Auris knew something was wrong before making landfall in Drustvar, she felt it best to follow the local channels of travel, in this case, and had found it extremely difficult to charter a ride to the shores. After handing over a hefty sum of gold and diverting a rather large and menacing shark from the bay, she was granted passage. The row boat sailed away with more effort and speed than they had taken getting her there. Auris stood alone on the shore of Drustvar, staring at an empty expanse of trees. There was no one at the ferry dock.
She walked without knowing where to go, but exploring, there was a sense of sereneness in the woods still, not all of it with that tainted edge of…something. She couldn’t quite place it, and that bothered her. Finding the trail of blood leading deep into the trees, also, bothered her. She followed it, gradually feeling as if she were being watched. It had been a very long time since Auris had felt hunted, observed by eyes in trees that were not her own.
The druid encountered a doe and its eyes glowed with a sickening gray-black light, blood covered its muzzle and beneath its hooves was a fallen human. Auris stared at the doe for a long moment, not comprehending. Until a rabbit, nose quivering in fear, shot out of the bushes behind the fallen human and dashed for the druid as if sensing safety. The doe reacted and made a violent lunge for the rabbit.
Auris reacted out of habit, air encircled the doe, catching the crazed creature in a cyclone and she released it into a far group of boulders. The doe smashed against the rocks and slid to the ground, dead. The rabbit quaked in fear for another moment, still, then hopped into the weeds.
“What in the fel is going on here?”
With a sigh, Auris stepped towards the body of the human and the fallen doe. Now she understood why no one wanted to come here, and she felt slightly jealous of Star and Robin, both in Boralus.
Some form of twisted druidism, perhaps? She studied the bodies methodically, a sickening feeling creeping up on her. She glanced around the grove and saw eyes glowing in the trees and ravens crowding the branches. She couldn’t make a connection with any of them. They were filled with madness. Auris turned to face her attackers. She had never felt so afraid of animals in her life….
“Well…come on, then.”
The wolves faded into the dark. But the ravens remained. She was being watched, but…by who?
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