Glacius, The Blizzard Fox

Chapter 1 - Another Incident

Despite it being early in the morning, a crowd seemed to have been drawn to the borders of the small village of Ludene. Whispers and murmurs could be heard amongst the villagers who gathered while the guards inspected the mangled bodies of their two fallen comrades. Unable to contain his anger, one of the guards lamented, maybe a little too loudly.

"Tch, no animal could possibly be strong enough to cause these bites and scratches! They are even wearing armour. It's the damn monster! If only we're not so short on manpower we would've already-". 

"Hey! I understand how you're feeling but calm down! There are villagers here. We need to collect ourselves, for their sake."

Indeed, these are not the first batch of corpses left at the doorsteps of Ludene. Initially, no one put too much thought into the sudden appearance of heavy snow, after all, Ludene is situated at relatively high altitudes. The winter season was just around the corner too, just about a week earlier wouldn't be out of the ordinary. However, things only got mysterious from here. The snowstorm was only confined to the trade route between Ludene and the neighbouring town, Yvelja. Soon, trading caravans from Yvelja were completely halted and rumours of a massive beast with white fur that blends with the snow, and a pair of ice, light blue eyes. An abomination of a fox, it was soon known as Glacius, the monstrous fox that commanded the blizzard. Following these rumours were the deaths, first, of travellers caught unaware, later, of the village's guards sent to investigate.

What seemed even stranger was that despite the attacks, no villager had yet to confirm any sightings of the monster. The closest eyewitness report was by the local drunkard and dismissed as another of his tall tales under the influence of alcohol. Regardless, he can be found in the local tavern, repeating the same tale over, and over.

"Yeeeeaaa... *Hic* I'm tellin' ya! It's all true! The bastards Gian and Kevin made a weee lil' bet that I couldn't survive out in the blizzard. Can't be havin' them laughin'- *Hic* and insultin' me yeah! So I put my glass down and walked STRAIGHT to that damn monster's lair! Boy! I must've drunk a tad bit too much *Hic*. World's starting spinning and all that warmth from the beer? Gone! That's- *Burrrp* That's when I saw 'er. Powdered white hair, icy blue eyes. Now, I'd only caught a wee glimpse with all that spinnin' but boy, I am damn sure that ain't no fox, it's a woman! When I woke, I was lying at the village border, no longer the snowy landscape. I rushed straight back here and told *Hic* Liam all about it but he- What's that? I didn't make a bet with ol' Liam? 'Course I did! I said so from the start! You- Gian and Kevin? Wh- ARE YOU DOUBTING ME-"

Aside from the major inconsistencies in the story each time it is retold by the drunkard, another major point of contention for the villagers is the idea that the supposedly monster that is larger than an average human male can simply turn into a woman. Magic could undoubtedly be an explanation, but generally, the villagers of Ludene stigmatise magic and associate it with destruction. It is no wonder that many villagers did not entertain the idea of a shapeshifting being well.

----------------------------------

Shortly after the eventful morning, another crowd forms around the village square as an elderly man slowly makes his way onto the stage taking a brief moment to catch his breath and look at the gathered villagers before speaking. "Ahem... Greetings fellow villagers! As I am sure most are already aware, just this morning, two more lives have been claimed by the menace that is Glacius. Including these two deaths, a total of eight deaths have been recorded! Of these, five of them are village guards, our friends, and our family!"

"I am certain many of you are worried, anxious, or even fearful of the future of Ludene. As the representative chief of the village, I am going to share our plan of dealing with that beast moving forward with you. Firstly, some of you might be aware that, as such a small village, we lack the manpower and military strength to both investigate the trade routes with Yvelja and defend our borders..." The village elder then allows for a moment of commotion amongst the villagers before continuing. "Ahem... Please allow me to continue. After careful consideration and inquiring opinions from other key figures in the village, we have decided to focus our efforts on defending our borders. Now, I understand many of you are worried about what are we doing about Glacius. This leads us to the second point, we are looking to negotiate with the neighbouring city, Medelva, to send reinforcements to aid us with the situation with Glacius." The village chief takes a rather long pause here, as if unsure of what he is about to say next. "Now, this is the part where I would like to ask of each and every one of your cooperation. From the initial discussions we had with the representative of Medelva, they have proposed and strongly suggested employing mages to investigate the magical flow from the blizzard and maybe even dispel it for ease of tracking down and killing Glacius."