[Child of the 7th Age]

Hot on the trail.....

The wolves could sense the shadow creature urging their band to hurry forward and join him in the North. A heavy mist had swallowed the surrounding countryside, draping the world in a thick curtain of terror that struck the hearts of all those who came under its dark spell. It was as if each of the two-leggeds in the Inn was called upon to face the secret fear that he or she most wished to avoid. The feelings emenating from the two-leggeds in the Green Man were so strong that the band of wolves had no trouble picking up on that scent.

Spurred on by the call of the shadow as well as the insistent clamoring of their own stomachs, the wolves ploughed greedily forward with noses pointed towards the ground. They had been commanded to join the shadow creature, but the place of the meeting lay far to the North. First, they must stop and feed. The scent of fear and the possibility of fresh meat relentlessly swept them forward.

The tail of the lead wolf swept rhythmically back and forth in anticipation of the bloody feast that he hoped was soon to follow. The trail of the two-leggeds was maddeningly fresh even amid the bracken and fallen leaves. Every step brought the wolves closer to the spot where the Inn nestled against the hillside, seemingly open and defenseless to any attack. Almost as one, the members of the pack veered northward towards the source of the fear, trotting swiftly along the rocky ridges of the hills until they came to the place where a grove of tall oaks stood.

Under the direction of the pack leader Nilak, the band approached this outer grove on silent padding feet; the trees stood less than a quarter mile from the front door of the Inn. Nilak gave the signal to the others to spread out in a semi-circle and crouch low in the grass so that the two-leggeds would not spy them as they approached the Inn. As a low growl escaped from his mouth, Nilak peered out above the line of grass to see who was there and assess the layout of the land.

The moon had slipped behind a cloud: the earth quivered in an eerie stillness. Nilak's shaggy coat, and that of the other wolves, blended in perfectly with the shadows. The only thing that could be seen, even from some paces distant, were matching pairs of greedy yellow eyes blazing through the night. Still, Nilak stood perfectly still, holding back from his attack. He could see tiny lights in the windows of the Inn just ahead, but did not know how many of the two-leggeds the place housed and whether they would be outside in the courtyard. He would wait just a little, until it was perfectly dark, and then surge forward, hoping to find some victims outside the building, perhaps tending to the animals in the stables. After taking care of these, surely more would join them, enough to provide a comfortable meal for all eight members of his band. For now then, he would wait and watch.....