Tales of Xiorma

It is a beautiful day in the village you have known all your life as Greifenfels. The rays of the sun are warming your skin and only a few clear white clouds dance across the sky. A faint mild draught is carrying aromatic scent of the nearby woods over, you close your eyes and breath in deeply to relish it. Suddenly you hear the calls of a hawk which is answers shortly after by call of another one. You wonder if hawks have something to do with the name of the village in the ancient tongue, but you are quickly torn out of those thoughts as someone is calling your name.

“Amirata, come on. Don’t just stand there daydreaming. We have to get those buckets of water to Jeremiah.” Says the female voice in a friendly tone.

You open your eyes again and look straight into Suzanna’s brown eyes. Her slightly long face is framed in some wisps of her pinned up auburn hair. Combined with her fair complexion and some freckles on her cheeks make her quite the attractive appearance.

She is standing only two metres in front of you, holding a wooden buckets with water in each hand. Her light green summer dress reaches to her knees and has a white inlay across her upper torso. It hugs her thin body quite nicely. Her calves are covered in bisque colored socks and she is wearing a pair of brown leather shoes. She smiles at you and points with a thumb over her shoulder. “I bet he is already waiting for us. Maybe he has some of those sweet small cakes again. Those were so delicious.”

Leaning to your right, you take a look behind her further into the village. On the side of the gravel covered road are wooden huts and fences, some front yards with deep green grass and colourful flowers. Some small birds with yellow feathers at their wings are picking seeds out of a giant sunflower. A older man waves at you with an amiable smile and walks slowly down the street, a small white dog with some brown and black spots accompanies him.

Something feels odd, but you can’t quite make it out what.

Not bothered that much, you start following Suzanna down the street. You walk along further huts and some timber framed houses. A white goat greets you with a bleat while munching on a bunch of red flowers. “Hah, Miss Donaldson won’t be happy that Blot ate her marigold again.” Suzanna chuckles and the weight of the water buckets seems to be meaningless to her right now.

Suzanna is finally stopping at the door of Jeremiah’s timber framed house. It seems to be calsomined recently because the infill is bright white and almost dazzles you. A cold shiver runs down your back as Suzanna knocks on the dark wooden door. The knocks sounded more like breaking twigs - that doesn’t make any sense. Then you listen to a crackling voice from a supposedly older man. “Is it you Suzanna and Amirata? Please come in.” The door opens as you both enter the house and empty the buckets into a cask. It’s quite dim in the room, as the shutters are closed and so the door is suddenly too. You can’t remember closing it, but you don’t really bother. In the middle of the wall on the further end of the room, a small fire sparkles in a stone fireplace. As it is brisk in this room, you instinctively go closer to the fire as it warms up your front slightly. Why is it so chilly in here?

Something feels very odd.