Chapter 6 Shadows Part 2

The wind howled into the blackened night, barely masking the click clacks made by a certain feline. Harka, who was halfway to the middle of Aelkeep made use of his agility in free running over the tops of some of the homes that were still lit up in the evening snow. He did his best that with every landing he would not use his claws to dig into the snow as he didn't want to accidentally pierce the rooftops of some of the thinner roofed buildings. Though with the last house he cleared, he hit a small patch of ice that made him dig in or face falling from a four story building into a back alley. “Oops...” he grimaced. “Hopefully no one will notice that...” He stopped for a moment, scanning the area around him as he took in a deep breath of the cold evening air that the wind had brought while the snow continued swirling around him. A second gust of wind came barreling towards him, though with this gust, something felt off as his ears perked up and his sense dissected the air around him. His ears twitched and focused in on the sounds around him but all he could hear was the howling winds that muffled everything else. Using his sense of smell he could tell that something didn't smell right to him at all. His nostrils were flooded with scents that swirled around him. Fresh meats being cooked, burning metal, smoke from the chimney tops, all commonplace but one he singled out was different. It was a strange scent he had never smelled before and he could not place it with anything in his mind. "What is this? Hmmmm...odd" he thought for a moment. Though this new scent didn't directly affect him in any way as of yet, his feline nature had caught the best of him and decided to move towards this new smell. He took a running start and rushed over the next few roofs, carefully timing his jumps between each home, this time not worrying about the damage that his claws could cause to the rooftops. Harka followed the smell past several more homes until he saw a home that was higher than most others, a perfect vantage point for him. In his full tilt, he leapt onto the siding of the home and clawed his way up to the top of the roof. He walked towards the edge and knelt over the siding. He took in a large sniff and gazed at the eastern gates. “It's coming from over there...” he thought. He took a moment and looked out towards the eastern gates, focusing on the area around it until he saw an unusually large gust of wind and snow whip through the town and come racing over the rooftops. Harka braced himself and dug into the roof and held on to the ledge as the overpowering typhoon of snow and ice ripped through the town. "The hell!? Where did this wind come from? It was calm just a moment ago!" The rime laced wind whipped around the streets, forcing people that were still out to retreat into back alleys or into the safety of their homes and inns. The rime wind was strong enough that soon it was able to extinguish all of the street lamps that had been lit throughout the entire town, leaving the city in dark and foreboding setting. Harka was covered in a thin layer of frost that he quickly shook off after the strong gust had left the town. He was confused by this strange weather pattern, thinking to himself that this couldn't possibly be natural. Harkas ears perked up once more as his puzzlement was sat aside to a knew dilemma. He gazed back towards the eastern gates, listening to thuds coming out of the wind, thuds that Harka felt were coming from outside of the town. Within seconds of hearing the thuds, a gargantuan, shadowy, protruding hump could be seen just barely above some of the homes but with the snowfall and the wind, Harka could not see exactly what it was that had barged through the eastern gates. Harka became concerned in an instant as a small gust of wind brought another smell that was wafting all around him now. "Carrion?...!" Harka said to himself as a numbing chill ran through his entire being. Harka was no longer curious but concerned "Something that big that brings the smell of carrion on the wind just happened to wander into town right before a blast of rime wind...” Harka reached behind his cloak and the sound of two clasps unsnap. “I have a bad feeling that this isn't going to end well without a distraction." Harka picked up his pace, rushing towards the last known place of the shadow, hoping that his senses were off and that he was just catching a cold.

