The more nebulous or common ones were intermixed throughout the explanations and observations giving names to everything from emotions and feelings to scents like ‘rot’ and ‘flowers’ to bigger things like ‘Life’ and ‘Death’. Those last two had separate, complex tangles of emotion centered around them, ones he couldn’t full comprehend although he had some idea of what the two were. Souls were involved with both, which brought up what was going to happen to the ones it had ingested.

He...didn’t know. Not really. When he thought of the ones he ingested or soul in general and what his body would…. or could do to them, idea of them being ‘not food’. Not just along the lines that he shouldn’t eat them, but also that his body couldn’t do anything to them other than contain the souls.

That didn’t mean it got nothing from them though. It took something from them while they remained within him, drawing it out until their minds drifted off into a restful slumber. It wasn’t a permanent one though. He could wake them from it if he wanted to and they could resist the call of sleep easily themselves as well if they chose to do so.

Either way, the discovery that the sleep was harmless and not permanent thing, helped put the others at ease. One by one, they all drifted off to sleep as time passed, leaving him alone once more inside of his mind. His belly grew steadily emptier as well and by the time the last one drifted off, he was more than ready to leave the haystack. He didn’t pass up the chance of food the rodents hiding in the hay would give him and tore it apart in his search of them. He ignored the fibrous material in favor of them as it wasn’t worth the effort to consume and digest even though it was vaguely edible.

When he was done, he left the building and gave the village a cursory once over for any more bodies he could eat before leaving the village. He headed in the vague direction of another affected village, passing through dried up fields of dead crops and into what was left of the forest that once grew between the two settlements……

A Few Hours Later at the Village He left behind.

A group approaches the abandoned village warily, searching the buildings with their eyes for threats. Their two human archers, a man and woman, and elven tracker had bows in hand while the tall human swordsman had his weapon and kite shield out. The man was an inch or two taller than 6ft, but he only came up mid-chest to the heavily armored, small… ‘giant’ that traveled with them. It was actually an orc under all that metal, and he favored a tower shield bigger than any of his smaller companions. Small, barbed spikes were scattered across the front of it, making anything that slammed against it pay with a ‘pound of flesh’ to get free. At the other end of the size spectrum was what looked like a child in light leather armor. It was a halfling with short curly hair, fair skin and blue eyes. He had no weapon, or at least no obvious weapon, on him and he was sitting in the driver’s seat of the covered wagon the group had with them.

It was being pulled by a great big plodding beast with a leathery reptilian hide and built in plates of boney armor to protect its wide back. More plates protected its blunt, rounded head along with a pair of thick curling horns jutting out of the sides and sharpened tusks curving skyward at the corners of its wide mouth. Its normally bright, large, round eyes were dulled with hunger and weariness while its large nostrils flared with every breath as it snuffled around. Thick, pillar-like legs kept it moving forward at a steady pace and kept its normally round belly a few feet up off the ground. At its rear was a short, bulbous tail with curving spikes and eye spots to make for a mock head.

When the group entered the village’s border, they headed for the center of it where the village well was. They kept their guard up and surrounded the wagon to keep it safe. It carried their much-needed supplies as well as testing kits to check for the taint of the ‘black blight’ that infected the lands they were traveling through. They were almost as needed as their supply as the blight could kill them as surely as a lack of food or water if they were to ingest any of this particular form of it.

“I don’t like this, it's too quiet.” muttered the elven tracker.

“Think they fixin’ to ambush us this time around, Ferril?” rumbled the Orc and elf shook his head.

“No, this is a starvation type blight they would have struck or tried to get into position the moment we got close enough. I would have heard that.” Ferril replied before furrowing his brow as he focused for a moment.

His blue eyes turned a starry black for a moment as he used a skill of his, a stark contrast to his fine, ivory pale features. Whatever he learned from it made him halt in surprise. The others did as well to stare at him, except for the cart. The beast pulling it was more interested in the smell of fresh water coming from the village well as its center than whatever the elf was doing.

“Ferril? Is everything alright? We’re not about to get neck in wyvern dung, are we?” The hafling’s high wavering voice asked him, snapping him out it. He shook his head, his eyes returning to their normal sky blue before answering.

“No… but it’s strange. I’m not detecting any of the blight. The village has obviously suffered from it, judging from the lack of life alone but it's like a hundred years have passed! There’s not a trace of it anywhere!” Ferril replied, waving his bow at the empty buildings and parched, lifeless fields surrounding them. The others frowned in collective confusion before returning to walking by the wagon that hadn’t stopped.

