MacabreFox — Roleplayer Guild

	Whinnying in terror, Johanna’s horse rose up onto its hind legs at the sight of the stout beasts barreling out at break-neck speed from the mill, threatening to throw her off as she held fast to the leather reins, while Wesley’s horse reacted the same, his precarious position cost him, as he had clung to the saddle in mid-dismount, where he landed upon his back with a thud! Once the beasts that had been the source of the snarls dispersed from the area, and disappeared into the depths of the forest, Wes rose to his feet, dusting off the seat of his pants with a frown, and shot a glare at his horse who had trotted over to the safety of an overhanging tree-limb.  With a swing of her leg, Johanna followed suit, and dismounted from her horse as well, as she led her horse over to the tree under which Wes’ sat, she gathered both reins in her hands, and tied a slipknot to the branches above, preventing them from escaping.

“Did happen to see what that beast had in its mouth, Mr. Craven?” Johanna asked.

“You mean the badger? Aye, before I was tossed, I saw something like that of a hand hanging from its jaws.” 

“Yes, exactly. Let us investigate the mill, as I do not believe that the badgers are to blame, nor was that all of the remains.”

	He forced a smile, almost on the verge to call it quits, but the thought of leaving Johanna defenseless in the woods would be ungentlemanly at best. “I thought you would say that. Let’s get a move on then while we still have the light of the moon, eh?” 

	After making their way across the clearing, the dampness of the fog filled the air with a heavy odor that smelled strongly of decay, Johanna pressed her ear upon the door, listening for anymore animals that may be lurking inside, once she heard nothing, she pushed the door open slowly, wincing at the creaking of the hinges. Since the roof was in a poor state, or a lack of one, so to speak, the moonlight filtered in through the openings, casting a clear, grey glow across the inside. Stepping across the dirt floor, Johanna smelt a more peculiar smell that prompted her to cover her nose with the sleeve of her dress. The air was thick with the smell of iron, or in this case, blood, as she soon came to notice that even though the mill appeared empty, there were numerous, half-eaten corpses and other mangled body parts that littered the floor. She spotted one such corpse, or rather, the lower half of a man, poking out from under a table.
“Well that’s just unsightly, now.” Wes winced, covering his nose as well.

“Where is the other half, I wonder?” Johanna said, more to herself than to Wes.

“Over here.” He strode away from her to another table coated in inches of dust. Lying casually, without a care in the world, was the other half, or at least what was left of it, on the other side of a fire pit, where a grill-cover served as a place where the inhabitant used it to cook whatever food they ate.

	When she joined him on the other side of the grill, Johanna noted the crude cuts in the body with a raise of her lantern, whoever or whomever performed the surgeries, or dismemberments, were unskilled. The flesh had turned the color of dark brown, far long past the early stages of decomposition. “Look, there’s another.” Wes pointed out, though this body, was not much of a body, for there only remained an arm, and a leg, with the feet and hand chopped away. This continued on for several minutes as Johanna and Wes searched the interior of the mill for the entirety of the corpses. Altogether, they counted six different bodies, or what was left of them in that case, and all of them were male. Johanna discerned that from the non-delicate bone structure that differed when compared to her own, or when held next to Wes. What she found particularly disturbing was the amount of blood stained upon the floor, or upon the little furniture present in the room. More importantly, she noted a pile of blankets in the far corner of the room, also stained with blood. As she inspected the blankets, it became apparent that the blankets formed a nest, suggesting that whoever, or whom, that lived here, was perhaps not quite human as she had hoped. Curiously, despite the significant quantity of gore and blood, as the moon transitioned slightly higher across the night sky, a beam of moonlight illuminated a rocking chair, though rather old, it showed no signs of rust, and beside it stood an end table filled with half-lit candles, where pools of white wax gathered around the bases.

“From the state of decay in the corpses, Mr. Craven, and I hate to even utter these next few words I am about to bring myself to speak, it would seem… that our culprit, has learned how to dismember the victims with more skill. As you can see, with our first victim, over here,” Johanna returned to the first victim they discovered, she knelt alongside it, pointing to the rough edges where the flesh had separated from the body, “the cuts are rough, as if unskilled, or uncertain on how to wield whatever instrument they used. Yet, over here,” she ventured to the next victim, not as far along in the stages of decomposition, which were a set of limbs, and a discarded torso, “the cuts become smoother, more precise, if you will. The only factor that continues to puzzle me, is out of this entire room, I do not see any surgical tools, nor a table upon which the dismemberment is performed. I find it highly unlikely that our culprit is performing these procedures here on the floor.”

“You would think so, by the amount of blood, and gore. So to speak, if I knew any better Johanna, I would say that our culprit, as you say, is engaging in cannibalism. There are pieces of uneaten tissue everywhere.”

“Yes, even on the blankets, where it sleeps.” She pointed out, just then, she caught sight of a closed door. “Mr. Craven, over there.” With haste, Johanna rushed to the door, though not before Wesley beat her to it.

“Allow me.” He said with a broad smile, very American of him, if she could say.

	With a swing of the door, the room revealed to be just what they had pondered about seconds before. Inside the room, a surgical table stood, where darkened pools of dried blood coated the floor, evident that there was no drain to dispose of the bodily fluids. “How remarkable.” She commented as she bustled inside, enthused that the perpetrator indeed, possessed a surgical table, answering her earlier questions about where the dismemberments were conducted. Immediately, one detail became clear to her, as she surveyed the room. There was a lack of surgical tools, implements and other supplies. Even in here, there were remnants of humans remains, a head, several limbs such as arms and legs, she even found a pinky finger strewn about the floor.

“Mr. Craven, would you agree with me, that our culprit, our perpetrator, whoever they may be, is indeed teaching themselves the skill of surgery? And, that the perpetrator behind the removal of the hearts, and now the liver, indeed, does live here?”

“That I would, that I would.” Wes nodded in agreement, kicking a cut-off foot across the floor.

“Then, we shall leave for now, and come back when the time is right. It is clear that whoever this offender is, is not at home, and it would be best for us to return to the manor with our findings, and present them to Master Ware.” Johanna took one long look at the room before vacating the premises and making her way back to their mounts.

@TheDuncanMorgan Just a curious question, for those of us that do not have a nation, may we create a second character? I feel that while Aurelia allows direct insight to the political realm, I've been thinking that creating a second character may be more beneficial, as to what or who that character might be, I have no concrete ideas, although I do have something brewing, as perhaps a rebel leader, or some commoner suffering in one of the other kingdoms that tries to stake a claim for the throne. Maybe someone trying to change the way power is distributed in Formaroth, instead of an empire, maybe reverting back to each kingdom governing their own, or even an anarchist? Just thinking about something new to shake the ground. Thoughts?

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