CHAPTER 2
You grab whatever is left from this building and leave. You saw a farm nearby that looked in need of help; one by an outcropping of green rock of white streaks, and you saw too that they had an assortment of bugs...perhaps you can do a trade, for you know you saw on your way here tracks big enough to be a bear.
You trod through the mudstone path until you reach the foot of the hill. You knock on the door, and you hear a voice:
"Aye I saw you, all the from there aye I did. I can't miss ya" he does a cheeky laugh "Man, you look like a grim reaper with that hood on ya! Ya scared me cold. Thought you were an outernmen...lot of them jumping from the ditches knocking on my door!"
"I'm not one of them. I wish to help"
"Aye ya do. We know ya, ye be the Stranger...Knocking on doors, asking for food and in return ye kill something killing ours. Fair!"
You laugh a bit "Stranger? I am the 'Nightcrawler', I have no other name"
"Say ye...there's trouble brewing...Nightcrawler, it's not just the animals here. As far as I know, we're isolated! No word from the King...aye no word, and the cousins I know, farmers, all haven't answered...as far as I reckon, we're under war! We just haven't been attacked yet." he opens the door with a creak
"Come inside..you can't stay there too long...they get you if you're alone."
"Who? The outernmen?"
"Nay! Boogeymen!" he looks over yonder "Air is thick, bog is fetid and the dark is crawling with them, aye! You better watch out. If you're going to help me, aye man, I will give you a weeks worth of food. But aye, be careful...they say a boogieman's touch can paralyse you, and their breathe fills your skin with warts and bugs!"
"I don't believe you."
"Do I look like I am lyin'? Man, they killed my dogs, killed one of my prize bugs aswell...poor thing wouldn't last anyway, but such a horrible way to die..." a strange look fills his eyes now "Some outernmen came here aye, chopped up to bits, they went, horrible thing, I saw the murder grounds...the whole room, wall to floor, gore, entrails...all chopped up in thin slices like sausage casings...Man, but you can do it! You're the Stranger!"