Garric stopped running and stood with his hands braced against his knees to catch his breath. He still was not sure whether or not he had been followed out of the town, but he decided it was best to put some distance between himself and it before he found out. Looking back, he could discern nothing moving in the direction of the dead town and moved on, more slowly from thereafter.

The dead town had long held a reputation of being haunted or something similar, but Garric was a foreigner to this land. What confronted him in the ancient city was ever-burning fires and strange, eerie sounds which no natural throat could make.

He first became aware of its desolation, where no living things could be seen or heard. The silence unsettled him more than he cared to admit and he entered the state of heightened sensitivity endemic to walking alone through the forest at night. Garric unslung his weapon out of instinct, expecting an ambush, but soon noticed the points of flame spread here and there in the road.

Upon further inspection, he found fissures in the paving, through which these eternal fires burned. Garric knelt to inspect one, laying his staff on the cobblestones, when the wind picked up and he heard an unearthly howl drifting over the breeze.

His body switched into fight-or-flight mode and he stood, hefting his staff as he turned toward the direction of the sound.

A dark figure approached him, tall and imposing in robes black as night, and carrying a longbow in one hand. Although he was a foreigner, Garric knew the fables about the demons which claim the souls of those who wander off the beaten path.

Sparing not another thought, he turned and fled, too soon to see the kindly visage of the hunter who lowered his hood as he approached Garrick. Barely conscious that he still clutched his staff, Garric ran until he was exhausted, and kept running until he physically could not continue.

Confused as he stood in the abandoned mining town, the hunter soon turned and disappeared back into the brush to resume the hunt.