Silhouette

Wind blew violently, a snow storm had begun atop a notably tall mountain. It was a mountain that many people knew about, but only few had explored. Expeditions had one of two results. The person would either return empty handed, or wouldn't return at all.

A man who had completely black skin, and no face, trudged through the heavy, deep snow. Lugging a sled which carried a multitude of packages and other objects.

He stopped, noticing a large wolf a few meters in front of him. The wolf just sat there, and stared into the mans blank face, not moving an inch. This wolf, was Halt.

"Strange.." the man thought. "I've never seen a wolf of this size come up to me without a single hint of aggression. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever seen a wolf this damn big at all."

Approaching the wolf, he extended a hand, which resulted in a lick and a small bark.

"It's possible that this thing's domesticated, but then..." he peered down the gargantuan mountain, unable to even really see anything due to the intensity of the snow blowing around. "How the hell'd it get up here? Is it some climber's pet?"

Halt continued to peer up at the strange looking man.

"Well.. whether you've been separated from someone, or you've just taken some strange liking to me, I won't stop you from doing as you wish. Unless you decide to attack, in which case I'll put you down."

With that being said, the man continued lugging his gear. Halt decided to sit atop the sled instead of doing anymore walking.

After some time, moonlight began to shine as night fell upon them. The snowstorm had stopped completely. "I'm still an entire day from home." The man said, grabbing a few items from his sled in preparation to start a fire. "If you're really gonna follow me, you'd better be prepared to listen to my late night stories."

Halt panted and barked in response.

The man looked at Halt for a moment, before resuming what he was doing.

Hours later. Both the man and Halt were sitting next to a fire, in a little camp he had constructed.

"You see, all of the stuff I've got on that sled I had to steal from the town. Otherwise, I woulda been killed. It's what happens when our people show themselves. Which reminds me, I never did bring up that I've got an entire race of people up here."

Halt listened intently.

"I'm not gonna lie to you.. we aren't the most sociable people. The reason we live up here in the first place is because, as you can imagine, the people down there don't see us as normal. It's a story you've probably heard a thousand times before... the freakish outcasts who've gotta high tail it out of society. Not that I'm asking anyone to have pity, it's just the situation I'm in. Not many other reasons to live in hellish conditions like this."

There was a pot hanging above the fire. The man began cooking meat he had stored.

"We used to be normal. Every last one of us. Had our own little town, with good relations to neighboring places. But those things, these beings I can't even begin to describe.. well you can see what they've done. Heh. It's not all bad though. Because being turned into this thing, came with its own set of abilities and enhancements. If I wanted to, I could kill most of the people down there with no issue. But, that's just not how I roll."

He leaned over and handed a piece of meat to Halt, who consumed it in a single gulp. "By the way, my name's Silhouette. If we're gonna be friends, try not to forget that."

Silhouette had already packed up the camp by the time Halt opened his eyes the next morning. It was a much clearer day. They both headed out toward Silhouette's home, where the rest of his allies were.

"We're nearly there." Silhouette mentioned after some time had passed. "The people here have my full trust. In a way, I guess I'm their leader. You don't have to worry about them thinking you're dangerous or anything like that."

Just as he said this, a grouping of small knives flew in their direction. Silhouette glanced over to where they were coming from, and disappeared into thin air the moment they would have made contact.

He then reappeared, the handle of his sled hit the snow with a quiet thud. "Alright. That's the first time an attack even at that low of a skill has been thrown at me, in all the years I've lived up here."

He stood upright. Slowly scanning his surroundings. Another knife came, this one he caught with the tips of his first two fingers. "That way."

Again disappearing, Silhouette reappeared behind a grouping of heavily armed, and armored bandits who were positioned behind a log in a nearby large grouping of trees.

"Hey, Jack." One of them said, clutching binoculars. "Either this thing's busted, or that freak of nature's been vanishing into thin air."

"These are monsters we're after. A few special abilities shouldn't be all that much of a surprise." The other said. He pushed a clump of snow into his mouth, allowing it to melt before swallowing it.

Silhouette sighed. "Seriously.. I would've thought that someone out to kill us would at least keep their mouths closed while attempting an assassination." He flung two knives of his own from his hand, killing both the two bandits before they could even react.

Several more knives began to fly in Silhouette's direction. This time at a constant rate, and from every direction. Silhouette began to disappear and reappear at a rapid pace in order to dodge each and every projectile.

As this occurred, groupings of somewhat skilled bandits charged out from the small frosty forest. These ones each had short, duel wield blades.

Increasing the rate of his dodges, Silhouette quickly examined and analyzed all of the enemies who surrounded him. After this went on for a while he abruptly stopped. Pulling out a strange, closed cup of liquid almost instantaneously. He popped open the lid and whipped his arm to the side in a strange but calculated manner, spreading the liquid in all directions.

"Hey, Wolf. Wherever you are, duck." Is all he said. The strength he used to throw the liquid kicked snow up from the ground, and the rest melted due to the intense heat radiated from whatever the liquid was. The precision of Silhouette's stroke and the temperature of the fluid sliced every enemy and all surrounding trees in half.

Sighing again, Silhouette dropped the container the liquid had been kept in. "Damn. I forgot to leave one of them alive, so that I could ask who they are."

He thought for a moment.

"Was it that dog who somehow informed them of where I was?"

Searching for some time, it was a slight struggle for Silhouette to locate Halt. Eventually though, he ran into a trail of blood. A few pieces of human meat were sprinkled in as well. Following it, he turned a corner where a grouping of trees and rocks had been blocking the view of the other side. There, he found Halt. He found Halt gnawing on the bones of one of the bandits, who was in a pile of dozens more. Dozens more who hadn't been sliced in half by Silhouette's bottled liquid, but had instead been torn to pieces by Halt himself.

"No... it wasn't."

They both resumed traveling to Silhouette's home shortly thereafter. Silhouette kept glancing at Halt as they walked, wondering what he was, or where such a strong animal came from.

They arrived a couple of hours later.

Once they arrived, Silhouette noticed something was off. His people seemed on edge, a lot of movement and disarray was occurring.

"I've been waiting here for a while. Since I trained you, you weren't exactly easy to track, but it wasn't impossible either." Standing there, arms crossed, was Human Hunter.