Prologue 2

The forest before us was ancient, the foliage having stood the test of times through centuries. One couldn't help but feel like an insignificant spec standing before these trees. The odour of the forest in itself was overwhelming, yet we marched through it all. We'd all heard of the legends of the Loup Garou (Werewolves for the uninitiated) , but very few of us believed it. That is until we saw the carnage left behind by them as we wandered into the forest. We found an old town totally decimated by them, entire limbs and entrails lying on the floor, blood splashes everywhere.

Lesser beings would have been sickened by the sight, unfortunately we'd seen worse. So with the commanders orders we pushed on. We sent forth our advance recon team ahead to get a sense of things. We set of half a day after them, our party moving slowly through the underbrush. It was growing dark & the new moon shone through the trees, we stopped to make camp & got ready to recieve our comrades who went ahead of us. Suddenly we heard the howl of a single wolf a few miles ahead of us & after a short while a whole bunch of them started howling at a distance but the eerie thing was it almost felt that we were surrounded by them. If ever there was a time that any of us felt the call of superstition, then this was it. Almost everyone of us reached for any talisman that they had to signify any gods they revered.

A half an hour later, we heard someone crashing through the forest towards our direction. Whoever it was didn't seem to be able to keep on their feet, the way they were blundering around in there. We immediately formed up, shields locked & Pilum pointing out at the ready. The person to come through the woods was one of the men we sent out to find out what was happening. His tunic was ripped to shreds and there was blood everywhere, he staggered onto his feet then just said 2 words, "Help Me!", then he was snatched from behind by the biggest arm that I'd ever seen in all my life before he was dragged back into the foliage & savaged for us all to hear.

It is things like this that real scare people beyond their wildest dreams. Truth be told we were all quivering under our suit of arms. This intensified when we saw a pair of Amber yellow eyes looking at us through the trees. Followed by 7 pairs more. We should have heard the old man, we'd just handed ourselves to these creatures like a gift. We were so screwed.