The air changed.
WOOOOH!!
One heartbeat, the room was as it had been.
CRACKLE!
Three rested soundly by the fire; whilst two sat upright, keeping watch.
The next?
A shadow stood among them.
No sound.
No movement to mark how he'd come.
Just there.....
Every man snapped up as if yanked by strings, even those asleep...
Swords half-drawn, eyes wide, throats dry.
He hadn't spoken.
He didn't need to.
The pressure that bled off was enough to still the air.
The figure stood tall.
Too tall.
His limbs were stretched, bones pushing the fabric of his red garments in unnatural....eery angles. A sword hung at his waist, its scabbard black as night, edges frayed as though rotten.
A mask covered his face.
A pale...featureless one.
Save for thin carved slits where eyes should be.
Those slits burned faintly as if embers were trapped within.
'Was this human....?'
The lantern light twisted on his garms, painting him not red....
The colour of blood.
Garms void of snow or frost.
'...How did he get in?'
No visible breath escaped from his mask.
No sound escaped from his movements or disjointed bones.
He didn't move, yet the weight of him pressed against everyone.
A throat clicked, hands trembling upon a sword halfway out....they didn't dare draw.
"You...you weren't supposed to--" His voice cracked, dimming before the last syllable.
The figure tilted its head, ember slits narrowing.
Still.
Silent.
Like a predator waiting for you to flinch.
Truly a cruel image.
The men shifted, knuckles whitening, they didn't want to say anything more.
Then--
A voice.
Low.
Unnatural.
As though ripped through the mask itself.
"Where is she?"
Everyone froze...
"S-she's... in the back. Untouched, just like agreed." the stocky man stammered.
Those slits glowed faintly.
"Agreed?"
The single word dreaded into the room, colder than the storm outside.
"Y-you said dawn, we--we followed orders, Drenn!"
The name slipped out.
Flinching.
The word spoken aloud seemed worse than the silence.
They stood still.
If anything was disrespectful....
Drenn's head tilted.
The ember slits narrowed once more.
"...The smell of blood."
They stiffened.
'....Huh?'
One swallowed hard.
Cold sweat shed off all.
Eyes darted to the back rooms.
"You did not honour the agreement." His voice was flat, each word cutting sharper than the last.
'...No...no....'
"W-wait--" someone stammered, panic flickering loudly as he thrusted his hands forward.
"R-Rile was watching her. If he--If he--"
They all surged to their feet, boots pounding towards the back room.
They had to see.
They had to know.
'He couldn't have....'
TAP! TAP! TAP!
Drenn followed.
Motions slow....his tall frame towering over archways.
Step for step.
For such a frame....he was deathly quiet.
The corridor narrowed.
Blood pumped violently through the hearts of those men....alongside Riven behind that door.
THUMP! THUMP!
Behind them, step by step, he followed.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Drenn's head brushed the ceiling.
The corridor couldn't contain his true posture....
Each tilt of the mask scraped faintly against the stone above, like bone dragging across bone.
SCREECH!
They didn't dare look back.
They didn't dare slow.
Huddled in that corridor they bombarded the door.
"D-Don't tell me....you bastard." one muttered, hand trembling as he reached for the latch.
The wood groaned.
THUD!
The hinges shrieked.
Wood shuddered.
One of the men threw his shoulder into the door---
"....Move."
The word came soft.
Too soft.
But it filled the corridor...pressed into their bones.
Every man froze mid-motion, the hinges shivering against the frame.
SCREECH!
Drenn's head scraped the ceiling as he leaned forward, mask tilting.
He didn't raise his voice.
The stocky man swallowed, throat bobbing.
The door gave way with a crack.
Wisps of lantern light floated in the air.
The men shoved through....then froze again.
----------
The smell hit them first.
Metallic.
Fresh.
Leaking.
One muttered, voice breaking, "R-Rile...?"
Their lantern light caught him pieces.
Sprawled against the frost-bitten wood, neck torn wide where a blade had entered.
Blood pooled under, flowing against the cold.
His eyes were still open....
Still alive in a way they shouldn't be.
Mouth frozen in a soundless echo...teeth slick with crimson.
It felt like he was still there, staring....
"haa...."
They took a cold gasp, turning their attention to a figure in the corner.
Riven stood there.
Motionless.
Blood clung to his cheek.
The girl limp in his arms.
Move---
He couldn't...
Every instinct screamed to run, but his legs refused.
They wouldn't move...
He was a mouse caught in the shadow of a monster.
That thing....
Behind the group of men, a pair of ember slits shone in the dark, staring at him.
His gaze locked with the slits.
Burning.
Unblinking.
Hungry.
Riven's chest seized.
For an instant....he couldn't breathe.
Death was pressing on his throat.
His fingers twitched:
'....Run'.
His body moved before the thought could catch up.
Boots slammed stone.
WHOOOOSH!
The air tore past his ear as he burst through.
His arm clinging tight to the girl, whilst the other gripped Mael's Fang....
"Haa....haa..." his breath hitched, eyes wide with something close to fear...
Steel hissed.
SIISHHH!!
The edge whispered through into damp timber, the sound a jagged scream.
CHAKK!
A painting of white.
A land of snow.
He didn't think.
He lunged through the opening, clutching her tight.
His ragged breath vanished into the gale.
They all watched in silence.
Their eyes shifted from the boy who left, to Rile's slumped body.
One man's voice cracked.
"R-Rile...?"
Another staggered, words tumbling.
"Gods..."
No one moved. Their eyes stayed glued to the slumped body.
A whisper bled into the silence, trembling, desperate.
"This wasn't the deal...."
No roar.
No flare of rage.
A quiet verdict as he turned.
They collectively stiffened.
Thud!
One stumbled back, eyes wide.
"W-wait--"
SPURT!
A rain of blood.
It didn't fall.
It hung, floating in the lantern haze, weightless, trembling.
Then it curled, drawn to the eerie figure, weaving crimson around Drenn like a spider's thread.
It drifted like smoke, drawn to the mask of the spectral figure.
They didn't even have a chance to scream....now all lifeless, in a veil of Frost.
Drenn turned his ember gaze towards the snow.
"A Hunt it shall...."
-------------
WOOOOH!!
"Haa! Haa!"
Pain ridden breaths.
Terror.
The feeling of vulnerability.
Snow bit Riven's face, blurring the world pale.
It climbed through his thin layers, rendering his fingers numb.
He clutched the girl even tighter in his arms as he stomped through lanes of snow, boots breaking through swirls as if the terrain wanted to hold him back.
She was unconscious.
Behind him lay no pursuit.
....Just the echo of silence that pressed like a hand on his spine.
He didn't look back.
He didn't want to.
He couldn't.
The snow carried the blood for him.