Hunting A Drake - Part 1

The months had indeed passed and they had all moved on in their own ways, mentors included. The mission was meant to be an easy one for their team so they had departed without much delay. Apperantely they were even set to meet with two local guides in the southlands.

The southlands of Rejuan were almost permanently covered in snow all year around, not as harsh as the northern climate of the planet but still quite cold. Many tribes and folk that liked the cold more than cities and big civilization lived down there.

But it was all still a part of the same nation that invited all kinds of folk no matter their race, shape or form. These guides were the ones that had found the most likely area and possible lair that the ice drake was living in. It also matched with the maps that had shown where the caravans or merchants had been attacked.

There was no delay in the teleportaion and transport to reach their destination. A small souther town caped in ice and snow. It was definitely cold now during winter and they were all dressed well for the occasion.

They had gone into the town of Shal and met up with the people in charge like the local watch and lawmasters, before a squad of soldiers took them on a patrol down to a village about an hour away from the town of Shal.

It was a village south east, and when they got there they all saw a shabby collection of houses and tents and people dressed in proper winter clothing, but there was something off about it.

"Whats with their clothes?" Erica asked as she saw the different textiles, almost foreign. Bregane shook his head and shrugged.

One of the guards spoke up. "That there missy is from their local culture. Their kind has been living here for many hundreds a years!" He rubbed his hands to gather some heat. "They are quite kind and hospitable if you are nice enough. Let's get out of this cold hell." The Sergeant of the unit spoke up.

He quickly walked down followed by the rest and approached the nearest grown person and informed them of who they were and what they were doing. The person pointed them towards the largest tent in the middle of the village.

Erica and Sonya noticed that there were several children about running like crazy, some of them on all fours or hunched around. Many of the villagers were stopping and following them, soon enough they had amassed a small following towards the village hall.

The Sergeant took point and talked to people seemingly having been there before. He was met with nods and grunts a little bit of mistrust, but not contempt. But the villagers looked at the others not wearing guard clothing a bit more suspiciously.

All of them were completely covered by their clothes after all. Except for Sonya's horns sticking out of her hood, which funnily enough seemed to make the villagers more relieved about her presence. The ones that saw Sarmah up close also seemed a bit calmer. The fun thing is that one was a half and half devil & dragonkin and the other was a fullborn dragonkin.

Samuel couldn't help but shrug to Erica. After a quick chat with the tent guards they were let inside into a huge tent that could house a lot of people, and funnily enough the people travelling with them all entered behind them and stayed close to the edges of the tent.

Inside it was like a big open hall with a campfire in the middle and plenty of benches and smaller fires around the sides. Some village elders seemed to be seated there talking all of them stopping what they were doing.

The Sergeant quickly walked up and explained the situation before giving them the tiniest of bows and walking off to the side, "You're up from here on out, I will take my squad and head back after some heating up!" The Sergeant who seemed like an old veteran spoke to Bregane.

The guards left to the sidelines to separate campfires while Bregane and his group slowly approached the middle, taking off some of their hoods and gloves to show their faces and some basic form of respect.

The elders all looked human to Samuel which made him confused, his confusion was broken by Night who started coughing and holding her nose... "Stupid Mutts are so smelly!" She complained and went back into his shadow while being grumpy.

Samuel became confused for a while before an o was shaped on his mouth.... "Oh shit, Lycans.. Werefolk!" He whispered to Erica and Sonya.

"What gives?" Sonya whispered back, but Samuel waved his hand as in he would tell her later, Werefolk had really good natural senses and could probably hear everything they would whisper anyway.

"My name is Bregane and I the official in charge of hunting down this ice drake your tribe was said to have spotted, If I am not mistaken you had some guides that could help?" He introduced himself in a very calm and lax manner.

The elders and a few other villagers looked at eachother with concern. "So this is not about the missing children request we issued?" The oldest looking woman in the middle spoke. On each of her side was an older man and woman, making them 5 total, that all seemed to whisper or nod at eachother.

"Missing children? When? How?" Bregane asked, confused about this sudden detail. "We sent multiple reports to the nearest town and how we thought an Ice drake... 'might' be involved in the disappearances. So we sent our two best guides to look for tracks and indeed they found traces of an ice drake." The eldest spoke.

"And once again, the state of Rejuan took more importance to their precious caravans and merchants complaining rather than a few children and didn't come here until then." A young female voice spoke up from the side.

"Silence, Etheri! It is not your place to speak!" An older man spoke up next to her and pulled her back and gave the elders and apologetic nod. They nodded in return and the eldest pointed at the two. "Bomfjeord our best tracker and hunter and his daughter Etheri are the ones that we sent out, also are the ones that will be your guides."

