At his words, the soldiers shared fearful glances. Beam thought he could see one of them shiver.
Nila was still studying the room, her eyes cast to the floor, as though she were in the forest searching for deer tracks. Beam couldn't tell what she saw – her eyes seemed to pick up far more than he, but the intensity of her scrutiny caught his attention. He watched her for a few moments, and waited.
Suddenly, she pulled the carpet back, revealing deep scratches in the wood.
"Gods! What the fuck is that?" Judas cried out in alarm.
For a stretch of a few feet, there were deep claw marks in the wood, as though someone – or something – had been dragged, as it desperately dug its fingernails in, fighting against the movement.
"Harder to get rid of those," the sergeant noted as he observed them. "Can't say any man I know would be able to inflict gashes that deep into wood this thick."
