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Prompt 9 - Disappearances in the Village: As people confront the creature, or as their shelters are compromised, people will begin to disappear. In the night, you may hear the creature attacking someone or something, but the overwhelming fear and trepidation it radiates is capable of paralyzing even the bravest of warriors, making it difficult to help or investigate until morning. Searching for clues yields nothing, except sometimes damaged shelters and anything the missing may have dropped. No matter where you search, you cannot seem to locate where they have gone or what has happened to them.
The beast had made a name for itself by now and it was safe to say that no one had managed to escape its attention for long. While some may have had the capacity to get home before the mists had descended, there were others who hadn't been quite so lucky. Worse still, there were those who had been hounded or chased during the moments when the creature had caught a glimpse of them through dirty laden windows and deemed it necessary to retrieve them from inside. Consequently the roars and scratching had become common place in the evening, the occasional cluck or chirr, a low rumble here and there... leaving even this senshi with no doubt that someone or something had caught its eye again.
Whether it managed to acquire its prey or not was always an answer to a question that needed to wait until morning. He'd once considered himself brave, capable of facing almost anything head on, and yet the man had been cut down more than once by that godforsaken mist. He'd now acknowledged, even if he didn't necessarily want to accept it, the mist had a hold on him that he simply couldn't break. No matter how much he desired to help there was nothing that he could do and if the beast managed to acquire their prey then they were lost to him.
...Nevertheless as morning approached and the fog receded he did take the opportunity to leave his own home and begin the same routine. He didn't expect to find much and he had learned to set his expectations low in that respect. Even when he managed to locate the houses that had been used by the missing individuals there was very rarely any indication that the beast had been there, or strangely, that anyone else had ever been there to begin with. More often than not as he stepped through the threshold the houses gave nothing away and for all intents and purposes, the slate had been wiped clean.
Or rather it would have been if it hadn't been for the fact that there were new holes in the wall that would have challenged even the best of them to repair them quickly and effectively in such a short period of time between sunrise and the early sunset.
This morning had proceeded in much the same fashion as every other morning he'd been out with the intention of uncovering answers. Occasional pots and pans lay strewn around, supplies in crates and an ajar door, but until now he hadn't managed to find anything of note. He had stepped in to yet another household that had lost its 'battle' to the beast, ducking underneath the low slung door and proceeded into the depths. The musty smell hit him at first, one he had grown used to in his own 'abode', but with the distinct hint of 'strangers'. Suffice to say that this was not his home and until recently it had definitely been inhabited by another.
Yet once again, nothing lay out of place.
At least it seemed that nothing untoward had occurred, he couldn't see anything of not as he picked carefully through the household, pausing only briefly to press his palm against the larger hole that had very clearly been created the night before. That hadn't been a solid punch that caused it, that much he knew. He crouched down to inspect it further, brushing a fingertip along the wounded wall and pursed his lips as he noted the dusty and gravel like texture of some parts of it - this had been scratched at until it fell.
After that he knew what would have happened, the mist would have flooded in and from there any sense of sanity would have been lost. If they'd had coherent thought, they probably hadn't had it after a while and storming out of the house in fear was not implausible. With no signs of life though, it was highly likely that they would have been caught.
He released a sigh and straightened again; and having found nothing of note, he turned on his heel and began to walk outside. A brief flicker of something caught his eye, a series of footprints leading down the less habitable region of town and yet even from here he could see that those prints soon tapered off.
Suffice to say that if he had been looking for leads then he wouldn't be finding them this morning... Again, something that was no longer a surprise to him, even if it still led to disappointment. Nevertheless he'd still keep looking, at some point someone or something would slip up and when that happened there would be a chance to get to the bottom of this and recover whatever was left of those who had been subject to the beast's machinations.
Word Count: 809
