As we came to the door belonging to the parents cabin of the last missing child the tension in the air became almost unbearable as silence ran throughout the entire town, not a soul in sight with only the wind howling through the snow fall.

With Warren politely knocking on the door waiting patiently for us both to be invited into their abode, he stands there going over the rules he kept trying to force upon me. “Remember you let me do the talking” He kept repeating until he felt confident that I would follow his rules.

As the door opened half way letting a roar of a creak, loud enough to alert anyone that would potentially try and sneak in, seemingly impossible anyone would have been able to hear from any location within the cabin.

A distraught mother answered the door peeking her head around before opening it completely weary of letting anybody enter her residence after what she had gone through. Not that she could be blamed for harbouring such feelings towards others.

Her eyes ran red with dark patches under her eyes also clearly unable to get any sleep, probably from the stress and worry for her child's sake, not that it will do it any good. “I’m Rudsek, may I come in?” I ask myself to manipulate my tone doing my best to appear as non threatening as possible despite my large frame and six foot height.

“I told you to let me do the talking?”Warren mumbled under his breath, shooting me a piercing look of disapproval at the fact that I spoke.

“So what… I can’t ask questions… Say hello? Nothing” I mutter back under my breath trying to be subtle but the deepness of my voice projects my words louder than intended for all in the room to hear.

“I told you to let me speak” he whispers back to me hoping that the woman doesn’t hear us.

“And I told you that you do what I say when I say, I can’t find the children if I don’t get the right information to do so… don’t like it go away then” My voice went back to its original tone filled with frustration and a vein popping out the side of my head.

A constant bickering back and forth between two grown men, each refusing to back down, thinking their way is the best way to move forward with no end in sight, quickly interrupted by a slamming echo from the back. “Do you two have a problem? If so go outside and sort it out, then come back”

“No” We both snapped looking to see her husband standing in the dining room with an axe slugged over his shoulder smelling of freshly cut firewood wearing a chequered patterned flannel jacket with a woollen inside, offering up a proper lumberjack vibe he had going on.

His face evidently displaying his own dissatisfaction at our constant bickering since it’s all we had done since we had arrived followed up with some disgruntled groaning.

“Can you tell me what happened the day your child went missing?” I ask the distraught couple trying to continuously remind myself that they are still suffering and in shock, that this isn’t going to be easy for them.

As they started to explain the details of the day from the moment they woke explaining how it was the same as any other day, as I found myself pacing around the downstairs scanning anything that could have looked out of place.

All the furniture looked to have been brand new and well maintained with no signs of a struggle throughout the entirety of the downstairs; both the locks were intact on both the front and the back door and none of the windows had been smashed although someone would have heard that, someone passing by or even a neighbour.

Although the fireplace caught my attention and the charred resources that remained inside, rubbing my fingers in amongst the ash, letting it linger on my finger tip as I lifted it to my nose to identify it.

“Does everyone in Freyview use firewood?”

“Yes, it’s the only thing that works” She replies

There wasn’t even an indication that anyone had been in the cabin altogether but I guess anything that would have been left would have already been tidied up.

“Is there any chance he could have gotten lost in the forests or mountains I saw surrounding the town?” I ask, trying to figure out if this is in fact an abduction like everyone has been saying.

“The kids grew up in those forests no way they could have gotten lost…” her eyes filled with certainty that even I had to believe there was no way she was lying, not about this. “They know not to go near the mountain as it’s dangerous as well”

“What makes it dangerous?” My interest peaked at the mention of it, not even realising it but a smirk forming across my face. Remote, Dark, not too far away. My thoughts fixating on it as this mystery begins to unravel itself.

Quickly rubbing my hand down my beard as if to wipe away the smirk hoping that it went unnoticed by everyone in the cabin, going back to a straight emotionless face whilst trying to gather as much of a picture as possible.

“It’s just got an ominous feeling about it whenever you go near it, so we stay clear of it.”

“Would it be okay if I look in the room upstairs?”

“If it’ll help, follow me” She said, lifting her weight from the rocking chair in which she sat taking the lead, offering her my hand to help her up and gain her footing as she carefully stood to take me upstairs, shuffling along at a pretty slow pace.

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Swiftly followed by Warren practically breathing down my neck this entire time, honestly I'm more surprised that he hasn’t tried to push me out and take over asking the questions, not as if he’d know the right questions to ask.

“It’s the first door on the left” She says as we each approach the top of the stairs leading into a narrow corridor with three doors, one for the child’s room, one for the bathroom and the last one leading to their room.

As I push the door open slowly unsure of what could be waiting inside as Warren stands on the opposite side of the door watching my every move whilst the mother waits at the top of the stairs for us both, not wanting to go in herself.

Slowly making our way into the room as we both stand in the centre scanning its entirety, nothing apparent to be seen just a standard children’s bedroom, a wooden frame with a wardrobe and drawers crammed in the corner, nothing out of the ordinary. “Anything strike you as odd about this room?” I ask aloud, providing a hint to Warren that something had piqued my interest waiting for some sort of remark from Warren but he just stands there looking at me blankly.

