pressured them to go claim it.


    They''d lived there by the coast ,and once they left others moved into their homes. They were a passionate and religious people, who the king kept isolated from the rest of the kingdom out of concern.


    Andal and Lars climbed to the base of King Willow, which was on a tall hill. On the other side of the hill was an old Haverdash house that hadn''t been touched since the Haverdash first left.


    Lars pointed at a spot on the tree, "Put your foot there and jump up to that branch first. You see that knot? Put your foot there, pull yourself up onto the branch. Now let me catch up, I can''t see it that well from down here." They gradually climbed King Willow. Lars had to figure out how to do it again, but then he showed Andal and they both made it to the top.


    Lars sat at the point two branches split and threw his arms up, "You did it!" He leaned over as best he could to hug Andal while maintaining his balance. "Biggest tree around! Now there''s nothing you can''t do!"


    Andal tried to stand and look at their surroundings, "Look, there are the docks, and there''s your house!"


    "Really? We can see my house?" Lars stood up too, "That''s not my house, my house would be on the farther cliff. The mist is covering it now."


    "Oh yea." Something caught Andal''s eyes in the mist, "Hey, I think some ships are coming in."


    Lars climbed to the other side of the tree, "Guess they got unlucky with the weather. Hopefully they don''t hit the dock."


    Andal looked back at him. "Why are you looking at the Haverdash house?"


    "It''s just interesting, aren''t you curious about what''s inside?"


    "We''re not allowed to go inside, Lars!"


    "Why not?" He waves his arms to gesture to the whole thing, "Look at it, it looks just like your house! You live in an old Haverdash house!"


    "It''s different! Granpappy said they redid everything when they came here!"


    "So, if we want to know what it used to be like, we need to look in that one."


    Andal glared at Lars, "You''re going to get in big trouble."


    "Come on, Andal, you''re being scared again."


    "No I am not!"


    "Yes you are! You think trying new things is scary, but they always end up okay." Lars dropped down to a lower branch, "Come on, that window is busted open, let''s check it out."


    "Lars!" Andal yelled back, upset. He started climbing down after Lars, carefully. When he reached the bottom of the tree Lars had already slipped through the window, so Andal ran over to it, "Lars, we shouldn''t do this!"


    Lars came back to the window, "You don''t want to see what''s inside?"


    "We''re not supposed to!"


    "We''ll be fine. Step away from the window, I''m going to break it more. It''s so dirty that light isn’t getting in."


    Andal stepped away, and Lars hit the window with a candlestick, breaking odd large pieces of it. "Climb inside, but be careful about the glass."


    Andal leaned in the window and pulled himself through. The house was dimly lit by the light from the broken window and a faint glow from two others that were too dirty to see clearly through. Metal cylinders large enough to hold a person, racks with bottles on them, and shelves of books lined the walls.


    Lars pointed to something lying on a carpet with red blotches on it, “Watch your step, Andal.” It was a kind of whip with metal crescents hooked to it at various points, some that were pointing up.


    Andal found his way over to Lars and stayed close. “Come on Lars, you’re scared too, just a little, right?”


    “Nope, not scared at all.” Lars went over to a table with papers strewn over it, a quil sitting on one that was barely used. A bottle sat next to it with an incompletely sealed top and a hardened jelly running down the sides of it. He picked up a paper and tried to read it, “They don’t use the same letters as us! Look at this!”


    He held the paper up for Andal to read. Andal was looking at the ground to avoid sharp objects when he walked over, bumping Lars. Lars caught himself awkwardly to avoid touching the hardened jelly on the side of the bottle. “Hey, careful!” He held up the paper again.


    Andal looked at the letters on the page, “Yea, I can’t read that at all.” Lars shifted through the papers a bit more, and Andal added, “You were scared, just a moment ago.”This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    “What?” Lars asked indignantly. “Was not.”


    “When you almost touched that goo, you were scared! Just admit it, this place is scary.”


    Lars glared at Andal. “I wasn’t scared.”


    “Yes you were, and that’s okay. I sure don’t want to touch that stuff!”


