Chapter Twenty-Five Oddities in the North

Reaching the area in question had taken them a few weeks but thankfully for Hikaru and party, there was a good road with many villages along the way. Making it easier on them to reach the location they had to investigate. Now Hikaru found himself looking at the front gate of another village, the local village of Ferki. Sometimes he wondered why every village and town had their own walls, but then he remembered that monsters existed in this world. Dangerous predators that would prey on the weak and vulnerable. Some of them were rather nasty, Rylarks were truly detestable monsters even worse than Goblins were often depicted. Of Goblins, they weren’t anywhere near as nasty as they were depicted in the fantasy books he’d read. Which just went to show that this was a very different world. Hikaru had learned that it was just common sense in this world to wall towns and villages. 

Polca came up from the gate, having been talking to the guard. She wasn’t smiling.

“Bad news?”

“Seems things have gotten worse lately, young women have been vanishing lately. Not only here, but also in the neighboring villages of Perin and Tulk.”

“Vanishing? That doesn’t sound good,” said Hikaru.

Eren spoke up, “Any leads?”

Polca sighed, “Not really, the only thing they told me was the missing girls all vanished in the night. They doubled patrols and locked all the doors, but it didn’t help, more girls just vanished the next. Worse, not one person saw it happen.”

Hikaru shuddered and Eren’s tail was standing on end, the fur raised. “Spooky!”

Polca nodded, “Agreed, and the lack of leads don’t help.”

Hikaru frowned, “What about the local monsters?”

“The guard hasn’t had a single Drava sighting in weeks and most of the other usual monster sightings are down by over half.”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense,” replied Hikaru.

“No it doesn’t, if the Drava sightings were down you’d expect the other monsters to go up, the Drava eat most of the other monsters, so they keep the population in check.”

Hikaru nodded, that made sense to him as well. A second later, Eren said, “We should check out the local dens then. Did the guard give you any information on where they might be?”

Polca nodded, “That was something I was able to get. It’s a good march north of here. Now, do we head into town and stay until morning? Or should we head out right away?”

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In the end they stayed the rest of the day in the village, gathering extra information while planning on setting out in the morning. Hikaru had found it odd being in the village, there were barely any women in the village, and fewer children. Those that he did see kept to themselves, leaving the village sad and somber. There wasn’t any joy left there, whatever was going on had hit them hard. 

With the sun setting, Hikaru followed Polca into the inn, where a young woman greeted them. There was no smile on her face. She’d have been pretty cute, if not for the frown on her face. The strain of worry was evident in her green eyes. “I wish there were better circumstances, are you four staying the night?”

“We figured we’d stay the night, set out in the morning, check out the local monster dens, see what may have changed.”

She sighed, “I see, well you ladies better be on guard. People have been vanishing at night, especially girls.”

“We’ll be careful.”

The girl pulled out a key, asking, “So how many rooms?”

Hikaru started to say two, but Polca spoke first, “One room should suffice.”

Kuon spoke up, “I’ll stand guard then, I’ve got enough stamina potions to last the night.”

“Nonsense, we’ll do a standard two-man watch.”

Kuon quickly volunteered for the first shift but since there were only four of them, they couldn’t use the standard three-shift watch. Hikaru ended up taking the second shift with Polca and Eren would be staying up with Kuon for the first shift.

The young woman nodded and then led them upstairs. Hikaru followed her up the stairs with the rest of the party to a modest room on the left. It had a decently sized bed, but that was about it. Pretty standard fare, all things considered, aside from the fact that he was sharing it with two girls and an armored man. Who still wouldn’t take off his helmet. At this point Hikaru had to wonder, was Kuon a living armor or something like that? 

He didn’t have long to think before Polca shed her armor and slipped naked into the bed. Hikaru sighed and after a moment joined her. Trying not to think about the fact he was sharing a bed with a naked girl. Before he knew it he was in dreamland.

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Hikaru blinked as Kuon roused him, the room was long dark but the air had turned heavy. Almost immediately he knew something was amiss. Looking around he noted Polca half dressed, her lower half quite exposed as she was pulling her top over her head. Hikaru grabbed his armor and started dressing, “What’s going on?”

Eren spoke up, “Not sure, the air changed just moments ago, but other than that, it’s quiet. Too quiet.”

It only took him a moment to get his armor secure and for Polca to get fully dressed. “I noticed something doesn’t feel right.”

“Won’t get any answers standing around,” said Polca as she gestured at the door, “Let’s go check things out.”

Together they filed out into the hall. Eren took the lead as they made their way down the stairs, stopping in the doorway. Hikaru looked out to see the innkeeper standing in the foyer and she wasn’t alone, two young girls were with her. Entirely naked and their eyes... It was like staring into lifeless pits. They were so blank, expressionless, what happened to these girls? The one on the left looked about fourteen, she had brown hair that hung loosely around her face, decorated with flowers and vines interwoven into it. Lightly tanned skin and lovely perky breasts, down lower she didn’t even have hair to conceal her puffy pussy.

