Missing

"Vincent?"

I got out of my stupor when I heard the deep voice of my large companion,

Conner is his name, at first glance one would think he is some shoddy hooligan until you get to know his gentle side, but I sure am glad we are not on opposing sides, this guy just morphs into a bloodthirsty demon when his switch gets flipped.

Amongst my current crew, he is the one I worked with the longest and trust the most, we were form the same mercenary troupe till we got backstabbed one too many times, before we quit,

Well we all had our reasons, I am not really proud of what we used to do, but now things are different, I looked back at Connor to see his concerned gaze towards me, ah this guy is also a worrywart,

"oh! nothing, I just thought that the fog was getting even thicker really quickly, hey Damian have you seen any signs of wild animals or beasts while scouting the surroundings?"

"not really, for now, this seems like a good spot, but for some reason, I feel unsettled, this fog is really dense"

He is right, we have been doing escorting missions through the misty plains for a couple of years now that I memorize the whole path by heart, but this fog is unusual, this season it is even thicker than its peak last year, the cold humidity does not help as well, the trail got muddy and damp, we might have to prepare some wooden branches in case one of the carriages wheels gets stuck in the mud,

As much as I want to finish this escort quest fast, we cannot rush, that pig might be pushy but he is a coward, he will not oppose the opinion of his escort, and if he gets stubborn I can just threaten him to leave him stranded here, if push comes to shove I will really leave him, worst thing could happen we will get some earful from the city council and I might have to pay a compensation fee for incomplete commission but nothing is more important than saving your skin,

We placed two people on lookout at all time, the first group will be Damian and Avian, then me and Connor, Chris can keep sleeping for the whole night as he was our navigator, he got really exhausted maintaining his compass-like precession for the last four days,

Avian is one of our vanguards the other being me,

He is from the southern frontiers a tribe called Bokhan, they are well known for their reddish tanned skin, Gray hair and he was no different,

He has sharp up slanted light blue eyes so light they are almost white in color, he gives a playful yet barbaric feel, he definitely does not belong to the city, Avian has his hair in long dreadlocks with a body that resembles those sculptures in Septem temples that portray their gods,

His body was covered with red line markings on various places, most prominent are two streaks vertically covering his face across his eyes, he had multiple piercings and earrings on his ears and around his nick, where a thick gold split choker rested,

He carries on his back a great blade that seems to have been crudely carved from some large creature bones on the flat edge of his blade gigantic teeth were attached giving the blade a savage barbaric feel, near the hilt multiple metal rings pierced the back end of the weapon, the pommel of the hilt was the skull of some bird, this one was also a battle maniac and needs someone's constant supervision at all times when we are in town, but when on a quest he is quite dependable.

The warriors of Bokhan are well known for their superior physical strength, legends even suggest that some of them hunt barehanded, I am not really sure about the authenticity of this rumor, but considering what I saw him capable of so far, that could not be too far away from the truth, to put his personality in simple words, he is one of these simple one-track-minded guys, once he decides on something there is no changing his mind,

As for Chris, he was a short ginger his hair was straight with long bangs, his face still had some signs of childish youth, he also surprisingly had pitch-black eyes,

As our scout, and navigator, the main reason we can comfortably tread the misty plains is thanks to his great senses, he needs to visit a place once to memorize everything about it, he also has exceptional spatial awareness, as if he has a birds-eye view on certain occasions,

We theorized that this might be a deviant manifestation, but due to the lack of conclusive evidence we were not able to confirm, he had the slimmest build of us, his weapons of choice were twin black daggers, and a crossbow, his daggers had dark blue engravings with a mat silver hilt, while his wooden crossbow was unorthodox with three mounting sockets and a short extension that was used for quick bolt release and reload,

As soon as we settled in the camp I went to sleep to recover from my fatigue,

...

within my fleeting light sleep, I again dreamt of her…

She always looked so desolate, about to break, about to scatter with the wind,

Sickly pale skin without a single blemish so pale you can see her veins,

Oval small jaw her lips pink with a sliver of glinting blue, her nick long gracefully paving a soft way to her collar bones,

