The little village

In a little village near a big, scary forest, there lived about 50 people.
The number had once been bigger, but so were the herds of cattle, about 1/10 of it gone.
And the life of the people wasn't much different, than from Before.
The children played on the meadows.
The adults worked hard, collecting wood and grazing the animals.
The old women knitted on the porches of their houses.

In the little village near the big, scary forest, there lived about 30 people.
The number had once been bigger, but so were the herds of cattle, the remaining animals stepping over the dried-out corpses.
The life of the people was much different, than from Before.
The children weren't allowed to leave their houses.
The adults worked hard, yet carefully, collecting wood and wild fruit.
The old women kept on knitting on the porches of their houses.

In the little village near the big, scary forest, there were no people or cattle left.
The number had once been greater than zero, yet there was no one to mourn it.
The life of the people would have been greatly different, if any remained.
The children were laying on the ground, some buried under.
The adults were all curled up on the hard ground too.
And only the old women remained, a wide grin of their sharp teeth masked behind the embroideries.