1

“Another one…it just never ends.” Two town guard stood at a farm, looking over a gristly scene before them.

Dozens of cattle were slaughtered before them, bodies littering the grassy ground. It was early in the morning, another night following terror and fear. And this was the result. The majority of the cows had their necks slashed open, some with their stomachs ripped open and organs gone, and one or two had the worst; their entire skin gone and leaving their muscle and flesh, with bloody chunks bitten out of them by some sort of twisted and vile maw. One of the guards covered his mouth, trying to tune out the vile, rancid stench of the dead cattle. “That’s nine more dead cows this month; we’re at fourteen now.”

“By the gods…every night more and more die…the farmer must be livid.”

“Be glad he’s not like the previous one…we found him outside with his entire face ripped off. Come, we need to access the situation.” They walked slowly across the farm, seeing more and more torn up bodies, before the found the fence. The wooden one was intact mostly, save for one portion with a severe dent in it; as if something tried to climb over it and its weight caused it to snap.

“It got in through here, see those claw marks?” The guard ran his thumb along the grooves in the damaged fence. “B*****d must’ve climbed right over this and walked in during the night to feed.”

“Why just mindlessly kill cattle? Isn’t there enough food out in the Black Swamps?”

“Must’ve got tired of eating deer and birds…see how some of the cows have very little taken? Means the thing ate only a bit before leaving. But, at least this night, no one died.” Both of them stared into the horizon, the sun bearing down on them, as well as the thing in the distance.

The entrance to the Black Swamp…the home of the creature that had caused so much agony, and so much trouble.

The Vraal.