Little child in shirt and vest stretching out hand with worried expression

" “Enough! I'm not going to let them take any one of us ever again!" - the village council meeting starts ardently with a tall red-faced man jumping to his feet and yelling passionately. “Marcus, please, sit down, let's discuss this issue calmly and reasonably” - August, the elder of the council, respectable and well-regarded member of the society made an attempt to de-escalate the already heated debate. “Don't tell me what to do, old man! It wasn't you who lost your daughter to those monsters tonight! I'm not going to sit here and wait until they take my son, my wife, and the rest of my neighbors! If we act quickly, we'll be able to save those who got kidnapped tonight! They don't kill them, not right away, in any case, so we still have time to track them into the forest and take the fight to them! They won’t expect it, so the element of surprise will be on our side!” - Marcus was nowhere near calming down. “Marcus, boy, I've lived in this village long before your parents even started considering having a child. I've seen and felt it all throughout the years: sudden loss, crushing grief, savage fury, desire to find and murder everyone responsible. I’ve also witnessed the consequences of rash actions and pain they brought to this community.” - August shook his head pensively and let the memories overtake him for a few seconds. “You've been living here for your whole life, that's true, but what does that say about you? You've done nothing! Absolutely nothing to secure the life of your residents. These creatures, they come, they take what they want and leave without any resistance! My wife can no longer sleep, my son blames himself for his sister's disappearance. But I don't, I blame you! Every single one of you! You, who are sitting here idle because you're used to it or because you're afraid or because the old wise man August told you so! Enough! Stop trembling in fear, take any weapon you can - pitchforks, torches, hooks, or sicles - everything will be fit to fly the beasts who threaten your families! Now, are you with me?” - Marcus unsheathed his hunting dagger, firing up the crowd. “He's right!”, “Yeah!”, “Marcus!”, “Let's get them!”, “Monsters!” - the crowd applauded, whooped and whistled. August was the only one left out of the general excitement. He took a deep breath and left the meeting. He knew he couldn't do anything to stop them. He also knew they wouldn't come back. "

Worried child