That made everyone at the table sit up straight and turn to the man that had just cried murder. All the blood drained from them? I looked at the men and made eye contact with Tim.
"Go watch Gastbo with Corbit, we will go check it out. I want to know what this thing is that I can do what I can. I will come and find you when it's done."
Tim nodded and dragged a sulking Corbit who was also hoping to was up, but there was no rest for the wicked. I turned and nodded to the girls, and they all got up with me as I went to go see the person who was surrounded by other townspeople. I pushed through them as the man described the man as a dried husk that he had found.
"I just saw Carl earlier today bringing in produce to trade, the poor guy must have stopped for a drink at Flea's Bar before heading back home. His wagon is still parked just outside of town, and this is the second time this has happened!" The crier complained.
"Take us to where the body is, I deal with blood, and I would like to examine the body to find out what could that do to a body. Do you mind?"
The man was not good-looking, a bit on the homely side, Still, when giving the chance to escort four beautiful women to a murder sight, the man could only nod.
The rest of you please stay behind, I would like to try to catch whatever did this, but I won't be able to do that if you are all following me, okay?" I asked the gathered crowd.
There was some grumbling, but everyone agreed that it would be best if we could catch whatever it is that is killing the town's folk while we were here. With that settled, our group was led by Fin, the Crier, and we walked about four roads over and ended up near the outside edge of town. The small building known as Flea's bar had a back alley, and that was where the crime had taken place, so I left Gloria and Mei in the front.
Lesha came with me and this way if they were by some strange chance still in the Bar, we had both exits watched. Fin led us to the back lane, and both Lesha and I put our hands to our faces.
The smell of piss was rank, the day was still warm, even in the dark, and the urine was almost more than a person could handle. Lesha pulled out two rags and handed me one, but I gave her a look as I took it.
"I thought the body might stink, there is a bit of perfume on it to help," Lesha said as she put her face into the cloth she was holding.
"Sorry, the men around here just step out back for a piss. The body is over there," Fin said, pointing at something that looked like a lump of trash.
"Thanks, you can go, be careful. Whatever did this is still out there somewhere, so warn people to stay together and not to go out at night."
The man smiled and left the two of us to go investigate, but I looked around first. There were many low buildings, but there were a couple with second-story sections that had shadowed spots. They were hard to get a good look at, but my eyes were able to pierce the darkness, but I didn't find anything.
"Let's go, if it's still here, I can't see it. Let's go check the body, and confirm how it happened."
Lesha nodded at me and the two of us walked over to the body, bending down to look at the dried-up man's neck. The neck was completely torn open, it was a bit but even the torn flesh was dried up. They must have ripped it to get the blood out faster, but what could do something like this that wasn't me?
'A Vampire, the very same as the Blood Queen that lies deep inside of you. This thing is going to be trouble; what other monsters are in this world?' -Drania.
'Vampire? Monsters? Those are things from the dungeons, we don't have monsters. Unless you mean things like the Green Panthers?'
'No, If there are Vampires here then they were always here. Monsters can't leave the dungeons, so there is no way that this couldn't have been here...you need to prepare yourself! Vampires don't tear throats like that! But Lycanthropes do!' -Drania.
That's when I started to hear the low growl that rumbled my chest, it was coming from the end of the alley. I backed up and put a hand to Lesha to back her up slowly with me. The growling was getting close until a massive creature walked out on bent legs.
"What is that?!" Lesha whispered harshly to me.
'Werewolf!' -Drania.
"Werewolf?"
"K, and Lesha, come back to us, quick!" Gloria called.
Both of us turned and ran, but it didn't chase us. Still, we ran to get with the group, and we got ready for it to come, but it never did. As a group, we advanced on the alley, but there was nothing, and even when we looked at where we had seen the thing come from, there was nothing, not even tracks.
We all headed back to the stables and explained to Tim and the others what had happened.
"A Werewolf? This far down? They are normally in the north with all the other weird shit. Looks like we will have some company for the next little while!" Tim said with a smile.
"Company? It's going to flow to us? Why are you smiling? The thing is massive and it drinks people's blood!" I said with shock.
"You drink blood and we think you're alright. Plus, they are pretty much harmless, I bet the guy cheated him in cards! They only killed Vampires, and wildlife, like man's best friend!" Tim said with another smile.
Great, only doesn't like vampires, great.