Crickets could be heard along the subtle swooshing of grass, hooting owls and coyotes howling into the night mere moments later. The night sky, a dark orange in color and the trees a vague purple. Three headed owls sat upon the branches of the trees with red coyotes pressing forward below along the orange grass. Moving alongside the coyote, a shadow though not a shadow of anything in particular.
A simple blob of darkness moving through the grass, over it, under it. Nothing hovered above or around to cast such a thing. Several leaves fell to the ground, a branch creaking from one tree. At once several branches began to creak as a storm of leaves fell to the ground. Above, multiple figures in trench coats masked stood looking around.
“South Wing Secure,” one of them spoke.
At once they all launched off through the trees sending more scattering, a slight rain of them dancing down around the shadow. Some stopped atop the shadow, sitting in the air a meter or so above it. Light began to reflect around the shadow and slowly grant form, a humanoid male crouching visible now drenched in a silver glow that then faded. The individual sat there looking up in the direction the masked beings had gone.
With a nod that sent leaves scattering off his head, he raised an arm and pressed a hand to his ear, “Rogues are in the area, step lightly.”
Two forms appeared behind the individual also crouched down, having flickered into existence it seemed with a silver glow of their own. No shadows from them, only from the first. One a female, the other a male. The woman raised her head and nodded, “Your stealth technique is brilliant Silver.”
“Thank you Tari. Silver to HQ, did you copy that?” the first individual questioned.
There was a slight static audible now to the three before the response, “Copy that Silver. Numbers?”
“I counted twelve. They were dressed and masked like the ones Cardinal Garwald reported. What should we do?”
“Nothing for now. You squad is to investigate the Lunagen sightings, not the vandals. If we confirm that they are involved in this we will dispatch a capture team to extract intel. For now, focus on the Lunagen.”
“Copy that.”
The first, Silver, moved his arm down and his hand away from his ear. A sigh left him as he then glanced back, “Tari, Torunei, You got all that right?”
“Yeah,” the second male replied, “The Lunagen were reported at the valley up ahead though right?”
“Yeah.”
With a nod the second male, Torunei, placed his arm out with his pointer and middle finger to the ground. With a slow brush over and a hum he nodded again, “Animals all around, twenty-two of those masked guys actually. No disturbances of the ground within ten kilometers.”
“It always amazes me how he can feel that far out with just two fingers,” Silver murmured.
“It’s an acquired trait in my clan. Anyway, there is sign of old disturbance to the South. I can feel the rocks tumbling.”
“Hey, remember what the village head said now guys,” Tari spoke in a soft voice.
The three stood before several individuals within a wooden house. Several older people in rags and several dressed as warriors in leather before them. One had stepped forward, “These quakes have been happening every night for the last eight months.”
“And your actions from the start until now?” Tari questioned.
“For the first month or so we didn’t think much of it. Our village isn’t too far off from a fault line after all. It wasn’t until it became a consistent pattern, let’s see- oh, about probably by about the twelfth week, that we investigated it.”
“Consistent?”
“Well yeah. For the first many weeks it was just random though during the tenth and eleventh weeks we began to notice it happening around the same hours for the same interval of time. By about week eighteen we began looking around for the source. The twenty-first week is when we found the valley.”
“Valley eh?”
“Yes. Ever since our people have gone missing with signs of battle left where they go missing. We started curfewing alongside other villages until the thirtieth week when a whole village went missing and sunk into the ground. The few who managed to escape told everyone about weird mud creatures that came at them.”
“So why haven’t you all bothered to move on or anything of the sort?”
“Some folk are just stubborn I suppose. Some villages picked up and left while the rest of us tried to hunt whatever was doing this. We just haven’t left because we don’t know where else to go.”
Silver turned with a slight sigh, “We’ll look into it but we highly recommend getting ready to evacuate. Forty or so weeks of this and you still haven’t just moved. I can’t help but question that.”
“I be telling you, it isn’t easy. This is our home, we want to defend it until we can’t anymore.”
“You’d think the mortals would be more inclined to save their lives,” Silver murmured as the moon that had been hidden now began to fully illuminate the area from behind the clouds.
“Some have their values. It isn’t for us to judge.”
“Eh you have a point Tari.”
The trio had now begun to move with only their shadows cast, now invisible once more. Slowly the trees were thinning out more and more with the grass even beginning to disappear. Their shadows were becoming more and more visible at this point despite having no bodies, the darkness moving in a returning moonlight. A branch to the right snapped, snapped by a coyote moving in the opposite direction. Brush very dense lay ahead, brush that they then passed straight through.
In mere moments the trio had become visible as they stepped out, the ground dipping with fallen trees on either side of them. Tari and Silver slowly moved forward as Torunei bent down placing his fingers to the ground brushing over. The steps of the two echoed growing more and more distant.
“This is the place alright,” Tari murmured.
“I’m not seeing anything.”
“And I’m not feeling anything.”
“Silver to HQ, come in,” Silver murmured with his hand to his ear again.
“Denis here, what’s going on Mr. Dragonheart?”
“We’re at the area we were told about just before the valley. We’re not seeing anything, mostly just rocks and what appears to be small bits of scrap metal lying around.”
“Scrap metal?”
“Yeah uh, white plates of some sort.”
“Since when does a technologically dead society have scrap metal plates lying around?”
“Could be something left over from those other guys. Look, either way I just want to stress the point that we don’t have time to comb the entire valley. You told us we needed to report back to Starset Academy by tomorrow morning by order of King Zeke and Queen Solaris. You’ll have to dispatch a Knight Squadron to the area until we can get back here.”
“Right, right attendance is mandatory. It’s unfortunate because, despite being only rangers, your small team is pretty dang impressive. I can’t wait to see what it’s like when you become a full squadron Sil-”
“Denis.”
“Oh, right sorry. Yeah uh, come on back and I’ll dispatch a group of Knights to comb the area for you.”
“Understood,” Silver finished moving his hand away again.
“Silver, Torunei, have a look at this,” Tari called.
“What is it?” Torunei questioned as both approached.
“This scrap metal, the plates. They look brand new don’t they in the moonlight? The way they’re curved, it just has me wondering is all.”
“Well don’t stress about it Tari, we’re to report back for that gathering tomorrow. The next squad will probably wrap this up when they find the Lunagen.”
“Right then… head back we shall I guess.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll have another assignment and have something to do in no time.”544Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbovjHH1qoD
