Hunters

9. Werewolf

"Maybe we should try...." "Excuse me!" "that island next. There was a..." "Excuse me!", a loud voice interrupted the siblings discussion.

Kora looked up. A middle-aged man with a mass of dark brown hair had approached their table and was now standing before them.

"I'm sorry, you are hunters from the guild, right?", he asked as soon as he had their attention.
Kora eyed him assessingly. "Yes.", she eventually answered, exchanging a look with her brother. "We are."

The stranger's face brightened considerably. "Thank god!", he said, and slumped into the chair next to Kora. The siblings stared at him questioningly, waiting.

"My name is Corban.", the man introduced himself. "I'm from a small village east from here."

"My name is Kora and this is my brother Eren. You were looking for us?"
"Yes, you could say that. I heard hunters specialize in taking care of unexplainable things." He took a deep breath. "I have a commission for you."

Both of the siblings stayed quiet for a moment.
"I'm sorry, but commissions have to be officially registered with the guild.", Eren said, breaking the silence.
Corban's face fell. "B-But I don't have time for that! The next guild house is miles away. We won't survive that long!"

Kora perked up. "Who are 'we'?", she asked "Kora!", Eren hissed warningly but she ignored him.
A spark of hope returned into Corban's eyes.

"Our village.", he said, almost stumbling over his words as if he feared Kora would lose interest if he didn't speak fast enough. "Ever since the last full moon people in our village have been disappearing, turning up dead the next morning. We keep guard at night, make sure that no one is alone, put up barricades. Nothing has worked."

"What was the cause of death?", Kora inquired. Corban gulped. "They appear to have been killed by some kind of beast. We found them with their chest clawed open.
Their bodies were literally torn apart."

Kora looked over to her brother. Corban noticed their knowing look. "What? What is it?"

Eren sighed and locked eyes with him. "It appears as if you have a werewolf in your midst.
Have you had any strangers visiting your village before the killings started? Anyone new who moved into the village recently?", Eren asked, his voice cool and smooth.

Corban stared at him wide eyed. "A..a werewolf?", he asked. Kora nodded.
"That would be the most logical explanation.", she said. Corban still seemed to be in shock. "Werewolf", he mumbled dazedly. "Strangers..."

"There was someone.", he suddenly exclaimed. "A man, a doctor, but he was gone days before everything started."
"That doesn't matter.", Kora commented. "If he carried the curse and passed it on to someone in the village it wouldn't have mattered if he was there. His work would have been done with the next full moon.
The newly turned wolf probably doesn't even know what's going on."

Eren surveyed the village before him. The morning light illuminating the barricaded doors and windows, the empty square, the few villagers hurriedly walking along the empty streets.

Kora had insisted on taking a look, following Corban back home. He would rather have returned to the guild, but Kora had made it clear that she would go with or without him.

He sighed. It seemed as if he would have to make the best of it.

There was still something moving in the back of his head though. Something he had missed...
It would probably come to him eventually.

They started with going from house to house, questioning everyone who would open the door. Corban and a man from the newly established village guard accompanied them.