Another thing that came to me, as I looked at the endless miles of grass before me, was the lack of trees. I liked trees.
Something else that began to stand out to me was the towering column of black smoke rising up from the prairie in the distance. I was reasonably sure that it wasn't a grass fire, as it seemed too localized. Although as dry as the grass was it might turn into one.
That possibility suggested I go around the smoke in order to avoid being caught and taken down by a fast-moving prairie fire. Despite that sound logic, I found myself still headed for the columns of black smoke on the horizon before me.
A sense of danger and a thirst for adventure spurred me on. I couldn't help but think that I was a fool though. Fool or not, I wanted to see the cause of the smoke and meet my future head on.
An hour later I spurred the old mare up another rise in the terrain close to where the smoke originated. I was getting close now and I could tell that the smoke was coming from several fires and not just one.
I rode on and as I cleared the last rise that barred my view I came to an abrupt halt. The source of the fires were wagons. The kind of wagons that farmers used to convey their goods to market.
There were 10 or more of about 30 wagons set ablaze upon the prairie and it was as I had feared. Small prairie fires were starting up around the blazing wagons.
The instinct to leave was strong, but the bodies lying about on the plain called out to me. I pulled my sword free of its saddle scabbard and held it down along the side of my mount as I slowly eased the mare towards the scene of carnage openly spilled out onto the grass of the prairie.
The wagon train looked to have been caught in an ambush of some kind. That was mildly surprising, as how did one ambush in such an open country as this?
I drew closer until I was alongside one of the burning wagons. The smoke burned my eyes and shortened my breath, but I ignored both as I was too taken in by the horror of what lay around me.
Men, women, and children of all ages lay strewn about in the grass. They all bore the marks of having been viciously mauled. What beast could be responsible for such a scene of chaos as this?
Many of the dead lay with eyes still open, staring at the sky with such a look of horror on their faces that it must surely have been the imprint of the fear they had been made to feel in their last moments of life. What animal possessed the ability of invoking such horror as this?