The scourge has started to take hold of Yharnam but the church and citizens are fighting back. Young hunter, Auna, sets out on her first hunt to prove herself against the beasts that plague her city. However, she finds that not everything is black a...
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Something Amiss in Hemwick
It had been a month since Auna had escaped the Healing Church Workshop. She had traveled around the cathedral ward for weeks, helping those she could. Yet, she never stayed long in one place or with any one person. Ludwig was a constant in her thoughts. Regret removed all ability to sleep or dream. She wanted to find her way back to the hunter's dream in hopes of meeting Gehrmann. In hopes of finding her way to being a true hunter, like her father.
Word had spread of a disturbance in Hemwick Charnel Lane. Auna knew that this would lead her away from her original destination. She feared going to Byrgenwerth but it wasn't the creatures that lay in the wood that deterred her.
Auna traversed a wooded area, asking for directions as she went. Many of the villagers she spoke to seemed wary of hunters and even more so of Hemwick. The village was quite small when she finally arrived and she found it mostly deserted. The sun was beginning to set, a foggy haze filling the sky. The locked inn that sat in the center of the town and it appeared that no one was home.
As Auna walked through the square she saw people staring through their windows, peeking behind tattered curtains. She knocked on the door of a small tavern that again looked empty. Voices could be heard in the distance but no one came to greet her. Whatever got a hold of this town, terrified its citizens and like a good hunter, Auna wanted to figure out what it was.
She was about to knock on one more door when a woman startled her with a laugh.
"No use, knocking like that," she said and Auna spun around to see a hunter leaning against a column. The woman had moved so silently that Auna didn't even notice her arrival. "Another hunter come to join the fray?"
"I heard there was trouble in Hemwick, I thought I'd help," Auna replied, her hand moving to her saw.
"Come on, we're hold up in the barn down the road. That is the only shelter you will find here," she said and began to walk in the direction of a gray structure outside the town square.
Auna maintained her distance but followed. The stranger looked like a hunter but looks could be deceiving.
"My name's Henriett by the way," she called back. "What should we call you?"
"You keep saying 'we'. Are there more of you?" Auna replied.
Henriett chuckled, peering back at Auna. Her face was almost angelic in the hazy glow of dusk. Golden strands of hair fell from her hat that shaded her features. "There are not many people to trust in this world but you better start trying. Hunting can be quite lonely otherwise."
The stranger found the door to the rotting barn and knocked. A glow of flames flickered on the other side, dancing between the wooden slats. The door opened and a figure peaked out. Seeing Henriett, he opened the door wider but paused when spotting Auna.
"Who's this?" he asked.
Henriett looked back and smiled. "A hunter came to join us. This is Alfred. It is just us two in here." She disappeared inside, leaving Auna in the dimming sunset.
