Fading Light

Hunter In The Shadows

Estel couldn't shake off his annoyance as he lit his pipe and settled back in his seat.

He had moved on from the village he had been in and had gone to a smaller relatively unknown one a few days east of the last one.

The fact that he had been rescued by the elf Gandalf had asked him to find and had then lost him was completely frustrating.

Not to mention he hadn't been able to find Gandalf and inform him of this news and had made enemies with a band of slave traders who were searching for the same elf he was.

How can my luck get any better?

The men sitting at a table nearby were having a heated debate that went unheeded by Estel until his ears picked up something interesting.

"It took three of my horses!"
One of the men, a tall bedraggled farmer, seemed as if he was trying to convince the other men around him that he wasn't crazy. "It dragged them off like they were sheep and there was nothing I could do but watch."

"Are you sure that you weren't drinking last night Thomas?"
One of the men laughed.
"There's no such thing as a wolf that can carry off full grown horses, let alone three, all on its own without attracting
attention."

"I wasn't drinking Hal!"
Thomas snapped.
"I know what it was I saw and what I saw was a giant, black wolf carry off three of my best horses!"

"He's not lying Hal."
Another man said joining in on the conversation.
"There was plenty of talk going on up north about a large black wolf dragging off all kinds of cattle. Some men even went out and tracked the beast, only one of them came back alive."

"So you're saying that this beast exists and people are hunting it?"
Hal asked in disbelief.
"Aye. And I happen to know for a fact that this creature is attracting all kinds of hunters who want to kill it. There was one man in particular who I found especially strange."

Estel turned his full attention on the men, who were unaware of their quiet listener.

"He was dressed in dark clothes, had weapons all about him as far as I could tell. The only part of his face that you could see were his eyes, he never took off his hood and I think he was wearing a cloth of some kind to hide his face, but he had the most unnatural eyes I've ever seen. Bright blue and I could have sworn that he could see right into my head when I looked at him."

"That's very interesting Burt."
Hal rolled his eyes.
"But what does this stranger have to do with a giant wolf?"

"It was strange, he came into the inn where I was staying and sat himself down in one of the corner tables. He didn't drink or eat anything, just watched us. Talk of the wolf came up and he seemed to be interested in that because he came over and asked us where it had last been seen. So we told him it had taken some cattle from a farm south of the village and he left! Vanished right out the door and was never seen again."

"Probably got eaten just like the others who went out to find the beast."
Thomas took a drink of his ale while Hal scoffed.
"I still don't believe that there is a beast, probably just some lone ordinary wolf who's getting desperate during the winter."

"I told you, Hal, I saw it!"
Thomas shot up out of his seat and slammed his fist on the table, spilling his drink while doing so.

Hal shook his head while Thomas looked forlornly at his spilled drink.

But Estel could care less about Thomas' loss, he was already out of the inn and searching for the man's farm.

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