“Well, that’s about as run-down as I’d imagined,” Miriam remarked as the three arrived at the warehouse.

The site was seemingly abandoned, located along the far end of the port and at the end of a curve. the lone building sat half-decayed and in shambles with planks missing all over. Judging by the algae that had spread itself along the wooden structure Tycon guessed it had been abandoned and unmaintained for some time.

The location was subtle and a perfect place to make a kill. The nearest warehouse was at least five hundred metres away and with the sea by its side and a giant stone wall on the others, there was only one way to run. It felt almost as if murder in this location was just waiting to happen before it eventually did.

Outside the dilapidated warehouse were two city guards dressed in chainmail and bearing the blue anchor embroidered tabard of Selenicar. They seemed to pay no heed to their presence as they passed, the guards only continued to look out into the ocean, that or they were simply oblivious.

“This place seems so subtle yet painfully obvious at the same time,” Kyrian murmured, “I’m surprised they didn’t already have guards stationed here in the first place.”

“Their eyes can’t be everywhere,” Tycon replied.

“I know that but it just seems odd to me.”

“Why would anyone want to be bothered patrolling here,” Miriam chimed in, “The place is abandoned, if it were me I wouldn’t bother either.”

“Now they have a reason to be here at least, and maybe now they’ll tear it down,” Tycon said as they approached the door.

The cold rusted handle was wet to the touch, Tycon guessed from sea spray. He pulled the door slowly and the sea decayed hinges cracked and moaned like a dying animal. Inside there wasn’t much to see, only broken barrels and crates covered in algae and barnacles. Rusted chains hung from the pillars above and the echo of dripping water broke the silence between his short breaths. Tycon felt a chill begin to crawl up his spine as they went further in.

The sun beamed through the split planks of the roof, casting a ray of light directly in the centre. Tycon welcomed its warmth as they reached the middle.

“So… What are we looking for?” Kyrian asked as he stepped aside and began studying a splintered pillar.

“Anything,” Tycon replied, “Signs of a struggle, a murder weapon; something like that.”

Miriam squatted down and trailed her finger along the muddy wooden floor, “The guards can’t be as stupid as to miss a murder weapon,” She paused and studied her muddy finger, her eyes slightly vacant like she were deep in thought, “A murder weapon would be hard to miss but something could have dropped to the ground and got lost in the mud; A trinket or piece of jewellery perhaps.”

Tycon nodded, impressed with the seemingly careless woman’s attention to detail, “You have a point, it could be worth looking around between the floorboards and in the mud.”

He then clasped his gloved hands together, “Right, I’ll cover the east and west. Kyrian, you’ll cover the north and Miriam can cover the south. Is everyone okay with that?”

The two nodded and quickly went their respective directions. Tycon started in the east, the weathered floorboards creaked beneath the weight of his boots. He observed the wall but saw nothing that stood out; only more algae and splintered wood. The floor didn’t yield any results either, there were no marks that indicated a fight took place that he could see. Unsurprised, Tycon decided to head to the west to observe that side of the warehouse.

After a few moments of nothing, Kyrian suddenly jumped from a squat with a perplexed look on his face.

“What is it?” Tycon asked.

“There’s a gash in this pillar,” He said, “Too jagged and wide to be a sword or an axe.”

Miriam quickly stepped over toward Kyrion, “Let me see,” She said somewhat thrilled at the discovery.

After a few seconds, she spoke again, “Oh, you’re right,” She confirmed squatting beside Kyrion.

Tycon wished to take a look for himself so he stepped over towards them and stood behind the two. Kyrian was right, the gash was surprisingly huge; too huge to go unmissed by the guards and he was surprised the pillar hadn’t crumbled because of it. It wasn’t a clean-cut but instead coarse, the outside looked like a tear and inside the wood looked immensely less weathered which confirmed it was somewhat recent.

“Someone was attacked here that much is clear. But by what?” Tycon put a thumb to his mouth trying to come up with a rational explanation but nothing that made sense came to mind.

“I’m checking under the floorboards,” Miriam said but was already in the motion of removing them before the sentence finished.

The two men watched as the woman pried them off one by one with relative ease, after a few moments she stopped and began examining below with an eyebrow raised.

“Oh, that’s something,” She mumbled.

“What is it?” Kyrian asked.

Miriam reached in and grabbed something then stood up straight, “It’s a ring!” She exclaimed with a huge grin across her face, “It’s a bit dirty though.”

“You seem way too happy about this,” Tycon said shaking his head, “The ring could be from anyone.”

“Uh guys, you’re gonna wanna see this,” Kyrian called over his shoulder, interrupting them.

Both Miriam and Tycon turned to see Kyrian with his face scrunched in disgust and holding with the tips of his fingers, a severed finger.

“Fucking hell.”

The finger was bloated and blue, washed clean by the wet mud beneath the floorboards. No blood dripped from it, only saltwater. Tycon took a few steps closer to Kyrion to inspect it closely. Whatever had sliced off the finger did it crudely, a bit of loose skin hung from the finger which he assumed was what was left of the hand it belonged to.

