I follow Heloise down to the farm to check on the Hinault family who have not been seen since the battle between the Shornhelm guard and Montclair soldiers descended like a tornado across their land.  Locking themselves in their farmhouse has saved them, but Montclair’s soldiers have already begun to ransack the outbuildings.

Too late I return with weapons to find Heloise kneeling beside the body of the father, and the rest of the family fled.  She warns me to burn the body lest he return as a bloodfiend!  Another monster from campfire tales I thought but a fable to frighten children.  As I torch the father’s corpse, I whisper a prayer to Arkey that it is but superstition has Heloise’s innocent eyes seeing monsters in the silhouette’s of men at their very worst.

S.K