The Hall of Heroes

1. - Something happened up in the mountains

The morning was misty at the foothills of the high southern mountains at the very edge of the land called Baronies. A thick layer of smooth milky white was covering the bottoms of the valleys, and dispersing puffs of gray rose from the forests on the foothills. And as the veil of clouds covering the sky started to melt, the first rays of the morning sun cut through and painted the whole hilly landscape in warm orange.

Set against the hillside in one of the valleys, there was a cluster of farms and family houses, catching the tint of the first  Sun rays. This cluster was called the village of Jalka. As customary for village life though, many of the village folk were already up and about in the fields, toiling over their farmland and cattle as if to make up for the time they had lost during the night.

But the morning rays also lit up the sorry sight that was lumbering its way towards the edge of the village.

Drawn by two mournful young men, a broken up cart that was barely holding in one piece was creaking its way along the eastern road towards the village. It had obviously been cracked up and crushed and put back together haphazardly just to be able to creak along some distance. A large brown blanket was thrown over it to cover its contents.

As this procession slowly made its way among the fields, it was drawing the attention of more and more farmers, so when it entered the actual village there was already a congregation of about ten men and women milling about it.

"What happened?"

"That's Lojza's cart, isn't it?"

"Wasn't he on his way through the mountains?"

"Where is he?"

The voices sounded from within the small crowd.

When the cart reached the 'square,' which was no more than a crossing of the three main roads that converged in the village, the men pulling it stopped, arched their backs and leaned forward to catch their breath. One of them then came to a wooden pillar on the side of the road and pulled a rope that was dangling from it, making the large bell mounted on top start ringing.

"Honza, what happened?" a robust-looking man in his late thirties with an overhanging belly and a somewhat drunken-looking face came out of the tavern door and addressed one of the men. He was wearing a brown leather apron and smelled of boiled hops.

One of the men who pulled the cart turned to him. "Just let me catch my breath, Alois."

The robust man Alois, dissatisfied with the response he got, came up to the cart. By this time, the ringing of the bell had lured out almost all inhabitants of the village. Even old Jarka, the almost permanent customer of the herbalist shop, came out of the shop door to take a look, followed by the pretty young shopkeeper Tereza. And so it was that almost the whole village was there to witness the impatient Alois pulling the heavy cloth off of the cart. Hearing the gasps of shocked neighbors behind him, Alois narrowed his eyes and leaned forward to take a closer look at what he had uncovered. His short eyesight made him the only one not able to recognize what the strange red blots on the cart actually were.

The foul stench of death hit his nose and he finally made out the shape of a battered, mangled corpse lying in the cart. Still hearing the sobs and gasps of the people behind him, he realized what he'd done and put the cloth back.

"We were sent by the mayor," said Honza, who had just managed to catch his breath. "Because old Lojza had not shown up at the time he was due, the mayor was wondering what had happened to him. With, you know, all that's been going on."

Alois knew, as well as everybody else around, what he was talking about. A nearby farm higher in the hills to the south, closer to the high mountains, was attacked recently. Nobody survived to tell what had happened and when the wreck of the house was finally discovered, those who were there could not even be sure if it was an attack at all, because it seemed more like several large boulders just dislodged from the rock faces above and ran over the farm, leaving nothing standing.

"We found the cart half of the way up the mountains. It was like you see it, lying on its side at the side of the road. And old Lojza was there, just lying close to the road." he pointed at the corpse in the cart.

"And the cargo?" A shorter, bearded man came walking in through the crowd and snapped sternly at Honza.

"Well, most of it was gone. There were still some boxes of vegetables lying about and some of the barrels that were damaged and leaking were still there, but they were almost empty." the youth replied.

"They bring you the corpse of old Lojza and the first thing you care about is his goods? What kind of a man are you, Karel?" Alois sifted through his teeth.

The shortish man Karel gave Alois a serious look. There were several men by Alois's side, all of them tavern regulars. Karel sighed and went over to the cart. The bloodied hand of Lojza was still hanging out from beneath the cloth. 

"I just wanted to know if it looked like they were after his goods." Karel replied. "That would tell us more about who'd done it."

"So, what are you gonna do about all of this, Mr. Mayor?" Alois asked.

"Yeah. How do you ensure this doesn't happen to all of us, eh?" one of the tavern regulars flanking Alois added.

Everybody around gasped. Tereza, the herbalist, felt a pull at her dress and looking down, she saw a little child clenching her skirt. It was Janek, the carpenter's little son. She put her hand on his head, trying to calm him down.

Karel turned to the men. "Guys, I know we have a problem." he said. "But rash actions might only make matters worse. We still don't really know what we are dealing with. I consulted the wise woman about it all and she said we still don't know enough."

"The wise woman, huh?" Alois remarked. "And what would she have us do?"

"Just stay calm, you hothead!" a rough old voice sounded from behind Karel. An old woman in colorful woven robes with wildly tousled hair came up and, not even looking underneath the cloth, she stood in front of the cart and turned to the people gathered around. 

"We've had enough tragedy for today, people! There is nothing we can do to help poor Lojza and what happened to him happened high in the mountains, so we are not in danger down here. So just stay calm, everybody. We have no reason to fear right now and we are working on a solution."

It would seem that the old woman had enough stature with the villagers to make them stop demanding answers. Even the group of tavern regulars led by Alois started dispersing, just mumbling inaudibly among themselves.

"Honza, Fanda, come help us with the cart. We need to get it to Standa's carpentry." the mayor shouted at the two youths who had brought the cart from the mountains.

"To measure him for his coffin!" a voice mumbled out of the crowd, but no one paid it any mind.