“Miriam, are there any engravings on the ring that could give us a lead?” Tycon asked still studying the finger.

There was a moment of silence as the two waited for her to answer.

“There is something,” She squealed excitedly and then her voice shifted to disappointment, “It’s just some initials though.”

“It’s better than what we had a minute ago, maybe Balin can make something of it. With all the missing persons, it shouldn’t be too hard to put two and two together.”

“What I don’t understand is how the guards could have missed this,” Kyrian muttered, “They couldn’t have half-assed it this bad.”

Miriam snorted, “You’d be surprised, half of them don’t really give a shit as long as they get paid. I can relate in a way but I have a reputation to keep.”

“You make a lot of assumptions,” Kyrian replied.

“I’ve been to a lot of places, Kyrian. It’s the same shit everywhere. If the guards weren’t inept, we wouldn’t be needed.”

“Then you should be glad for their ineptitude.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am glad. But it isn’t going to stop me from criticising them.”

Tycon cleared his throat with great exaggeration, calling attention to him, “We have what we need here. We should return to Balin with our findings.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Kyrian frowned, “Do I really have to carry this thing with me though? It smells like dead fish.”

“That might be just the air in general that you’re smelling,” Miriam chimed.

Kyrian only turned to her with a piercing gaze then sighed and reached a hand inside his pocket, removing a white handkerchief and wrapping the finger inside.

“Shall we get moving then?” Tycon cocked his head towards the exit.

As they began to make their exit, suddenly the floor began to vibrate, a low rumble and groan that felt as if a steam engine had abruptly turned on beneath them. The rusted chains that hung from decaying pillars began to rattle and dust fell from the ceiling. The three bounty hunters exchanged worried glances.

They didn’t speak, especially Tycon. He dared not even breathe, frozen and concerned that even the slightest sound could cause something terrible to happen. They waited a few moments and eventually, the rumbling stopped. Both Kyrian and Miriam let out a sigh of relief. Tycon, however, remained concerned as he slowly reached for the hilt of his sword.

“Um, what was that?” Miriam broke the silence with a shake in her usually strong voice.

“I don’t know,” Tycon replied, “But we should leave with haste.”

“You don’t have to tell me twi-”

With a crash the floorboards suddenly split, sending splinters all around the abandoned warehouse and shaking the decaying structure like an earthquake. Tycon covered his face with his cloak to shield himself and when he recovered there was something before him, something otherworldly that in all his years he had never seen.

Whatever it was, it appeared shapeless. It was nothing but a floating mass of darkness. A shroud of nothing that slowly began to take shape into an unfamiliar silhouette. It didn’t appear humanoid but instead canine-like. Tycon was used to dealing with bandits and shady criminals but this was something above anything that to his knowledge even existed.

It didn’t matter what this thing was, it was clearly hostile and was likely responsible for the disappearances and murders. But how could he fight it? Everything about this was unfamiliar.

The creature continued to take shape as skin and bone appeared with what he could only describe as dark magic coiling them together to bring life to whatever this thing was.

But magic only exists in fairytales. What else could it be?

When the magic subsided, the creature before them looked like something he would hear in a children's tale. Something that would scare them into being good. The creature was canine-like, standing on all fours with sharpened ebony claws on its feet and deep red skin that clung tightly to the bone like a starving animal. There was a skeletal snout that protruded from the head with horns on the side circling outwards and bending to a point just beside its gnashing sharp yellow teeth. Its hollow dark eyes with a faint yellow glow inside suddenly snapped to glare at him.

Tycon felt frozen, he begged his legs to move, to run but they wouldn’t obey him. Was this what true fear felt like? In an act of instinct, he drew his blade from the scabbard and held it in front of him. Trying his best to feign fearlessness.

His back was to the rear end of the warehouse farthest from the door with the creature between him and the exit where Kyrian and Miriam stood shocked. He wondered if he should even try to kill it or just run but he never got to finish the thought before the creature began lunging in his direction.

Kyrian and Miriam had their backs to the door and Tycon barely managed to cry for them to run before he had to roll aside to barely avoid the creatures powerful lunge.

He expected them to bolt but to his surprise, the two fellow bounty hunters stood their ground with their weapons at the ready.

The beast stuck to the shadows, its hollow glowing eyes were all that could be seen as it turned and snarled like a wild dog preparing for the next attack.

Tycon planted his feet strong to the ground, rooting his legs into the decaying wooden floor with his sword at the ready. The beast lunged a second time but Tycon was ready for it. As the beast threw its body towards him, he ducked sideways, stretching his body until he was sure the beast would fly over him and swept his blade upwards in a diagonal stroke that hit a bit too late and only grazed the creature.

It let out a yelp as it rolled to the ground near both Miriam and Kyrian. The two didn’t waste any time and began heading towards it ready to attack. However, they were too late and the beast regained its footing and retreated back to the shadows.

“So this is how you’re gonna do this?” Miriam muttered, “Keep making the same damn moves.”

The creature lacked intelligence, however, it wasn’t foolish enough to take three of them at once. Within the shade a reverberating howl rang out, it was so loud that the whole warehouse began to shake and from the mud emerged two more of the same ghastly beast they were currently engaged with.

