Maximus slowly drifts away from his state of sleep because of some distant weird noises he's hearing for some time already. He slowly opens his eyes and sighs calmly.
"You need to sleep Maximus, you have to finish the work on the field tomorrow." His whisper is low and lazy as he speaks with himself, he needs to sleep because of tomorrow's work, because he and his dad didn't finished the work yesterday.
Maximus closes his eyes and try to sleep again but those distant weird noises don't stop, they are continuous and they seem to slowly get closer somehow, they are similar to human voices, like screams, but not exactly, it's weird. He opens his eyes again and buff some air in annoyance, he angrily leaves the bed and open the window from his room and he looks outside, trying to get the source of the weird noises, however, as he looks outside he can see nothing, everything's like usual, but the noise doesn't stops, and it gets closer every time he spends attention on it.
He thinks about closing the window and going to sleep again but before he can do that, a loud war horn sound can be heard. Maximus gets more confused than scared, because he doesn't knows the meaning of this, he's never heard such a sound before in his entire life, and that both scares and confuses him. He quickly closes the window and leaves his room going to the main room of the house, there he finds his dad and mom, his dad with a sword in hand.
"D-Dad?" his voice is confused, he thought he was the only one awake at the moment, but probably the horn awoke the entire city up, and why does his father have a sword? Peasants aren't allowed to have them "You have a swor-"
"No time to explain." John says "We have to leave as quick as we can, wake your brother up, now!" his voice getting more urgent.
"O-Okay." said Maximus a little hesitant, he's still confused, but he obeys his father. He quickly runs to Joseph's room and wakes him up.
"Bro?" said Joseph sleepily.
"We need to leave, now." Maximus said with urgency, his fear and confusion getting slowly more evident because of his shaking voice.
Joseph gets scared of his brother's words and tone of voice, he's never heard Maximus talk like that before, so he nods quickly and follows his lead. Maximus get back to the main room with his brother and John quickly opens the door.
"Follow me, don't look back, for nothing." His voice is even more urgent but still confident.
Maximus, his brother and mother Ana nod and they follow John. While following John, Maximus look at the other side of the village, the side his room don't get the view and for the first time in his life, he froze.
He saw half of the village burning in high flame, loads and loads of men in horses, with spears, bows, staffs and swords, killing and invading houses with brutal efficience. He saw more and more people getting killed, women and men, old and young.
Maximus couldn't see Beatrice or Nathan, but just the thought of what could he happening with them, especially Beatrice, made him want to vomit. John punched Maximus' face and shaked him by the shoulders.
"Stand firm! We need to go!" said John, slightly more desperate than urgent this time.
Maximus quickly nod while swallowing hard, his hands and pupils shaking in a fear he has never known before. They resume their run.
They are going towards the back gate of the village, because the main one, was already occupied, however, that was just for now, because the back gate just has opened. Just like that, after all, all the knights were on the other side of the village, so this one, got really easy to invade. You could say that was a dumb strategy, after all, placing all of your knights in just one place is stupid, and that's right, however, this village is not used with wars, that was the first time in decades such a thing happened, no one was prepared, no one is.
John when noticed that simply stopped to walk, because of that, all of the family stopped together with him, but unlike him, in confusion, not in fear.
"Dad?" said Maximus confused and still shakingly.
However, his confusion would be relieved, unlike his fear, because the same war horn sound he heard from the main gate, he hears now again, but from the back gate. He looks at it and sees the a legion of men in horses coming from that gate, their armors, weapons and spells the same as of the people from the main gate. Seeing that, Maximus can feel every hair of his body going up, but unlike his father, he doesn't freezes this time, because he knows he have to act, if he doesn't, everyone is dead.
"C'mon! Let's try to esc-" Maximus in interrupted as an arrow coming from far away hits right into his father's back, doing him to fall on the grass.
"DAD!" Maximus scream in confusion and agony, that was way too sudden, where did that came from? How did they see them on the darkness of the night? Who was the bastard that shot that arrow? There is no one nearby, all the legions are slightly far, how can someone be so great on it?
"Get my sword, defend your mom and brother… don't look behind, for the Goddess' sake!" said John with a determined glance on his face, even as he shakes because of the pain.
Maximus look at his father in extreme agony and sadness, maybe even bigger than his fear, but can't deny the truth on his words, and can't disobey his father. He quickly gets the sword from his hand and looks at his brother and mother.
"We must run!" He says with determination even as his hands shake, he tries to hide his extreme fear, sadness and agony, but its impossible.
They start to run, but to where? There is no where to go, and Maximus knows that, and that's why he's so scared, he doesn't know what to do, he knows there is no escape, there is nowhere to run, but maybe they could try to hide. He goes towards a hidden spot he'd usually play hide-and-seek with his friends when younger, the same friends who are all probably dead now. It is a kind of cave, but smaller, making it harder to find.
He helps both his mother and brother to enter it, however, there is a problem… he doesn't fit there, the little cave just supports his mother and brother. On the instant he notices that, he knows he has just one option, run and die, allowing his family to live, after all, he can't sacrifice his mother or brother for his own sake.
Maximus sighs deeply and look at his mother, Ana can already understand what's happening by the look he's giving her, and she starts to cry, all the pent up sadness she had since the start of the invasion, coming into vision just now as she cries. Joseph gets confused, but Maximus looks at him and say
"Listen, you must protect mom okay? Brother will be right back" his voice is low, sad, shaking and weak.
He slowly leaves them alone walking to the opposite direction, so if the invasors find him they won't find his family as a bonus.
Maximus is crushed by fear.