Alois looked quietly down at the footprints that marred the somewhat cleaner snow patches of the forest. His two recruits, a young man and woman whom had hardly spoken much since greeting him at breakfast, knelt beside him.

“What do you make from this?” He asked them gently, noting how they jumped as if startled by his voice.

“The villagers spoke the truth. Five sets go up the mountain, but only four return.”

Alois nodded, giving them a small smile. “If you two have questions about what I explained yesterday, I suggest asking them instead of brooding. It will not due to have doubt crowd your mind when we approach the castle.”

The two shifted, glancing at each other before the young woman, Jaine, spoke. “Do you really think that Icchorians will overwhelm us one day?”

Alois stood, stretching in the faint sunlight that managed to fight through the clouds and forest overhead. “I believe that if we become complacent or take them as lightly as we do now that they will one day rise over us. In days of old they were able to herd us and farm Humans like cattle.” His gaze trailed further up into the mountains. “There is so little we actually know about them, that if sane ones were to confront us, we would not know what to do.”

“Do you think they can be negotiated with?” The man, Irvin, asked gruffly as if the thought pained him.

Alois shrugged. “How can we know for sure? We’ve yet been able to speak to one. I read in reports that the Golden Ones from that event long ago were not only capable of communication and speech, they had even seemed to befriend Humans living in a village on the former outskirts of Leben Festung. Could you imagine such a thing?”

The recruits stared at him in disbelief and he held up his hands. “I’ve… uh… had access to those sorts of records when I was younger. They aren’t made known to the general public, as you can understand most people would not be comfortable with the idea of monsters being… well Human.”

Irvin shook his head slowly. “It’s… just not possible… they have never acted like that before.”

Alois shook his head. “Just because we have never seen it in our lifetime, does not mean it is not possible. After all, we’ve only seen a tiny portion of the world.” There was no need to tell them about Mukesh and his kindness, no need to tell them about the true monster who ruled as their King.

He then turned back to the path. “We are losing daylight, and I want to determine what we are up against. Let’s go.”

They nodded, following him with renewed energy. The three Hunters moved silently and swiftly, and it wasn’t long before they came to the base of the castle. All three of them stood in silent awe. The stone felt ancient, covered well above their heads in a thick bank of snow, yet still the the wall rose higher and higher. No matter how they craned their heads back.

Alois narrowed his eyes before closing them after a moment. He couldn’t sense anything beyond the thickness of the wall. The senses that normally kept him alive when faced with one of the monsters could not pick up anything that alarmed him. “See if we can find an entrance, the boys had to have got in somehow.”

The resumed moving about the castle, surprised yet again when it seemed to take awhile for them to find where the boy’s footprints seemed to verge towards the wall. They found a roughly dug gash into the thick snow bank, leading to a small door that seemed to have been left open and had become frozen that way.

Alois hesitated before stepping forward. “I want you two to stay stationed here. With only one of us it will be less of a likelihood that we will draw it’s attention. If for some reason it does engage and I give you the signal to retreat, you will do so. Understood?”

His gaze was cold, blood red that should not have shown so in the sunlight. The two recruits swallowed thickly, nodding. They could not offer any resistance to his command, and they each took a place at either side of the opening.

He nodded, drawing his weapons of choice, two short lethal daggers without the normal hilt. He prefered the freedom of being able to throw them as if they were needles, and had modified the normally issued weapons to reflect that. “If you must retreat, wait in the village for three days. If I do not return, assume I have died against the monster. Return to the base camp and inform Alexander. He will take over the mission from there.”

He did not await their nods, moving quickly through the slight space the door provided. Silence descended heavily then, making him pause. The noises of the forest had been muted, but now were nonexistent within the confines of the castle. He felt a shiver at the quiet, resuming his silent steps forward. He counted fifteen steps before he made it to the other end of the thick stone that formed the outer wall. Laying a gloved hand on the stones edge he marveled at the size of the stone, briefly considering it’s age before shaking his head and moving forward into the open courtyard.

It stretched far further that he would have anticipated before meeting the vast walls of what seemed to be the main structure of the castle. Here snow lay and unlike all that he had seen so far, this seemed fresh. But that was impossible, he mused, it would be well above his head if it snowed in here regularly. He could see what would be a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, although the water lay frozen in its base. Two large looming trees with bared branches soaring well above him sat on opposing corners. There were no other defining features for the Hunter to note, and in the quiet he felt suffocated. Anticipation was building in him.

Moving cautiously he peered around for the footprints which should have been present here, yet none littered the large expanse of the ground. He was puzzled as he came to stop by the fountain, peering down into the ice. Meeting his own ruby gaze he froze.

