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.
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