Chereads / Nightly Journey / Chapter 4 - The Smell

Chapter 4 - The Smell

The sky quickly turned dark and stars began to light the sky, the crescent moon barely provided any light into the cold city. The streets turned dark, the only light coming from buildings now was from The Blooded Elf. Heizenburg watched from atop of a house as many groups walked in and out of the Inn. He could hear laughter and singing coming from inside, light streamed through the door onto the street whenever someone opened it. Heizenburg was annoyed by this, he was on duty and was trying to focus to see and dangerous movements in the darkness. But his eyes could adjust because of that light so he moved, Heizenburg dashed across rooftops and jumped the alleyways in between buildings.

He eventually found a better stop to perform his watch, he sat down and placed his blade beside him. He sat their for hours watching for any movements but he saw none, it was after many hours did Heizenburg finally fall asleep looking towards the stars.

Taniwha was cold, freezing in fact. He blew into his hands to try warm them, he shivered as he sat on top of a house. He hated being put on watch especially during cold weather, he had to sit their and watch for a monster that might not even be in the city anymore. Small specks of snow started to fall from the sky, he looked up to see the moon at its apex.

"It's late, I should regroup with the others" he mumbled.

He quickly gathered his things before dashing off, he began traveling back to The Blooded Elf but on his way back a foul stench caught his trained senses. He stopped in his track, this smell he recognize, he could never forget that smell. It was the smell of a corpse, he rushed after where the origin of the smell. He ran across the rooftops searching, he eventually found the origin coming from a dark, empty alleyway. He quickly ran down the alleyway and his worst fear was confirmed, in the back of the alley was a pile of corpses all ranging from weeks old to yesterday.

Taniwha backed up, fear clinging to him. His brain was working in overdrive.

"This many corpses? This has to be a ghoul, I have to tell the others!"

He quickly started running to the entrance of the alley but he was too late, there standing in the entrance was a silhouette of a big figure. It was around 7ft tall, lanky arms dangled by its sides, it carried a body. The ghoul dropped its dead prey, slowly moving towards its new and alive prey. Taniwha could only pull out his bow and aim as the ghoul rushed towards him.