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Old 06-17-2007, 05:55 AM   #37
Dimturiel
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
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It felt strange to Erling to be sitting at the table in the inn and be talking about dangerous creatures of the wild, talking and not only hearing about them from a report of things that had already happened, distant and therefore safe. It gave him an unpleasant feeling to speak about dangerous and unfamiliar things in that familiar and until then secure spot. Until then it seemed to him that he had looked on the world without Bree as from a safe and impenetrable wall, yet now it seemed that the wall had crumbled and he-or better said, they, the people of that comfortable little town where nothing happened-were left exposed and unprotected to face the perils of that unfriendly world.

Erling inspected the map with interest. Particularly long he looked at the many green patches that lay around Bree. Once, he had lost himself in one of those woods. A strange sensation had taken hold of him then as if…as if there was something there, something unfriendly, wicked even. But he said nothing to the others about that. He was a small lad when that had happened, and very fanciful too, it was likely enough to have been only his imagination playing tricks on him.

“There aren’t just beasts who live in them, either.” Parkun said then, and Erling found himself wanting to ask “How do you know?” However, instead of doing that, he found himself nodding in agreement.

“It seems so.” he said. “And I was just wandering about something. Why do these creatures leave never as much as a footprint? Master Kuric says it’s a troll, but, well, I have heard trolls are not too clever, would they bother to hide their footprints? And could ordinary beasts do that? Who knows what has crept into our forests.”

“But how can you be so sure it comes from the forest?” he found himself thinking, and he shuddered. “Perhaps it comes from your own safe town.” But no, thought Erling, energetically waving his head to drive such dark visions from his mind, it could not be. He did not even know how such a terrifying thought could have come to him. It could not be.
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