On the other side of town, Roth’s crew quickly decided against going out to try and discover the source of the new gunshot. All of them stayed awake and in the main living room, wary that the night’s commotions might continue further.
“We should have a night watch. With how the townsfolk have been acting- heck even if it was just the hunters roaming about- we might not be safe here.”
There wasn’t a lock already on the front door of the cabin, and the crew didn’t have anything they could quickly repurpose into one.
“Cundy, you stay up first. I can take the second shift, and Roth the morning one.”
Holl glanced between the other two men, receiving nods from them both.
Both Roth and Holl took a few more minutes before they got up and headed back for their rooms.
~Drag… Knock.
The sound of something moving just outside the door interrupted Roth as he walked toward his room, and both of his crewmates spun around, pointing their weapons at the door.
Knock…
There was another low thud as something knocked against the door. As Holl slowly approached it, he could hear a few sets of small paws pacing around the frozen dirt outside.
“Who is it?”
There was a brief pause before a breathless voice spoke.
“...Hendricks. Hide me, please.”
A frown formed on Holl’s face, and he kept his pistol aimed at the entrance as he slowly pulled the door open. A weight was leaning against it, pushing it further open the second he started pulling.
The visitor’s voice sounded light and almost feminine.
“...Thank you. I will explain everything when I wake up. I know what the source of the corruption is.”
A lithe young man stumbled inside, his thin frame bulked up by layers of fur pelts. He was completely clean-shaven and had a smooth face that somewhat resembled a wolf’s. That resemblance seemed to grow stronger as two more figures stepped into the house behind him.
It was the mother sled dog, along with one of the other adult ones. Their watchful eyes glared up at the three original residents of the house, but when they recognized Roth, their demeanors softened up a bit.
-Thump.
Almost immediately after stepping inside, Hendricks collapsed to the floor, his eyes already closed and his breathing slowing down.
“Captain, was he there too? What happened to him?”
“I didn’t see him.”
Holl kept his pistol ready as he shut the front door, and his expression looked conflicted.
“This guy probably has some information, but it might be too dangerous to let him stay, especially if anyone saw him on his way here. The hunters don’t like him, and if he just found something out about the corruption, I doubt the townsfolk do either.”
Holl glanced down at the pistol in his head, then reached down and grabbed onto Hendricks’s outermost coat. The dogs looked up at him tensely, but they didn’t make any moves.
“I’ll leave this fellow in my room. If anyone comes to look for him, say that he’s not here.”
Holl looked down at the two dogs.
“You as well. Stay silent, or we’ll throw him out.”
Roth couldn’t be sure if the two dogs understood, but they didn’t make any sound.
Seeing that the situation was handled, Roth headed for his own room. It had already been a long night, and he had no issues falling asleep immediately.
-
-
“It is still hidden. Don’t be caught unaware… Remember the map.”
“Roth, it’s your turn.”
A rough hand knocked on Roth’s shoulder accompanied by a mysterious whisper. A shiver ran down Roth’s spine as he was startled awake, but seeing Holl’s face instantly calmed the young man.
“I’m up for watch?”
“Yep. You’ll be up until morning, so be careful. It is more likely for some folks to come around this time.”
Roth brushed the sleep out of his eyes, then hefted himself up from his bed and followed Holl out to the living area of the house. There was a small lantern sitting on the table, providing just enough light for Roth to see a pile of blankets lying on the floor in front of the wood stove.
“Mind if I take your room? Cundy might start snoring louder again, and it’s warmed up by now.”
Roth nodded, then went back to his room and grabbed his backpack. His gaze fixed on the sheepskin map poking out of it for a moment, and the faint whispering returned to his ears.
“Remember the map…”
Holl didn’t react to the whisper, instead just trudging into Roth’s room and closing the door soundly behind him.
Roth felt a bit uneasy as he sat down at the table, and he repeatedly looked between the bedroom doors. The rooms housing Cundy and Holl were both closed, while the one with the unconscious Hendricks stood open.
Roth’s eyes strained to see inside, and he could just barely make out a bundled-up sleeping figure within.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I’ll wait a few minutes before I take out the map. With all of the unnatural stuff that’s been going on, I doubt Holl would care too much, but I feel like it’s safer to keep it a secret.
Nothing interesting occurred as Roth waited, and he eventually reached into his back, grabbing out the sheepskin map and spreading it over the table in front of him.
It looked quite similar to before. Small, slightly uneven buildings lined the dirt streets of town. The docks were empty. The small red mark by the boat shed… was larger than before?
Roth leaned in, measuring it with his finger.
Yep. It is larger than before, and I have an idea as to why.
Even when he hadn’t been looking at the map much over the past few days, Roth had still been theorizing what its functions were, and what the red spots meant.
Seeing the graveyard on the island shrouded in a thick hue of red had given Roth an idea.
These red marks, I think it’s where someone died. As for the size, it seems to change with time. Before, when I saw this red mark, it was also close to the morning. In the evening, it disappears completely.
It was Roth’s current leading theory on the red marks, and he hadn’t seen anything that disproved it yet.
As for why he didn’t see any marks elsewhere in the town when there certainly were other people who passed away, he struggled a bit. Eventually, the best Roth could come up with was that maybe those who died natural deaths wouldn’t show on the map.
If that was the case, then the source of the red mark by the boatshed was likely foul play. It also caused more fear of the previous island to seep into Roth’s mind.
