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We had set camp immediately after Zell and his crew had flown off. No fire, though. Didn't want to attract any attention from whatever lived in Whitefall. Sure, we were a few miles away, but that was still a risk none of us were willing to take. It was a quick affair to get everything set up, done in relative silence.

This silence was broken the moment we all sat down to rest.

"You think they'll actually come back for us?" Albert mumbled.

"Course," I responded. "Problem is if we'll be there when they come back."

Our escort made a strange noise then spit a rather large glob of saliva onto the grass beside him. "Long as we keep our wits about us and don't stumble around, we should make it back in one piece."

Shaking my head, I clarified, "Not what I mean. Zell will come back alright. But if we miss his arrival, he isn't gonna wait for us."

"Happen before?" came Pram's voice.

I gave a short nod. "Not to me, though," I clarified. "Another passenger he dropped off before me one time. Guy was supposed to meet up on some hilltop, but ended up missing the time window. Zell waited an hour, then took off."

"What happen passenger?"

"No clue." After taking a bite of some dried meat, I said with my mouth partially full, "Probably just had to buy a ticket for another ship."

"Expensive mistake," Vaughn snorted.

"One I'd like to avoid."

As we all went quiet once more, we ate our fill and then settled in the for the night. Off in the distance, another drake roar could be heard, followed by an answering bellow from another beast. Vaughn offhandedly commented it might have been a farsian hound. I hoped he was wrong.

~~~

I woke suddenly, the first little bits of dawn sprinkling the still dark sky, painting it with those subtle shades of purples and blues. Looking around, I found only one other person was awake. The short little fire furred blacksmith was busying herself with another one of her signature lure boxes. I hadn't even realized she brought it with her, but I kinda made sense. Going into a place like Whitefall could provide ample creature noises for a number of the little tools.

Her tiny hands moved around the box, pressing and pushing little pieces into place. Strangely, she had no conventional tools to use, like a hammer or other such useful objects. She simply worked with only her hands. I had never actually known how she managed to build these devices, so seeing her work like that was certainly interesting. As I watched, one thing troubled me. She had claimed her lure boxes were rhubrum based, but I could see no indication of any of the magical material itself.

Perhaps the stone was somewhere inside the box, tucked away behind the metallic walls and such. Regardless of how it truly worked, these tools of hers had proved an invaluable asset to me in the past. And, if things went south during this trip, I imagined they could also be used as a good distraction to any unsavory monsters that might be after us.

I must have made a noise, because the little artificer's ears perked right up and she swiveled around to face me. Large eyes scanned the area around us, searching for something. What she could have been looking for, I had no idea.

"Everything alright there?" I whispered, not wanting to wake the others.

Those icy eyes of hers settled on me, seemingly finished with their scouting. "Why Cedric awake?" she whispered in response. "Him need rest for hunting."

"Could ask you the same thing."

She breathed out something I couldn't quite hear and then turned back to her work. As her little fingers twisted and turned tiny gears, she spoke softly. "Pram think maybe catching new noises. Need new boxes for catch new noises, so she bring many materials." She then gestured to a small spot to her right I hadn't noticed before. There, sitting in a small bunch were several other lures.

"Hm, those look nice."

The voice came from beside me. It was a harsh voice full of gravel. I turned and offered Vaughn a welcoming smile.

"Yea, they're also real handy to have on a hunt." I explained how these little devices worked, and Vaughn seemed really interested in trying one out for himself, but none of the ones Pram had made were fully ready for use.

During this short exchange, our resident alchemist had deigned to finally rouse from his slumber. His hair was sticking up in places, a sign he had shifted in his sleep quite a bit. When he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he gave a long yawn.

"And so the sleeping princess joins the knights," I joked.

"Eat shit," he spat in return, but he did it with a broad smile.

Overhead, the sky was slowly filling with the rainbow of color that came from the morning sun. As the light began to color the world around us, we all collectively, and without hesitation, started to pack up and make ready to begin the hunt, as if we had planned it. Which we hadn't. Just an odd coincidence we all moved at the same time.

Packing up took some time, as when we had finished putting away everything, the golden orb had risen above the horizon, the bottom of the circle hovering just over the line where the sky and earth touched. With the light came the warmth; a calm, almost soothing soft heat. A perfect kind of subtle heat. Today was going to be a good hunt. I could feel it in the air. Could feel it in my own soul, even.

