Sillion stayed completely still, listening intently to the sounds as whatever was causing them moved without stop, walking at slow pace.
This went on for thirty minutes, the thing outside kept on circling the cabin but what put an end to this stalemate was something Sillion least expected, he received a system notification, he had never seen a system window appear without him whishing for it to happen and what he was seeing wasn't reassuring, even if he didn't understand the bulk of it.
It was a warning, the noble didn't even know the system could do this, he had heard some people theorising that the system had a certain level of sentience and all, considering that it behaved differently from person to person and having been observed to have a certain speech pattern pattern from those that could get sentence from it.
This was the very first time he heard of it warning someone.
*Warning: Proximity with a pseudo-apostle of -REDACTED-, user's willpower and resistance are high enough to fight back, resulting in a stronger response from opponent*
Not only was it warning him, it was keeping information to itself despite informing him of danger and it wasn't even done.
*One or multiple apparitions of -REDACTED- are in the vicinity, extreme cautiousness is advised*
Just like that, it was done, Sillion tried to get another reaction out of the system but it was back as it had always been for his whole life, as a seemingly unintelligent ability he possessed just like everyone else.
Still, for the system to tell him to be wary, the threat had to be extreme.
He immediately linked the warning to the footsteps outside but just has he thought of it, he realised that they had gone completely silent.
The noble heir hadn't heard anything going away, so it seemed probable that whatever was outside had just stopped moving and waiting for something.
Even with all that had happened, it wasn't like Sillion had much of a choice, going outside would be exposing himself, inside the cabin, he had least had the comfort of having walls all around him and the compensation of not having to actually know what was patrolling the edges of the cabin.
The footsteps sounded like those of a person but he wasn't betting on it being the case, and even if it was, that person would most likely be just like the butcher, a complete nutcase.
Soon enough, he heard the sound of something approaching the door but it wasn't the same as before, these were also footsteps but this one were those of something walking on four limbs, it calmly walked up to the door.
Sillion was on guard but he wasn't thinking much of it for now, as weird as everything might be, an animal inside of a forest wasn't the strangest thing, it was normal even, he quickly changed his opinion however.
The beast outside started scratching the wooden door, deeply but leisurely pressing its claws into the wood.
It was doing it for so long and doing so with odd numbers of claws, sometimes ten, five for each front paws it sounded like but it could as well do it with a single claw, as if it had great control on each individual claw and its front paws, as if those weren't paws but hands.
Sillion swallowed his saliva reflexively, even before he realised that fact, he felt strangely anxious about the scratching, as if his very being understood that whatever was on the other side of this door was bad news.
'Surely, it's probably just a werewolf' he couldn't believe that the possible presence of a werewolf could be relegated as 'just' something that could be the case, a werewolf just so happens to be something he was less afraid of than what was actually behind this door.
The fact that beside the scratching, it stayed completely silent was quite frigthening as well.
The noble hoped that it would get bored and go away, but after a whole hour, it was clear that it wouldn't leave no matter what.
It knew he was inside and didn't count on missing him, Sillion gathered his courage and decided to try to do something.
Of course, it didn't involve getting anywhere close to the outside, he wasn't going to try and fight it, especially considering that the other thing outside had still made no noise indicating its departure, there were at least two different creatures waiting for him to come out right now.
Instead, he decided to bet that the scratching one would perhaps act like an animal and be scared off if he suddenly yelled or something, so he did just that.
"Go away!" he shouted out, not finding anything better to say than voice out what he really wanted.
Instantly after he said those words, the beast on the other side stopped what it was doing, even without seeing or hearing anything, Sillion could feel that it had placed its whole attention exactly on where he stood.
It placed one of its palm against the wooden door, causing it to slightly creak as it either pressed it harder or leaned forward, Sillion then heard the sound of flesh rupturing and then a light growl.
The growl almost sounded like a cough.
"Go away!" it repeated his words right at him, with his own voice nonetheless, as the noble cowered back, immediately intimidated by this display, the beast, just like its predecessor, went completely silent.
Without indicating whether it had moved away or not, there were now two completely silent beings just waiting around the cabin.
The noble heir listened as hard as he could but no further sounds were heard anywhere, not even the natural noises one could expect, no distant animals or anything, utter silence, as if the whole forest had gone quiet, looking at the cabin, waiting.
Sillion felt unsettled but by now, several hours had gone by and he was feeling lethargic, he would have to leave this place at some point and when he did, he would run as fast as he could away from it, he needed to be well rested.
He reluctantly laid on the bed, dozing off surprisingly quickly.
His slumber however, would be interrupted.