The days passed.
There were no attacks.Only a tense, unnatural calm… as if the problems were being held back.
Then, one night, something moved.
A group of leopard demihumans climbed the slopes with absolute precision. Darkness was their ally. The wind, their accomplice. Every step measured. Every breath contained.
It was as if they were invisible: they left no trace, they were impossible to detect.
Twenty entered.
They dispersed among the rocks, slipping like shadows trained, techniques refined over generations.
Soon there were nineteen and they didn't even notice; their focus was on not being detected.
No one stopped.
No one spoke.
Another… ceased to be.
No sound.
No struggle.
They kept moving.
Eighteen.
Seventeen.
They kept advancing.
Believing themselves invisible.
Without realizing they were disappearing, one by one.
Something was taking them.
Without haste.
They were beings that had evolved to be invisible, but were not used to being hunted.
When they were close enough to the human settlement to see the lights… they were already less than half.
Their mission was to enter, observe, return, and report without anyone noticing them.
The stealth remained perfect.
Without noticing the danger… a shadow, darkness within darkness.
Five remained.
Then three.
Then two.
The last was Rhaek.
He didn't realize it immediately.
He advanced a few more steps, reaching a rise from where he could see the settlement.
Light.
Movement.
Life.
He raised his hand and gave the signal.
He waited.
Nothing.
Silence was the only answer.
Rhaek frowned.
He turned slowly.
Where are those idiots? he thought.
There were no footprints, no bodies, no trace of blood.
Only the night, and darkness.
Then… he felt it.
Something was wrong; his instinct warned him.
As if something had occupied the place where the world had once been.
He reacted on instinct and turned, but it was already too late.The ground vanished beneath him.He saw no attack and heard nothing, only a sudden pressure… and then nothing in his legs.
The pain came.
Fear consumed him, brutal, and his scream broke the silence.
His hands searched for support… they found wet earth.
Then he looked up and saw yellow eyes staring at him.
Open in the darkness.
And around those eyes, only darkness.
The night folded around it as if it belonged to it.
Rhaek tried to retreat.
He tried to scream.
The sound died in his throat.
Then he understood.
It had not been a hunt.
It never was.
UR'KHAAL had not been defeated.
It had been… and they too.
They had entered something that should not have been touched.
The eyes changed, a face began to appear, then a body.
There was no hatred in that gaze. Dainslein and the darkness around it descended, and Rhaek died.
The next day, none returned.
In the leopard tribe, dawn arrived normally.
The hunters returned with their night's prey.The patrols returned to their routes, the hunters took their positions, and the cubs played near their mothers.
And the scouts they had sent.
No one spoke at first.
It was common.
Sometimes they disappeared for days, even full weeks.
But this time, it was different.
—They know what they are doing —an elder said.
The sun rose.
Then fell.
Night returned.
And there were no signs of their return.
On the second day, questions began.
On the third… the silence changed.
There were no traces.
No marks.
No story to tell.
No information about them.
—UR'KHAAL has cursed us —a female whispered.
—No —another replied, more quietly—. Something killed it.
The idea spread. Fear… maybe the mountain was cursed.
But why? The humans had arrived and had survived.
What is happening?
Who else could erase twenty… without leaving anything?
Something had changed.
In the council, no one raised their voice.
There was no need.
Something is happening on that mountain. We must find out what it is.