Mort's tense examination of the treeline did not go uninterrupted. Instead he found his senses, so attuned for the slightest disturbance amidst the silence, assailed by the voice and visage of Ardonne. She asked if he was scared, an asinine and tactically unsound course of action. He wanted nothing more than for her to be quiet and let him reconstruct his alertness, but what would get her to shut up faster? If he didn't say anything -his preferred choice of action- she might press the matter, but if he replied the foolish girl might assume that he condoned a conversation and say more.

After a couple moments of internal deliberation, he muttered, "I am no idiot. Fear keeps you alive." He did not take his eyes off the trees, convinced that something lurked in those shadows, seeking the faintest hint of monstrosity in the moonlight. 

Some more time passed. Mort couldn't tell how much. He did notice, however, when the gentle, whispering breeze fell silent. With it, the world lapsed into deafness. There were no owl hoots, no opossum hisses, no crickets chirps. Only heavy, oppressive silence.

Until something moved.

The hairs on the back of Mort's neck rose, and a chill crept down his spine. He sat up straight, eyes fixed on the fragment of shadow that pulled away from the amorphous mass. Swallowing, Mort blinked twice to make sure he wasn't imagining things, but the shape did not disappear. "Something's coming," he uttered in a strangled hiss, almost as quiet as the night itself. He couldn't make out its features, but it was larger than a man, and it walked on four gangly legs. Some sort of crownlike adornment sat upon its head, atop a slender, long neck that trended upward. [i]A deer?[/i] Not a threatening creature typically, but deer did not act like this. It moved slowly with purpose through the open, straight for the gathering of humans. Could this...could this be?

Mort's hand already lay on his bow. Now he drew an arrow, moving almost imperceptibly slowly, careful to make no sudden moves. [i]This can't be it, this can't be it,[/i] he thought again and again, but he could not shake that deadly question: what if it was?