Slowly his hands started shaking, no it was almost as if a shock had gone through his entire body.
"What was that?" Leroy asked out loud to himself.
Looking around quickly, he found nothing.
He couldn't see past the tree line as everything was blocked by the mist.
'Somethings wrong' Leroy thought as he turned around and started heading towards the captain's tent as quickly as he could while still being attentive to his surroundings.
As he was getting closer to the tent, the more he started to hear them.
The screams were louder, they were... getting closer.
Leroy's eyes became frantic as he increased his pace, the thing behind him, inside the mist gave him a bad feeling.
No bad feeling didn't cut it, it was almost like whatever was behind there was going to kill him without him even knowing what it was. An instant death.
Finally, he arrived at the tent and he pushed his way inside as quickly as he could, his breath haggard as his lungs felt like they couldn't take any more air inside them.
"Leroy? What's wrong?"
as soon as Harry saw Leroy's state, he got up from the bed quickly together with Jakob, who was in the same tent.
'It's influencing me' Leroy thought as he tried to get his emotions in control but it felt much harder than usual, almost as if someone or something had grabbed hold of them and was refusing to let them go, no matter what Leroy did.
"What's wrong? come on tell us!" Harry asked as he started to raise his voice, trying to snap Leroy out of his thoughts.
Leroy finally managed to somehow get back a little of his control and raised his head, looking directly into Harry's eyes as he told him
"The mist, screams inside the mist," Leroy said in between puffs of breath, his lungs feeling better but he still felt like he didn't have enough air.
"The mist? I told you that shit was fake" Harry said as furrowed his brows.
"Fake? As if, I can barely control my emotions, whatever is inside there is manipulating them or at least enhancing them to such a degree that I can no longer control them. I have gone through some pretty terrifying shit Harry and I know how my emotions work, this isn't natural" Leroy replied to Harry trying to get him to understand.
Harry sat down on the makeshift bed and he started thinking, Leroy also sat on the ground as he started thinking back to what just happened.
"It's not fake, no it's very real," Jakob said suddenly.
Leroy and Harry turned towards him and questioned him with their eyes.
"What do you mean by that Jakob" Harry asked
"I used to live around these parts at a small village called Copperdia, there I learned all about the forest of harrowing mist."
"And?" Leroy questioned, impatient to get to finally know what the hell was going on around them.
"Early in the morning, the mist descends rarely, unlike normal mist, it looks more beautiful than any other but that's just the facade it puts on. Inside the mist is filled with demons, imitating the voices of people they have eaten, trying to trick people into helping them, trapping them inside the fog and slowly hunting them until they eat them piece for piece, ripping them apart and not even leaving bones behind" Jakob said as he explained what he knew about the stories of the fog.
"I heard the whispers, they sounded just like what you said, it was people screaming at the top of their lungs in pain" Leroy added as he crossed his legs on the ground, his fingers holding his chin.
Sighing, Harry spoke up
"And here I was hoping for a calm and quick journey," Harry said as he shook his head and then turned towards Jakob.
"And how does someone escape this mist?"
Suddenly Jakob laughed, it was a self-deprecating almost demented laugh.
"Escape? We are quite deep in shit right now captain, people have only seen the mist consume people from afar and then they have never seen those people again" Jakob said as his brows furrowed, his eyes had grown misty with tears.
"Haha, shit," Harry said as he slammed his fist on the ground.
"That doesn't mean that there's no way out of the situation, there's always a weakness, we just have to find it and try our hardest to grasp it," Leroy said as he got up on his feet.
"You're right, though no one has managed to escape the mist, all the victims were civilians who couldn't protect themselves," Jakob said as he also got up.
"Alright, go outside and call everyone to come in front of this tent, Don't go walking around but just scream at them to come here," Harry said.
"Scream? If something inside the Mist then that would also give out our information as well, would it not? " Leroy asked.
"No, if something managed to influence your emotions then they have already found us. For all we know, they could be behind us, just behind the corner, or even under the beds look for the opportunity so no matter what don't split up and be on guard the entire time." Harry said as he went towards the front of the tent.
"What about you then captain?" Jakob asked.
"I'm strong, stronger than both of you together, I'll go grab the baron's heir and his butler and come back here," Harry replied as he disappeared outside.
Leroy and Jakob looked at each other and then nodded, deciding to get started with the plan immediately, when they went outside Leroy noticed something.
"The mist is getting closer, it was only at the tree line and now it has almost engulfed the camp," Leroy said.
Jakob just nodded and then turned towards the other tents and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Everyone gets up, come to the captain's tent right now, it's an emergency" Jakob screamed again and again, repeating his words so that everyone would know what to do.
Leroy meanwhile was looking around them, trying to notice if anything was amiss and guard them both against any possible danger.
Finally as almost everyone was gathered at the captain's tent.
The mist started engulfing the camp.