CHAPTER 3

Sapphire and Winter entered the city at dusk to be able to sneak around with ease. With Sapphire's Shadow Movement they got inside without being spotted by any guards or citizens. The question was what to do now that they were inside. The city was already starting to quiet down, and they didn't have any prior plan of what to do once they got here.

The two wandered aimlessly through the city, hoping to find any clues or maps. The pathways were of neatly aligned bricks, slightly raised wooden grass paths lining them with a lamp hanging at every certain distance. Their left was lined by houses while to their right were small shops and merchants, most of them already having closed for the day, and others preparing to close down.

After wandering for a while and finding no maps or clues Sapphire and Winter quietly sat down at a bench, their feet hanging in the air as they thought of their next course of action. The two remained in complete silence for a long while as Sapphire swung her legs and thought. Winter was the one to break the long settled silence.

"The city feels awfully quiet and eerie," Winter observed.

Sapphire continued to stare up towards the sky as she was doing before. A short while after Winter said that Sapphire snapped her head in her direction, startling Winter who gave a little yelp. "What did you just say?" Sapphire inquired, a fuse of excitement about to go off behind her eyes.

"The city feels awfully quiet and eerie?" Winter repeated, wary of what might be going on in Sapphire's mind.

"But why is it like that? Maybe there is a powerful monster here, let's ask around to see." Sapphire almost yelled as she shook Winter before bounding off.

Winter followed her, walking close behind. It took Sapphire about 10 seconds to calm herself down and act normal again, containing her unreasonable excitement. "My lord you are weird," Winter gasped, "not that I mind."

There was no one around to see Sapphire in her excited state anyways, not like they would have been for long even if someone did. Sapphire didn't kill Winter there due to her being a friend, anyone else would have been sent to the afterlife before they even realised it.

They searched around for someone to ask, not going inside the houses as Kurai had warned Sapphire that people consider their house as their territory, and if you were to trespass they will be very mad. The remaining merchants they saw earlier had also closed shop and went back to their house while Sapphire and Winter were sitting. They did not have any luck finding anyone outside whatsoever and were just about to give up.

"Hey! What are you two kids doing out here so late at night?" A voice called out to them.

They turned in the voice's direction, the balcony of the first floor of a house close to them, but they saw no one over there. About a minute later the door of that house opened and an old women, in her early stood there. "What are you two doing outside so late?" She questioned them, her tone full of urgency and terror.

"We don't live here and just got here, we were wondering where all the people who live here were," Winter explained.

"In their houses, come inside I will explain to you." The old lady commanded as she walked back inside and beckoned them in.

Sapphire and Winter exchanged glances and shrugged before going inside. According to appraisal the old lady wasn't strong, neither did she have any mental illnesses to try harm them for no purpose, so Sapphire saw no harm in going inside, still not letting her guard down however.

"So can you tell us the reason now?" Winter asked as the old lady led them to a room.

It was a fairly small room, four wooden chairs arranged around a table and a rocking chair on one side of the room. The old lady made herself comfortable at the rocking chair and offered them to sit. They took a chair each and sat down in front of her.

"For the past forty years, every day at night, a monster returns to the city and devours any he finds. That is why everyone locks themselves in their houses at night so the monster will not find them. Every single night, all the people of the town can do is pray they survive," The old lady explained. Winter was slightly scared while Sapphire's interest was piqued as the lady continued, clearly noticing it. "We have commissioned many knights and adventurers to slay this monster, but none succeeded. Even some of the highest ranking knights and adventurers were slain so the kingdom stopped sending help and abandoned us. They only return for taxes every month, in the day time, as they will just tomorrow." The old lady's expression turned to disgust on reminding herself of the unpleasant people.

"Can the monster not break into houses?" Winter questioned looking around, figuring the house didn't seem all that durable.

As she was looking around she caught the look on Sapphire's face and knew just what she was planning. Winter wasn't against that, afterall, Sapphire has slain dragons many times stronger than her, it won't be a surprise for her to win against a simple monster, if it even existed and the old lady wasn't making it up.

"It can break into houses." The old lady answered, bringing both Winter and Sapphire back to attention. "It breaks into one house every night and kills the people living in it, I am on the far side from it so I am still alive, it usually does so on the opposite side of the city, that is why you don't see much debris around this part. It takes a look around the entire town for anyone outside their house before going to that side and destroying a house. If the house is empty it destroys more till it finds someone to devour."

Winter gulped audibly due to her nervousness and glimpsed Sapphire standing straight up out of the corner of her eye. "Stay here." She ordered to the old lady in a cold voice, shocking both Winter and the lady from the sudden coldness.

Right after saying that she bolted right out the front door, just as Winter also heard what Sapphire heard, the sound of a fairly heavy footstep. It wasn't the sound of simple walking however, whatever it was intentionally stomped on the ground to create noise. Winter bolted through the door, slamming it shut behind her and freezing it close with her ice before following Sapphire, who was nowhere to be seen already.

"Still can't erase your scent even with your shadow stuff." Winter grunted and bolted right in the direction Sapphire went, which was straight ahead. Activating her Concealment Winter jumped onto the top of a house and saw quite clearly everything.

Sapphire stood on a tall pole in the center of a circular ring of houses with one opening, looking slightly downwards at a monster about three storeys tall. It's eyes were glowing yellow dots in the darkness and it's entire body but a giant dark cloud. It took Winter a while to figure out what exactly the monster was, and the answer wasn't expected by her when she first laid eyes on it or heard of it.

It was a Werewolf, a massive and very old Werewolf, that somehow survived for many years and continued to grow. Even Winter was unsure what Sapphire planned to do here, but she decided to lay low, in case Sapphire needed back up. She planned to bombard the Werewolf with spells to damage and slow it from away, while Sapphire took care of the rest as she always has.