Against the Night

[Xavier Akafur]

Branches whipped at the boy's arms and face, his lanky limbs a sore protection against their lashing. The small lacerations and cuts were the furthest thing from his mind, however, as he sprinted through the darkening forest. Limbs snapped and branches broke behind him, the sound only spurring him faster in his panic. Fate was not with the boy this day, as he stepped into a hidden crag of rocks and went spilling down a hill. The world was a blurr as he went head over heels, the dark grey sky jumbling confusingly with the darkness of the forest and the churning dirt.


With a dull thud he came to rest against a tree trunk, dazedly staring up at the canopy above him as blood began to trickle down his face. Surely he was doomed like all the others. Surely those fanged teeth would find him, tearing him to bloody scraps. Surely....

------


The sun beat down on the cheery village, making the brightly colored traveler all the more outstanding as the rays brought out all the vibrancy of his rather peculiar attire. The otter-wolf was quite used to standing out in a crowd, not that this little village could muster much of a crowd. Hell, the place probably wouldn't fill a tavern on a rainy night. He was standing before a stretched leather board, protected by a small wooden overhang. It was a newly constructed board, and something you did not often see in a village as small as this. A single notice was nailed up in the center, something the hybrid did not fail to notice. Did they construct a bounty board just for this one request? He leaned in closer, his green eyes sparking with intrigue.



"Wanted: Hound of the Lockwise Forest"
"Offered Reward: 500 silver coins, or 10 acres of land"
"Proof of death required, present to town hall"


Xavier's lips turned up a little at the corner. The bounty was hardly enticing for him, though he knew to anyone who lived here that was a fortune. No doubt it would amount to years of taxes for the villagers. This Hound must be a serious problem.

He paused suddenly, pointed ears perking ever so slightly. A scent, a gust of wind.... something had pulled at his attention. Magic? His eyes sifted around slowly, noticing that for a small village there was a good bit of foot traffic on this particular day. Many merchants from out of town were setting up for the day, the early morning bringing with it strangers from out of town it seemed. Perhaps today would prove interesting after all!

[Goblin Cat 😸]

 The bull terrier scratched his head as he trudged through the small village – another town to pass through so far as he was concerned unless something of interest caught his eye. For such a small town it seemed busy, and that alone was enough to make him sneer ever so slightly. He never preferred crowds and would avoid them if he could help it though here at least the crowd had goods. His tail whipped behind him idly in an irritated manner as he made his way past the various vendors until he arrived at a board with a rather colorfully dressed male.

 
If anything were worthy of catching his attention, it was the man's attire, brightly colored and standing out like a sore thumb against the desaturated hues of his surroundings. For a moment, Mort stared with those hyper focused triangular eyes – not that he had any room to talk with his own attire, which was decorated with glass orange eyes at the buckles and striped pants. It didn't take long for his eyes to direct the the newly erected board and the notice that seemed to barely flutter, as if to invite the bully's eyes to read.

 
“Didn't think such a small bounty would be so interesting,” he commented, giving a side glance to the hybrid beside him. The man couldn't have been native to the area with that clothing. “Guess that's how it is when it's the only one, though,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

[Ryan Naismith]

"At least the roads here aren't to muddy..." the Vorsord muttered to himself. He hated muddy roads. They had a tendency to suck off the horseshoes of his horse, Junior.
He saw something quite peculiar, at least for a small town such as this. It was a message board. And... what made it even more peculiar was... two creatures. Obviously magic; his pendant was going crazy.
"Woah, junior." He said, pulling on the stirrups of his horse, hopping off of it.
"Evening, Gentlemen." Silas said, eyeing the one notice that was posted. It was a decent enough sum, especially for a small village such as this.
"Seeing as I've been hunting all my life... I'll take this."

[Eden-H]

The group of children that was scurrying about in a wild storm of dust and dirt nearly made Nemael recoil into himself, gauntlet-clad hands shooting out from underneath his cloak to draw it tightly around his body. The wind they had created by chasing one another in an exuberant glee had nearly torn the thick cloth from his head, an idea that would have sent him into throes of uninhibited terror and distress. However, he had caught it in time and had seen them before the full effect of their passage could have strained him any further than it already had.

Trembling slightly, he exhaled slowly and quickly gathered and regained his composure, calming both his mind and racing heart. He would have taken nearly having his eye impaled from an accident while adventuring if it would spare him from the one thing he feared the most.

