Chapter 15: Chapter 14

I stood stunned at the grizzly sight before me.  This girl I barely knew had been slaughtered in such a flagrantly brutal fashion and left just at the edge of our camp.  It was obvious that she had been killed where she was currently laying, yet none in the camp knew of what happened. 

Who could do this without alerting anyone?

Even from a short distance I could see the gaping cut that went halfway through the neck, likely from a single swing.  Multiple cuts could be seen through the ruined clothing.  Blood seeped into the ground all around the body, the ferocity and brutality was self-evident. 

I glanced over at Istara, she was… ‘involved’ with this girl just last night.  How was she taking this?  She definitely appeared to be grief stricken, holding her hand over her face and looking away but she seemed to be doing her best to keep herself together.

Aura had steeled herself and approached the corpse, kneeling in front of it to thoroughly examine the injuries inflicted.  She began speaking while inspecting the corpse.

“The neck wound was dealt first, likely from behind.  All of these slashes aren’t defensive and look to have been inflicted while she was on the ground.  Meaning that that she was killed in one strike, but that the attacked kept on with her assault.  Whoever this is was boiling in rage at the time.”  Was Aura’s assessment.

Istara who seemed to be recovering from her shock stepped towards Aura.

“Do you know who did this?”  She asked.

“No.”  Aura stated flatly.  “There’s plenty evidence of savagery but nothing to tell me who did this.”

Istara seemed to deflate at the news.  She grew momentarily pensive before snapping back to the present.

“Get the onagers ready, I want us moving immediately!”  She then pointed at the corpse of the girl.  “Start preparing her for a burial.”

With those orders the gathering of girls began to break up.  Two girls came forward to move the corpse, they weren’t pleased with their assignment but they none the less worked quickly to get the body over to where they intended to bury it.

I approached Istara and Aura while the corpse was being moved, both of them had stood in place observing the disposal of the body.  Coming up to Istara I dipped my head slightly.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”  I said as a condolence.

“Thank you.”  Istara replied with a mournful smile as she grew silent for a brief moment.

“We’ll need to be vigilant from here on out.”  Aura interjected.  “Istara, what happened last night?”

Istara stared silently at the spot where the was being moved to.  “After we had finished, she went out to patrol the camp’s perimeter, I didn’t see her for the rest of the night.”

“So, she was attacked while out on patrol.  Any suspects?”  I asked out loud.

Both Aura and Istara froze as they silently stared at me.

“Um, Louise, you’re a suspect.”

“…what?”  I replied in cold shock.

“You did have a fight with her, and you beat her to a bloody pulp after she insulted you.  As of right now you’re the most likely candidate for being the killer.”  Aura explained calmly with a casual shrug.

“But, I couldn’t have.  I was with you all night and I didn’t care about that fight, I mean, I won that fight.”  I pleaded in a panic though that last bit I had some pride in my voice.

“Yeah, I know.  There’s no possibility of you being the killer, but you’re still the most likely suspect.  That’s how bad we have it with this moment.”  Aura stated with a sigh.

My eyes darted back and forth between the two of them to read their expressions, both of them were serious and relaxed.  I sighed in relief after being assured that they didn’t seriously consider me. 

“Now go on and get ready, we need to get moving soon.”  Istara ordered as she walked back to her tent that was already being taken down.

We did as we were told, finishing preparing for the day.  Honestly, there wasn’t all that much for me to do, since I didn’t have many items of my own to pack.  I did help Aura with her tent and other items.

The caravan got moving once everyone was ready, though despite Istara’s urging it took longer than the past few days for the caravan to get organized.  It seems that the strange murder has shaken the worker girls enough to affect their performance, causing delays to the caravan’s progress.  I could see several of them looking over their shoulders, huddling together and uneasy whispers told of their concerns. 

But who, or what, killed the girl, especially in such a savage way.  How did it infiltrate the camp, unless it was already in the camp?  What if someone or something outside of the caravan, tracking us, hunting?  Is it possible that one of the girl’s in this caravan is the murderer?  If so, then why know, why not earlier?  Which one of these beautiful, gorgeous girls could even be capable of actually doing that, much lest actually pull it off?  Is one of these girls hiding something, or worse someone is lying? 

I can feel myself getting nervous as this uncomfortable paranoia slowly overtook my mind.  Glancing around I caught sight of one of the girls attending the onagers, her eyes met mine for a long awkward second before she smiled and turned away.  Was she the murderer?  What was with that smile?  Was it an attempt to deflect attention?  I don’t know why she would think she could just walk around overlooked.  She’s a rather cute girl, with midnight black hair and a tanned complexion that makes me want to strip her down and see her bare.

…Why am I randomly suspecting this girl of being the killer? 