    Lars looked at the bottle. He grabbed it and popped the top off, “Bet I wo-” Lars and Andal gagged and stumbled away from the smell of the drink as it sloshed around. “Bet I won’t drink it?”


    Andal held his nose and gaped at Lars, “No, don’t drink it!”


    “So I wasn’t scared?”


    Andal stamped his foot, “You were scared though!”


    Lars raised the bottle and took a drink.


    He began to shake. He went limp except for the spasming of his legs which sent him falling sideways, and he started to scream. There are screams of shock, of pain, and like Lars''s, of utter terror. His head hit the metal base of a glass cylinder when he landed. The bottle hit the floor and broke, splashing the liquid onto his clothes.


    It paused his screaming only for the briefest second. His body shook rapidly as it gradually transitioned to being curled up in a fetal position on his side. His eyes shook even more rapidly, but with controlled intentionality, like he was surrounded by the sources of his terror closing in on him.


    Andal watched in horror, frozen in place. Lars never screamed, never cried, and had always been the strong one. He''d even been the strong one for adults that were scared; there was nobody Andal thought could handle more. Now, with tears streaming down Lars''s pale face, as he convulsed and hit his head repeatedly on the glass cylinder, Andal cried as well.


    He noticed blood coming from Lars''s head. He was hurting himself more by being next to the wall as he convulsed. Andal took a few quick breaths to psyche himself up, then stepped over and reached down to grab Lars''s leg and pull him away from the wall.


    He gagged from the smell, falling back as he let go of Lars. His left hand brushed Lars''s leg, touching the liquid that had splashed onto him. Andal yelled in pain, leaping back away from Lars. The liquid burned to the touch. He shook it off of his hand and wiped what remained on his clothes, then rolled over so that he could push himself up more easily, and found that he''d been inches away from landing on that spiked whip.


    Andal sat up and hugged his knees, "Please be a dream please be a dream…" Then the shadows of the room started to reach toward him, and he heard the hissing of a snake behind him.


    Andal jumped to his feet and backed away from the hissing, seeing a cobra curling up where the whip once was. As he backed up to the wall he heard in a whisper, "You''re mine."


    Andal spun and saw the face of a man manifesting out of shadow coming out of the wall. He yelled in shock and ran to the window they came in by, looking back at Lars. He was getting quieter as he lost his voice. As the air in the room began to smell foul to Andal, he yelled to Lars, "I''ll get help! I''ll get my dad!" Then he jumped through the window out of the house.


    He ran past King Willow as fast as he could, but whatever was happening in the house continued still. The branches of trees would lean over to try and snatch him off the road, they''d grow spines, and harsh whispers echoed among their leaves. The mist had fully rolled over the town, but he could make out the bow of one of the ships that had landed. When Andal had reached his house, his perception had almost returned to normal; shadows kept in their rightful places and he couldn''t hear any mysterious voices.


    He started yelling, "Dad! Daaad! We need help! Daaad!" He threw open the door to his house, looking about frantically, "Daaad!" He ran back outside, and saw his whole family not too far away talking to some stranger from the boats.


    His mom was looking toward him and waved him near, but then held her finger up to her mouth so that he''d be quiet. His dad was in front of her, with his hands on his older brother''s shoulders, and they stood behind his grandpa, who was face to face with the stranger. "Mom, Lars is in trouble!" She shushed him again. Looking back at the strange man.


    Andal actually looked at him then, wondering what could possibly be more important than what he was saying. His skin was gray, and slightly translucent so that you could see subdermal veins if you looked hard enough. His eyes were bloodshot, and the pupils were strongly dilated like it was dark out. When he spoke you could see his teeth, which were stained and chipped, and he had scars from cuts and stabs up his arms and around his neck in an organized pattern. Despite his disgusting qualities, he had excellent posture, a voice like silk, and a fit, athletic frame.


    His grandpa asked the man, “What do you mean by saying you’ve returned home? We have lived here four generations and never seen you before.”


    “And five generations ago?” The man asked.


    “Then it was the Haverdash.” His grandpa recalled. The man smiled, and Andal’s eyes went wide, “But the Haverdash were like us!”


    Something like a shadow slithered around Andal’s peripheral vision, and he shivered. “We were never like you,” the man responded, “We were always, Haverdash.”


