Egil’s stallion, without its previously throned champion, unexpectedly trotted near the unwary ranger, nudging him that the harvested morning still bore an omen of stars and dusk to come. The insects and worms pulsated feverishly, unwavering in its rhythmic delivery of a whinny, a façade generated by the friction of their swarmed and compressed paths within the conglomeration of the steed. The neighing abruptly fleeted out in existence, wading in its berth below the masqueraded Barovian sun. The creepy and crawly premonition soon met a welcomed admonition, sensing the census of birds multiplying in number as the Vistani took to its saddle and sauntered to the mount’s previous owner, encouraging all gathered to ready to ride.

[color=598527]“Apologies for the interruption, everyone.”[/color] He cleared his throat and offered a seated arm to the proverbial, now clean undertaker over the corpse. [color=598527]“We must move. The mist is coming.”[/color]

As the assembled cabal approached the tarnished gates together, the hinges screeched to accommodate their passage, swinging their tethered portals outward. Once past the blemished Rubicon, the Gallic posterns viciously squawked at the company’s heels, ultimately locking at the apothem of its concluded joined arcs.  The resultant sound cemented an insulting dread, as if each had voluntarily ambled into an inescapable prison, whose inner borders carried the anxious vain of foreboding freedom.

Insensible to the noxious catastrophe prior, myriads of ravens conducted song and courtship without mind, as they followed their prey into the foggy ambiance. Some even rummaged the verbal caches hidden within the bleak winter of conversation between the fighter and the spooned gypsy, relishing with tilted ebon beaks their rewards amongst their relatives. The whispering fowl frolicked alongside their silent idols, playfully springing from branch to branch, adjacent to their hallowed trek. Their eyes glimmered from the prancing shadows, thrown upon by reflections off nigh rays of penetrating brightness, which absconded past the curtain of clouds under spread the horrid heavens, as dozens of drops of rain would intermittently descend audibly, risking to douse any conjured fire.