Previously:
In our previous episode, Eilwen, Aron, and Seith are reunited near Seith's home with Aron leading several horses. While Seith is gathering supplies for a departure from Redcrag, Aron reveals that they have little some time but not much if they are to stay ahead of their pursuers from the Wolf Fang Clan. By the light of moon and stars, they consult the Wolf Fang Clan's map that Eilwen took from Mattox's second story room in Redcrag's inn. Hoping to both lose their Wolf Fang Clan pursuers and avoid Uzak's south-marching warband, Eilwen asks about a diifferent route southward on the map that would take them between the high south-western bluffs known as the Gods Teeth and Eagle Point to the south east.
Seith reveals that no one has traveled that route in over a decade, that a darkness has slowly waxed slowly upon that land. As they pack their horses for their journey, he tells a tale he heard from an old trader, many years ago, a man known as Morys, one of the last to travel the road. Morys said that he and his wife often heard a woman's voice keening upon the wind as they took the north-south road that followed the river. Morys claimed that his wife was attacked and slain by some creature near the water, and when he ran to her aid, he found she had drowned and that her face and arms bore wound marks form human teeth and nails.
Eilwen decides to take this dark and broken road less traveled by and with baggage affixed and spare horses in tow they begin their southward journey. After traveling all night, as morning dawns cold and gray they find a rotted bridge, and crossing over to the other side, Eilwen spots where wagon some time ago had fallen off the bridge its tattered canvas snapping in the wind. She takes her horse down and investigates, but finds no survivors, no bones, and nothing of use, only thick mold and a sense brooding gloom.
Upon rejoining her companions up by the bridge, they hear a wolf's howl upon the wind. The noise throws the horses into a panic. The trio manage to calm their mounts and Seith's face blanches at the wolf call. For he alone recognizes it as not that of a mere wolf, but the wolf-like call belongs to the Varou, wolves that walk upright on two legs, vicious and brutal wolfmen, one of the old firstborn races upon the land. Then with sorrow etching his visage, he tell another sad tale, this one from his own history, how Varou attacked his homestead and wife and daughter, how he had to choose to protect either his daughter, Kari, or his wife, Alwena but that he could not save them both. He watched as Alwena was butchered slowly before his eyes.
While Seith admits that the Varou are intelligent and have a form of speech, he insists still that they are animals. With a dark hatred blazing in his eyes, he reveals how he has made it his business to learn all he could them and that he hunts and traps them. Eilwen and Aron learn that this man whom they thought was merely a sometimes hunter has hunted, captured, and tortured one of these Varou to death. Eilwen now sees Seith in a new light--a man who is in reality a very capable hunter and trapper and also one very capable of dark deeds.
The trio resume their journey and after several hours a tree-lashing storm hits the region. Soaked to the bone and at the height of the storm's fury, wishing they could find shelter, Seith insists they press on, for he notices that the slashes in the bark of a nearby tree on a field of old dried blood are signs that they are indeed passing through Varou territory. They travel all the rest of the day and into the night.
Finally, suffering from cold and wet from exposure, and next to a widening river threatening to overtake the road, Eilwen and Aron, finally manage to convince the driven Seith to find shelter.
Next to an escarpment of rock, they make a cold wet camp and pass a miserable shivering night with only their shared body warmth for heat. When morning dawns, it is warmer and a thick fog blankets the terrain. Midway through breakfast, they hear a horse scream followed by a very close howl.
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Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects and some music from Pixabay (Pixabay.com)
