Once the crew managed to warm up from washing, they donned their winter clothes once more and headed out to the streets. The air was crisp and cold, but it was still above freezing, an oddity for late November.
There were quite a few locals out and about, enjoying the nice ‘warm’ weather.
“Let’s split up and see if we can find out some details about the state of the town. I’ll investigate what it will take us to get a boat of our own first.”
Cundy planned to go around town to observe the general state of the town, while Roth still wanted to investigate the street he’d seen Lia walking to.
“Young man, you are one of the folks who came in with Captain Wilson last night, right?”
A new voice called out to Roth just after the crew split apart, and he looked over to the side of the road to see a vaguely familiar face. It was the male half of the Northrup couple- the ones who’d been ‘blessed’ to lose their baby.
The man beckoned for Roth to come over to the side of the road where there was a small shop, even holding open the door and inviting him inside. Roth paused hesitantly, and the man reached out his hand to ask for a handshake.
“Leon Northrup. I have some stuff I’d like to talk to you about…”
He glanced around the surrounding road, seeing a few people a few shops down.
“Preferably in private.”
What, to try and brainwash me into joining some cult?
Roth’s hand drifted down to his belt, confirming that his dagger was ready to be drawn at the first sign of danger. Roth clenched his teeth, then followed Leon into the small wooden building. As the door closed behind him, he had a strong urge to turn and run, but he held himself back.
The moment the door closed, Leon turned back to face Roth.
“Please help us. This Enthenglem thing… it’s taking over everyone’s minds.”
Roth flinched as the townsman grabbed onto his hands.
“Even my wife can’t think for herself anymore. It’s all she talks about, even in private, and she gets angry if I mention anything against it. I’ve just been playing along for the last few days, but it feels so wrong.”
Roth could see tears starting to form in the corners of Leon’s eyes.
“If you were traveling with Captain Wilson, you should be capable enough to save us, right? Please help.”
This guy… he isn’t affected by the mind control stuff!
Leon walked over to the corner of the room, then took out a small ream of brown-ish gray-looking paper. It was a newspaper, but Roth could see a few pages of a slightly different color poking out from within it.
“I learned how to write before my family moved to Marie… and over these past few months, I have been traveling back and forth between here and Losten Island, to the south of here. When I started noticing odd stuff around town, I managed to get some rag paper over there.”
Leon placed the newspapers down on the table, then pulled out the papers sandwiched between their papers to show to Roth.
“I’ve noted down everything odd that I’ve noticed.”
Roth leaned over the paper, and Leon grabbed a small lantern from the side of the room, lighting it up to give Roth enough light to read.
The handwriting was atrocious, like a child who hadn’t fully learned to write was trying to scribble unknown runes on the page.
“This… does it say that everyone is eating hardtack?”
“Yes. The thing Marie Island was most famous for amongst traders was our bakery, but for almost the entire last month, the only thing Jean Farsue, our baker, has been making is hardtack. Even stranger, no one seems to be averse to it.”
Leon tapped his finger on the next line on the paper.
“It isn’t entirely unusual to make stuff that will last the winter, but it’s not just that. It feels like everything anyone has been making recently is given out for free to the townsfolk.”
Leon paused for a moment as he tried to come up with an example for it.
“This hardtack, if you go to the bakery, Jean will give you some for free. Every day. It’s not just his shop, though. Even since I came back for my daughter’s birth, I haven’t seen a single person using money in the entire town. Not even bargaining or anything.”
The old tanner Raymond’s words echoed in Roth’s mind.
The Lord Enthenglem is generous. A place to stay, a bite to eat, and warmth for the winter will all be granted.
Back in the time Roth was familiar with, there were small towns who would operate mainly off of merit and friendliness, but there was almost always still a concept of money.
“There is still a lot of trade going on between us and other islands, though. Just this morning, right after Captain Wilson left, there was a boat sent out to Losten Island with all of the money Wilson used to buy our pelts.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Roth nodded as he made a mental note to recite all of this to Holl. Leon continued going over his list of unusual occurrences in the town, a list that was 25 items long. After the first few, though, the rest were comparably mundane.
An uptick in logging compared to previous years.
More townsfolk out hunting and trapping.
A few of their fishing boats staying in the water later than usual, including the one currently heading to Losten Island.
There were also a few stranger entries, like two of ‘Hendricks, the Winter Merchant’ having two of their sled dogs pass away. Leon swore that he’d seen the two dogs healthier than ever that same morning, and also mentioned that Hendricks was one of the few other people within the town who didn’t seem affected by the mind corruption yet.
He even mentioned seeing Lia walking past his shop late the night before, but Roth quickly dismissed that one. After talking to Leon for a few minutes, the two young men headed back out to the street.
Most of what Leon said could be attributed to the coming winter, it must be difficult to survive this far north in this time period. With all this creepy Enthenglem stuff, though…
Roth amended his plans for the day. He still planned to check out where Lia had gone first, and he now knew that she had still been out late at night. It was possible that she had spent a lot of time wherever it was that she went.
