Fear The Judgment

The night was cold and dark. The moon was full, although the clouds covered it giving the surroundings a dull light. The Graveyard nearby was old, the names on the headstones, were weathered making them unreadable. The gates barely hung on their hinges and squeaked terribly when moved. A light wind blew through the yard making the gates squeak quietly. A tree stood in the yard. The branches were bare, a few ravens sat quietly on them. The blade of a scythe was stuck into the tree, while the shaft stood, as if holding it up. Below the weapon laid a black cloak, which underneath laid various bones. The bodies of long dead soldiers littered the ground nearby, killing the grass underneath them making the surrounding foliage brown and dead. Every soldier’s skin had rotted away, long ago leaving only the bones in the rusted armor. There was a small cabin off in the distance; candle light shown through the solitary window. A black wolf slept outside the cabin, keeping guard. Against the wall, leaned a slightly rusted axe beside a stack of chopped wood.

The wolf opened its eyes and lifted its head. It looked around and sniffed the air, looking for trespassers. A man stepped out of the house and over to the axe, bent down and picked in. He stepped over to the wolf, squatted next to it and scratched its ears in a loving way. Next, he stood back up and walked behind the cabin and chopped down a tree, which he lifted up and set on his shoulder and brought back around to the front. He started chopping through the tree, making it smaller and smaller. He next set each piece on a stump and chopped them into slats, which he tossed aside. He soon finished and stacked them on top of the original stack.

“Looks like I have enough fire wood for a while. Huh, boy?” He said to the wolf as it lifted its head and wagged its tail, kicking up a diminutive cloud of dust from the dried ground. He sat down with his back against the wall of the cabin. The wolf stood up and laid down next to its master and put its head in his lap. He put his hand on the beast’s back and felt the fur, rough fur. The wind blew again and made the gates creak open.