"Hope everyone's good and ready," Vaughn started. From his side, he pulled forth his dagger and stepped forth. "From this moment on, you're under my watch. As such, you do what I say if you want to keep living. No sidetracking, no loafing around, no shooting off on your own because you saw some interesting little frogs or whathaveyou. Stay close, stay safe." When the three of us all gave him a nod of our collective understanding, I saw a twinkle in one of his eyes.

Vaughn led us towards Whitefall. The closer we got, the more the warmth of the morning sun was stolen away. The breeze shifted to become colder than it had any right to be, carrying the frost and ice from the forest out towards us. The chill seeped through my clothing, biting down into my skin like tiny needles. The heavy cloak I'd brought was quickly drapped around me, and the winter cold wasn't as harsh then. From my side, I saw Albert follow my lead with his own cloak, and Vaughn ahead of us had already donned his own. Pram, however, did not seem all too bothered by the cold. Her personal coat of fur was more than enough, I assumed.

Pulling out my map, I began to pinpoint our location and directed Vaughn as to where Laiu's man had encountered the unicorn. It was a bit west of our current position, but thankfully not too far off. The walk was calm and silent, the only noise our own footsteps upon the grass and leaves. Not even birds dared make a sound, it seemed. It was almost unnerving.

When we found the marked area the unicorn had been spotted, I began my usual ways. Hunkering down, I scoured the ground floor for any signs of the beast; discarded hair, droppings, urine, hoofprints, anything I could to tell where the creature could have gone. There were some tufts of fur or some such, but they lacked the distinctive silvery shine I was looking for. Other than those, I could not find a single piece of evidence of the mythical beast. I had been shying away from the edge of the forest so far, not yet ready to set foot inside, but now I was left with no other choice. It was time to enter Whitefall.

With completely not nervous steps whatsoever I stepped forth onto the frost coated ground. A hand latched onto my shoulder. Hard.

"You can't take lead," Vaughn commanded rather than said. To emphasize his point, he moved past me and pushed through the brush, gesturing for the rest of us to fall in behind him. As we followed, he spoke without turning to look at us, his harsh voice quiet. "Just look for your tracks or hair or whatever, then point me where I have to go. Stay behind me and keep your eyes peeled."

A wordless grunt of acceptance was all I gave for a response, and continued my attempts. There were tracks in the snow, several different beasts in fact. Some of those prints in the white were a bit too large, and I hoped that whatever made them wouldn't come across our path, or we their's. Admittedly, it had been a few good days since Laiu's man had seen our catch, so if the unicorn had been through this area, it's tracks would have been trampled over and more difficult to spot. That is, of course, if it hadn't been making routine walks through this spot.

Which, after half an hour of fruitless searching, proved to be a bad assumption on my part.

It was time for a different method. From my research, I knew that unlike horses and other such common creatures, unicorns were avid carnivores, and their prey were the likes of rabbits and squirrels and small rodents. Things that would put up little physical resistence aside from fleeing. Then again, there were other beasts in Whitefall that also shared such a diet. This would have meant possible territory disputes, and unicorns did not play fairly in that regard. According to witness testimony, the horned horses had the gift of magic. Nothing too dangerous, mind you, just some simple spells for defensive measures, if the tales are to be believed.

The funny thing about magic is that it always leaves its own tracks, if you know what to look for. Thankfully, all my reading and studying had prepared me for such an event. After all, unicorns aren't the only magically gifted animals out there. Some of the dragonkin were known to wield spells as talented as any novice mage. Any good hunter worth his salt would have done their homework if they wanted to know the signs on what to avoid out in the wild. However in this case, I was looking to go towards, not away from, any notes of magic I could find.

Vaughn led the way as I made little mental notes on our surroundings. The perpetual snow around the forest made for an interesting sight. For one thing, the constant snow was good for tracking...if only the specific ones I was searching for hadn't been walked over. Having lived in the more warmer climates of the southern regions, snow was always something I only heard about in tales, up until I got old enough and took to hunting, at which point my traveling took me to places where snow was more common. My first sighting of snow left me breathless. The pure white, twinkling in the sun, was a beauty unlike any I'd seen. And there in Whitefall, it was just like that first time. Snow and frost as far the eye could see, draping the trees, covering the bushes, freezing over little puddles. I wouldn't have minded having a little cabin in a place like that, sans the monsters and such, of course.

