Alone in the Dark

Death's Cold Claws

Keana was still sitting in the tavern, talking easily with the Lansend guard about various battles and missions the man had been on. The man had yet to give his name and Keana had tried to gauge if the man was merely distracting him, or just sharing war stories through most of the night. There was an odd companionship in their conversation, though Keana didn't easily trust anyone, let alone a commoner who had signed his life away in service to someone merely because they were born to different parents.

Both of them glanced toward the clock on the wall above the fireplace steadily, watching the hours of darkness tic by helplessly.

Pragmatically, Keana knew that if they had seen no one on the road, they could not track them easily at night with no hint as to where they were going. Still, as the regular customers disappeared upstairs to bed or out the front door to stumble home, he fought the urge to get his team to move out.

It was late into the night when the tavern doors slammed open and the stable boy rushed in, half carrying one of the twin boys who had gone missing that day. It was Sam, who Vix had supposedly gone after into the woods.
"Help! Someone! He came out of the woods!" The stable hand, a young man named Tom, stuttered, holding the nearly comatose boy in his arms.

The twin was half frozen and shaking, smelling of piss and splattered with blood, though not appearing to be injured himself. Keana moved forward even as his lieutenants moved in and stripped Sam of his wet clothes and trying to rouse him out of whatever stupor he was in. The boy woke up with a start, then started bawling in relief and raving about some sort of a shadow monster as he gasped and sobbed in breaths. Keana saw one of his healers checking the boy over and turned instead to look at Tom, who was backing away toward the door.

"Hey, Tom. Come here." Keana said easily.

He looked back to the group and raised a brow, noting that the Lansend Guard had left at some point, though Keana had only been distracted for a minute or two. It was more surprising that the man had managed to leave without Keana knowing than left at all. There was blood and two missing people out there in the dark.

Keana was itching to leave as well.

"Sir." The boy whispered, looking up to Keana before glancing towards the door again, his expression upset.

Keana followed his gaze, his frown deepening as he motioned toward the table he had been sitting at with the Guard. "Where'd our friend go?"

The stable boy shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "I just told him the little one arrived on the back of Lina's horse, Cocoa... and that Cocoa nearly dumped him on the ground if I hadn't caught him off his back, then ran back into the woods like demons was on him."

"I see. Good man. Thank you. Can you get my horse ready?" Keana slipped a coin into the boy's hand and strode back towards his group by the fire, bristling with a deeper impatience. Keana knew that he was being harsh, but the world did not coddle him and his company.

"Now's not the time for coddling. What happened, where's your brother?" He said sharply to the boy, who jerked straight and looked at Keana for a moment, blinking in confusion.

"Sir. Sir he's dead. It jumped us, killed my horse, grabbed Ray, and tore him apart... Next I know I'm on a horse and someone's telling me to ride and get help." Sam said, shaking his head and still looking stunned, "It was drinking his blood, sir."

Keana nodded, before snapping his fingers at the rest of his assembled company. "Let's go."

Without waiting for an acknowledgement, he strode out the door to where his horse was being led out of the stable by Tom. Keana mounted and took off down the road, forcing his men to scramble into their own saddles and chase after him.