[the phantom]

NIGHT 1

The region south of the River Teiglin was all but deserted.

One by one, each settlement in that land had been pulled down from within by Sauron's werewolves.

Even the villages that managed to slay his wolves lost so many of their people in the process that the village could not continue to exist, and so the survivors would move to another village, which would inevitably be invaded by werewolves.

Sauron smiled as he stood atop a hill, which was bareheaded except for one tree, two miles from the small village known as Erbar Telamarth. Sauron had been assigned to clear the region of all settlements, and this was the last one.

Erbar Telamarth was populated entirely with survivors of other villages. Sauron knew that the experience of the villagers would make them much harder to defeat, but he did not mind. If the next group of wolves he sent into the village failed, he would simply send another.

"But why use werewolves at all? Why not take an army of orcs and wipe them out?" Gothmog had asked Sauron during their last meeting in Angband.

If Gothmog weren't such a barbaric simpleton, he could've answered his own question thought Sauron. He just has no appreciation for the finer points of evil. Using werewolves is a perfect design. It causes every person in a village to distrust everyone else- even their own spouse and children. And during the day, in an attempt to find my wolves, the villagers cruelly kill their own fellow innocents. Sauron laughed quietly to himself as he fondly remembered all of the innocents who had been lynched at the hands of their friends and family.

The arrival of his orc captain, Mortakh, brought Sauron back to the present. "We have him, Lord Sauron!"

"Excellent. Bring him to me."

Mortakh turned and ran down the slope and soon vanished into the trees surrounding the hill, eager to carry out his master's order.

And so, the final chapter is ready to begin thought Sauron.

For the past eleven days, Sauron and his small company of orcs had been patrolling the area surrounding Erbar Telamarth, waiting for a chance to capture Phantom. Now, they had finally caught him.

Sauron had tried to slip wolves into the village twice during the previous month, but Phantom found the wolves both times and had them executed immediately. Sauron knew he had to get rid of Phantom or his wolves would never get the chance to destroy the village.

Three years before, Sauron had turned Phantom into a werewolf. Usually, Sauron would go to the outskirts of a village and draw the three villagers with the darkest hearts to him and put into them a foul werewolf spirit, but he had gone out of his way to make Phantom a wolf. Phantom did not come to him- he pursued and captured Phantom. Phantom was a young, intelligent, persuasive man, and Sauron knew he would make a perfect werewolf- and he did.

Phantom destroyed countless villages over the next two years, but, suddenly and unexpectedly, the man inside triumphed over the werewolf and Phantom cast the evil spirit from his own body- something no werewolf had ever done.

After that, Phantom journeyed to Erbar Telamarth and had been living there ever since. Because he had once been a wolf, Phantom could immediately sense a werewolf, and so he was able to protect the village from them. Every evening the villagers would line up outside Phantom's house and he would inspect all of them to make sure no one had been possessed.

Sauron discovered this after his second wolf attack failed, and realized that Phantom had to be dealt with before the village could be attacked.

"Here he is, Lord!" shouted Mortakh as he came trotting up out of the trees. Behind him were six orcs carrying a man, bound and gagged.

"Set him there."

The orcs leaned the man against the lone tree on the hill top and went back to stand beside Sauron with Mortakh.

The man turned his head to the left and looked towards the village, but night had come and he could not see it, though he could see the glow of fires through windows, which from so far away appeared to be orange stars.

"Don't worry Phantom- they will all be dead soon," said Sauron.

(to be continued)