The Lakeside Bloodbath

[Rocky Shoals]

Rocky Shoals sat on the ground staring into the blazing campfire as if hypnotized.

"Rocky? Did you hear me?" asked one of the people who had just joined the circle around the fire. "Exactly what happened at the lake?"

Without breaking his trance-like stare into the flickering flames, Rocky began to speak with a voice as gentle as the misty rain that fell around them.

"I was hunting just before dawn at the side of Lake Zarovich. I had killed both wolf and wolf-man and was returning to the village. I saw something on the shore of the lake, so I decided to look closer. There, I saw the head of a deer that had been stripped of flesh, but the neck was crushed, almost... ripped from the body. I saw no body, but there was a broad trail of blood leading down into the waters of the lake. As I got down to sniff at the remains, I heard a loud hiss echoing around me. I backed away from the site and fled the scene, but as I ran the hiss became an evil laughter."

"I ran to the village to gather a hunting party, but when we returned, there was still no sign of what had savaged the deer. All we heard was a large splash in the darkness... then nothing more."

Rocky Shoals continued to stare into the fire for a moment, then rose from his place on the cold, damp ground and walked away into the baleful grey light of a terrifying new dawn without another word.

[Rocky Shoals]

Later on...

"What were you thinking?" The teacher asked without bothering to mask her exasperation. "You could have been killed!"

Rocky Shoals looked away to the North and replied, "I was thinking that it would not return. I was thinking it was safe to hunt, but not to fish."

"So, tell me again what happened." she demanded.

Still looking North, towards the Lake, Rocky Shoals said softly, "It approached me in the pre-dawn light on the western banks. A... reptile-man. It said that I was hunting on its land. It began to approach me and was about to strike, but suddenly we were attacked by wolf-men fleeing the coming dawn. By the time we had driven them off, the sun was rising and he seemed to fear it, so he retreated to the water once again and was gone."

"So the werewolves are not his allies. Good to know. Did he say anything else apart from a warning about hunting on his land?" She asked, clearly noting his every word.

Rocky grew quiet for a moment before speaking. "From fear, much has drowned in the waters of my memory, but I remember it said a name. It said 'Sebek will have tribute.' ...and then it was gone into the fading darkness."

[Rocky Shoals]

Still later on...

"Why are you still carrying that thing?" he asked in disgust.

Rocky Shoals shifted the bag with the mutilated torso from one shoulder to the other and grunted, "Because the garda need to see, but now I can not find one."

"When I told them of the brutally savaged deer and the hissing sound, they did not care. They said they did not care as long as people were not being harmed. Now people are being harmed by this thing and they need to see this. I only want this to end so I can go fish in the lake again."

Someone in the encroaching twilight remarked, "They will probably blame you for this."

Rocky Shoals nodded, "There were many people in the hunting party that found this. Many were misted, but there was also a native girl among them who will speak the truth of this for me. She is the teacher of orphans called Luminita Luca and this is her home, so her words will be heard."

He then shifted the dead weight once again and headed off towards the yawning city gates.


Passers-by might later remark upon a gruesome bag that was left in the cell outside the western wall with the following curiously child-like note pinned to it:

GARDA

I AM CALLED ROCKY SHOALS

I talked to you abowt the savijed amin anm animals at the lake

You sayd that it is not impotent if no peepol are hurt

You sayd not to talk abowt it

Now peepol are dead becaws of the thing you tell me not to talk abowt

This person was fownd at the lake like the deer

A larj hunting party fownd him - I was not alon

The Brarorvrian teacher Luminita Luca will tell you the truth of this for she was with the hunting party wen we fownd this body 

Also if you have a way to bring this body back to live then it mite tell you of the thing I am told not to talk abowt

I do not wont to go to the lake to fish for I feer I will be prey for the thing I can not talk about.

I must rest

I AM CALLED ROCKY SHOALS