Chapter 6 Shadows Part 1

Chapter 6 Shadows

The wind gained strength as it blew across the clear farm lands while the snow fall above Aelkeep thickened, constantly replenishing the lush carpet of white the wind loved to twirl. Evening, a cold and biting one had come to then denizens of Aelkeep but they did not fear the icy teeth and howling winds that hid in the darkness. Why would they? The people of Aelkeep were a hearty enough people that, if some unknown aberration came in the middle of the night with a gnawing hunger and the urge to bite, then the people would be inclined to bite right back. Lamp lighters employed by the town watch carried torches dipped in specially treated waxes along with other magically powered devices to help light the lamps scattered around the city. The lamps were also treated with an alchemical wax to help keep the fires burning until the light of day touched them or doused by other means besides that of the wind. The faint glow the candles put off, warmed some hearts and souls while it filled others with slight annoyances of memories long past. "Graven, hurry up! We are almost at the Inn. Come on slow poke." Graven who was filling the role of beast of burden, had been drug around the city practically all day by Talya and was loaded down with boxes or bags that contained alchemical reagents along with gifts for shrines. Graven had just about enough of the foolishness but for his own sake he persevered through it. "Give me a moment to adjust my grip. You do realize that we have been running around the city all day without a moments. How is it that you have such energy to burn?" Talya smiled at him and chuckled a bit. "Alright then, we'll slow down since the big, strong man needs his rest ha ha." Graven smiled slightly as he knew that she was only joking. She was enjoying herself with the company she hadn't seen in years and to his astonishment, Graven was also enjoying himself to a degree, whether he wanted to admit it or not . It felt very nice to have someone to talk to on a somewhat even ground but Graven did not let his emotions gets the better of him. Quite the opposite spectrum, more or less reigning them in and keeping them far away from Talya. Graven thought to himself as he looked up towards the lanterns "Who knows what she would do or think if she knew about the real me. It would be best that she never gets to attached." “Graven, hey what's...?” Talya noticed that Graven had stopped moving and had seemingly froze in place. The orange and yellow aura that the lantern exhumed thinly covered Graven. She looked closer and noticed his eyes reflecting the flames that danced in the wind as the snow swirled around him and left without a nod. For a moment Talya caught herself looking over Graven from top to bottom, studying every part of his body with a slight blush and the turn of her cheek. She gripped her cloak near her heart, turned back and took a few steps closer to Graven. “Graven...” He slowly turned his head down towards her, his face half illuminated by the lantern glow. “Yes Talya?” “I...I...wanted to...say that..!” Talya's eyes flashed wide open for a moment as if a thunderous noise had roared from behind and frightened her. She quickly turned around, reaching into her cloak for an unknown object. She began to breathe deeply and at a rapid pace while looking from side to side but she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. A perplexed look came across her as she looked down at the ground. Inquisitively she knelt down to the snow covered street and put her hands on the ground for a moment, focusing intently on something that could not be seen or heard. Graven looked slightly puzzled at her behavior and knelt down beside her. "Talya? What's wrong? Are you feeling alrig-" "Shhhh!" Talya quickly interrupted as she kept her palms on the ground. With her eyes closed she opened her senses and channeled them through the ground. They raced through the streets along the snow and wind until they were met with what one could only describe as a gargantuan shadow. Her senses pulled back to her again, her face immediately becoming pale. Graven knew immediately that something was amiss and put his hand on her shoulder. “Talya. What is going on?” "I can feel something...dark...full of hunger and malice...headed this way. It is massive Graven." Graven looked around for a moment as Talya had done before but couldn't see anything. He closed his eyes and with a few quick gestures, focused all of his energies into the area around him to try and sense or detect anything with his magic. He was quickly bombarded with small incantations from local magicians and other small happenings in various homes, no large surges in magical energies. “Something massive with no trace of magic huh?” Graven decided to follow Talya and put his hands to the ground. He poured a small amount of magic into his fingers to heighten his senses for a short moment, concentrating. "thump....thump" a faint tremor could be felt that was slowly growing in intensity as Graven rose up from his position, swearing that the snow had shifted for a moment. "The hell?" Talya stood up rather quickly and stared in the direction the vibrations were coming from. "I think it would benefit us if we found a safe place retreat to or to watch from. Perhaps up on the roof of one of the homes or in one?" Graven smiled with a nefarious grin. He'd been dying for a chance to stretch his magic in the sense of muscles since he had left his home some weeks ago. Graven also thought that this might give him the opportunity to either make some quick koriya and gather some much need materials for his craft in alchemy, depending on what was making the tremor of course. "Personally, I think we should invite it out to dinner since it ruined my initial plan of taking you out somewhere nice. Let us see what this something is, what it's up to and take the date from there, what do you say my dear?" Talya looked concerned at the thought, that this was a bad idea but she nodded in agreement and followed Graven towards the tremors. Hoping that whatever shadow she had seen that was making the tremors would not pick up their scent and hunt them through the city