Clenching his hands into fists and then releasing them, he maneuvered around a second detachment of kids that was hellbent on disturbing every living thing around them. One of them had even thrown an idle plaything, likely crafted by a sibling or friend, at the back of his head just as he managed to reach the bounty board. He gave an exasperated sigh, twirling around in one clean movement and lifting the small doll from the dirt. Eyeing the child that had thrown it, he was exceedingly tempted to set the damn thing on fire or toss it into the shift.

Instead he did the kind thing and returned it to them, then turned his attention to the bounty board. He sidled up next to the open spot beside the german shepherd and quickly reached across him, a finger covered in steel plates pressing down against the fluttering sheet to prevent the man from taking it. He had reached the posting in time to hear that he was a hunter who intended to take the bounty for himself.

"Not yet," he murmured, his voice warm. "Everyone here has an equal interest."

He looked from one person to the next, taking note of how they all stood distinctly apart from one another. One was some sort of beast that did not come from a terran birth, if their overall appearance was anything to be judged by. The second appeared to be a unique hybrid of animal that he could not entirely place, though he could certainly guess. The last was clad head to toe in thick armor and seemed incredibly sure of himself, something he had proven with the last comment he made.

Nemael smiled thinly under his hood. To call them unique was most certainly one way to describe the lot. Idly he wondered if the one in the blue robes was currently working with the terrier.

[Khaki (on hiatus)]

Khaki had left his tent on the outskirts of the village earlier that morning and made his way down to the village centre. It felt like something was going on, there were people around that day and he noticed a small group of people gathered around the town's notice board. They looked pretty experienced and some of them wore expensive armour, it wasn't everyday that people like that arrived in this town so he decided to approach them.

"You're after the bounty? Good luck with that, friends... I heard the last couple of people that took that contract never came back alive" Khaki sauntered around from behind the board, loudly chewing on a piece of meat he'd haggled from one of the merchants earlier.

[Xavier Akafur]

Xavier turned slightly, sizing up the canine beside him. He offered a warm smile, but the expression also revealed that the hybrid's teeth were sharp as daggers. Whether this was intentional or not, the image made the expression somewhat off-putting. "My interest in not in the money, particularly." He replied, a subtle shift of his eyes revealing that he had taken notice of the canine's tail. His eyes slid back to the male's face, still impassively friendly.


He opened his mouth as if to speak again, but was cut short as a horse drew up behind the pair. Xavier's tail gave a slow sway as he regarded the armored individual, up till now having been unmoving. What emotion this betrayed was lost on the strangers, surely. "Morning." The hybrid replied easily, his voice still casually cheery as it had been before. 'This town seems to be a nexus....' He thought to himself, noticing a hooded figure approaching from behind the mounted man. In his travels he had encountered such places before. Mundane-seeming areas that for an inexplicable reason, attracted both extraordinary people and dangerous monsters.


He took a step to the side as the newer pair of the trio of strangers both reached for the notice on the board, to which he cast a dubious look over to the terrier. "I'd leave it up there in any case, it's not like it gives us much information to go on." He dipped his head slightly to the newcomer, realizing in doing so that even in the sunlight he could not make out any details beneath the man's heavy cowl.


"As I was telling this fellow here I have very little interest in the reward so much as the creature itself." He spoke up to the armored man, his eyes tracing the lines of his sword handles, taking note of the mundane-seeming weapons. "If you're going after this Hound I'd be more than willing to lend a hand."


He was yet again stopped short as the newest of the little group stepped out from behind the board, and Xavier turned slightly to take in the newest fellow. He seemed to be the most ordinary of the group, carrying much more standard gear. His build made the hybrid briefly entertain the idea that he hadn't eaten well recently, seeming unusually thin for a creature his size. As the jackal stepped closer the hybrid visibly blanched and took a step away from him. His expression flashed a scowl, but it faded rapidly. "Keep a few feet between us, friend." he spoke up sternly, his voice having lost its friendly edge. To Xavier the jackal was probably the most dangerous of them all, though where that magic draining power was coming from he could not tell. The hybrid's paws worked down his coat, smoothing the front of it deliberately. "I'm sure we're all curious as to who took this bounty prior, and where they disappeared at? I know I do not know the area myself, and this group appears to be similarly foreign." He paused. "Are you from this village?"

[Khaki (on hiatus)]

Khaki was used to the reaction of the hybrid as he and some of the others stepped back to maintain a few paces between them. It was hardly a powerful charm but he could see that they could feel the minor effect of his pendant. "Good" he thought, maybe it would keep him safe it someone turned on him. He slowly sized up the travelers in front of him. All of them seemed capable fighters and hardly looked like the sort of people that would stab you in the back for a few gold pieces. The hybrid looked like the most approachable of all of them. Stepping back to avoid having any effect on them he responded to the hybrid's question.

