A Glimpse in the Mist

The morning was cool and still as a heavy blanket of mist shrouded the forest.

Hennrick shivered as his horse walked down the path. 'The creatures that live here do not even stir,' he thought as he glanced over his shoulder. Something evil must dwell here.

His skin prickled as if someone or something was watching him. Instinctively he turned around and peered into the dark woods, searching for whatever was watching him. Not seeing anything he nudged his horse into a trot with his heels to leave this foreboding place and make it to Saltown just a few miles down the road.

As he neared the town the road became more and more littered with with the rotting frames of wagons and broken crates. Most of them had been there for a long time, but there were a few newly abandoned goods.

'Perhaps the old woman's warning about this road was true,' Hennrick thought to himself. The woman had said the road had been abandoned for years now, ever since Saltown took sick. People tried to send goods into the ailing town only to disappear in the forest. She urged him to take the only other way into town- a small road many miles to the East. Hennrick thought she was just a superstitious country woman running a tavern, that as an educated man he knew better and that they were just stories.

A rustling in the bushes to his right made him abandon any sense of knowing better as he galloped down the road. The trees became denser and the forest darker, but up ahead he could see a light- the end of the forest!

His heart elated at the thought of being away from this evil place and he smiled as he left the forest and felt the clouded sun touch his face. But his smile quickly faded when he realized he entered a large cemetery. Looking at the freshly dug graves he remembered why he was here. He had been sent as an herbalist to help cure the people of this town from a strange illness. They did not give him any details, only that many had tried to cure the town but none succeeded.

Henrrick could see the smoke coming from the chimneys of Saltown and headed towards the somber town.

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She could hear the clacking of a horse's hooves on the beaten down road. 'Just one?,' she thought to herself as a pained smile reached her lips. 'How daring!' She slowly licked her dry lips before quietly moving to the path, hidden by the mist and shadows.

'I wonder who it could be this time? Surely not another mob of townsmen with only one horse. Perhaps he has finally come to finish me,' she pondered as she waited for the horse to come into view. She reached towards her mud caked thigh and gracefully plucked a dagger from its sheath, licked its blade, and whispered magic that made the blade hum with energy.

She could tell it was a man's figure on top of the horse. 'It must be him!' Her breaths became heavy with anger, her eyes narrowing to slits as she raised her dagger high and lunged towards the man with rage.

It was at that moment that man turned around, his eyes looking right at her. She froze. It was not who she thought it was. Where she expected to see cold grey eyes she saw warm green ones. His short cropped brown hair softened his firm jawline. She could not help but admit that he was handsome, but it had been some time since she had seen a man that was not actively trying to destroy her.

It did not take long for her to realize that he could not see her. His beautiful green eyes were nervously darting all around the forest searching for something. He quickly turned away and trotted down the path.

Just who was this man, and why did he dare to journey into her forest? She knew she must follow him to see what he was up to. She followed him without making a sound, almost as if she was one with the mist. She caressed the rotten wagons as her lips twisted into a wicked smile as she remembered the screams from that night, though the smile never reached her eyes. They were focused on the man in front of her.

She could hear the clinking of glass tubes in his pouch. Curious she moved even closer. She could detect faint whiffs of dried herbs, and looking at his clothing she could tell he was educated. He must be some sort of healer.

At that moment a raven rustled from a bush, startling the man and his horse. She glared at the raven and spat at it to go away as she watched the man leave.

'Perhaps he will succeed where I have failed,' she thought as she let him leave her forest.