Her ears lobules were pierced with delicate studs, the studs had a peculiar design of blue thorny vines, I could not see her eyes, but I bet they were brilliantly dazzling,

*shove,

To my dismay I was harshly woken up with no time to savor her sweet presence,

Opening my heavy eyelids, I saw a distressed Damian, the kid had cold perspiration all over his forehead, his breathing pace quickened and face flushed as if he had ran atop of the Varic mountains trail in one go,

I jokingly teased him with an indolent voice,

"kid, I know you are still learning about the world, but I really don't swing that way"

His flushed face turned even redder, if we weren't on a mission, I would completely misunderstand this situation,

He flusteredly shouted back.

"NO, I definitely don't swing that way either!!!"

My eyes sharpened I could sense the panic in his voice, he wasn't flustered about my teasing, something must've happened whilst I was sleeping,

He calmed his nerves and steadily started recounting what went on,

" While I and Avian were on stakeout that stupid pig woke up, he said he wanted to take a piss, we told him to go ahead, but the fucker insisted that one of us go with him in case he gets attacked, after discussing with Avian we agreed that I should go since I am the faster one so in case anything happened I could call for help ...

when we came back Avian was missing,

We looked for him everywhere, but with no trace,

I even woke Chris up to see if he can sense his location, but even he said he could not feel anything"

When we were in the city Avian would often wander off on his own, but when on a mission he has never done that before, they all strictly know that if they don't play by the rules, there are no second chances,

When outside we usually sleep with our gear on, so it did not take me long to spring out from the tent,

I looked around the camp to see everyone wide awake, I pointed to one of the caravan coachmen, this guy seemed to have a good relationship with everyone so I asked him to make a heads count, the result was we were missing two laborers and Avian,

The whole caravan consisted of three coachmen, the pig, and 5 laborers so 9, with my crew we were 14 in total, and three of them disappeared,

There should be no way for them to be gone without a trace, they at least should leave a footsteps trail in the muddy plains, I asked Chris and Damian about that they said there is a trail that leads west of the camp, opposite of the path we are taking to reach the Clifford domain,

Gloom took over the camp, with the dark night, minuscule lighting and the cold wet feel of the fog it seemed very eerily unsettling,

This is not good, I can feel the anxiousness from the caravan people, I would like to avoid panic within their ranks if possible, I have seen these looks many times, nervousness, and unease, once they lose it, they will spell their doom.

Avian couldn't be taken down easily, especially if his opponent is a beast, he might get outsmarted by people but not by monsters, but it is too early to tell what could have transpired, there is a chance that he might have left some clues as to where he went,

"if we keep sitting on our asses, we will not be able to find them, let's split into three groups"

A nervous nasal voice raised in objection,

"hey!! Who cares about a couple of laborers? Your mission is to escort this caravan to Clifford domain"

"OHH!! So ... both your looks and personality match, you treacherous swine!"

A deep demonic voice interrupted, the pig frigidly froze at the display of blatant malicious intent directed towards him, his morbid body was fully drenched with cold sweat and a faint foul stench of ammonia wafted from his direction, this guy likely pissed himself in utter horror,

He went and made Connor angry, a feat only few were ever able to accomplish, even I would not rather face him while he is in that foul mood,

"Milo, in this contract we promised to protect the caravan but there was no mention that it should even be on the cost of our lives, in case you are unsatisfied you can go ahead with what is remaining from the caravan people and continue towards the Clifford domain by yourselves,"

Milo stiffened with a beet-red face, the longer the silence grew the uglier his face got, he scrunched up his eyebrows and headed to his carriage without uttering a single word,

I took that as a sign of approval and faced the remaining caravan people,

"I and my crew will be undermanned if we are to both protect you and look for the missing lads at the same time, I will not pressure you to help but if you can that would make our work easier"