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“Maybe we wandered deeper into the affected area tha’ we should have?” The orc asked him, and the elf paused for a moment to consider it before shaking his head.

“No, there… there would be something, Razz. It only started last year after all before it was caught…. And only half a year before word was sent out for help." Ferril replied.

“Then what about a Wave? You’ve lived through one of those, haven’t you?” Asked the human woman. Again the elf took a moment to consider the question.

“No… I…” The elf started and then sighed.

“I don’t know. It was over a hundred years ago and I was only a child back then. I would think if they had found something even remotely like this it would have been a big enough that even us children would have noticed.” He eventually told her before his confusion turned into anger and his frown deepened.

“Unless the political bullshit the Elders were up to at the time got it buried for whatever asinine reason.” He spat bitterly and uttered something in elvish that probably wasn’t too flattering about the elven leaders from that time.

“I take it, it’s relatively safe since the beast -” The armored man started.

“Her name is Sally!” The halfling piped up in irritation and the man eyed him with derision before continuing.

“Sally is calm and you’re muttering in elvish, I’m to take it that its safe?” the man asked in a gruff voice.

“Er… yes…. Well, barring the blight beasts figuring out how to hide all trace of themselves, we are as safe as we can be, Charles.” The elven tracker replied, and the man nodded.

“Alright, we’ll make a base camp here and see if we can’t at least refill our water supply if the well checks out. After that, whether not we find anything – and that includes another blight beast – we’re heading back.” Charles told the group after sheathing his sword, getting mixed sighs of relief from the others and one muttered ‘finally’ from the woman.

The majority of the group followed the wagon while the elf split off from the rest of the group. But, before he did, he had the halfling dig out a small box that contained a sample collecting kit. He took the item with him as he went off to investigate what had happened to the village. What he found was both puzzling and concerning, leaving his pale face scrunched up in thought when he finally met back up with them at the well.

They had taken the opportunity to get out some water and jerky for a general break while they waited for the elf to return. Sally didn’t get anything though as most of the supplies weren’t for her, but she was still thirsty and snuffled and grumble unhappily at smelling water but not getting any. She did get a little when the elf returned, and Charles handed his cup off to the halfling to empty into her mouth.

“Find anything?” He asked the elf once he was close enough. Ferril gave him an exasperated look before shaking his head.

“Plenty. Most of which is concerning while the rest… I don’t know what to make of it.” He replied, waving his hands to illustrate his clueless helplessness at what he had found when he paused. He paused again to gather his thoughts after that, and Charles and the others waited patiently while they waited for the elf to continue.

“On the surface, it just like all the other villages we’ve come across where there have been blight beast births. Yes, it was affected by the blight this year and there are signs of cannibalism before everyone died. Yes, there are signs of fighting too after everyone is dead and only a single trail leading out. But that’s where the similarities end. Aside from there being no traces of blight as far as I can tell without testing, the signs of fighting are at least a day old if not more, but the trail is only a few hours old. Not only that, it hasn’t been scoured of everything edible and the tracks aren’t in any hurry either. If anything, they were purposeful, going to the road and heading in the direction of the next village we were supposed to investigate.” Ferril explained.

“Think it’s friendly?” The halfling suggested and all of his companions turned to look at him.

“What? It’s a perfectly good assumption! For all we know it’ll only attack those infected with the blight!” The halfling protested as the rest stared at him incredulously. It was Ferril who broke the awkward silence that followed by clearing his throat.

“Theories aside, I was able to determine that this one is humanoid with the ability to move around just fine on two legs but with preference for crawling. Its senses might be questionable too which would explain its slowness and why there are still living things in the buildings as small as they are. I just couldn’t tell that they were there. I know I said its trail was a few hours old, but I don’t think it would take much to catch up with it if it's as encumbered as I think it is.” Ferril explained, focusing on Charles as he spoke. The man crossed his arms and closed his eyes while he weighed his options. It didn’t take him long before deciding and he opened his eyes take in the group.

“Alright, we’ll take an hour’s rest here before going after it.” He told them before turning to look at the halfling.

“Except you, Reed. You’re going to do some reconnaissance. You’ve been sitting for most of the day while we’ve all been walking and, if the creature is as harmless as you believe it to be, then you shouldn’t be in any danger then.” He informed him and Reed shank with a wince at the suggestion.

“You shouldn’t joke, Charles. You’re really bad at them.” The halfling commented weakly.