The Lost Heroes Guild

Nina spun around, her hair whipping about her face in the savage wind. A flash of lightning illuminated the forest around her for a split second before the inky blackness of the night returned. The sky boomed above her following the flash and she felt the earth rumble beneath her feet. She'd lost Dom and Daalen. She didn't call out, afraid that she might alert their hunters to her presence. Instead she cast a spell that let her feel the warmth of people close by. She could feel two figures 300m to her left, and another two about 600m behind her. The figures to her left she could make out that one was tall, and the other short. She assumed that it was Dom and Daalen, but she couldn't be sure, and she didn't want to risk stumbling upon her attackers, at a loss what to do, Nina almost shouted in frustration. Then she remembered what she and Dom used to do when they were playing war games in their youth. She let out a high pitched squeal, copying exactly the call of the birchwren. Three seconds later she heard a reply call from the direction of the two people to her left. In her excitement she stumbled through the brush, branches snagging her clothing as she pushed past and accumulating numerous scratches on her forearms and legs. She ceased the flow of magic and ended her spell as she pulled back a branch to reveal Dom and Daalen crouched behind a large boulder.
Nina breathed a sigh of relief and hurried over to where they were and joined them behind the boulder.
"What are those things?" Nina whispered.
"They are Wendigoes," Daalen replied. "I'll elaborate later, but we have to get out of here, now." Daalen paused to consider how they were going to escape. "Nina, can you cast your spell to see where they are?" he asked.
Nina closed her eyes and focused on the spell. After a few seconds she whispered;
"They're about 650m to the south west of us. They're moving north." She replied, still concentrating on the location of the strange creatures. Daalen nodded and she ended her spell.
"We'll head east, up the mountain. They're not partial to the cold and it's not in the direction we were headed, nor the direction they're looking. If they can't find up north then they'll search south next, assuming we would flee the opposite direction of their search." he finished and turned, sneaking through the underbrush, still crouched. Nina mumbled under her breath, and their footsteps vanished behind them. It was a simple spell, she simple stirred the air above the earth where they stood to erase their shallow prints. She knew she couldn't maintain the spell forever, but she hoped that they'd get far enough away without a trail so that they may not be followed.

As they made their way through the dense forest floor, the heavens opened and rain started to pour. Nina was relieved at the heavy drops, for although it would make their escape miserable, she no longer had to maintain her spell to hide their tracks. The heavy raindrops would wash away the imprint, and mask their scent, although she wasn't sure if those creatures used scent to track their pray. After moving east up the mountain for what felt like hours, but must have only been 60 minutes or so, Daalen stopped and motioned for Dom and Nina to stop behind him. The rain had eased to a gentle drizzle, offering little solace to the three soaked travellers.
"Nina, can you cast your spell again? Be careful not to cast it too far, for fear of overwhelming yourself."
Nina muttered the phrase and held her hand with her palm facing the sky. She extended her search to over 1000m in every direction, but could only feel the dim, steady heat of the small forest animals that surrounded them. She told Daalen of what she found.
"Good, we'll carry on from here at a slightly slower pace, if they're not directly behind us, I doubt they'd follow us further up the mountain than they'd like." And so the three companions trudged slowly up the mountain. The gradient of the slope had steadily increased over the last kilometre and now the rain has turned the forest floor into a thick, slippery layer of mud. The going was tough, with Dom, Nina and occasionally Daalen, slipping over in the muck, to catch themselves on their hands and continue on their way. After another couple of hours of struggling up the mountain side, the rain stopped and Daalen held out his arm to stop Dom and Nina again.
"We'll camp here," he announced as they found themselves at the edge of a rocky overhand that would shield them from most of the rain.
"We will be safe here," he said, dropping his pack against the back wall of the recess and unclipping his bedroll.
Nina explored the forest around her until she found a small babbling brook not far from the overhang, in which she rinsed herself until she had rid her body of the mud that clung to her. She cleaned her wounds, before whispering a long spell to mend the scratches on her arms. She returned to the overhang and told Dom and Daalen about the stream, and letting them know that if they cleaned their wounds she would heal them. Dom was the only one her took her up on her offer.

The slept uneasily that night, the previous encounter had them all on edge. Nina knew the tales of this forest and what it beheld but until tonight, she never believed that there was anything within it's branches that wasn't human. She lay restlessly, thinking back to how it happened. It was just stupid bad luck. They'd travelled most of the day and were looking for a place to make camp. Dom and Daalen had found a small cave that went back into the mountainside, all in all it was an excellent place to camp out of the weather. They'd set their packs on the ground when they heard the crunch of a footstep deeper in the cave, where the light didn't touch. She thought it stupid now, that she hadn't checked the cave for anything with magic before they even ventured in. She resolved herself to check in the future. Their heads had snapped up to see the creature emerge from the darkness. It was tall, at least 8 feet, and had a twisted face, it almost looked like a wolve's head, but it had human eyes. The teeth were long and filed down to points, and they were gnashing together as it approached the three of them. It's body was tall and thin, and it's arms hung low, ending in long spindly fingers with claws 3 inches long that fell past it's knees. It was thin, it's ribs were protruding noticeably, as were most of the bones on it's body. It wore only a small strip of clothing like a loincloth, which flapped as it limped toward them.
"Run!" Daalen had called, and he, Dom and Nina had all turned and fled. The creature gave chase, following them into the trees, this was when Nina had lost the other two. The second creature had followed them, the first pursuing Nina. She knew she'd never outrun it, so she cast a spell to bend light around herself. It was a complex spell and she worked on the wording while she ran. When she had perfected it, and muttered the last word she darted behind a tree and stood as still as she could. She slowed her breathing so much that she hardly took one breath a minute. She cast another spell with her mind to stop the wind from whipping her hair about, and a third, to mask her scent from the animal. The animal skidded to a halt as it seemed to have lost it's prey. It sniffed the air, it's moist dog-like nose twitching in the moonlight. It moved closer to Nina, and she prayed that her three simple spells had been enough. It leaned in closer, and she could smell rotting flesh on its breath as it leaned in, it grunted wetly in the back of it's throat. Then the second creature howled in the distance, and the first snapped his head up, then turned and ran towards the howling.
Nina held her position until she was sure the creature was gone. She slowly exhaled and released her spells. This was when she had started to run, she ran quietly, in the direction opposite to where her attacker had headed, before spinning around and stopping to cast the heat-seeking spell.

