David
*After a moment of listening to the man's ramblings she'd gently nudge Mizu and nodded her head over to Theron.* "I believe we've heard all we need to for now. Let's check in with theron and see what he has figured out and go from there." *She spoke plainly and begun to walk over toward where theron was last at.*
Peter
*Mizu was just here for some entertainment, so it's not like she really cared what they did. Thus she would follow the young female without hesitation to see what the skilled tracker was up to. As they approach Mizu would speak up as she was starting to fall asleep*
Adolfo
"Well Theron, have your tracking skills found anything noteworthy?"
Carole
"Nothing yet~!"

*He shouted over to them, having been a good sixty feet from them. He was still examining the wall around the estate... Again, checking for foot prints in the dirt or other such suspicious things. Maybe even a side door if he was lucky, due to pressing against the wall every second or so.*
Cathy
*As Theron encircled the perimeter of the ranch, he would find nothing noteworthy until he reached the southern wall/fence. The aforementioned broken fence panel was still there, as mentioned before, but due to Theron's enhanced vision (hawkeye), he could make out some of the finer details other people wouldn't have noticed at a first glance. The mud around the broken fence was, as mentioned before, dotted with blood, but there was a faint remnant of animal footprints there, as well as something else. From where you were, you noticed an Ox footprint, a Pig footprint, but only a single pair of horse hoofprints, though these were significantly more crusted and well hidden than was expected. The assailant clearly knew how to cover his tracks. The single trail of horse footprints, however, would prove to be odd, seeing that there were reportedly two different horses that had went missing. Perhaps they had stepped in eachothers hoofprints while exiting the complex? Doubtful. The prints would lead out of the gate, splitting into three different tracks. The hoofprints from the horse extended out to the left, leading down the hill into a nearby forest, with the strange, unusual prints going down that path as well. The middle path would have the prints of an oxen leading down into a wide, open plain. The pig tracks seemed to stop a few feet away from the gate, where the grass was a significantly darker shade than usual.*

*Kren would continue to run his arm up and down the carving on his chair, gazing at Mizu and Syele as they departed him. He felt slightly offended; they hadn't even bothered to greet themselves to his lordship!*

"What? No greetings? Hmmph, should've expected as much from lowly adventurers as yourself. Doesn't even have the proper ettiquite to greet their employer! What a complete joke." *He said all this very loudly, indirectly insulting the two while brushing it off as his thoughts finding a path to his tongue.*
David
"Humble apologizes, sir, but greetings are below those that have yet to prove ourselves to any worth. It is not out of disrespect, but out of a worker's courtesy. We will save more former introductions to when we actually yield some information regarding to your animals." *Syele spoke out with a polite and more sweeter tone than she had displayed during the entire trip thus far. It was poison in her mouth, she thought, but she would rather not bother nor be bothered by his 'highness' any further than they had to be. The man gave off a bad vibe to her and she didn't quite wish to indulge it any further.*
Carole
*After looking at each of the prints, it was obvious that whoever had come here only had the goal of stealing the horses... And possibly the pig. Knowing that the tracks seemed to be travelling off into the forest, Theron decided to try and look into the finer details of the darkened grass. Kneeling down and using his dagger to prod and move it around, he investigated to see if there was any reason other than good nutritional value in that specific area there, for the grass to be so dark.*
Peter
*Mizu would treat the man's barkings as that of a puppy. All bark and no bite. She wondered where that confidence came from considering he didn't seem to have any body guards and even if he did, they likely wouldn't mind seeing him get killed in exchange for whatever coin he had in his pocket. That being said, the young female responded oh so politely, but Mizu could tell it wasn't genuine, but smiled from the good show she displayed nevertheless.*
 *Her attention would then go back to the hunter. Seeing him go silent and digging around the soil with his dagger, Mizu assumed he likely found something. She decided to wait patiently for the hunter to report his findings while she scanned the surroundings for any other possible clues*
Cathy
*As theron poked the dark ground with his knife, prodding it around, you would eventually flip over a small mount of grass and dirt that was a part of the ground, sending it flying towards Mizu by accident. However, an odious, rotten, disgusting smell would soon emanate from where the dirt was excavated. It smelled of meat and maggots, and while you continue to prod the dirt, you would uncover bits and pieces of what looked to be a rotten, indistinguishable figure in the ground. Most likely, it was the pig that had supposedly 'vanished' out of thin air. If any of you had the prowess to do so, you would notice that the corpse would have an ominous, concentrated mass of dark sorcery hovering around it, being oppressive towards the mind and the mood alike. A rib bone stuck out, then a big chunk of rotten flesh in the middle of the shaded area. The smell of rot, the smell of garbage became ever more apparent as the bits and pieces were shown to the surface. It was likely that the reason why the ground and dirt was so much darker than usual was because of the excess amounts of blood that it absorbed from the pig's body. As you finish prodding, most of the pig's corpse had turned up from the ground, however the head was... Missing. Gone. A good amount of the corpse was decomposed already, seemingly accelerated by magical means. There was an abundance of maggots in the rotten flesh as well.*
David
"Theory number two is seeming damn well likely right about now!" *Syele spoke out while gagging slightly, it was lucky that the girl barely had anything on her stomach since she struggled to eat to begin with. She'd peak over since the sight wasn't enough to bother her, just the smell, she'd examine the fact that the pig's head had been removed along with looking to see what had been there to observe. Once she was done she looked toward the ox trail that was a bit more easy to spot.*

"I'll go see what's down at the field... Maybe at least that damn thing is alive. Secondly, that's already some silver in our pockets... Since he didn't say we had to bring them back alive or even recover them to begin with. So, leave it be a I suppose." *She finished speaking and walked toward the field to investigate the ox trail more fully.*
Carole
"It would be better for us to investigate the horse tracks first... Since the horse could be dead or dying at this moment. Something or someone had stolen it and took it with them into the forest. As of right now I cannot guess why... As well as... Forgive me for carelessly flinging the dirt at you."