In the end, one Couchman and the three remaining laborers were the ones to step up, we split into three groups, one stayed on the camp consists of Chris, Connor, the two Coachmen and the pig, I took one coachman and a sturdy laborer with me to track the steps towards the west while Damian group of three followed at a considerable distance behind to cover our backs,

I asked one of the two men accompanying me to keep his eyes on Damian groups torch to make sure if it ever went off, Damian should have asked the two with him to keep their eyes on our torch as well as the campfire at the same time while he keeps watch of their surroundings, we soon reached the end of the tracks,

A muddy black pit was ahead, it was a few yards away from the road, there was an old blackened oak tree at the edge of the pit, I started looking for signs of struggle, so far there are only the distinct marks of three pairs of footsteps, two pairs were unsteady and messy as if they were drunk, and one pair was light and steady at one point the streaks of the footsteps elongated it seems it got harried the closer we got to the pit as if the owner of those last pair of footsteps started running at full swing,

"Did we have any alcohol with us on this trip?"

I muttered to myself, but the coachman was able to hear me and answered,

"No, all alcohol was finished a few days ago, even if the guys hid it whether it was a single bottle worth or more they would not be able to keep it, Master Milo has a sensitive nose for alcohol so he would have caught on"

I also did not notice any stench of alcohol while I was looking through the camp, from the footsteps it looked like these two were drunk and that Avian was following them, maybe due to their slow pace he was slowly following them while calling them back to the camp, then if I guess correctly something or someone appeared which caused him to run in that direction, but if they were not drunk were they drugged or sick ?

a thought was haunting me for a while, in the back of my thoughts tickling my imagination, this setting seemed familiar, Its like I have heard of or seen this before,

I widened my eyes in horror at the thought that became clearer in my mind,

"BACK TO THE CAMP"

I screamed at the top of my lungs as I urged the two to run back, on our way we met with Damian's group as we dragged them back with us, Damian gave me an inquisitive look but I did not have the time to share with him my thoughts,

Soon we saw the campfire, and both Connor and one of the coachmen around it, I asked the two coachmen to round up everyone, and told them to keep track of each other at all time, the result is they came back with no one,

The pig, Chris, and one coachman were gone, silence filled the camp, Connor was about to move towards Chris tent to investigate but I stopped him on his track,

"what is going on Vincent"

Connor peered at me with a questioning look, what plunder, I sighed, so far, we lost six members, I have not felt this anguished in a long time, I steadied my breathing as I collected my thoughts,

"sleepwalking"

Everyone gave me incredulous looks,

"I have seen something similar in the past, where a specter was able to guide the sleeping soldiers towards a cliff, we might be facing a non-human that can hypnotize others, but unlike a specter, I believe this one has a physical body or an accomplice with one"

With his lips trampling Damian voiced his concerns,

"How can you tell"

"Avian footsteps,

While you were gone with Milo he probably caught these two walking unsteadily away from camp, so he followed them slowly, he probably called out to them urging to head back to the camp, finally, he realized something was wrong from the way they walked, that is why his footprints changed as he started running towards them, I believe the muddy pit was also made by whatever attacked them to hide its traces,

So far I can tell this thing can probably hypnotize with special conditions, but we don't have any information about the number he can hypnotize at a time, it should also have a physical body to be able to take down Avian, it could also have taken him by surprise, but we are sure of one more information, this thing is smart,

In fact, too smart that I think it might have near human intellect, but I have never heard of any ability that any humanoid could use to hypnotize unless its a deviant"

Everyone on camp had shocked expressions on their faces, even I found the words coming out of my mouth nigh unbelievable, but this is the only way I can explain the situation we are in,

I heard Connor arguing back,

"but Vincent, this thing could it hypnotize from a distance? I did not see any trails coming from outside the camp besides ours?"

"Also, we did not see any around the mud pit when we were there"

The coachman who was part of my group added,

"Does that mean that it does not have a physical form?"

I started contemplating, then how did Avian disappear, there is still a missing piece to this puzzle,