"I am sorry Elder, but our mission that we were sent out to do was to slay the ice drake. We never heard anything about any missing children and I am sorry to see that such a detail was overlooked!" Tere'he spoke up and Bregane took a step back giving the elf some room.

"I know what it's like to lose children, I promise you that we will be on the lookout for your children and try to help you as much as we can. I will also make a formal inquiry as to why this wasn't in the report!" Her voice was filled with determination and spite.

Spite that the elders realized was aimed not at them or their people. The eldest slowly stood up and walked forward extending her hands and held them out for Tere to hold. "We can trust this one, she is almost as old as I am!" The eldest spoke and smiled for the first time since they had arrived.

Her mouth was missing plenty of teeth like it might happen when one becomes older. But her words seemed to calm down some of her people.

"We are eager to move out right away!" Bregane spoke and nodded towards the guide, "If children are missing then the sooner we move the better! I also assume that the children have all gone missing during the night." He added.

Several of the villagers looked surprise at his guess. "How did you know?" Bomfjeord asked openly his interest piqued. "Your children are out and playing at this time of the day, as a shadow walker I am inclined to believe that the children missing have gone missing during the night."

"Ice Drakes don't hunt during the night!" Sarmah completed the sentance for him and he nodded. Sarmah couldn't help but sigh. More work was added to the list.

"Well if that is the case! Bomfjeord! Please guide our... friends safely!" The eldest spoke and he gave her a bow. The small minutes that followed was Bomfjeord showing the general vicinity and area on a map and telling them of how they had encountered the trails to begin with.

It was a very odd thing, to encounter trails like that left behind by an ice drake in snow. The tracks were hours old but it was snowing at the time but they still remained. Almost as if someone wanted them to be found.

Together they packed up their things and got dressed properly once more before setting out with Bomfjeord as their main guide while Etheri took the furthest back. Currently the weather was pretty clear with some simple wind and gentle snowfall.

During this time of the year it could quickly get worse though, so one had to be prepared for it to worsen. Samuel found himself in the back of their line with Erica and Sonya in front of him and Etheri behind him. "So you guys are lycan? Were people?" He quickly turned and asked. Silence ensued. "Keep your eyes in front pretty boy!" She replied with almost a snarl after a while.

Samuel didn't give up that easily though as he was quite interested in were people and lycans. The only other werewolf he had met had tried to kill him. "I just think it's amazing, to meet your kind! I never have before!" He didn't lay off.

"Yeah, you try living with a curse for your entire life and see how well you handle it... the only reason why our tribe and many others in the area are not insane is because of the grace of the Lady Luna'Celesia..."

"The White Moon huh?" Samuel finished her sentance and instinctively tried to look up to where the white lady should currently be in the sky when the ground suddenly gave way in front of him. In one swift motion he found himself dangling into an open crevasse that led into pitch black.

It had hid under the snow and if he had been looking forward he would have seen the crack. But what was more amazing was Etheri's reaction, he was dangling only because she had thrown herself really fast and caught his left arm.

With a few grunts and Erica rushing over to help they pulled him out of it real quick. "You damn stupid human idiot! I told you to keep your eyes in front, what part of that don't you understand!" She yelled at him before growling loudly and walking back and forth.

Samuel couldn't help but smile, not that anyone could see it since most of his face was covered. He patted Erica a thank you before getting back on his feet and continued walking a bit behind her.

"Thanks! You didn't need to do that though!" Samuel quickly yelled over his shoulder to Erethi who ignored him.

The journey through the cold continued for about two hours, the group had dodged several dangerous spots in the snow and taken a few roundabouts from high hills. Bomfjeord was guiding the party safely through the snow caped lands.

"Storm is picking up!" He spoke after stopping and sniffing the air. Bregane nodded, "Any nearby place thats safe?" He asked and Bomfjeord pointed in one direction. "There is an underground hot spring about an hour that way. I think the storm will last for several hours so we are better off making camp for the night at that place!" He shouted so the entire group would hear.

They all nodded and Bregane gave him the go ahead to lead the way. Erethi smelled the air herself to make sure and it did seem like quite a bad storm incomming so she quickly walked diagonally to catch up with the change of direction.

The snow she stepped on suddenly gave way and a circular mouth with rows upon rows of teeth was all she saw... an ice skulker... in horror she realized to have made a horrible mistake only because Ice Skulker's usually were not this far up north.

A single tear formed in her eye as she looked at her father with horror who had turned around the moment he heard the sound. She would die just like her mother did, she closed her eyes hoping for it to be painless.