• She stalks through the night, a whisper of darkness. A scream penetrates the still air and the girl stands still, sniffing the night sky. With a flash and a fiery crack of her whip, she is gone again, hidden from the dangers that surround her. The smell of blood grows stronger and the scream begins to peter off, before dying completely. Leaping from tree to tree, she reaches a clearing, where a bright moon shines effusive light on a still lake. The animal crouched by the water's side does not look up from its feeding.

    Feeling enraged by the violence done upon an innocent, she attacks, a whip of fire descending towards the direwolf. It howls as it is struck, and the smell of burning fur and flesh filters through the night breeze. It turns to its attacker, fangs bared, ready to strike. But she is way ahead of him, as fire begins to rain down from the unforgiving heavens. The wolf howls in pain before it crumbles into ashes. It had been human once but the darkness had overpowered him, turning it into the monster he had now become, with no turning back.

    The girl sighed as the last howls faded. There was no saving the innocent child either. Once bitten, she would eventually turn into one of Them. Murmuring an incantation, a spell seal appears around her, burning red fire. All that was left now was to insure that the girl would never rise again, to let her tormented soul to rest. Her job done, the mage fades back into the shadows, continuing her eternal midnight vigil.