It had been many years since he had seen his own reflection. He reached up tugging on a white curl that peeked from his hood, watching as it bounced back. The hood was something Yulian had suggested long ago he wear to keep prying eyes from seeing what set him apart from others. Yet Alois knew it was because of how sensitive his skin could be to the sun. The doctors had theorized when he was younger that it could be that Amala had indeed been his mother, and that Icchorian blood was in his veins, but this was quickly dismissed when Alois showed no signs of bloodlust or suddenly turning into a beast. When they further researched under Yulian’s insistence, they found that a rare condition of the skin made it more sensitive to light. This satisfied the King, and he decided that Alois’s entire wardrobe was to be updated with hoods and thick material to protect him and still be practical for his training. This was soon applied to the uniform of the King’s entire army.

He tugged the hood further down and made sure that his hair was hidden. It wasn’t something he had ever wanted, and his faint memories of his parents were enough to know that it wasn’t something he had inherited. That was without even considering his unusual red eyes. He frowned at his reflection, and after a moment his gaze trailed down to the angry red welt that was all that remained of his encounter with the beast in the training yard.

Tearing his gaze up, he shook off his distraction to stare at the doors. It was a heavy overwhelming power that drew all of his attention. The doors had opened at some point and Alois froze as his gaze met that of another being that he should have sensed earlier.

Yet he was frozen, overwhelmed by the being’s presence, his mind shutting down as the two stared at one another. The sheer power was holding him still, and Alois knew he only sensed the Icchorian when it wanted him too. It was overwhelming, and Alois knew that he was encountering an Icchorrian that was kin to Mukesh.

Even in the enormous doorway, the Icchorian clearly would tower over anyone that Alois had ever seen. The skin was pale as was typical of the Icchorians unable to see the sun. Where Mukesh had been lean, this Icchorian was broad, shoulders wide and intimidating in how they filled the doorway. Dark black hair, that was tinted with blue shimmer, hung down to the broad shoulders which were covered in a mink white fur wrap. A tan coat clung to his broad form, barely doing much to hide the strength of the Icchorian’s Human body. Thick brown leather belts ran across the chest and covered the Icchorian’s arms and formed the boots which were lined in the same fur from the wrap. All in all, this was a giant of a man that pierced Alois with his golden gaze.

Silence that was so heavy Alois wasn’t able to breath hung in the air. Intelligence shown at him from the Icchorian, and Alois nearly choked on that knowledge. Everything he had read and studied was true, right before his eyes. This was an Icchorian who not only was in Human form, but was able to contemplate the Hunter before him in a way no other had been able to do in a long time. Golden eyes that were intelligent, but did not have the softness that had once been in Mukesh’s.

That would make him as dangerous as the Golden Ones that had tore through their army so long ago.

It seemed an eternity passed as neither one of them moved, gazes locked. Then all at once there was a flurry of action, starting with Alois raising his fingers to his lips and blowing a harsh series of whistles- the sign to the recruits to pull back. The sharp sound still echoed in the air as the Icchorian made his move, stepping out into the courtyard.

He did not raise a hand or draw a weapon, merely regarding Alois in what could be described as curiosity. Alois gripped his weapons, deciding that a direct attack would be unwise, he would need to lure the Icchorian towards one of the structures to use it to his advantage. The Hunter dashed to the left, red gaze trained on the hulking man as he bounded to the wall. He noted that the Icchorian moved in an arc around him, drawing close to the fountain’s base. Alois allowed a small smirk to play on his lips, it was all he needed.

With speed that far surpassed any other in Yulian’s army, Alois flew to the fountain, scaling it without much thought as he pushed himself up and over the Icchorian. He slammed the two daggers down, only to have the wind crushed out of him as the blades met a wall of ice. He gasped for air as he slammed into the ice with a thud, catching the shocked golden gaze of the Icchorian that was distorted through the hastily erected barrier.

Alois choked out a cough as air rushed into his lungs. “You can control the element?!” He slid down, bounding quickly back and away from his mark, clutching his ribs when a sharp pain alerted him to his injury. Yet his shock overwhelmed his concern, eyes still on the wall of ice that had come from seemingly nowhere, and the Icchorian who had stepped to its side to regard him again.

The beast in Human form tilted his head, gaze now roaming over Alois in question, as if determining what made him different than the few Humans he had encountered in the way of the village children.

Alois clenched his teeth. “Don’t look at me as if I am the unusual one here.” He stood as best he could, one hand still absently pressed to his side. His breathing finally evened out and he assessed his options. Never before had it been recorded that Icchorians could manipulate anything in this world as this one just had. Perhaps because he was caught by surprise he hadn’t fully seen where the ice had come from, but it certainly was due to the Icchorian protecting itself against his attack. Taking into consideration the sheer power that still hung in the courtyard, Alois could determine that this Icchorian was very old, and possibly one that would be called an Elder, such as Mukesh, in their hierarchy.