The mist hadn't lifted, and the village remained half- asleep when Ko Mim , a young field worker, wandered towards the Naung household to return a borrowed sickle.
What he saw stopped him cold.
The front door was shattered- splintered outward, as if something massive had forced it's way in. The wooden frame was cracked,clawed, bent at odd angles. Deep gouges lined the porch , like the nails of a beast that shouldn't exist.
"Seta Naung ?" he called out, voice trembling.
No replay.
He stepped closer.
He was horrified after seeing their condition.
Later that morning
The village bell - rarely rung - echoed through the jungle paths , calling everyone to the central courtyard beneath the banyan tree. Every adult in Daung Yathi was present.
Everyone was silent after seeing the condition of Naung family.
The inside of the house was drenched in blood . The Naung family had been torn apart. Father Naung's upper half of his body was missing. Mother Naung's body was burned and Myat Naung the daughter's body was found with broken neck.
No one spoke for a long time.
Then Daw Khin , one of the elders,leaned foreword. "We have to burn it . The house. Burn everything. "
The decision was made without vote.
By noon, they carried jugs of kerosene up the slope to the Naung house. No one looked inside. They just poured, lit torches, and stepped back.
As the flames rose,crackling and thick with smoke some watched with grim resolve. Others couldn't look at all.
The fire burned for hours.
By the time the Naung house collapsed into smoking ash and cinders, the sun was high - but no one went outside the house unless absolutely necessary. Even the elders, who usually walked freely through the village, stayed behind closed doors.
Children were kept quiet. Tools remained untouched.
Daung Yathi held its breath.
That Evening - Village Courtyard
As dusk fell ,the villagers gathered again beneath the bayan tree . This time ,no one argued . There was nothing left to debate - only a question of survival.
U Nyo, was the first to speak .
"We can't leave ourselves open tonight. If it comes back ,we must be ready."
Daw Khin nodded grimly. "Then we choose. Five men .They'll guard the village until sunrise."
There was long pause.
Then names began to surface :
They were five men who stood between the village and the dark.
Not soldiers. Not warriors by birth. Just men who had lived long enough to understand that something worse than death had arrived that someone had to hold the line.
U Nyo was the eldest among them, a blacksmith whose back was bent not by age, but by decades of hammer and flame. At fifty-five, his hair was graying, and his knees did not bend like they used to—but his arms still swung with iron strength, and his eyes missed nothing. He said little, but when he spoke, men listened. And when he stood still, monsters noticed.
Ko Than was a fisherman, lean and quiet, with hands trained to gut a catch in a single motion. He carried two knives—one large, one small—each honed to a perfect edge. Of all of them, he was the most precise. When others panicked, Ko Than calculated. When others struck wildly, he slit throats.
Zaw Lay,Mingyi's elder brother, was a hunter who fought with a spear nearly as tall as himself. He was practical, serious, and carried the weight of his role like it was born into him. When he spoke, it was always measured. He had no taste for heroism—only survival. But if someone had to bleed first, he stepped forward.
Mingyi Lay was the youngest in spirit, a bowman, fast-footed and sharp-eyed. He was still learning what fear truly felt like. His arrows were quick, and his temper quicker. But when his brother stood beside him, his hands stopped shaking. He fought not because he believed in victory, but because he couldn't bear to run.
Ba Thein was neither hunter nor fighter—just a villager, strong in heart if not in hand. He had no special skill, but he showed up first when the alarm rang. He cracked jokes at the wrong times, talked too loud, and tripped over roots in the dark. But he never walked away from a friend in danger.
They were five.
A blacksmith. A fisherman. A spearman. An archer. A fool with courage.
They did not expect to survive the night.
But they would meet it on their feet.
As the night crept in like fog over the trees, the rest of the village locked their doors, snuffed their lamp,and prayed that the jungle would stay quiet.
But in the distant dark ,something had already started moving again.