Fire, ash and smoke. The man stood in the center of the main room of the tree house, his arms held out either side almost in a beckoning gesture, trails of ethereal red light coiling down from around his arms like the tendrils of a plant. His eyes were closed, his lips moving subtly and silently as he communed with something that had no voice that could be heard. It answered his questions, asking nothing in return. He smiled, the coils of ethereal light fading like the mist that they so resembled. He opened his eyes and looked around once more, with new found understanding confirming that which he had already suspected. The young lad had most definitely been here, but he was here no more. As had the brats whose presence he had felt long before his arrival.

With a knowing expression he reached into the inner pocket of his long coat and removed a well-worn book, its pages stuffed full of notes, images and information. He flipped open the book seemingly at random, though in truth he opened the book on the exact page that he desired, unseen hands guiding the pages. On the page before him was text in several languages, with an image of a fox neatly drawn into the top corner of the page. He read for a moment before flipping the book closed once again before replacing it into the confines of his coat.

The ‘tree house’ as the kids had called it stood still and silent in his presence, like a living thing holding its breath, hoping that the monster would go away. Of course the real monster was no longer here, no doubt secluding itself beneath the lake with its latest victim. A pity that he had no arrived back in town sooner. That was the problem with rumour, it often arrived after the fact. But it was not a matter of any great concern either way. He was far more interested in the group who had come before him. No normal people group have perceived the entrance to this house, nor bypassed the illusions that shrouded the area like a fine mist. However they were human, more or less, which meant that they were tethered. Or so he assumed. At least one of them was familiar to him.

The man stepped out of the house and could almost feel the house relax in response. He had considered destroying the house. It would have been easy enough, however it would have been naught but a waste of his energies. All that it required was the death of the monster. Kill the monster that had created this place and the house would soon crumble and rot. Of course that was assuming that the tethered misfits had the stomach to do what was needed. If they didn’t then he would do so himself. It was the only way to stop any more victims appearing. And there would be more. There always was.

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Maxwell stood on a small rise in the land that let him look over the lake, his jacket swaying ever so slightly in the light breeze. Ideally he would have liked to have gone with the others, the potion and its effects offering a tantalising experience that was hard to ignore. However he was also aware of August’s obvious fear of the water and so had elected to stay behind with her, unwilling to leave her on her own. The ground beneath his feet was soft and covered in grass and leaves, so he decided to sit for a while, his arms and legs crossed in a rather uptight fashion. As always he wore a near permanent look of irritation that bore no relation to his actual mood, hidden slightly beneath his upturned hood and the shadow that it cast over his face.

Though he had agreed to stay with August out of concern for her wellbeing he wasn’t entirely sure what to say or do to help her. She had seemed pretty distraught at the time and he had been able to react to that, but now that they were alone he was at a loss for what to say. How did you console someone without touching them? He was silent for a while as he tried to think of something to say. Then again did she even want to talk? Perhaps she simply wanted to be left alone, in which case he was just being a nuisance. [colour=gold]“Shit,”[/colour] he said under his breath, realizing that he was perhaps a little out of his depth. He sighed loudly and dipped his head.