Future career plans

The night was cloudless, just as it had been for the past few weeks. There were more stars sparkling in the night sky than usual. An occassional cool breeze blew across the now empty village square. On any day, the village square would be bustling with all kinds of activities, and filled with villagers. At night, it would be quiet and deserted, with only an occasional soul passing by.

The village square is just a large vacant space located in the middle of the village where villagers would set up their own stalls to sell their wares, hold village meetings or gather together for some sort of celebration. At night, when most villagers had retired back to their own homes, it made the perfect training grounds for monster slayers and monster slayers-to-be.

On this particular night, two full fledged monster slayers, T and S were training a newly recruited member, H. They were going through the various combat manuevers, techniques of wielding different weapons, as well as learning to strike monsters at their individual weak spots. H, being a fast learner, picked up the skills quickly without much difficulty. Not long after they started training, T and S were sparring with him.

Just as they were deeply concentrated on their sparring, the village headman suddenly appeared from behind and boomed out "What are you three doing? No weapons or fighting of any kind is allowed in my village!"

The village headman firmly, albeit naively, believed that gone were the days when the village was plagued by monsters who lurked around its outskirts, preying on anyone who dared to venture beyond the reinforced walls and gates. Those were the days of terror and chaos, when villagers were prisoners in their own homes. Those were the days when monster slayers were celebrities, for they were the only ones who had any hope of survival out there and often battled the monsters to keep the village safe.

The fight against the monsters had gone well for the monster slayers. The number of monster encounters declined gradually, to the extent that people had completely forgotten that monsters once existed. And that was when the village headman declared that weapons and fighting were no longer allowed inside the village as a way of preserving peace.

To T, it was all bullshit. "Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't around" he would often say. He strongly felt that one day, the monsters will just rise up suddenly to catch the villagers by surprise and it was unwise to believe the monsters were gone for good.

The headman, however, stubbornly insisted that no form of violence is to be displayed anywhere within the boundaries of the village and violation would result in banishment. Thus, T had to restrict his trainings to be carried out only at night when the village headman would not be around to witness them.

It was very unfortunate for them that the headman happened to be out tonight and passing through the village square in the midst of their training.

"I have warned you before. Henceforth, the three of you shall be banned from this village. You must leave before noon next day." he said in a polite but very cold tone, and walked away.

T,S and H dropped their weapons and stared at one another dejectedly, unable to believe their fate. The very village they had sworn to protect had turned them out.

"You heard them man. We'd better start packing." said T.

"What? We are gonna leave just like that?" S asked in disbelief.

T nodded wearily "One day, he'll regret his decision. But for now, we have to leave."

H started to speak "We are warriors. We can't just blend in anywhere. What shall we do?"

"You're right," replied T, "I do know of another town that has problems with renegade militias. Although it's very different from fighting monsters, I'm sure we can do it."

The other two nodded in agreement, hope sparkling in their eyes. With that, they each returned to their respective homes.

True enough, the next morning, a huge sign was placed in the village square stating that "T, S and H will no longer be allowed inside the village as of noon on this day, XXXXXX, in violation of Statute number....."

The three former monster slayers took one last look at the sign and the village around them, and walked through the village gate, leaving for good.