It was a long wait through the night. Eventually the mayor's family fell asleep again, but he himself stayed awake, talking with Lagdon and Draxly about the estate and other such things. Mostly small talk. Shill tried staying awake but the poor man was exhausted from travel and eventually fell asleep against a wall where I draped a throw blanket over him.
No more screams were heard and eventually the sun began to rise and fog began to disperse. I was unsure if the fog was needed for the specter to attack, but Wallace claimed that it only ever struck when the fog was thick.
Wallace let his family sleep, waking only his wife to tell her that he was leading us out into the town. I could see in her eyes that she took that to mean 'we are going to see whom we've lost this time'. she merely nodded and set about tidying the room, promising breakfast for when he returned.
The village was pretty quiet when Lagdon, Draxly, Wallace, Shill and I left the mayors home and made our way through the square. We started by heading in the direction we believed that the screams had been coming from. We were not the only ones either. Pale and shaky kobold nervously left their homes, heading the same direction as us. Many seemed to panic when they set eyes on myself and the boys, but Wallace wasted no time explaining we were guests. He did not bother going into any farther detail.
"Are the attacks always near the tree line?" Draxly asked quietly, not wanting to be loud. I could understand. It felt like the world was holding its breath as we made our way east, toward the side of the town closest to the forest.
Wallace shook his head. "We thought that at first as well, and had everyone move to the western most side of town when the fog rolled it. This was back when it was not an every day occurrence. but we quickly realized that it was pretty random what houses or people were targeted. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind it."
We had just turned a corner and the crowd of kobolds had gotten thicker when a sound I prayed I never again would have to hear wrang out, causing Wallace to let out a curse. It was the wail of despair. A sound made by those who had lost that which they loved most in this world.
Parting the crowd was not hard with Lagdon in the front of your group. But had the hobgoblin not been at the front I would have been able to see over the kobold's heads. However, I decided that this was not a scene I would have wanted to see soon either way.
We emerged at a two story home, the house butted right up to the road and its neighbors touched it on either side, and it looked clean and quiet. It did not look like a murder scene. On the front step sat two women, one in a green dressing gown weeping uncontrollably into the arms of the other kobold female, she in a patched shirt and what looked to be work pants. The two women looked to be from different stations in life, but tragedy had no class system. Not here, not now.
I heard the air rush from Shill's lungs, relief so evident in his face that I was surprised that I had not noticed the fear that had been present before hand. There was another gasp near by and a third woman parted from the crowd and dashed forward, throwing herself into the kobold's arms.
"Addy." Croaked Shill, embracing the woman who was clinging to him for dear life.
"Oh Shill, you are home!" She gasped, still quiet as no one wanted to intrude on the grief still here.
"I had thought..." Groaned Shill, flicking a hand toward the building where the two women wept.
Addy, the Kobold that I now realized was Shill's wife, shook her head. "No... The children and I stayed with Freena last night. She is due to give birth any day and wanted me there to catch the baby if it came to that. We have been there the last week." she looked over her shoulder to the grieving woman. "Poor Luka. Oh Shill! The Specter has gone too far this time!"
Perhaps seeing my confused and worried look, Wallace explained: "This is Karry and Frandferd's home... Frandferd was a well off sculptor here." He sighed and winced, a tear trickling down his cheek. "He lived with Karry, his wife. And because of the Specter, his two grown daughters' were staying with them as well."
"Not just them." Said Said Addy, shooting Lagdon, Draxly, and I fearful looks. "Yes, Suzy and Grace were there but Grace's fiancé, Lode, was with them as well... Oh Shill, just after you left... well, Grace found out she was to have a baby! How cruel will this demon get! And then there was Luka... She took my place at the house as I had to be with Freena. that-" She said, probably for my and the other's benefit given the other kobolds seemed to already know this. She pointed to the bawling woman and her stoic care taker. "Is Luka's sister in the pants. And the other woman is Kenna, Lode's mother. Even more broken families..."
So both women on the step had lost loved ones. It was a truly tragic thing and my heart ached for them. This Specter needed to be stopped.
"I will go see it for myself." Stated a pale faced Wallace. "Shill, you and your lovely wife, please gather everyone you can to the square. I will announce what we are going to do next as soon as I am done here."
"Yes sir." Nodded Shill, and he grasped his wife around the waist and led her off into the masses.
Lagdon refused to let me enter the building. And It took a lot of arguing to change his mind. So much from my people not arguing with my decisions any longer. But when I followed Wallace into the home I saw why. But I needed to see what this Specter could do for myself, even if it was horrid. And as I told Lagdon, it wasn't like he could fit in the house anyway. Even I, was half hunched as I worked my way into the small but finely appointed home.
Wallace and I did not have far too look to find the departed family. And It was horrific and exactly as I had pictured, but some how so much worse. On the sitting room floor were five bodies, all contorted in grotesque poses that told me that they had felt every moment of their deaths. Their bodies were desiccated and brown skinned, dried flesh clinging directly to bone. There cloths looked fine, but disturbing on such bodies as these.
There was no smell however. I just figured there would be, but there wasn't. I could only tell genders from the cloths the mummies were wearing and could see that a man and woman appeared to have died trying to make it too the front door, their bodies held close to one another but hands out stretched, seemingly reaching out for freedom. The other three forms were also grouped together, this time at the foot of a red silk couch. Two women and one man. What a horrible loss.
I did not want to do it, but I felt I had too. I approached a body, knelt down, and set a hand as respectfully as I could on the shoulder, closing my eyes and trying to sense what ever I could from the desiccated remains and left over energy signature. The kobold was not 'mine' in the same way Lagdon and the others were: This woman was not a worshiper of mine, nor even had she accepted that I was the god here. In death, her energy would normally return to the land, all the same, but not this time. The Specter had stolen it from her.
I Stood up, turned on my heel, and left the house. I thought I was calm, but when Lagdon saw my face he stepped forward, standing close but not touching.
"Death is not often pretty, Lady Enna." He said, not unkindly.
I sighed and nodded. "I could sense the creature we face on their corpses." I said, anger simmering in my chest. "It was feint, but it defiantly felt a little like Aeros, but a twisted and warped version of him." I was nervous to do what needed to be done now, but I was determined all the same. "Lets go to the Dark. I want to get this over with and get out of here as soon as possible..."
Wallace was asked to make haste in getting his people ready to leave. The mayor did not disagree. Apparently last night had been the worst attack yet, and it proved to the kobolds that being in groups, in well lit homes, was not even a slight deterrent to their enemy any longer. They needed to leave, even if Enna had not offered them a place to stay.
The hobgoblins and Brillum returned within the hour, as the mayor held his meeting with the town, telling them of what was going to happen next, and about who their strange new visitor's were. Lagdon had the men assist in the relocation efforts of the kobolds, packing up essentials and heirlooms, rounding up live stock that could be fairly easily transported, and anything else that needed doing. It was a shame they could not bring all their things, but with any luck the kobolds would be returning here soon enough. Weather or not it would be for good or just to collect the rest of their things, that would be determined later.
I helped for a while, but my presence seemed to make the kobolds nervous. I guess I couldn't blame them: I was everything they had been taught to fear after all. I was the land god of this land, a master of monsters, and a human as well. They were polite and all that, but I could tell that they were not all that comfortable around me. So I did what I told Lagdon I had wanted to do in the first place, and gathered up the Prince, Brillum, and Draxly, so that we could make our brief trip into the Dark.