At the distance it's possible to see Diana fixing the saddle of a horse near other three in front of the main gates, upon coming closer, she notices you and in a provocative tone, says:
- I was beginning to think that you wouldn't come.
Before you can say anything, two men approach placing their bags on the saddles of the other two horses. Diana presents you:
- Erwin, Brutus this is Orion, he's going to help us track the beast.
The two come closer and Diana proceeds, introducing the taller one first:
- This is Brutus, he has been hunting “demons” like the beast for a while now.
He's of strong build, has a face of whom already saw the worst life has to offer and carries what seems to be a war axe on his back. You extend your hand to greet him but he looks up and down at you without saying anything, only presenting a grumpy expression on his face and then goes back to adjusting his horse's saddle. You and Diana look at each other but before either could say something, the second man interrupts, greeting you:
- Don't worry with the pal over there, ever since joining us he has barely spoken more than five words.
- This is Erwin, he's going to be the main shooter. (Diana introduces him).
He wears a beige coat, a hat of the same colour and carries two revolvers on his belt. Without wasting time, Diana begins explaining the plan:
- Ok, listen up. The tracks from yesterday end in the middle of nowhere a few hours on horse away from the neighbouring village, it's possible that the beast will attack it next. We'll follow the road that connects both villages and will probably arrive there at sunrise tomorrow, there we'll arm ambush and, with a little bit of luck, it'll be the end of this madness. We leave in five minutes.
- Orion, this is your horse. (She points at the second one from left to right).
As quickly as the greetings, all of you are ready and so the journey begins.
It's not much past two o'clock and the sun already glows dimly in between the clouds, the road is muddy and directs you through the forest, except the sound of insects and some rodents that every now and then cross the road not much is happening, Brutus remains as quiet as he was at the village and Erwin looks at everything with an air of serenity, noticing that Diana doesn't seem to be too occupied you decide to speak with her:
- So... bounty hunter, huh?
- Truth be told I didn't believed it either when people told me you became a farmer, I was beginning to think they didn't knew who I was talking about. (Se responds with a light smile).
- Sometimes even I can't believe it, although... It's not that bad really.
- Please... It's terrible.
- Maybe a little but at least it allows me to stay near my family.
- When I asked the villagers about you they told me what happened...
- Don't worry, at the end everything went right. But so, what about the war? Ever since I came back I haven't heard any more news, have we won? (Not wanting to remember bad memories your mind persuades you to change the subject of the conversation).
- Yes, but... (She makes a brief pause presenting a light expression of confusion mixed with fear).
- Let's just say that here's not the only place where strange things have happened....
You feel confuse as to what she means but quickly becomes distracted by the abrupt whinnying of a horse speeding at your direction, you try do dodge but the animal violently collides with yours and runs away staggering in between the trees at your right. Regaining control over your horse you ask Diana:
- Should we investigate?
She nods and then points at the road ahead:
- Brutus, Erwin follow ahead and see what scared that horse.
- Orion, it seemed to be carrying something on its back, do you think we can reach it?
- If we go on foot, maybe.
Whilst the other two head further down the road, you and Diana leave your horses and venture into the woods. The tracks zigzag around the vegetation ever denser, after walking some ten meters the trees behind already hide completely the road you came from, on the floor ahead, drops and puddles of blood stand out even more than the already obvious tracks left by the animal.
With your weapons in hands you and Diana reach a small clearing where the horse wanders in circles nearly loosing its consciousnesses, upon seeing a body over the animal's back you gestures to Diana to give you cover, she then points her gun to the body and awaits your move. You begin approaching slowly trying to not scare the animal, with only a few steps away from it the animal falls dead on the ground dropping the body at your feet, looking down you freeze like The Lands Beyond The North as blood begins to spread all over the ground and a warm odour exhales from the corpse that now is possible to see it's decapitated and has its bones exposed.
Holding your breath and reaching for your knife you begin to examine it, the wounds on the neck and thorax contraindicate the possibility of the decapitation being made by a blade, on the horse, deep scratches cover the legs and body also presenting a large laceration across its neck as if something had bit a piece off it.
- So? (Diana asks you).
- Beast.
Running back to the road fearing that the beast might still be around, you and Diana remain quiet focused on the possible danger ahead. Upon arriving there, you two find Brutus and Erwin waiting beside the horses and immediately Brutus says:
- We have a problem.
- What is it?
- It's better for you to see with your own eyes.
Following them down the road it doesn't take long to find a small curve that hides the rest of the path, a few steps further and you are surprised by what you see: A small merchant caravan butchered as if they had been attacked by bears of a hungry pack of wolves.
- The wounds are similar to the ones from the soldiers from a few weeks ago. (Erwin says).