"No, but I've been here for a while... Over the past 2 weeks, there have been 3 or maybe 4 hunters that have taken the contract, they all went into the woods in a northerly direction looking for the beast." The jackal paused to adjust his chainmail jacket, "They all went alone and none made it out alive. I'd say you stand a better chance at slaying it traveling as a group, and... well, if you need a guide, I can help."

[Goblin Cat 😸]

 In all honesty, the beast was hardly put off from the hybrid's smile, and he returned the smile with a wry one of his own – toothy and lopsided, awkward. From what he could tell, the hound sounded like something that wasn't too different from himself – perhaps an old face from his past or something similar. If it truly was as sinister as it was described, perhaps he'd be of use – it didn't hurt that he could make a little coin at the same time. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do but meander as he always had.

 

 
The bully leaned against the board, crossing his arms and watching the others with glazed interest. “I think I might be interested. To at least see what it is.” Again, his tail began to whip behind him rhythmically. “You can say I have experience with such things,” he said with a grin, gesturing to himself, “And so far as I know, more muscle's never hurt.” He craned his neck, allowing it to crack. “Might be fun to put this hound on its ass, too.”

[Eden-H]

(Although I had not intended to bring Dragonhawk into this fully, since he is the one you described Khaki I'll write up a quick addition so it all flows together).

Nemael spied the approach of yet another and subtly shifted closer to the hunter and his horse. Although he was acutely aware of the sensation of his magic being pulled, as though being drained from both him and the air that surrounded them, his discomfort came from a different source. More of an ethereal concept than one grounded in reality, he forcefully shoved these thoughts into the back of his mind and angled himself towards the hybrid. It was then the massive creature built of muscle and sharp teeth cracked his neck, earning a visible shudder from Nemael that even made his wings rustle. The sound of popping joints and bones would forever disturb his waking life.

Shaking his head, he examined the others a bit more closely. When he first spied them he had thought very little of the rapidly growing group and instead written them off as competition, albeit for a bounty he held a vague interest in. Now that each had spoken and the jackal materialized from behind the board, he was now unsure whether it was a simple stroke of luck that they had each been drawn to the village or some form of divine fate, the latter a possibility he held little interest in but was willing to give its due.

Exhaling through his nose, he bowed his head toward the terrier and took note of the abnormal tail that whipped behind him. Nemael's eyes narrowed at the first thought that came into his mind, both curious and hopeful that this beast came from where he imagined. Perhaps he could give him better information to work off of when it came to understanding the Shift.

His curiosity was piqued.

Flashing a small grin from beneath his cowl, he nearly leapt from his skin when a large, clawed hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. Although he had not forgotten that his companion existed, he had momentarily lost track of time.

Now standing beside Nemael was the behemoth of a creature, Dragonhawk, a massive grin masking what remained of his muzzle as he stared down at the jackal. A soft chuckle rumbled deep in his throat when Nemael had visibly jumped from his physical contact and proximity. "If I may ask, were these hunters solely based around one school of melee and/or magic, or were they an even mixture of the two?" He paused and cocked his head to the right, the glow in his eye sockets drifting ever so slightly toward the left as he noticed the few that stood opposite his friend. "If you could tell at the very least."

[Drakeyboy]

Drake was walking into the small town with his cowl over his head. generally he would have enjoyed a day like today it was warm with i nice breeze in the air making the journey comfortable. But he wasn't. He was following the trail of the group who demolished his home giving him a laser like focus. As he was walking he hefted his coin pouch to see if he needed to make some money. It was fairly light. With a sigh he placed it into his pocket and looked around a bit realizing he finally made it. As he looked around he noticed the gathering by the bounty board imagining that tgere was still quite a few jobs left. As he walked closer he could feel a slight drain in the mana that was in the air. He wasn't particularly worried about it though with luck he could grab a job and leave. He pulled up to the group and took a look at the board noticing the single job on it. With a quiet sight he relaxed his shoulders well it looks like that he would have to work with someone.

[Khaki (on hiatus)]

The jackal recoiled slightly as his eyes came across the tall being standing in front of him, It would have to at least be 8 feet with a skull in place of it's head. He'd never seen anything like it before. after a few moments of rather awkward silence khaki came to his senses and replied to the question.

