"Bankster! Are you attempting insubordination?" Caster questioned.The blond hair man was surprised, "No sir! As your second in command, I am worried about your safety!"
Caster was at a lost with Bankster, the young man was one of his best men. But the kid was a stubborn one too.
"Bankster!"
"It"s quite alright," Vy felt the need to interject, "Bankster can stay."
The two men were surprised by Vyrena"s interjection but had no issues with it. Once the other two guards cleared the room, only the three of them were left. Bankster stood awkwardly behind Caster. Vy noticed that there was another chair on the side, and asked Bankster to take a seat.
He looked towards Caster for instruction. Caster gave him the signal and he took a seat as well.
"So, I would first like to apologize. When you first took my statement, I lied."
Both of the men were not surprised, this was within their expectations.
"But, I had my reasons. I would like to clarify a few things if that"s alright."
Caster nodded, and Vy continued.
"As you might have guessed, I am not from this town, or any neighbouring area either. In short, I come from somewhere further. I can transform or as you call it, s.h.i.+fting."
She went on to explain how Lycster ran off in the middle of supper and she went to look for him. Vy told them about the tracks she had found at the entrance of the town and how she tracked the carriage down. She revealed all the information she had on the two men that had kidnapped the children. For now, she left out the information about the hounds she encountered on her way back.
"So the large wolf that the boy, Lyscter, described was you?" Caster asked.
"Yes, that"s right. These men, the kidnappers, I think they were likely working for a larger organization. But let me be clear on one thing, I did not cause the murders in the forests, that was not me."
"But how can we trust you? There were bite marks and claw marks all over the corpses. The autopsy description fits. From first-hand accounts from the search parties, they noted that there was a foul miasma that night," Bankster asked in disbelief.
Vy bit her lip, "I have nothing to hide. The reason I lied before, was because I a.s.sumed that transformation was something that might be frowned upon around here. Now that I have established that that is not the case, I have no reason to hide anything. As for the marks on the corpses and the miasma, they are not done by me. But I might know who did it, or more accurately, what did it."
"And that would be," Bankster asked.
"Hounds."
"Hounds," Caster echoed out of curiosity.
"Yes. It"s hard to describe, but on my way back to the town, I sensed a threat hiding in the forest. I got the children to run to safety while I dealt with it."
"Bankster, bring me the book on Green Forest animals, and other creatures," Caster instructed.
Bankster did as he was told. He left for a few moments and returned swiftly with a book. It had a green leather cover and the t.i.tle was embossed in black. Bankster placed the book down on the table and Caster flipped through it.
It was an encyclopedia of all the known creatures that were found in the Green Forest. He flipped to the section on land creatures and turned over the book to let Vyrena have a look.
"I would like you to see if the hounds you saw that night resembled any of the creatures mentioned in this book."
Vyrena flipped through the pages. Each page had an ill.u.s.tration of an animal and a general description of its features and habits. It was not extremely detailed, but it also included the animals" favourite foods.
She soon stopped at a page with an ill.u.s.tration of a hound. It looked similar to the ones that Vyrena has seen. But there were differences.
"Is this what you saw," Caster asked.
"I think so, the hounds looked similar to the one in this picture."
"Similar?" Caster probed.
Vyrena continued flipping a couple more pages, but nothing else seemed to fit. She returned back to the same ill.u.s.tration. The hound in that image was of a completely different colour, it had a white coat, it was called a Trykeen.
It usually travelled in packs and never harmed humans. Trykeens survived on a diet of river fish and small animals.
"The ones I saw had dark coloured fur coats, a foul miasma that covered its body. They attacked me while I was in my wolf form and I retaliated. Up close they looked like… looked like they were dead," it was difficult for Vyrena to find the right words.