After popping the top off of one of the jars, Holl inhaled deeply. A thick stream of fog floated out of the jar the moment it opened, but it was instantly caught by Holl’s breath and dragged toward his body.
It didn’t stop when it reached his coat, somehow phasing directly through it before seeping into his skin beneath.
On Holl’s shoulder, the small drum+feather tattoo glowed with an invisible light as it absorbed the mist.
Once the entire jar was gone, the hunger dwelling in Holl’s stomach only increased. It was like he’d been teased with a small appetizer, but hadn’t been given enough to fill him up.
“More…”
A whisper left his mouth as he reached for a second jar, but Holl’s face hardened as he forcibly stopped himself from grabbing it. His eyes flickered uncertainly as he tried to determine the safety of continuing.
The ravenous pangs had only increased after consuming the first jar, and if that trend continued-
Pop!
In the moment that Holl paused to think, his hands started moving again, unconsciously freeing the mist from the next jar. As soon as the mist was absorbed into Holl’s skin, the hunger multiplied further, and he no longer tried to fight against it.
The feeling slightly changed after he consumed the third jar, and as the fourth seeped into his skin, the hunger finally faded away.
The nighttime forest scene before Holl’s eyes faded away, replaced with the calm waters of a river. Holl bobbed around in the shoulder-deep water, but when he tried to move his arms, nothing happened.
His head slowly turned, without him trying to control it, and he caught a faint glance of himself reflected in the water around him.
It was the face of a young native-looking woman. Her clothes were completely soaked with water, even those above her shoulders. In her right hand, there was a long green reed with the tip snapped cleanly off.
“Stealth is hope. Eyes will sweep blindly past the unmoving. Still, when escape is possible, move quickly.”
A soft voice echoed in Holl’s mind, carrying with it a pained, nostalgic tone. In the river, ‘Holl’ raised his head, viewing the commotion outside of the river. Dozens of soldiers ran along the shores, rifles clutched in their hands as they searched.
Their uniforms were mostly blue in color, and the badges adorning their chests were similar in design to the one worn by Captain Wilson.
“Don’t let any escape!”
A few dozen meters from the river, Holl could see an even larger cluster of soldiers, as well as a small campsite. There was a small circle of teepees, and Holl could see smoke and flames rising from a few of them.
“After stillness, may you move unseen.”
Holl’s- or rather, the native woman whose eyes he was watching from- body rose from the water as she walked to the bank. Water streamed from her clothes as she stepped onto land, but it made no sound even as it touched the soil.
Another soldier ran past, just a meter in front of the woman, but his eyes uselessly swept over where she was standing.
“The longer you are still, the more you can sneak past.”
The woman darted into the campsite, moving at least as fast as Tolus’s full-out sprint. The eyes of every surrounding soldier failed to notice her, even as she stepped into the center of the camp.
“Do you understand, Regarded?”
There was a hazy mist before the woman. Four clumps of it, vaguely in the shape of people. Even as just an observer, a deep pang of longing seeped into Holl’s heart. It was a familiar feeling to him, that of missing his family.
A hollow ache spread through Holl’s heart as he stared at the misty clump.
“I wasn’t wrong…”
A faint sigh echoed in Holl’s mind.
“Even if those you love are gone, don’t lose hope. There will always be others there for you.”
The mist before him warped slightly, and two faces surfaced on it. Cundy and Roth looked up at him, their eyes warm.
The world around Holl slowly faded away. The misty figures with Cundy and Roth’s faces vanished, as did the campsite surrounding him. All of the blue-clad soldiers disappeared, and everything was replaced with a dark forest.
Holl inhaled sharply as he came to.
Around him, the dark forest swayed quietly to a faint breeze. A small cloth bag and a few empty jars lay beneath the bush in front of the captain.
“That… that wasn’t a dream.”
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Holl pulled off one of his warm leather gloves and reached under his coat, feeling the feather drum symbol on his shoulder. When he touched it, a faint understanding of its abilities surfaced in his mind.
He was physically stronger, much more so than before. He could likely compete with competitive weight champions now, despite being in his fifties. His build hadn’t changed though, and he looked the exact same as before.
Holl also gained an ability.
As long as he stayed still, he would be nearly unnoticeable. Depending on how long he stayed still, he would remain stealthed for a time afterward, and his already quick speed of movement would increase even further.
Just as Holl was about to get up, there was a crunching noise in the forest before him. His body stilled, and his entire presence vanished from the forest.
“Do you see anything?”
A familiar voice whispered from where the crunching noise had sounded. Despite the quiet volume of it, Holl was still able to easily hear the words.
“Just forest. This should be about where the gunshots were…”
Holl could hear worry and fear within the second familiar voice.
“He’s already been gone for at least an hour, and the townsfolk were all moving about. If they captured him, we might not have a lot of time.”