"It's difficult to tell really" Khaki responded, scratching himself behind his ear "One of them, a large white wolf, looked like he was the most powerful, you could feel the magic coming of him... The other ones were more like trained warriors, good with spears and swords but not spells, I hope that helps"

The jackal quickly turned his attention to another newcomer who approached the group, he had a look of fiery determination in his eyes, even with his relaxed appearance. For a second he almost extended his hand in greeting but quickly withdrew it, as he remembered that simple contact between him and magic users could possibly drain small amounts of magic from them.

"Greetings traveller... we're putting a team together to hunt a monster, care to join us?"

[Ryan Naismith]

The shepherd was tense. Not because of the magic users and monsters before him., but purely because the amount of people, crowded around the notice board. He generally avoided going on a contract with others. Most of the group contracts had ended in fights over who gets what share of payment, and, if they ended up becoming violent, Silas usually ended up killing a man or two. Decent men, from what Silas could tell. While he didn't shy away from killing people, he didn't much like it.
He didn't give off any noticeable visual signs, merely taking a step back, towards the jackal. His pendant seemed to calm down as he did so, which likely meant that said jackal likely had some sort of magic draining gear or abilities. Which he could use to his advantage, if this turned into a fight.
"Anyways... Since they have a notice there, and it calls it a 'hound' It's quite likely someone saw the thing. Which means that we should ask around. There's always no harm in knowing what we're going up against."

[Xavier Akafur]

Xavier maintained his position as everyone gathered around, occasionally shifting a step or two to allow people some room around the board. After the Jackal responded to his inquiry he dipped his head slightly, but otherwise just listened to the rest of the group. His ears turned slightly to pick out each individual voice, a smile creeping onto his muzzle as the gathered individuals seemed to be moving towards a group effort. That would make this easy, based on the look of things.

As the armored canine spoke up, Xavier clapped his hands together, the webbed digits making the singular action quite loud. Even this fellow, who seemed the most reluctant of the group, had used the word 'We.'

"It seems that we are all in agreement to work together then?" He asked to the group at large, hoping that the sudden clap had garnered enough attention from the others to make them listen for a moment. He paused to make sure, then smiled and continued, his eyes landing on the newest additions to the group. "For this particular venture, I vote our jackal friend here take the lead, as he appears to be the most in the know with both the terrain and our prey..." He said that last work with a bit of a wry grin. "The reward money will be split evenly among those that are interested, to prevent any quarrels about that."

He looked around the group to see if there were any objections to that last bit, then gave a nod. "For now I believe it wise for us to find out what we can about this monster. We shall meet back here at mid-day and share our findings...?" He said that last bit as if it were a statement, only adding a slight inflection at the end as he looked around, unsure if all those gathered would be so amiable to working as a group. Xavier, for one, was quite pleased with the arrangement.  He was used to working in groups, and found having other competent fighters around in a battle often covered for his own weaknesses.

[Drakeyboy]

Drake gave a sideways glance to the jackal that raised his hand for a handshake, noting the he quickly withdrew it. So he must be the one with the powerful anti mana trinket. Drake gave a silent nod tp him to show he acknowledged him.

He then heard the living fashion disaster speak and looked at the reward. 500 silver... split up with these five others make it a uneven split but he did need the money. "Sounds fair to me." He said as he looked at all of the faces. Well if they didn't tear each other apart this could be at least interesting.

[Khaki (on hiatus)]

"Very well, we meet at mid-day. I'll skirt the edges of the forest and see if i can pick up any tracks heading into the forest" Khaki said, yanking the string back on his crossbow with sharp pull. he loaded a steel-tipped bolt into the weapon and started walking towards the forest. It wasn't a far walk to the treeline, but when he began walking amongst the tall, gnarled trees he suddenly felt colder and vulnerable, as if a sudden icy wind blew straight through his bones.

It had obviously rained since the Hound's last victim ventured into the forest, so Khaki could only smell the faintest scent and could only find a very shallow set of footprints that led into the forest. Against better judgement, he decided to follow the tracks for about a hundred paces to see if they could use the trail as a guide. 
The forest gradually got darker as he walked further, and his vision was reduced by a heavy fog that had settled through the forest. A long howl echoed in the distance, piercing the silence like a sharp dagger. It sounded different from a dog's howl, or even a wolf's howl, it was longer, louder and like nothing the Jackal had ever heard before. It seemed to echo around him, making it almost impossible to tell which direction the beast was in. 

"I don't stand a chance here alone...it could be anywhere" Khaki thought aloud as he raised his cross bow and checked for movement in each direction.

On the verge, he quickly carved a notch into the tree as a marker and raced back to the village as quickly as his legs could carry him to report to the others