- And the sequence of deaths too. First the weaker ones from the middle, that wore only clothes and last the stronger ones, at the front and back, wearing some pieces of armour.
- Have they been dead for much time?
Diana asks taking a closer look.
- Maybe some days... (Brutus answers shrugging his shoulders).
However, coming closer to the body Diana was looking and then reaching your hand near it, you correct him:
- No... these bodies are still too warm for that much time, they died recently.
All look at you surprised except Diana. Pointing at one of the corpses wearing armour, she asks:
- How could the beast know exactly where to attack?
- Usually predators take advantage of the panic of their victims in an ambush like this to attack their throats killing them easily.
- The odd thing though, is that all of the bodies are rather untouched except for fight wounds...
- What do you mean? (Brutus questions you).
- Well, a hunting scenario like this is commonly used by predators for getting food and not for self defence. If the group of soldiers that you guys found was exactly like this, then I fear we're hunting no ordinary wild animal...
Once you finish your sentence Brutus and Diana look at each other with an expression that confirms your words. Diana quickly gets up and begins walking rather hastily towards where the horses were left, you follow her asking:
- I suppose I'm right then. So, what now?
- We get the horses and head towards the other village, it's not too far away from here. If we hurry, we might get there before sunset.
- And if we don't?
- Then we'll follow the tracks and discover where the beast has been hiding.
Completely distracted thinking which case would be worst, you keep on walking whilst Diana subtly stops grabbing her gun and aiming ahead, in an instinct you do the same noticing that where the horses were supposed to be is nothing but a bloody mess.
Along with you, Diana silently comes closer signalling for Brutus and Erwin to watch out for the dense vegetation on both sides of the road, a few steps later she signals again, this time for you and Erwin to focus on the left side whilst her and Brutus focus on the right side of the road.
The silence is so intense that although having only Erwin within your field of view, you are capable of precisely say where every one is only by listening to their footsteps, yet, your ears still can't capture any sound that indicates the beast or any other animal is nearby. At only a few steps away from the corpses of the dead horses it's possible to see they're completely inert as if they died without even seeing their killer, without lowering your guard you look for tracks or footprints on the ground but find nothing except for a mixture of blood and mud.
The silence is quickly interrupted by the faint sound of leaves moving in between some bushes to the left followed then by Erwin cocking his revolvers, he looks at you signalling he's going to investigate, whilst he carefully approaches the source of the noise you remain still and although Diana and Brutus continue turned to the other side you can tell they're paying attention to both.
Another sound echoes from the same place and, in a domino effect, Shots are fired frenetically being then followed by a tense moment of silence, Erwin moves side to side trying to look in between the trees and with a grin on his face he puts away his guns and leisurely heads to where the shots were fired, he looks at the ground laughing loudly whilst crouching to grab a bunny that's still alive some how, getting up he then jokes nearly crying of so much laughter:
- Somebody here is up for a rabbit stew?
Everyone relaxes lowering their guns whilst Erwin releases the animal still laughing. You closely begin to observe the dead horses, deep cuts on the thoraxes and lacerations cover the necks, as surprising as it is, the fact none of you heard anything it only collaborates with the already obvious truth that it was the beast that did this. Lost in thoughts without understanding what type of animal the beast is exactly you decide to warn the group:
- It was the be...
Before being able to finish your sentence, Diana dartingly grabs her bag and, pointing at the ground to the right, interrupts you:
- Quickly, grab your things, we have tracks!
Alarmingly enough, in front of the muddy footprints on the road, there is a trail of broken branches and tree trunks with blood stains leading within the forest. The path you follow is majorly straight with eventual curves, at each step the vegetation becomes denser and yet, the tracks present themselves suspiciously more obvious exponentially convincing you that this is a trap.
At half a dozen meters after the last curve you face a slightly open space, with what seems to be tufts of black and grey fur entwined on some branches and footprints scattered all over the ground without any sensible pattern.
- Where now?
Diana asks you quietly, without making much sense of the footprints you look at the vegetation noticing a tree trunk broken in half and covered in grey tufts as if the beast had crashed into it.
- I'm not sure, it seems that the beast crashed into a tree and became dismayed, it's difficult to tell where it went...
- We split up then, this way we'll cover a larger area.
- Bad idea... We're walking into a trap, if we split up now we'll be only facilitating for the beast to take us down one by one. We'll continue together but alert.
- Ok. (She signals the other two to have their weapons in hand).
Drawing your bow you begin walking towards the least denser part of the forest where the tracks seemed more orderly. For one hour straight you follow tracks that lead nowhere, realising that the sun is beginning to set you four decide to set camp near where the tracks become confusing intent on resuming the search on the following morning.
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