Tendrils.

Tendrils.

Jharey frowned at what the girl had just told him. Tendrils? What was that even supposed to be? He wondered and even more about what had made her to think about it. He watched as she discretely tried to look about him even as his body shuddered again at the whispers that were now caressing his ears and the cold fingers dripping down his back. Was that what she was talking about? Maybe, after all he assumed she could actually heard them.

"I don't see anything but I can feel it. I can hear the whispers and the foreboding feeling like cold fingers dropping down your back." He suddenly told her. She looked up into his face and frowned in that thoughtful manner he had come to see in her. Something she seemed to be doing quite alot since he had met her earlier in the day. "Anyway let's get going. The sooner I finish this the sooner we can get back to my sister and Mima. " She nodded and he turned to continue walking still grasping her small hand in his much larger one.

She was a weird one. He thought as he led her to the first house in the row behind the triple row of shops and away from the howling that was coming from the town square, thankful that they had not yet encountered any Gone so far. Jharey knew that he could defend himself but he wasn't so sure about the girl who until this point, the only violence she has shown him was a slight raise in her voice when he had goaded her. Was she really a spy? And that cloak she was wearing. It was strange but beautiful with even more beautiful golden vines that had been embroidered on a rich silken fabric. How had she come to be on that side of the gate alone? He wondered. It was a side that they hardly defended seeing that the mountain with its rugged climb acted as a wall against any intruders that would come from the west. The ravine in the north kept them safe from the ones in the north leaving the east and the south as the only points that needed defending. So, where had she come from? He did not cease to wonder even as they came to the first door and he lifted his hand to knock.

Routinely he went around the houses to check on his people's condition and the head of the house would come out to update him on the matters concerning his own household. He would put forward his requests if he had any and Jharey as the mayor of Deneviuh would see to it that they were attended to. On this day,in this particular house, all the members were awake and none of them were asleep. It meant that everything was fine and apart from a grocery list that needed to be passed on to the town's grocer, no other requests were made from this house hold.

He moved on breathing out a sigh of relief as household after household reported no new casualties. Those that were asleep remained the same way though and it saddened him to see that most of these were children. After all growing children were the ones that needed their sleep, but not the nightmares that usually came with it.

As he moved on to the next house, his mind went back to Sophir. She was mad at him that he had not allowed her to see the woman,but how could he allow her when his duty was to protect her? It was partially why he had brought the woman along, so that when he was gone, Sophir would not climb her away into the captive's room.

They quickly finished inspecting the first row with much the same result and with no Gones to accost them. On to the second row, he looked back to find that his companion was still following. She had been blessedly quiet during his rounds and even now he found himself wondering what she was really thinking about.

"You are quiet. " He remarked softly.

"I am just thinking." was her even softer response.

"What about?" He almost smiled. It seemed that his tactic was working after all and the girl was finally seeing the terrors for the horrors they truly were.

"I don't think you have failed Jharey. From what I have seen you are doing  your very best with what you have." She spoke what was meant to be an encouragement but had suddenly made Jharey quite angry.

"With what I have? So your plan all along was to see how we are handling our terrors?" He seethed. "Did that silly Captain of yours put you up to this? Did he send you out here in order gauge our might?" He sneered. Who did they think he was? He was the mayor of Deneviuh and the was no way he was going to allow those fancy military types take over from him. Not because he was selfish, no, but because he knew that there was always a price to pay. His people prided themselves in running things their own way, depending on each other and their jungle. Living close to nature through hunting and foraging, trading with each other for goods which he knew would all be destroyed if they allowed the military to come in with all their innovations. After all their terror was not the kind to be fought with physical weapons.

"What?"

He gave her points for managing to appear surprised.

"Tell him we don't need his help and sending a beautiful woman here to try and convince me will not persuade me or the elders to change our minds." With that he walked off leaving her to fend for herself if she thought that she was so equipped enough to handle everything.

"What was he talking about?" Havillah thought as she watched him walk away realising that she could not follow him. She had thought that he had left that spying nonsense behind, but it seemed that she had been wrong all along. Now what was left for her to do? She pondered. She could not leave the place as her knapsack was still back at his house. Maybe she could double back and get it, but she also worried that their Mima would not allow her in especially if she came back without Jharey. And then there was that other matter that needed to be done and it added to her urgency. How would she get rid of these invisible terrors?

"You know, you've given me this task and yet you won't tell me how to perform it. I don't even know how it happened in Bethesda."

There was no reply, but of course her Guide liked to watch her squirm and that was what he was doing just then. He wanted her to think,right? To practice her Virtue he had said, but how was she even supposed to do it? The last time she had encountered a terror her body had emitted light. That was what she had fought it with, even though sincerely speaking she could not say that it was her. Then there was the Hedge that Killion had talked about. She had not seen it herself, but she had seen the results of its activation and it frustrated her to no end to think that all her victories had been achieved while she had been unconscious to the deed or really unconscious like the last time.

The dream it suddenly came to her. It had felt so real back then and she even had the marks to prove it. He had told her that the battle had occured in the other realm, but even then it had still been manifested in the physical realm through her wounds and her achieving this new glory. Was it possible that her dream and the terrors were all connected? What of the enemy that her Guide had spoken about? Did this also mean that this situation was also man-made?

Jharey finished his rounds to find the girl still in the same place. "How pathetic..." He started to scoff, but then stopped when he saw what she was doing. She was moving in circles like one of the Gones. However her eyes didn't not appear empty. Then, she must have been thinking as she paced the cobbled street at the end of the lane. "What is she up to now?" For all her 'angelic' appearance, the girl was rather weird and he could not understand why Sophir was quite taken with her. He needed to end this and get her out of his town pronto and as the thought solidified in his mind, he took a step forward out his hiding place and began to move forward towards her. However, before he could reach her, her head suddenly snapped to the side as if she was listening for something and then, she suddenly turned took off in the direction of the square.