*Theron would sound muffled, as a sort of muffler that was likely covered by the cowl, was now covered his nose and mouth. He could tell that some sort of magic had been emanating from the body, but assumed it to be necrotic or dark in nature due to how quickly the body had decomposed... If this is what happened to the pig, then the horse could be in some rather large trouble.*

"Now that this is settled, I'll lead us down the tracks I found."

*To which, he began walking down the path of tracks that belonged to the mysterious being and the horse.*
Peter
*The smell would overwhelm Mizu to the point where she had to actually remove her mask and cover her mouth with a piece of cloth, finally revealing her facial features to the group.*
*The scene itself wasn't the worst that she has seen, but she couldn't stand the smell. She wasn't particularly pleased either to have some of the filthy dirt thrown onto her, and her face would reflect that. Alas, it seemed like a simple mistake, and it would be rather foolish to remain upset at this macen given that in a few decades or so he would be 5ft under without needing any assistance from her. Thus, her face would relax and simply smile at Theron as she followed his lead.*
Adolfo
"Lead the way. The success of this mission lies in your hands skilled tracker"
Peter
*Once they got far enough from the corpse, Mizu would take a few deep breaths to clear her nose and then put the mask back on*
Cathy
*The three of you decide to walk down the hill, following the tracks of the horse along with the strange footsteps of whatever it had accompanied it. At times, the footprints seemed to converge into one, as if they had been coming from a single being. The sense and feeling of necrotic energy would get stronger and stronger as you marched onwards, the smell of the forest filling your nose with serene freshness, dotted with a hint of disparity. Walking into the woods, you would lose sight of the footprints as they disappeared within the brush. However, Theron, with his Hawkeye, managed to spot occasional glimpses of the tracks here and there, leading to the northwest of the woods. Along with this, there seemed to be spots in the fauna where the leaves and branches of the bushes had been ripped off, seemingly by unprecedented force. There seemed to be an incredible concentration of necrotic energy pulsating from the Northwest, and that would never mean anything good. You would begin to hear chants of an unknown language in your mind, spoken not by the tongue, but rather by magic. The shadows of the forest growing ever darker and longer, will you continue on?*
David
"Okay, so, we understand in full heart that we at least got a general enough idea to where the horse is that we may withdraw from any further unneeded investigating of this situation since it's spelling out." *She waved her hands out a bit in dramatics.* "Cult worshiping, and I was told we're only getting paid to gather information to where the horses are not fight some blackwater magic religion, so that's technically out of our paid grade."

*She then stopped for a moment considering the fact that the bushes and other branches of the local area had been torn through with a fair portion of force. Meaning whatever they were chasing was likely to be a strong nature, maybe even brutish? But that was also another issue since they clearly knew magic which made they at least intelligent enough to use spells and with combined strength that seemed more like a hellish time to deal with.* "Secondly, theron, you said horse earlier... Not horses. So does that mean that both horses are this way or that only one was walking this way? If there's only one going this way I say we circle back and investigate the barn a little better then risk our necks with this."

*Her ears would flatten, she almost knew the two would want to keep going just to get into a fight. It raked her nerves with just the thought of it, this wasn't in the pay and she was going have to bloody deal with it anyways with the way the two seemed in personality. But as well, she hoped that reasonable minds would still come out on top and they wouldn't have to go chasing after some occult jackasses... Then another thought hit her that they could just lie about the second horse if necessary, it would be their best assumptions up to this point to say whoever the hell took the first horse took the second anyways. She knew theron would be a sour-ass about it and babble off about his righteous need to see it through until the end, at least she could probably get Kayaa to agree with her on the matter hopefully.*
Carole
"Hm... I suppose you are right. I would like to guess that a group of fledgling necromancers, lead by a experienced individual, has targeted the Noble for his greed over the area. As a sort of irony, they could be using his horses to create an abomination... So this quest could be indeed out of hands at this point. We'll turn back and inform him that he should hire more adventurers if he wishes to have a chance at getting them back."

*Theron agreed with Syele, after understand what had happened to the horses... They most likely were slowly warped into a single being, which is why the tracks seemingly merged into one large set instead of small individual ones. He had seen an abomination before, so he knew that it would be rather difficult for their small group to deal with it... Especially knowing Syele had no combat experience and would likely run, as she had told him she would, if the situation became dicey.*
Peter
*Mizu would chuckle at Sylene's reasoning but offer to rebuttal. Sure whatever this cult was doing seemed interesting, but if her assumption was right, they were likely creating an abomination with the livestock they've collected, a monster whom she had already fought. It also seemed the tracker decided to withdraw, thus Mizu had no reason to stay and fight either and simply nod. She wished the two could've provided more entertainment instead of reporting in so soon, but alas such is life. At least for this small fraction of time her boredom was staved off. Maybe she can have some fun later and pay the employer a 'visit' in the night.*
Adolfo
"Sounds reasonable to me. Shame we couldn't hang around much longer. You two seem like very interesting blo-invidiuals that I would've liked to get familiar with."
Cathy
*As you turn away from the forest, you become enveloped once again by the warm embrace of the sun. You had located one of the horses, but where was the other one? There weren't any tracks leading away from the forest except for the one you followed, and the one near the ranch had only shown the direction a single horse had taken. From appearance alone, there weren't many leads. You would need to investigate further around the town's vicinity, or look around for some more clues at the ranch that might have been left unturned.*