    He reached into a satchel on his waist and pulled out a bottle, undoing the cap, and drinking. Andal gasped at the sight, and his family gagged at the smell. It was the same drink Lars had drunk. The man’s eyes constricted to normal levels, and he put the bottle back in his satchel.


    Andal’s grandpa asked, “So what is to become of us, now that you’ve returned? Will you force us out? Unsatisfied with the land the king gave you, you’ll take back this land?”


    “No, dear human. We’ve taken time to reflect on ourselves, our nature, and what is glorious. We’re going to conquer, overthrow the king, and subdue this continent. That starts with this village, where we will kill every one of you.”


    Andal''s father stepped between the man and his family, "You''d just land with your ships and attack us?"


    Andal''s grandpa asked, "If that''s your aim, why talk to us like this? You seem to be willing to discuss it, we can negotiate."


    He shook his head, "No, no negotiations." He started wandering among them. "I''m not the one who''s going to make the call to start the attack, but my ship landed first. I just wanted to see what the people were like who moved into our homes, before we began."


    He sniffed the air, then gave a hard look at Andal, "You smell like wine."


    Andal''s dad moved between them with his hand out to stop the man from stepping closer, "You''d better leave, right now!"


    The man ignored him, "And there''s a stain of wine on your clothes, where did you get it? Were you drinking it?"


    At that moment the sounds of screaming and yelling broke through the mist. The man grabbed a foot-long metal rod by his side, "Sounds like we''ve started." His eyes glided to Andal’s dad, then he rammed the metal rod through his forehead before anyone could react.


    The grandpa yelled to his family as he tackled the man from the side, "Run!"


    Andal''s mom grabbed him and his brother, pulling them as she ran. The Haverdash man drove the metal rod through grandpa''s head, then pushed him off and got to his feet. Andal''s mom brought them to their horse, "Roeber, take Andal and ride as far away as you can, don''t look back!"


    The Haverdash man caught up just as both boys had got on the horse. Their mother slapped it on the butt to get it going, then dove towards their attacker.


    Roeber held Andal firmly in front of him to stop Andal from looking back, but they still heard the sound of the rod piercing her skull.


    They rode out of town, but Andal remembered why he''d come back in the first place, "Roeber, go to King Willow!"


    "No, we need to go!"


    "Lars is there! He''s in pain; we have to save him too!"


    Roeber looked back at the town, seeing the Haverdash man watching them ride away. " He took a deep breath, "Fine, but we need to be fast!" He turned the horse left, heading toward King Willow.


    They rounded the hill and saw the Haverdash house, "He''s in there!" Andal slid off the horse and ran over to the window.


    Roeber looped the reins around a branch and followed him, "That Haverdash is after us! Hurry!"


    They climbed through the window, "He''s right there! Be careful when grabbing him though!" Roeber ran ahead and grabbed Lars, who was trying to weep, but no sound would come out. "Roeber, wait!" Roeber''s hand brushed a damp area in Lars''s clothes, and he fell back with a shout.


    "What… what is that?"


    "It''s some kind of poison, are you okay?"


    "Yea… yea I barely touched it. What''s happening?"


    Andal glanced outside the window to see if he could see the Haverdash. He couldn’t be seen around the hill King Willow was on, but he hadn’t been following that far behind them. "Roeber, the Haverdash is almost here!"


    Roeber jumped to his feet and grabbed Andal, lifting him through the window. "We have to go now!" Andal protested weakly, wanting to save Lars, but dreading the Haverdash man.


    Roeber lifted him onto the horse just as the Haverdash reached King Willow. Roeber jumped on as the Haverdash sprinted down at them. He told the horse to go, but after looking back, tossed the reins to Andal and jumped off.


    Andal looked back to see Roeber intercept the Haverdash who had been jumping through the air at them and tumble to the ground.


    Andal kept riding, not having any desire to cry anymore, but in total shock. He looked back after he''d ridden a quarter mile. Roeber was on the ground, motionless, and the Haverdash was looking through the window at Lars.


    Andal kept riding, thinking out loud, "This isn''t real, this can''t be real…"