She lay in bed now, thinking back to the terrifying encounter and found it difficult to feel safe in her cave. She lay awake, tossing and turning for hours before she finally settled into a light, fitful sleep.
In the morning, Nina woke up before she opened her eyes. She remembered the events of the day before and shot up in her bedroll, her eyes snapping open.
"Morning princess," Daalen greeted from the small fire he'd made. Dom was still in his bedroll, though awake. He gave Nina a weak smile, clearly still shaken from the day before. Nina extracted herself from her bedding and moved over to the fire, next to Daalen.
"Wendigoes?" she asked, "What are they?"
Daalen sighed, he thought that perhaps they wouldn't ask, but he guessed that they needed to know.
"They used to be men-" he began.
"What?" Dom interrupted. "Those- those things used to be MEN?" he said, incredulous.
"Yes, just like you or I. They live in the mountains although they can't live at high altitudes, as they used to be men, they can't brave the cold just as you and I can't. They're an old creature, the ones we saw yesterday have probably been that way for at least 100 years, and that's why they didn't much resemble humans. Their canine like faces are adapted for biting and tearing at flesh. Usually humans. However they can survive off animal flesh alone. But it is not their preferred meat." he said grimly. "They are usually solitary though, it was unusual to see two together last night. I don't know if it's just a rare case or if they've joined forces for a reason. Let's hope it was just an exception to the rule eh? My spine tingles at the thought of those beasts becoming organised."
"How did they become Wendigoes?" Nina asked tentatively.
"Ah, well they committed an evil act, an act that breaks the very fibres of being human and so they begin to transform."
"What is the evil act? Killing someone?" Dom asked.
"No no, hell I've killed people and do you see me out there all blood crazy? No, you have to consume human flesh." Nina made a noise of disgust while Dom's face grew white.
"That's disgusting," he whispered, "People actually do that?" he asked slightly louder, incredulous.
"Not so often. Mostly it happens when famine threatens to kill them, or in cases where hunting parties have become lost in the forest and have no food to survive. In rarer cases though, some people believe that consuming human flesh will grant them immortality, and so they chow down trying to gain an eternal existance." he finished. Daalen didn't seem as phased by this as Dom and Nina, however Nina imagined that he'd had longer to digest the knowledge and grow accustomed to the fact.
"So those things, they ate human flesh to become the way they are?" Nina said out loud. It didn't really merit an answer but Daalen gave her one anyway.
"You betcha. There aren't actually many around, I thought they were driven to extinction years ago, but those two are proof that a couple were missed. As they were once human though, there's always a chance that more will be created. They aren't as dangerous at first, because the transformation takes years. It's usually about 10 years before they even cease to look human. That's the dangerous part."
"Do all people that eat human flesh become a Wendigo?" Dom asked, still from his bedroll.
"Not all, some people, those purest of heart, slip through and manage to live a fairly normal life until their death. Other though, that start to turn and are horrified with their cravings for more human flesh, even when other nutrience is available, take their own lives just to make the cravings stop. It's a sad thing really." Daalen finished.
"Not if you ask me," Nina said, "You eat another human, you get what's coming to you." she finished. Dom murmured in assent.
"Well, be that as it may, they're hard to kill, as you can see from their height and their built in weapons. Best bet is to kill them with a clever spell, behead them - if you can get close enough - or shoot them between the eyes from a distance. None of which we could effectively do last night." He said. With this he poured oats into his bowl along with boiling water from the fire.
Seeing that breakfast was ready, Dom climbed out of bed and secured his bedroll to his pack. Nina did the same and then joined the two boys for breakfast. They ate in silence, all three with thoughts on last night's attack, and the horrible wonders that were Wendigoes.

That day they stayed higher up in the mountain, but continued north towards their destination. They covered many miles, keen to put some distance between themselves and the events that had recently transpired. The sky cleared and the sun beat down harshly on their backs. They'd filled their waterskins until they were fit to burst at the small brook near the overhang, and drunk greedily from the brook until their bellies stretched. They didn't know when they'd come across another source of freshwater, so they took advantage of it when they could. By the time they'd stopped for lunch, they'd covered a good 25 or so kilometres. Daalen seemed pleased with their progress.
"I didn't think we'd make it this far without a trail to follow," he said as they dropped to their knees for lunch. "We've done well, it helps that the sun has hardened the ground after last night's onslaught."
"Yeah, I don't know how much more mud I could swallow," Dom said sullenly. "It certainly isn't the most appetising of meals."
"You're not supposed to eat it," Nina teased.
"Shut up you," he smiled at Nina as he passed her some flatbread and a slice of cheese. They ate quickly and hungrily. It seemed too soon that they were pulling themselves to their feet and returning to their hike. They travelled at a slightly slower pace in the afternoon, hoping to rest their legs so that they may not ache as heavily tomorrow.