1000 A.D. -- Mystic Falls, Virginia. Before the bloodshed, there had been order—rough, old-world order, the kind carved from timber and bone. Their settlement, tucked deep in the wilds of a land not yet called America, was a scattering of Norse longhouses and fire pits, ringed by sharpened logs to keep out wolves and worse. The people were hardened: fur-cloaked, war-scarred, sunburned from the fields and snow-blind from winters too long. They spoke in a tongue passed down from the fjords, worshipped gods older than memory, and feared the forest as if it were alive. Their very existence gave them reason to be afraid.
The forest stretched endlessly around him—an ancient, untouched land thick with shadow and silence. Towering trees—oak and ash, their trunks wide as wagons—loomed overhead, their branches clawing at the cloud-swollen sky. The air was heavy with the scent of damp earth, crushed pine needles, woodsmoke from a distant fire... and blood.
Niklaus lay naked near the stump of a tree, smothered in sediment and grime. His memory is vague, although he recalls bits and pieces—chasing villagers through the forests, superhuman speed and strength, and howls, accompanied by tunnel vision as flashes of the forest loomed in and out of sight. He rises on his elbows, one hand landing on his face to grip his forehead in pain.
As the haze lifted from his mind, Niklaus slowly pushed himself upright, eyes adjusting to the dim, green-filtered light bleeding through the canopy. The forest floor was a graveyard—bodies scattered like broken dolls, limbs bent at unnatural angles, blood soaking into roots that would drink deep by morning. A few feet away, Kol stood barefoot and bare-chested, staring at Nik with confusion and spite, although Nik couldn't understand why.
"Brother." His voiced quivered. "What's happened?"
Nik stood, finally considering his setting. Panic bubbled in his chest, and he collapsed back down, shaking the maimed, mutilated bodies well past rigor mortis. Some faces he recognized, some faces he didn't.
"What's happened?" He repeated, louder and trembling now. @griefoverkill