After that, he decided to meet up with Holl and Cundy, and they could investigate the town’s cash flow together. If the town was still generating money- which by Leon’s words, it was selling more pelts and hand-made goods to outside islands than ever- then it had to be going somewhere.
Roth received the same ‘Praise Lord Enthenglem’ greeting a few more times before he reached the end of the street, and he made a right turn once he passed by the last building.
There wasn’t a street per se, but being right by the docks, there were a few well-trodden walking paths. Roth followed the one he’d seen Lia on, leading to a small, barren road on the outskirts of the small port town.
Of the nearly fifty buildings making up the town, Roth could only see six of them on the left side of this street, and half of those looked rundown and abandoned.
Almost as soon as he started walking down the pathway, the sharp barking noise of a dog came from somewhere up ahead, and Roth looked up to see a large husky staring at him. The white and gray dog was extra fluffy, to the point that it looked like a walking marshmallow.
The large fluffer barked a few times when it saw Roth, then lifted its nose up into the air to draw in his scent. A few more poofy woofers peeked their heads out from the side of the building they were next to, their small black eyes turning to face Roth.
Those are some big dogs… luckily they don’t look very fast, so I can probably still run away-
The first woofer’s face lit up as it recognized Roth’s scent, and it started bounding toward him. The other dogs followed behind it, charging toward the frightened young man.
Roth could only turn and take a few steps before a heavy weight crashed into his back, knocking him to the ground. All of the air was knocked out of him, and his limbs flailed for a moment as the other hounds ran over and opened their maws, revealing sharp canines.
In the last moment before the first dog’s incisors descended upon Roth’s face, he let out a small squeal of terror.
*Lick.*
A long pink tongue was drawn across the young man’s face. It paused halfway through the lick, and Roth slowly opened his eyes. The first massive husky was standing over him, staring into his eyes.
“Please… I’m not dog food.”
Almost as if taking his words as a sign of confirmation, the woofer licked him again, and a few other fluffy bodies brushed against the side of Roth’s head, tickling his ears. A few more puppy tongues joined the first in giving Roth kisses, and he futilely tried to push them away.
Roth didn’t know what to feel as his face was thoroughly coated in puppy saliva.
Are they just trying to soften me up right now? Am I going to be food for their pups? Of all the ways to die, being eaten by fluffy dogs… probably isn’t the worst?
Roth forced his eyes open again, and the woofer standing over him paused its assault. The dog looked positively overjoyed to see Roth opening his eyes again. The corners of its eyes winked shut, and its tongue lolled out of its mouth as it panted.
Roth’s face started to redden as he realized that his near-death encounter was just a pile of overly excited dogs.
“-Cough, you dogs saw nothing. Let me up.”
The woofers obediently backed off enough for Roth to stand back up, and the young man nervously glanced around the street. Luckily, it was completely devoid of anyone who could have witnessed his panicked squeals.
As soon as Roth was back on his feet, the lead dog started walking back toward where it had come from, then paced back to Roth. He quickly understood that it wanted him to follow it.
“Uhm, I was going to look around the street for a bit… but sure, I’ll follow you.”
In total, there were six dogs present. The extra fluffy one Roth took to be the leader was a bit smaller than three of the other ones, but it also seemed to be the most active. While the other five dogs calmly walked by Roth’s side as he followed, it excitedly ran back and forth in front of him.
“Look, I don’t want to make your owner mad by trespassing on their land…”
Roth paused hesitantly as the dogs led him back behind the wooden building, but he still decided to keep following. When he rounded the corner, he discovered what they wanted to show him.
In an instant, his heart nearly stopped, and his opinion of the fluffy animals changed.
Before him was something that could only be described as an eldritch horror. A creature that was capable of mind control, and not just at a basic level.
The beast in front of him had the full capabilities to capture the mind of anything that even briefly laid its eyes upon it. It was something that even in his past world, had managed to conquer every continent.
As for Roth… even his Regard couldn’t protect him.
“Eeee! That is the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen!”
Roth’s fear of dogs disappeared the instant he saw the cute little dog sitting by the leading woofer’s side. A few moments later, the lead dog- whom Roth now recognized was likely a mother- pulled two more soft little furballs out of a small wooden den.
Roth crouched down next to the three little furballs, his hands aching to feel their fur. He wasted no time pulling his hands out of his gloves to rub the puppies.
One was almost purely white, while the other two were both gray/white mixes. All three puppies had brilliant blue eyes shining with curiosity.
I want one… these should be owned by the Winter Trader person, Hendricks. Leon said that they should still be sane, so there might be a chance…
Roth shook his head and slowly stood up.
This place is too dangerous to worry about this kind of stuff right now. This and the shower this morning- I need to focus on surviving first. I’ll take one more small look around the street, then I’ll go meet up with Holl.
Roth straightened himself up, brushing off some hair that was sticking to his coat. He tucked the metal trident necklace he got from Lia back under his shirt, the chilly metal light against the skin of his neck and chest.
The faint scent from the soap used by Roth earlier was almost completely gone now, replaced by the faint aroma of wet dog.