<div align="center">(http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/Rakykia/boundbycurse_zps64ba0e73.jpg) (http://hardedge-maelstrom.deviantart.com/art/The-Hunt-501999951?q=favby%3ARakykia%2F58816405&amp;qo=0)</div><br/>"I think I there's another one, behind the squiggly tree we just passed!" Calden whispered with a hushed urgency right below Astrid's right ear. He had asked her to pull down the neckline to keep at least his eye out of the clothes after the Lion. Calden had said that he was starting to get a hang of the weird colors of magic that he had been seeing, and though it didn't seem to have helped in the food gathering which Astrid had to do by herself, it had become increasingly relevant as the day turned to twilight.<br/><br/>The first one had been spotted some half an hour ago, when the clouds that could be seen in the skyline had shone with hues of bright orange and red. Calden had visibly spooked by it and yelped when he had seen the aura. His description of the creatures however had been somewhat lacking. Calden had told Astrid the one he saw was a small, maybe bunny sized, dark crawling thing with glowing eyes. However, when he had tried to point one out as proof to her, the tree branch he had indicated was empty.<br/><br/>However as the sunset had begun turning towards reddish purple and pink and the sky opposite began gaining a deep darkening hue, the creatures had begun growing bolder. Although they still kept out of sight, only rarely letting Calden spot them out of carelessness, they began gradually singing in low undulating gnarls that seemed to follow the kids, always some distance away. With the shadows of the trees growing darker and longer against the forest floor, the creatures began closing in. At first, they might have kept three trees between them and Astrid, then two, and now Calden had spotted one on a tree they had just passed.<br/><br/>It would not be long until the utter dark of night would embrace all of the woods, turning stone, trees and moss into one featureless blackness.