The wind had yet to arrive once more, leaving them in an eerie silence, as if the fog itself muted the world around them. His boots once more crushing a pile of twigs near an ancient, dying tree as they passed though he kept his speed, looking ahead expectedly. “No… not the witch, well yes… her!” Aluren scowled at this, as if expecting her to understand absolutely everything he had said.<br/><br/>Pausing, he took a deep breath, shoulders slumping as memories battled each other for a chance to surface. Eyes closing tightly, he groaned as a dull headache surfaced in his struggles to keep his worlds separated. “The witch…” He finally continued in a whisper, though the silence was so great it may have seemed like he was shouting to the most sensitive. “She took youths from their homes, forced them to leave their families. Anyone deemed capable of marriage, anyone beautiful. In the middle of the night they would vanish, nothing else missing but perhaps what they were wearing.”<br/><br/>His gloved fingers rolled into tight fists, chin lowering as he looked to the cold ground or past it as visions of his past took hold. “My men were sent to search the woods… reports stating they saw young women leaving the city, led by some hooded, feminine form, as if hypnotized.” He frowned, violet eyes now focusing on the fog that took on a yellow tint in the morning sun. “Of course we questioned the ones that had seen them, yet done nothing about it… they were suspects.  We turned up with nothing, no clues at all except the stories from frightened citizens. So we went out into the woods, crossing the river…” His eyes closed tightly once more as he shook his head, a hand raising to his right eye, pressing firmly against it.<br/><br/>“It was the work of a heretic, a godless beast that killed those girls. We found their nightgowns, each torn and stained with blood.. Clumps of hair showing some sort of struggle, but we never found their bodies.”  He’d nod to this, finally turning around to face Isabella directly. His eyes bloodshot, cheeks heavily flushed as he held back his emotions. “We brought several men that afternoon and we searched tirelessly, following the trails of blood that only led back to that wretched ‘shrine’. All we could do was go back the way we came, back to the city to regain our strength with more numbers.” He inhaled deeply, eyes rolling up to gaze up at the cloudy sky as if attempting to calm himself.<br/><br/>“We failed those girls so many years ago… their families. I did not know at the time, until the beast spoke to me, mocking me of its arrival.” His muscles grew tense as the wind picked up, though taking his time to look back toward the East. “She was feeding it.” He finished softly, gaze following the familiar red cloth that quickly flew between them, whipping around trees before again leaving their view. His voice became deeper, a hatred that filled his heart spilled out into his words. “We must kill it if we wish to leave this place.”