Holl could hear a faint clicking noise as Cundy toyed with his revolver.
“If they’ve taken him, the flare gun might be our best shot. Blind them, then rush up and try to save-”
“I’m right here.”
Holl slowly stood up from his hiding place.
“Ah?! I just heard his voice!”
Cundy jumped, swinging his revolver around and trying to identify where Holl’s voice had come from.
“Idiot, watch where you’re pointing that thing!”
Holl started walking over to the other two men but only became visible to them when he stepped within a meter of them. Cundy jumped again as Holl seemingly appeared out of thin air.
“Captain, what happened? Are you alright?”
Holl nodded, then gestured at the forest behind them.
“It’s freezing out here, let’s head back to the house to discuss what happened.”
Before leaving, Holl walked back to where the jars were lying empty on the ground, gathered them up, and packed them back into their original bag. After slinging it over his shoulder, he started walking back to the cabin.
-
“So that’s what happened…”
Roth, Cundy, and Holl were once again sitting in a circle in front of their wood-burning stove as they discussed the night’s happenings. From the perspective of the two crewmen who were left back at the house, it was still quite a creepy occurrence.
Even if they were only watching out of the windows of their house, they were still able to see into part of the town. It was enough for them to see everyone leaving their houses in a daze and walking toward the docks with unsteady gaits.
“Seeing as how the townsfolk are under the control of this Lord Enthenglem, I’d guess that the two hunters were trying to steal the mist from them. I didn’t talk to them for long, but it didn’t seem like they were doing it for the good of the town.”
Holl tapped on the bag of empty jars.
“I absorbed these, and it made me stronger. I’d assume it will do the same for both the hunters and Enthenglem. If it reaches the latter, it could cause some big issues for us.”
Holl’s gaze lingered on Cundy for a moment, the only member of their group who didn’t have a Regard. He hadn’t noticed his long-time crewmate spitting the praise of Lord Enthenglem yet, but he didn’t want to leave him exposed to the corruption for long.
It could even get stronger if Enthenglem consumed the large amount of mist stored in the chest, to the point of corrupting not just Cundy, but maybe even the Regarded.
“I’m not sure why the chest was hidden outside of the town in the first place, or how the hunters discovered it, but I doubt it being moved is a good sign for us.”
Holl rubbed his forehead as he leaned back in his chair.
“Both of the hunters should still be stronger than me, but neither of them strikes me as particularly intelligent. I doubt they can solve this on their own.”
Based on the general calm of the town after the final two gunshots, Holl assumed that the townsfolk had likely gotten the chest to safety.
“We still don’t know enough… but there is one more person in town who might be useful. Hendricks, the Winter Merchant.”
Bang!
Just as Holl finished speaking, the sound of one more gunshot echoed over the town. It was the last one of the night.
-
-
On the eastern side of the docks, near the street that Tolus and Hendricks lived on. A large boat shed housing a decently large three-masted ship was illuminated by lantern light.
A small horde of villagers surrounded a chest as it was carried to the side of the building, stopping when they reached a patch of dirt that looked faintly different from the surrounding area.
Though it was already dead from the cold, the patch of grass growing over the spot was much thicker than the surrounding area.
Around the perimeter of the group, over a dozen townsfolk held flintlocks, ready and prepared to fire at any approaching dangers.
Bang!
Light erupted from one of the guns, producing the noise heard by Roth’s crew across town.
“One of the Winter Merchant’s watchers was following us. It’s dead now.”
The townsman’s eyes focused on where they had just seen and shot the gray dog, but there was nothing remaining there. The foliage was thick enough to hide a collapsed body, though, so the townsfolk paid it no mind.
“Our Lord will finally be healed!”
The chest was placed down next to the thick patch of grass, and the circle around it tightened as the townsfolk prepared to open it.
“An offering, for Lord Enthenglem!”
A chant spread through the townsfolk as a few of them reached down to open the chest.
Further back, in the outskirts of the group, Jean Farsue’s eyes paused for a moment as he warily looked over the surroundings. His gaze didn’t linger for longer than a moment, and he slowly closed his eyes.
~Creeaaack-Flash!
Just as the chest’s lid was pulled open, a brilliant flash of light exploded through the crowd, momentarily blinding everyone present. A lithe figure darted between the recoiling bodies of the townsfolk, reaching the chest in an instant. All of the jars within it shattered as the figure arrived, and a thick cloud of mist shot up into the air.
Two strong forces pulled at it, splitting the cloud in two. One went to the intruding figure, while the other half seeped into the ground beneath the chest.
Immediately after it finished absorbing its half of the mist, the fur-clad intruder bolted, escaping from the crowd. The entire process happened before any of the townsfolk could recover their vision.
A wave of anger swept over the crowd as they recovered their vision and realized what had happened.
Their Lord’s bounty had been stolen by a thief.