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‘Come on, you need to keep yourself together.’  I told myself, while taking a deep breadth and focus my mind on my enhanced senses.  Honing my concentration on my hearing, I pried into the secret whispers of the girls around me.  I didn’t overhear anything strange or condemning, in fact all I heard was speculation on who was the murderer.  For some reason multiple girls were accusing me, even the dark haired girl had whispered to another attending the onagers that I must have been the murderer.  Well I did fight the victim the first day I got here, in front of everyone, but that doesn’t mean I did it.  If I was going to exact vengeance on her, it would be far more sexual in nature, not that butchery. 

Anyway there doesn’t appear to be any clues as to who is the killer among those in the caravan.

Slightly depressed I focused my hearing on the land surrounding the caravan.  At first there was nothing, just random nature and animal sounds, but as the minutes piled up I began to pick up a pattern.  At various times I would pick up what seemed to be footsteps following the trail of the caravan.  The makers of this pattern seemed to be trying to close with the caravan.  Could this be the killer, if so why were they so distant and acting like they were trying to catchup? 

I felt the rocks under my feet shift as I stumbled, my head started to throb with a headache.  I was straining myself to much by trying to concentrate on such far off sounds. 

“You okay?”  Aura asked in mild concern as she caught up to me with one of the various lovers she flirts around with from time to time.

“Yeah, just overstraining myself.”  I replied while rubbing my temples.

“It isn’t worth it to stress yourself out about something you can’t control.  That murderer has been able to evade notice while committing her acts, who ever she is we’re not catch right now.  So don’t burn yourself out fretting uselessly, otherwise you’ll be helpless when it counts.”  Aura explained with a serious face.

“…Aura.  I can hear footsteps following the caravan.  I don’t know who it is but her intent is clearly to stick close to us.”  I whispered to her after a short minute of consideration.

She drew quiet as she mused over my words.  Her eyes darting to the back of the caravan, a pensive look grew on her face. 

“…What can you gleam from these…steps.”  She said softly as she huddled in close.

I continued rubbing my head as I resumed concentrating on the mysterious footsteps behind us.  The actual sound effects being the only evidence, I only catch notice of them sporadically.  With large gaps between audible tapping of steps, I couldn’t make out anything substantial.  Only that they exist.

“Not much…”  I’ve finally had enough of guessing and craned my head around to peer directly at where I last heard these phantom steps.  There was nothing, just empty fields in the middle of wilderness.  No signs of human life, other than the trail left by the caravan, in sight.  “…But I’m sure they belong to someone very stealthy.”

“I just hope the paranoia isn’t getting the better of you.”  Aura stated simply, her eyes following mine.

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By the end of the day I fell face first into Aura’s bedding.

I had completely over used my enhanced senses and I had a throbbing, mind splitting headache.  My eyes hurt, my ears hurt, my brain hurts, I just want to curl up and sleep, but any little sensation sending electrifying pain coursing through my mind.

Even after having searched in vain, I continued to scrutinize the surroundings with my sharpened senses.  Alas, I didn’t pick up anything, no patterns, no irregularities, nothing to tell me if anyone was out there.  My best guess is that me or Aura somehow spooked the stealthy cunt making that noise and from then on she took greater pains to avoid leaving signs of her passage.  Well, whatever the truth is, I now have a headache for my efforts.

“I told you that you shouldn’t have over exerted yourself like this.”  Aura chastised from over my limp body.

“Hrrmm!”  I could only muster a mere grunt in response.

“Now how are you going to make patrols of the camp in such a condition?”  She continued to admonish in annoyance.

“I’ll do some rounds once this headache subsides.”  I finally managed to assemble the words for a response.

“The best thing for a headache is sleep.  But besides that, you shouldn’t have been this debilitated in the first place.”

“…”

“Hah, just tell me once you start to feel better.  I want to make sure we stick together anyway.”  Aura relented, speaking in a softened tone.

“…Thank you.”

After that I focused on not focusing on anything, keeping the light out of my eyes and my ears shut, to hopefully allow the throbbing in my head to dissipate.  About an hour in this state, just as I felt like I was about to drift off, a shrill scream broke the peaceful silence.

“Hrrmm!”  Was all I muttered as I slowly clambered up, I knew this can’t be good.

Aura was similarly, though silently, disturbed and was already moving in the direction of the scream.  Following in behind, the pain had dulled my senses, so I was slow to noticing where we had ended up.  It was where the onagers were being kept and several girls had already began to cluster at.

The chilling calmness of everyone present had me resigned as to what had happened.  Coming to where Aura came to a stop I see next to the onagers was the corpse of one of the worker girls, in fact it was the girl I remembered from earlier today.  She had been killed near the center of the camp.  This one was clearly a message, the killer can get to anyone.

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