It doesn’t look like anything has chang-
The red dot moved.
Rather, it doubled in size.
For a short moment, it expanded, and then a smaller chunk broke off from it.
The new, moving red dot paused for a few moments, then started slowly moving toward the eastern side of town, where Hendricks and Tolus usually resided.
What the hell… I guess I was wrong about the map. If the red marks dead bodies, how could it be moving?
A shiver ran down Roth’s spine as he watched it continue to move, and some part of him urged him to wake up Holl immediately. He pushed away the notion, then rolled up the map.
I’ll come up with some way to explain it by morning, that doesn’t give away the map’s abilities.
Roth unconsciously glanced over at the room Hendricks was sleeping in as he thought, only to notice a faint light shining through the raftered windows.
Someone is trying to peek inside?
Roth snatched up his knife, then also grabbed the flare gun. His heart pounded within his chest as he crept over to the window, his weapons at the ready as he slowly leaned over the bed and lifted the animal pelt curtain over the window.
It wasn’t light from a creep’s lantern.
It was the morning sun.
Huh? It was definitely still dark when Holl woke me…
“Mmm?”
There was a slight shifting noise beneath Roth, and he quickly backed away from the bed. The two sled dogs both woke up as Hendricks shifted around a few times, their clear blue eyes gazing up at Roth.
“Ah, good puppies. I was just making sure there wasn’t anything bad outside.”
Hendricks shifted around again, and one of the few morning rays of light sneaking past the rafters shone into his eyes.
“Arg…”
The winter merchant reacted immediately, raising an arm to block the light.
“Why do I have to wake up like this…?”
His- or rather, her arm brushed against her fur cap as she squirmed to get out of the beam of sunlight, revealing long, flowing hair beneath it.
“Eh? You’re a girl?”
Sitting up in the bed Hendricks let out a little chuckle.
“You are an investigator sent by Wilson, and you haven’t managed to discover that yet?”
The girl finished rubbing the sleep from her eyes, then extended a hand for a handshake.
“Alisa Hendricks, Marie Island’s Winter Merchant.”
“I thought…”
Roth scanned his memory. Had anyone ever said that Hendricks was a man?
With her thick layers of fur clothing and her cap, it had been impossible to identify her before. Now that her hat was gone, her flowing brown hair paired up with her deep brown eyes, while contrasting with her stark white skin.
“Do you normally wear this many layers?”
Instead of further pursuing the previous point, Roth gestured at the thick layers of clothing still wrapped around her.
“Obviously not. I was just afraid that I would be shot last night.”
Hopping off of the bed, Alisa grabbed her outermost layer of coats and started pulling it off. She paused for a moment, shooting a smirk at Roth.
“Are you going to stand there and watch me undress?”
“Ah! Sorry.”
Roth quickly spun around and started walking out of the room.
I should wake Holl up right away… hm. Maybe I should just get Cundy up for now, and let Holl sleep for a bit longer. I’m pretty sure he stayed up extra late to give me more time to sleep.
“Wait, come back please.”
Before Roth could make it to Cundy’s door, though, Hendrick’s voice sounded again.
Alisa had managed to get her outermost jacket pulled off most of the way, but it got stuck on the coat beneath it and was now stuck over her shoulders.
“Help me out.”
There were no zippers on her coats, so she had to pull all of them over her head. Roth grabbed onto the stuck one and helped pull it off, revealing yet another coat beneath it. Neither of them said anything as he helped her take the next one off… and then the next…
By the time they were done, there were four coats piled up on the bed, and Alisa still had one on.
“Honestly, that might actually be enough to stop a bullet. I’m impressed.”
Alisa looked down at the pile of coats, too.
“Looking at it now, I’m surprised I could still run wearing all of those.”
She raised her hand up like she was asking for a fist bump.
That’s a thing in this time period?
Seeing the confused look on Roth’s face, Alisa smirked again. It almost seemed like her default expression at this point.
“A common greeting in the south. If you’re an investigator, how don’t you know about it?”
“I do, I was just surprised. Also, what is this investigator thing you keep mentioning?”
Alisa opened her mouth to respond as their fists knocked against each other, but at that moment, there was a small burst of golden and blue light. A warm heat spread out on Roth’s lower back, right where his Regard was.
At the same time, Alisa’s brown eyes turned a light shade of blue, matching those of her dogs.
Eight small dots of blue light appeared on the back of her hand, and the heat in Roth’s body seemed to reach up toward them.
Before either of them could withdraw their hands, the golden light in Roth’s body grabbed onto one of the small blue dots, pulling it away from Alisa’s hand and dragging it onto Roth’s.
“Wh- What the…”
“My dog! You stole my dog’s mark!”
“Wait, I swear, I didn’t mean to! It just happened!”
Alisa looked up at Roth, a bit of fear in her eyes.
“Didn’t try to? You’re saying you accidentally ripped away part of my Regard?!”
Roth nodded rapidly.
“I have no idea what just happened, or how it happened.”
Alisa rubbed her forehead with her hand, her anger seeming to fade away in an instant.
“You are the rookie in your investigator team, correct?”
“I guess…?”
She let out a long sigh.
“It’s fine, then. A small price to pay if it saves this town. You’d better treat my dog well.”
“Can you please explain to me what just happened?”
“It’s something your mentor should’ve already taught you, but sure. Wake up your team as we talk.”