“Shit!” Tycon spat, turning his attention to the two newly emerged creatures.

The both of them came at him with gnashing jaws, Tycon slashed his sword at one as it pounced on him, landing his blade across its skull-like face but barely leaving a mark. The other one however latched its jaws onto his free arm at the moment he attempted to smack it away. Its teeth were like needles that penetrated deep and almost to the bone as he gritted his teeth then fell backwards to the floor, dropping his sword. The strength of the jaws began to crush his arm and he screamed in pain. It began to thrash him around and Tycon tried desperately to free himself, only hesitating at the fear that he could lose an arm if he pulled hard enough.

He could hear the one he slashed trampling its way back over to him and he arched his head backwards to see the snout and lifeless eyes of it staring back at him, all he could do was watch as the creature opened its jaws wider than any regular beast could, ready to end his life in an instant. Tycon wouldn't let that happen, not without a fight. He reached out with his right hand, clawing at the splintered floor in a desperate hope to grasp the hilt of his blade but when his fingertips met the leather of the hilt. The beast was suddenly thrust aside with Miriam taking its place.

Tycon curled his fingers around the hilt and chopped hard and violently at the neck of the beast still attached to his arm. Hammering as fast and hard as he could until he felt the jaws grip weaken, his face spattered in its sickly warm black blood. He didn’t stop until he was sure that the thing was dead.

With a groan he kicked the dead beast off of himself and climbed to his feet. His arm was useless, it dangled like a pendulum as the thick blood soaked the sleeve of his coat and coiled around his hand, dropping to the floor. Miriam was still engaged with one, as was Kyrian. Their faces contorted in a mix of fear and desperation. He didn’t have time to compose himself and began flanking the one Miriam was fighting. Tycon came from behind, the creature too distracted with Miriam to even notice his presence, and pulled his blade backward and in a stabbing motion, the blade split its flesh and embedded itself within its ribs. It let out a cry, giving Miriam an opportunity to quickly spin a pirouette around to the side of it and slam her sword with a clean strike through the neck. She watched with satisfaction as the head rolled to the floor with a thud.

Kyrian let out a cry and both Tycon on Miriam snapped their heads towards the sound, instantly moving towards him, ready to finish the last of these foul beasts. Kyrian was pinned in a corner with his dagger pointed at the creature, his wrist shaking violently with fear. Tycon and Miriam broke into a run when suddenly the doors opened with a loud crash and the burning beams of sunlight cast themselves upon the warehouse interior like sudden dawn. The creature screamed an otherwordly and deep demonic cry as the sunlight met its flesh. Smoke began to pour from the skin and it attempted to make a desperate retreat back into the shadows but it only made a few steps before a bolt split through the front and out the back of its head and the creature slid lifelessly to a halt on the ground, leaving a trail of black ooze behind.

Tycon only saw silhouettes as his eyes began to adjust, then soon there was the face of Balin with an entourage of guards at his side. His face was intense with his eyes staring wide at the corpses of the creatures strewn across the warehouse. The bodies had begun to disintegrate slowly with the sunlight, leaving only bones behind.

“We heard a howl… Not like any regular wolf but like something evil. It moved like a living thing through the streets and then back again. I’d never heard anything that made my skin crawl quite like that.”

Kyrian slowly stepped away from the corner and slipped his dagger into his belt, his expression shaken but he didn’t speak a word. Miriam on the other hand looked frustrated, whether that be from the fight or something else, he wasn’t sure.

“I have a lot of questions,” Balin started, “But judging by the look on your faces, you have a lot of them too.”

“We do,” Tycon replied through gritted teeth as the adrenaline left his body and the pain entered.

Balin cast a glance at Tycon’s arm, “But now is not the time,” He gestured at one of the guards at his side, “You! Get this man some medical attention immediately. As for the rest of you, I want this warehouse torn down and burned. I’ve seen enough of this shithole.”

The guard made her way over to Tycon and let him lean on her as they began to shuffle away from the broken down warehouse. The guard seemed surprised at his weight but he could barely manage an apology through the intense sharp pain that rippled down his arm.

“Are you alright?” Miriam asked, falling in step with him and the guard.

“Barely, that fucker-” He winced and gritted his teeth again, “That fucker really got the jump on me. How about you?”

“A few scratches,” She shrugged, “Maybe one or two will scar, we will just have to wait and see.”

“You seem very non-chalont about what just happened.”

Her expression shifted again to something serious, “Just trying to wrap my head around it and keep myself composed. I thought we were looking for a person, not whatever that was.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m alright by the way, thanks for asking,” Kyrian muttered from behind them.

Miriam turned and cocked her head with an eyebrow raised, “I’m glad to see you’re alright Mr Kyrian,” Her tone was full of sarcasm.

Tycon only heard him groan from behind as they continued their way back towards the guardhouse. City dwellers clogged the sides of the streets, watching and pointing at them as they shambled through, whispering amongst themselves with speculation. It was clear a lot of them heard the howls but if they were looking for answers, they weren’t going to get them from him, nor the rest of them.

A break from the mundane I suppose.