We had been walking for a few minutes when a loud roar erupted from up ahead. The sound froze us all in our tracks and instinctively, I crouched down to avoid the notice of whatever let loose that bellow. Vaughn was already a step ahead of me, having gotten to the ground, his entire front buried in the snow. Albert and Pram followed our examples and hunkered down as well. Up ahead through the thick trees, a dark shape moved, crunching sticks and debris underfoot as it went. I couldn't quite make out what the beast was, the thick black fur covering it could have been a number of creatures, but that noise it unleashed...I hadn't heard it before. Not once. It was like a strange mixture of a dog's bark, a bear's rumbling, and a human's cry of anger.

From our position in the snow, I watched as the beast shuffled about, and when it turned to the side, I could see its face. Or rather, what was left of it. A somewhat canine like muzzle stretched out from a square face, but one half of its head was missing most of its fur. The exposed skin was charred black; a recent burn, yet to start scarring over. Along its front legs were similar burns, and every step it took, the wounded legs shook in pain. Whatever attacked this creature was not something I'd want to mess with.

The large beast trudged on, and soon enough it's crunching steps were a distant sound. The four of us rose and brushed the slush off ourselves.

"What in the world was that?" Albert breathed out.

"Never seen one like it before in my life," I admitted. "But, if I had to guess, I'd say-"

Vaughn cut in with, "Farsian hound."

"That not same sound last night," Pram noted.

Without skipping a beat, he responded, "I was wrong last night."

Albert clicked his tongue at that. "What an escort. Doesn't even know the right animal noises."

"Don't be shitty," I barked. Turning to Vaughn, I offered an apology on the alchemist's behalf.

"No need," he brushed it off. "Albert's got a point. My mistake for not paying proper attention." Despite having said this, I saw the alb had his fists clenched tight.

Not quite as calm and cool as he pretended.

Pram piped up. "What burn hound?"

With a shrug, I thought out loud, "Could've been a bunch of different thing. A lesser dragonkin, a marmin hare, maybe something that could use magic. In a place like this, there's no telling for sure."

"If magic," Pram mused, "could be unicorn?"

I thought about it for a moment. Unicorns did know some magic, but there weren't any known reports of them using fire. Then again, they aren't exactly a common sight in and of themselves. Perhaps the past researchers just got lucky and didn't get a ball of fire thrown at their faces.

I shared these thoughts with the others.

"If it was the unicorn, is there any way of tracking it down from that?" Albert brought a finger to his chin and tapped. "Magic is supposed to leave remnants after its used, right?"

"How do you know that? You don't know any magic."

"No, but you've talked about this stuff before," he explained. "When you dealt with that cockatrice a few years back. When you got home, you told me how you hunted it down."

I had completely forgotten I'd ever explained that to him. It definitely sounded like me, though, bragging about a good kill and the clever way I accomplished it. I didn't realize he actually paid attention when I told my tales. I always figured he just tuned me out once I got started on one of my yarns.

"Well?" Vaughn pressed. "Can you track it or not?"

"Sure," I nodded. "Assuming it is magic, of course. But, we'll need to find where the farsian hound was attacked, first off." After saying this, I headed over to where we saw the hound initially. It had left deep intendations in the snow as it had walked, leaving a very clear path for us to follow back to wherever it came from. Not just the prints, either, but also plenty of broken branches along the forest floor and trampled upon bushes and such.

Following this path, I kept a little mental note to myself to not get too excited over this. There were a few beasts that could use magic, not just unicorns. I told myself this could all be just a wild goose chase, and we'd end up dealing with some other nasty monster, completely missing our target. But, this was still a chance, however slim it might be, to find the mythical animal every hunter dreams of making a trophy out of.

Through Whitefall we went on, following the backwards tracks of the farsian hound. A few times, we heard other groans and roars, but never saw another beast we had to hide from. Eventually, we stumbled upon a spot where the trees were missing some snow around the base, and their barks were singed and cracked. And, as luck would have it, this fire had indeed not been natural. Small floating balls of light, as tiny as snowflakes, rose up from the scorchmarks on the trees. The whisps of light were drifting around, pulled by unseen forces off through the thicket, as if guiding any who happen across them towards some unknown fate.

I'd seen these kinds of lights before. Not just with the cockatrice, but two other times; a small wyrm and a dresdero. The faint notes of magic looked exactly like these wisps, and all three times prior, they led me towards my target. I could only hope that this time would be no different.