Turning to Gregory, Chronos asked him, "You think there are more of these creatures out there?"
"Yes, this one at least was making a nest inside the village hall. Only creatures that are planning to reproduce do that so there should be more of them around." Gregory analyzed.
Chronos grimaced, he didn't want to think about a large number of these creatures running around reproducing in other places. Hopefully the army coming with the crucible knights could wipe them out before then.
"What is it anyways?" Sariah asked.
Lyla cut into it and traced several stitches as she closely examined it.
"I think it's an abomination, but I've never seen one this small in the temple records or one that was still technically alive. Most abominations are undead by nature but if it's still alive it really might try to reproduce."
"Right, Lyla and Sariah will record information about the abomination while Gregory and I search the village hall for traces of the black robed priests." Nodding they split up.
Walking through the front door of the village hall they found a pile of corpses in the center of the main room. The rooms on either side of the hall had broken doors and there were bloodstains on the floor showing that bodies had been dragged out of them.
As they checked each room they found them destroyed using great strength. There were no traces of magic or fire being used inside until they examined the pile of corpses.
In the pile was a bloodied black robe that smelled of sulfur and had been torn apart with bite marks on it.
"Do you think the abomination went rogue before or after he died?" Chronos asked.
"I can't tell from these scraps there just isn't enough evidence left to examine. More importantly there are no children's corpses here, I don't see any traces of them either."
"Huh!"
Looking again Chronos realized that there weren't even children's clothes in the pile. While he didn't want to do it, he started sniffing around the foul-smelling place searching for any trace of the children that should have been here.
After a few minutes Lyla and Sariah came in, seeing Chronos on all fours trying to catch a scent confused them. Shooting Gregroy a look he answered them.
"The children's corpses are missing, there's a chance they might be alive." Gregory started walking towards the backrooms to check them again.
"I'll burn the corpses. It won't be good if the children see them." Lyla cast [Blessed Flame] on the corpse pile and offered a prayer for the souls of the dead.
"Gregory, I found something." Chronos yelled from the kitchen.
Rushing inside the kitchen Gregory looked at Chronos.
"There's the scent of children entering the kitchen, but the scent ends here and there are too many other smells for me to pinpoint where they went." Chronos explained.
Gregory extended his threads to search the kitchen, carefully feeling each table and stone. He didn't feel anything for a long time then a stone near the oven shifted.
"Found it. The oven can be moved and there seems to be an open space under it."
Chronos examined the oven but was unable to find a way to move it.
"I think you just pick it up." Gregory said.
"Right, no need for a complex mechanism when you have someone strong enough to move it. Do you think the village had someone like that." Chronos grunted as he moved the oven out of the way.
"There was a rather muscular corpse with several injuries in the pile. It looked like they put up a fierce fight before they died." Gregory said as his strings started feeling around the stones where the oven had been.
It didn't take long to find a stone that was just a cover, underneath it was a metal bar connecting to the other stones.
Grasping it Chronos gave it a strong yank pulling up the floor then ducked as an arrow flew right above his head.
"Don't shoot, we're friendly." Chronos called out.
"Don't come near us or I'll kill you! I'm warning you I'm very strong and have a very good aim." Shouted a young panicking voice.
"M-Maybe he's friendly? I don't remember any dogs attacking the village with that monster." Said an even younger voice.
"Yeah, he didn't look too scary." Whispered another.
"You liar, you're just scared of the dark."
As the young voices chattered away Chronos looked at Gregory for advice. He had always been better with children than Chronos.
Gregory used hand signs to signal him, "20 children, not enough for how many houses were in the village. Go get Lyla, I'll talk to them until then."
Nodding Chronos left the room while Gregory started trying to convince them that they weren't enemies.
Lyla had just finished praying while Sariah was in a study looking through the books. Villages in the wasteland only had old books but to her that just meant that she might find an out-of-print book or an ancient manual from the wasteland.
"Lyla, we found the children, but they refuse to leave the hidden cellar. We're hoping that they'll be more receptive to a priestess instead of two scary men." Chronos explained.
"Oh, maybe I should make myself glow then." She said with a cheeky smile.
"Don't do that. They might think they died already and a messenger of the dead came to get them."
Laughing, they walked back into the kitchen to find Gregory sitting next to the cellar door playing a word game with one of the younger children.
"B, b, bugle. The older one refuses to let anyone leave until they're certain it's safe. Unfortunately, the only ones that can confirm it are...well." He gestured back to the main room.
"E, e, Eagle!" A young voice happily called out.
"Eyelid." Gregory called back.
"That's too fast, I need time to think."
"Better hurry~" Gregory teased.
"D, d, d."
"I'll try talking to them." Stepping in front of the opening Lyla called out gently. "Hello~ I'm Lyla, a priestess following the goddess of order. We're not going to hurt you; can you tell me what has happened?"
Well, there was no arrow flying at her so that was a better reception than Chronos had received, after a short pause the panicking voice from earlier responded.
"The village was attacked by a weird humanoid monster, and the adults hid all of us while they went to fight it. What happened to them?"
Lyla sat down to talk with them, "This will be hard to hear but I'm afraid there are no other survivors in this village."
"What! That can't be right, there's no way my daddy would lose!" The child playing a word game with Gregroy exclaimed.
"I'm afraid it's true. We found many bodies in the main hall and gave them a proper cremation."
"You're lying!"
"Wait, stop!"
A small boy ran up the stairs right past Lyla, but Chronos caught him before he left the kitchen. A group of children followed him out led by a pre-teen girl trying to catch him.
"Gasp."
When she saw Chronos holding the boy she knocked an arrow and pointed her bow at him. Lyla stopped her from shooting and started asking her questions.
"Easy there kid. I can't let you go out yet." Chronos said.
"But, but my daddy."
"You're the first living people we've found. What did your father look like?" Chronos asked.
"He's really strong and wears a gold necklace." He responded as he started crying.
Chronos looked at Gregory who had examined the corpse pile more closely only to see him shake his head and point at the oven. Ah the man who lifted the oven for the kids must have been him, they had already confirmed he died while fighting.
He remembered that that body had its arms ripped off along with several other injuries. From the way the blood had covered his body those injuries had happened before he had died.
Turning back to the boy he spoke, "We've already found his body. He didn't survive the battle."
The boy started crying harder as Chronos rubbed his back.
"D-Did he f-fight well?"
"He did. They had to cripple him before they could kill him." Chronos said softly.
Hearing how his father died the boy looked proud of him.
While Chronos was comforting the boy, Lyla and Gregory had convinced the other children that they weren't enemies. It made the kitchen a little cramped, but they couldn't let them leave until they were certain that there were no enemies in the village.
Looking at the children Chronos could see that the eldest was the pre-teen girl with the bow, all of the others were younger than ten.
"We can't leave the kids here, let's take them back to camp with us. Once the army arrives, we can create a dragon orphanage and leave them in the matron's care." Chronos said.
"Sounds good but can we supply enough food for the kids until they arrive?" Sariah asked as she entered the kitchen. "Oh, and the cremation fire is finished."
"I have a spell to create food for them but it's a bit tasteless." Lyla laughed hollowly.