The other girl looked a little older but was half a head shorter with larger breasts. Her dark brown hair was a bit unkempt however, decorated with sticks. They seemed almost random. Yet he couldn’t help noticing how blank her blue eyes were. It was like she wasn’t all there.

Meanwhile, he couldn’t see the Innkeeper’s eyes given her back was turned, but he noted she wasn’t wearing a scrap, her white hair was disheveled, the ribbon she’d worn earlier gone as well, her feet seemed unsteady as well. Hikaru had the suspicion she’d just gotten out of bed and hadn’t bothered to get dressed. Nightclothes weren’t exactly common in this world, he’d figured that out from looking at the market, they had no pajamas of any kind, or bras or even corsets for sale. All clothing was made by seamstresses and tailors, who made everything custom but what items they offered were often displayed on dolls so that customers could get an idea of their work.

One of the girls spoke, her voice oddly flat and emotionless, “Come on, hurry, it’s your turn afterall.”

Hikaru and Polca exchanged looks as the innkeeper was led out of the reception, “Alright that’s downright strange.”

Eren spoke up, “Did you see their eyes?”

“I think we might have a clue, here,” said Hikaru.

“No shit, we should follow them!”

That seemed only natural so they headed out into the village streets, where they caught sight of the girls. They hadn’t gone far and had been joined by more. Looking around they could see other girls. Not far from them, a pair of naked girls, children really, stopped in front of a house. They tried the door but it was locked, after a moment they went to a window and tried it, this time they managed to open it, not much, just barely enough for the smaller kid to crawl through.

Seconds later she was opening the front door and the second kid ran in. It wasn’t long before they came back escorting one of the kids they had seen earlier that day. A girl who had run the moment he’d tried to talk to her, clearly scared. Now she just seemed dazed as the two girls she was with joined the innkeeper.

It wasn’t the only odd thing they saw while following the girls. Hikaru kept a wary eye on the lizards walking on the roofs. He recognized them from books, guides given to every adventurer in the region so that they would know what monster they were dealing with. They were bipedal with a build like that of a velociraptor only stockier. Each one stood almost two meters tall with a long tail for balance. Their stocky limbs ended in vicious claws meant for tearing flesh, long ridges went down their spines. He caught their deep set red eyes, yet he saw no intelligence, they were blank, lifeless just like the girls he saw on the streets.

He pointed one out, “Drava, on the roofs, but there is something weird about them.”

Polca nodded, “I noticed. I tried using a mana-sensing spell, but it’s weird. Those Drava and most of the girls don’t show up.”

Eren whispered, “That is strange, unless...”

“I know, I just hope we are wrong about it.”

Hikaru frowned, “Unless what?”

They didn’t say, only gestured to keep following. Hikaru moved from house to house keeping close with the party as they followed the innkeeper and several others as they moved towards the edge of town. Pausing at the side of yet another house, he noted two girls, their eyes just as blank as the rest, step back from trying a window, then try another with equal failure. Finally they moved near the door, just moments before a Drava dropped down, and assaulted the door. It slammed into it once, twice, then thrice before the sturdy wooden door shattered. The girls then went in and came back moments later with a young woman and her two daughters. 

While they walked off, a new girl showed up, and started chanting, a spell that quickly repaired the damage right before his eyes. No wonder even locking things hadn’t worked, if they couldn’t get in, they forced their way in. Only reason he didn’t rush in, was Polca’s hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t right.”

“No and if we are right, we can’t help. Only thing we can do is take out the source and hope it isn’t too late.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. “So where’s the source?”

“We follow the girls, they’ll take us there.”

“I see,” replied Hikaru as they moved forward, following the innkeeper. It wasn’t long before they found something. A tunnel that hadn’t been there in the day, the innkeeper and several other girls taken from the town were being led into the tunnel. The party shared looks before taking a risk and following them into the tunnel. Oddly enough, they weren’t accosted, even as others joined them from behind.

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The girls led them out into the hills and deep into the woods. The twin moons shone down upon them, illuminating the path. Hikaru kept noting the empty eyes, as they made their way deeper into the woods, being joined by an ever-increasing number of bodies. Goosebumps formed on his skin, the hairs on his hackles had raised. Something about this had him deeply unsettled, and judging by Eren’s tail he wasn’t alone in that feeling.

Suddenly the trees opened up and they entered a large clearing. No not a simple clearing, the ground around here was tilled, tended. Plants growing in orderly rows, but what drew the eye was the strange tree. Calling it strange didn’t even begin to cover it, the leaves were a blood-red with a tint of gold. Strangely pretty, yet ominous, odd vines ending in strange barbs hung from the branches, right before the trunk was a rock, flat on top placed before the tree like some strange altar.

The girls were lining before it, one of the townsfolk was being placed upon the altar, this one a child barely two years old from the looks of things. Just moments before those tendrils shot forth, yet they didn’t pierce her. They stopped before they touched her. Strangely the kid screamed, despite this, a soul-piercing cry of pain.

Polca commented, “Damn it, I was hoping it would be something else, and a fucking elder too.”

“Elder What?”