Tranquility

The small mercenary group kept together as they moved through the small village. The mist hung low and the full harvest moon and stars above them would only appear in quick flashes as heavy thunderheads crept along the sky above them. The group assumed it had been a werewolf that had attacked the small village. There were only about ten homes with a public building, if a tent can be called a building. There was silence about the homes and tent, there were no corpses or even bones of the residents. They had searched the largest of the homes which they assumed belonged to the mayor of this quaint place, there had been nothing but shredded books, torn furniture, and broken cupboards with shattered cutlery. Only the silence lingered.

Doubts were beginning to rise about who was to blame for this raid. Even the animals had been either consumed or snatched, as the pens remained intact and there were no bodies of the chickens, sheep, goats, pigs, and few cows that had once meandered the mud streets of this hamlet as though they were kin. It was cold and the ominous scene, accompanied by the stifling fog, and eerie silence caused a chill to run up the six members as they stayed in a tight formation. The largest of the hunters with their silvered axes and iron heaters strapped tightly to their forearm led the way, a spear-point into the danger as the silence lingered.

A cold hand grasped the shoulder of a single rear hunter and a frozen grip slid over their mouth, darkness surrounded them as they were pulled into the earth itself and the silence remained. The hunters took slow steps, trying to remain cautious and alert. With the disappearance of one, surely they would realize the danger they were in, and yet another was snatched by the chilling hold. As quickly as two had vanished, a third felt the nip of that icy embrace, and still the silence lingered.

The two lead hunters had not taken their eyes from ahead of them and were unaware of what had happened to their allies. The branches of the foliage about the houses hung bare and their feet stepped lightly atop fallen leaves and twigs. They held their breath and kept their thoughts suppressed as they dare not whisper to one another. Yet the ongoing stillness made not a peep and the cold grew around them. With cautious eyes and roiling hearts, they turned to one another with a nod and a slow pivot, and still the silence lingered.