By the time I had arrived at the camp my guest had gone through half the bag of jerky, and… I had eaten the other half. The fire was smoldering, and the camp was in chaos, with destroyed tents and scattered blood. A far cry from the once orderly arrangement. I sniffed the air and locked on to the smell of rabbit coming from one of the bags that were left behind in the rush to leave. With a gutted rabbit over the fire, I found a wineskin of poor alcohol while I waited, it wasn’t really good, but it was drinkable. So, there I sat waiting for the rabbit to cook and drank for a bit as I waited for the wolf to finish her conversation.

I was curious now that the hunt was over, how close was I to civilization, hopefully not too close, I like my peace and quiet. I got up and started riffling through the now-abandoned campsite for anything useful, I had left the corpses at the battle site largely un-looted, the wolf may want something for herself, but the campsite is mine. I sifted around and soon came across the first victim of the fledgling, a once handsome man from what I had seen previously, but that can’t be seen now. The feast was thorough, and the only thing left was a pile of broken bones. Not even the marrow was left behind.

I looked around the man’s bags and found several vials and substances mostly unknown to me. I had enough experience with medicine that I could tell they were mostly medical in nature, but there were a few poisons. Interesting, it's rare to come across a seemingly different school of medicine so I stored them away for later research. I moved on and rummaged around for anything useful, pots or pans, and eating utensils would be preferred. While I rummaged around my mind drifted back to civilization, how advanced were they, did they have knowledge of the mystical, I wonder what their society and traditions are like? Ugh, now I’m curious.

My mind was instantly brought back to what I was doing when I saw something shiny out of the corner of my eye, a solitary silver coin on the ground. I pounced and carefully started to inspect it, coins are gateways to kingdoms and countries that usually tell of leaders and beliefs. Interestingly there were no inscriptions covering it, just a plain silver disk. Maybe they don’t have minting technology, but that couldn’t be right. I drew the big man’s sword from my belt and inspected it, the edge was rolled and slightly chipped where I sliced the injured man but that was to be expected from an unenchanted sword, other than that it was well made which means they have sufficient metalworking tools, how strange. It could just be a thief’s coin, specifically designed to be untraceable.

I tucked the coin away and started to look for more and found them in a small leather bag hidden inside a hole dug under one of the tents. Strange hiding place but I’m not complaining. I placed the coins on my belt and started to look for more goodies.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

…….

By the time I was done collecting my spoils the rabbit was burning but hopefully, the meat wasn’t too burnt. When I saw its burning state, I dropped what I was doing and took it off to inspect it, and unfortunately, it was cooked all the way through, so I just gave it to the bird. I sighed at the loss of good food, but my guest seemed to like it, so I wasn’t too bothered. I took out my pipe and lounged around as I waited, I had to say the herbal mix was pretty good.

POV shift---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was shivering from the excitement still flowing through my veins, I did not know what happened after I was placed under the snow but I did hear the sounds of battle and the wails and screams from that cursed creature. I somehow got the thistles off my wrists and was able to gather enough magic to try integrating my presence into the forest. After what felt like hours the battle raged until one final scream marked the end. Everything went still and the forest was silent until I heard a thud and what sounded like Deadlaf saying, “It's nothing personal,” and frantic screaming.

I held my breath and waited when a massive change in mana flow started creating a vortex nearby, I don’t think I even want to know what did that. I sat there in fear as my neighbor was ripped out of the snow and telling by the short scream and the, “Please god no,” killed brutally. I prided myself in my ability to keep myself calm under pressure but without my magic and everybody dying around me had me panicking. After a little bit, I felt a calming and familiar presence approaching and I quickly reached out with magic for confirmation.

The magic was quickly reflected back, and I knew from the feeling, it was the patron of the village. I quickly escaped my tomb of snow and frantically looked around, and to my slight horror, I saw a field of blood and mangled corpses. That was quickly put out of mind though when my gaze landed on a beautiful woman dressed in pelts and holding a wooden spear. Thank the spirits, I quickly kneeled and paid my respects. She must have saved me by sending that beast from before, I kept my head lowered until a gentle breeze signaled me to raise it. The air around her was warping and changing with her very presence, I was honored to see her true body and not just visions and illusion. An ethereal voice told me to rise and so I did. We stood there staring at the other until a vision ripped through my mind. I was in the streets with screams echoing through the air as a village was ablaze, I watched in horror as women and children were cut down in the street by hooded figures and embers flew through the air covering everything in flame. I was abruptly up in the air and that is where I saw ten individuals in cloaks circling the village, coldly watching it burn.