Storm walked through the abandoned streets of the elven village.
Unlike most races, Elves didn't 'build' towns. They instead used their rather impressive skill in nature magic to change the shapes of the trees into whatever forms they required.
As a result, the village consisted of several hollowed out trees, the furnishings that the elves used grew out of the bark of their home tree itself.
Even with the elves gone, their magic remained and several different plants continued to grow and thrive.
Many of these plants came from different climates or who only grew during specific seasons and was being sustained by the elven magic.
Plates of now spoiled food stood on many tables in the houses.
Whatever happened here, it clearly caught the elves by suprise while they were eating.
As Storm entered the central plaza of the village what he saw there continued to plague his dreams for years to come.
"By the Elders!!" Storm exclaimed.
A large pile of bodies was stacked in it's center.
The bodies were in several different states of decay and all of them carried signs of battle. Deep cuts, severed limbs and the like.
The ground below was stained red from all the blood.
"What could have done this?!"Thought Storm.
He approached the pile cautiously and began inspecting the surrounding area. A particularly large set of tracks caught his eye.
Whatever creature left these tracks was large, bigger than Storm was now.
It clearly had hooves instead of regular feet though it walked on 2 legs instead of 4 like other hooved animals.
" A Ogre? I thought they avoided towns like this?" Thought Storm.
Ogres were a species of primitive glutinous beastkin that were known for 2 things.
The first was their fierce temper, the second was their choice of food.
Ogres took a fiendish delight in devouring raw flesh, with Elven flesh being their favorite.
Based on the size of the prints, the Ogre was perhaps a young chieftain that had yet to build up his own herd.
Storm examined the prints a little closer and sniffed the air, when he suddenly hissed, jumped back, and looked around in panic.
"It's still here!!" Thought Storm.
He twisted around and ran for the village entrance while keeping an eye out for the intruding monster.
Just when Storm thought he would reach the exit safely, the wall of an elven house burst open and a large furry giant rushed out and blocked his path.
The Ogre was over 10 feet tall and was brimming with muscle, 2 long thick tusks grew out from his Boar like snout.
His head was shaped like a boar with pointed ears that swirled around as it searched out sound.
It's entire body was covered in thick brown fur and a long tail swung at the back.
It wore no clothing except for a leather loincloth that was fastened around his waist.
In it's muscular arms, it wielded a massive tree trunk that looked to have been ripped from the ground.
The monster swung this weapon around with effortless ease despite it's size, his fingers ended with claws that seemed freshly sharpened.
It rested it's giant weapon on it's shoulder, before bellowing out a challenge to Storm.
Storm skid to a stop when he saw his path blocked and jumped into the air, trying to put as much distance between himself and his opponent with a few hard flaps of his wings.
Unfortunately for Storm, he underestimated the extent of the Ogre's reach.
With a quick jump, it closed the distance and grabbed Storm by the tail, before slamming him face first back into the ground below.
Storm laid on the ground momentarily stunned before a shadow passed over him.
He instinctively rolled to the side and the club struck the ground where Storm had been mere moments ago.
He rolled onto his back and saw the Ogre raise his weapon for a second strike.
He parted his jaws and released a quick burst of lightning at the oncoming weapon.
He struck it dead in it's center, breaking the massive trunk in two like a twig.
The Ogre eyed his broken weapon curiously as he wondered how it broke.
Storm took advantage of it's momentary distraction and pounced on the Ogre, causing it to fall over backwards as he pinned it to the ground.
He parted his jaws and prepared to finish off the Ogre with a quick bite to it's exposed throat but before he could follow through, it delivered 2 hard punches to his exposed sides.
He felt something 'crack' in his chest with the second hit and he roared in pain.
Before he could recover, the Ogre got it's feet underneath Storm's chest and kicked with enough force to send him flying backwards through one of the Elven tree houses.
As he rose back to his feet, Storm hissed as his side burned with pain. A shadow blocked the sun and Storm looked up to see the Ogre towering over him.
Both hands were raised into a fist as it prepared to pummel Storm into the ground.
He rushed forward between his opponent's legs, then fast as a snake, spun around and leapt at the Ogre's exposed back.
He dug his claws into it's back and quickly climbed up to it's shoulders. Before the Ogre could throw him off, he parted his jaws and bit down on it's exposed throat.
The Ogre bellowed and started thrashing around to throw Storm off but he tightened the grip on his opponent's throat with his jaws, and with a quick twist of his long neck ripped it out, killing his opponent.
The Ogre spun around once, before falling fowards onto it's face.
Storm released his grip and staggered a few steps forward.
His side was burning in pain and he struggled to breathe in deeply.
He gently poked his wound and winced in response.
At least one of his ribs were broken, maybe more.
He coughed and spat out a glob of blood from his mouth.
"So... this Ogre must have killed the elves." Thought Storm.
Something about this theory didn't make sense to him however.
"The elves shoud have been able to repel a single Ogre? It would also have begun to eat the corpses if it had done so? Ogres don't stack their victims up like a trophy? I must be missing something!" Thought Storm.
He limped his way back to the entrance and studied the ground.
There in the ground he saw several tracks.
Several of which seemed unusually long as if it's owners were being forced to drag their feet.
Storm immediately realized what he was looking at, and what it meant for the fate of the villagers.