01.09.2016
((Founsel is the town’s name))
Dawn found the town already bustling with activity. A group funeral was held for the guardswatch slain in duty. A group worked to wash the blood from the street and dirt path, as another worked to gather the remains of the sheep that were scattered about. And several households were packing up the essentials into their wagons.
A neighbor asked, “What are you doing?” Douth replied, “We are using the day to put as many miles between Founsel and us as we can. We’ll aim for a place like Harsenth or Bansuth. Towns far away from here.”
He placed some more bags of clothing onto the wagon and then asked in return, “Why in the hell would you stay?”
To which Shec replied, “Founsel’s always been my home. No wolf is going to change that.”
“Suit yourself. But I won’t let my family die here.”
“Dying in a strange land seems preferable, then””
But Douth ignored the comment and went back into the house to get another load. Of the thirty families living in Founsel, eight were gone by noon. The dust from their leaving caravan finally died down as the sun shown hot. Those who stayed discussed their options for another night. As the guard did not seem to work, they decided to lock up their homes at dusk, sleep with a musket close at hand, and hope against hope that the wolf would pass onto easier prey.
The afternoon and early evening was spent boarding up windows and reinforcing doors. As dusk arrived, the remaining families bid one another good night and good luck and secured their homes. Mothers fell asleep with their babes in arm, and fathers dozed with their children in both arms. This was a storm they had to ride out.
The moon rose once more and its light only fell into the upper-story windows of the homes. And that’s the path the wolf took as well. As he crept silently into the town and walked down the length of the street, he found all the lower stories secured. But the flesh he’d eaten lately had grown and strengthened him. His front paws now rested on the porch roof as he reared up. Right from the street, he lept up to crash through a bedroom window. And that family was swallowed down before any could yell. They went together.
As the wolf left the house, a shot, flash, and smoke erupted from the upper window from the house across the street. That owner had heart the window shatter and come to the window armed. The wolf sprang from his position, far to the side, and then bounded for the attacker. That man and his wife were taken too. By now, eyes had appeared in other windows along the street, but they watched in stunned terror as the wolf went from house to house to snatch up his nightly meal. He went right through a full half of the homes that night, before vanishing into the woods again, the ground shaking under his girth.