The room was dark, dirty and dusty.
A lot of the wooden furniture was thrown around and severely damaged; a large cauldron was on the ground with a huge crack in it; several flasks with roots, plants and other unknown materials and substances were scattered through the shelves; the remaining of burned books and ripped research notes filled the floor;
All around the area, built with pumpkins, scrap metal, mud, miscellaneous utensils, gold pieces and sticks, among other random stuff, were dozens of short poorly-crafted dummies. All of them standing still, motionless, with their empty eyes staring into the void.
Several scratch marks on the floor and walls made a trail leading to the door.
Finally, right in the middle of the room, a round wood desk. In the top of it, a small plush doll, with its fur free from dust and very well combed.
That was, by far, the only clean thing in the entire room.
“What have you done??”
The gray cat asked, with anger quickly filling his voice.
“Wha-what d-d-do you mean?” The fat raccoon man stepped back, and tried to avoid the question in a babbling tone. “I… we… didn’t do anything wrong… I-I-I… d-don’t know anything about this pla-”
“ANSWER ME!!!” The cat was now screaming. His sharp claws revealing itself from the openings in the tips of his fingers.
The man stood in silence.
Slowly, his scared posture left his body, leaving place for a more menacing stance, and his trembling voice was now filled with hate.
“You wanna know what?? We did what had to be done! She was a witch, and we burned her like a witch!!”
“She was a CHILD!” The cat could not believe his own ears.
“She was seeking for forbidden cursed knowledges! Performing profane rituals!” The raccoon swigged his arms angrily across the air. “Her actions would bring nothing but disgrace and doom to our village!”
“ENOUGH!”
A bolt of energy split the room, hitting the man right in the center of his chest, and throwing him to the ground.
The old greyish-brown fur wolf held his staff in that position for a few more seconds, before moving it down again, pressing it with a strong grip between his paws.
“I… I’ve been beneath Royal roof for too long…” He whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. “Sometimes I forget how much magic and sorceresses can be feared or, sometimes, despised for so many populations…”
He sighed.
His eyes scanned the room, analyzing the ingredients on the floor, and the few remaining readable scraps of paper spread around.
“She… was studying to be a healer.” The wizard concluded. “Considering her mother’s condition… it only makes sense.”
“The golem… It was never supposed to be a monster, right?” The goldish bunny woman calmly crossed the room, approaching the table in its center, and fondly picking up the doll. “Evelynn could never be accepted by anyone in the valley. She could never have a friend. So she herself made a friend… one who could also assist her here in her lab.”
“When the people of the village decided to…” The wolf refrained his own words “take her away…” he once again locked his stare into the raccoon’s, who was still pathetically splat in the ground. “…the golem decided to take revenge on those responsible for it. That is why the golem keep attacking the villagers.”
“And the reason why he keeps stealing stuff is because, the same way he was brought to life…” The gray cat took one last look to the empty-eyed dummies. “the golem is trying to bring back its friend...”


=============================================================================
“They are junk! But cool junk! Just like me!”

Booo, everyone! >:3
For this Spooktober, Nicholas and his allies go to an isolated village in a valley surrounded by mist.
There, they learn about and start investigating the mysterious appearences and attacks by a sinister unknown creature!
However, due to the suspicious behaviors of the villagers, our heroes soon start to realize that there are ways more secrets in this village that they anticipated!

Indeed… this one got a bit darker than anything Swords and Claws related so far. But it is a Halloween special, so…. ^^;

This is a story that I imagined being inspired by Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, that I watched last year, and I wanted to bring a piece of that to my world! ^^
Also, Swords and Claws is a world full of adventures and Fantasy, but once I intend to develop it at its own pacing, I still didn’t had the opportunity to show this more Fantastic side of this world. So I’ve decided to do that in this Halloween Special tale! ^^

Now, the greatest challenge was that I didn’t wanted to write the whole tale.
Instead of it, I just wanted to write a single dialogue scene and, through it, give enough information for the readers to figure all of the most relevant points of the story, but still leave most of it up to their imagination!
That was quite a task, I must say... but I am very satisfied with the result! ^^