“Looks like a normal bedroom to me” Warren replies, shrugging his shoulders not offering up anything to help the conversation.

“Here give me a hand moving this?” I ask him as I nod my head towards the bed planting my hands underneath the headboard.

“Seriously?” he asks with a raised eyebrow, unable to tell if i’m being serious or not.

Offering him another head nod towards the bed indicating to him without words that I am in fact serious. As we both stand at the ends of the bed ready to lift, moving it to the side as we both count down from three revealing a rug placed below the bed.”Now why would they put a rug under the bed out of sight?” I ask not expecting to get a response out of Warren “You know how kids ask parents to check under the bed for monsters?” I ask Warren whilst also expressing my train of thoughts aloud.

“Ye” He responds with a hint of concern in his voice, watching my expressions closely trying to pick up on what I’m thinking at the moment.

“Sometimes the kids are right” I announce flipping over the rug to reveal the hardwood flooring with a large dark patch.

Crouching down and accessing the marking on the floor there's something off about it rubbing my fingers amongst the hardwood, trying to get a feel of what it is, raising my hand to my nose taking in the scent.

Brushing my hand through my hair once more clearly showing my frustration in front of Warren “What is it?, I've smelt it before”. The frustration building gritting my teeth, unable to solve something that seems so simple it’s on the tip of my tongue.

“Warren shut the door” I whisper to him trying not to draw attention to ourselves and what I'm about to do.

“Why?”

“Because if they see what i’m about to do they’ll probably interrupt and kick us out and I can’t have that… not yet” I explain as quickly and quietly as I can in a short time, in which he does as I told him carefully closing the door as I asked.

Removing a flat stone from my pocket and my dagger from my belt carving a symbol into its surface.”What are you doing?” in which I ignore focusing all of my attention on the carving. “What are you doing?” he repeats, determined to get an answer out of me.

“It’s called a rune” I snap back finishing off the carving blowing on it a couple of times ensuring that it’s perfect.

“Runes, like magic runes?”

“Not quite, it’s more like the magic before magic thought to be forgotten long ago”

“You’re not making any sense”

“Ye, ye, sure thing” I responded dismissing him once again, continuing to focus on the task at hand.

Throwing the freshly carved stone into the centre of the room, as Warren looks at me confused with no clue as to what I am doing or as to why I’m doing.

“How is any of this helping?” he retorts back at me completely out of his depth just along for the ride at this point.

As the carved rune in the stone starts to glow as it takes in the surrounding energy creating a vortex as the stone starts to spin uncontrollably, creating a miniature typhoon with in the room in which we stood, making it harder to breathe sucking the oxygen to the top of the room, my knives jiggling against each other as they get swept to the side from the force along with my coat flailing behind me.

Warren pinned against the door struggling to keep his footing whilst simultaneously trying his hardest to keep the door to the house shut, as the typhoon began to subside and the stone began to slow

A vibrant purple glow where the dark patch laid distracting my gaze from a now collapsed Warren sat against the door breathing heavily struggling to catch his breath.

“What is that?” He asks in between gasps, still trying to gasp for air.

“Another rune…”

“What does it mean?” Warren continuing to try to make sense of everything I’ve said and done in the last five or ten minutes

“The rune’s closest translation is welcoming…” My eyes widened at the potential realisation on as to what that could mean, turning my back racing out of the house as fast as I could, launching myself down the stair rushing out of the cabin without uttering another word, racing back to Damian’s to grab his sleigh and make haste to the mountains.

“Where are you going?” Warren screams at me following a short distance behind. “What are you doing?” He carries on shouting trying to catch up grabbing at my shoulder to stop me from ignoring him any further “Stop, ignoring me” He demands.

“You gonna let me go solve your problem?” I snap back at him, slapping away his hand off of my shoulder in my anger taking over with each passing moment.

“You’re not going anywhere till you give me some answers.” he yells,in his frustration of having no answers, no explanation and feeling no closer to finding the children. Facing the difficulty of putting his trust in a complete stranger.

“When coal lies beneath and embers burn bright,

He shall enter for his devouring that night,

To be consumed at winters last light,

To be hidden from all till next winter's night” I recite an old nursery rhyme that comes to mind at this whole predicament. One I can’t seem to shake.

“What does a nursery rhyme have to do with anything?” he responds, not being able to keep up with my thought process, unable to make sense of the words I utter.

“Think about it, cloak lies beneath and embers burn bright.” his face staring blankly as my words mean nothing to him “there were coal remnants in their fireplace.”

“That’s not a lot to go on though,” he explains, trying to see the logic behind it. “So the next part he shall enter for his devouring that night… Who is he?”

“I don’t know” I say, rubbing my beard looking around in all directions as the frustration builds up, my heart pounding quicker by the minute as the mystery continues to thicken. Gaining more and more questions but very little answers.

Turning my back, heading around the back of Damian’s cabin, for a break from everything and everyone to collect and arrange my thoughts I had learned. Leaving Warren stood in the centre of town on his own with even more questions than me.