Snow Witch'S Journey
Strange in the market

That woman pulled me strong. That woman must have a hard job. Crude grip. He kept running while pulling me without thinking about his wasted breath, until we reached the market. The woman did not stop to take a breath, she looked at me and pointed towards the chaos in the market.

“There, miss. Look!” his insistence didn't stop until I saw him. “I've never seen this before. We are afraid if it is a curse or some kind of dangerous magic, therefore we do not dare to clean it.”

I'm heading towards the corner he's headed for. Behind a stall with a blue tent and the citizens circling it like a show were in the middle. All eyes are down. I opened the line with my hand and found a black stain on the snowy ground.

So thick and fishy, just like blood but black. That black bloodstain attracted the attention of many crowds. They came early in the morning intending to shop at the market, but instead found a strange, dense liquid black.

I poked the liquid with my magic wand to check the reaction caused when exposed to magic energy. “This time does not contain poison or anything like that, see ...” Then I used my own finger to test it. “. Just like regular blood. When did you find him?”

“It has been since the beginning of the day, when the merchants started to prepare their merchandise,” replied the woman.

It is indeed ordinary blood, the same smell and the same texture. But who or what has blood as black as charcoal? From what I know, some types of dragons do have black blood, but they do not live in cold climates like here. Even if there were dragons or other creatures that were injured, the citizens should have seen them. A commotion should have occurred since the creature appeared.

I looked up at the sky. “This place, do wild animals often enter here?”

“Birds are just the last wild animals I saw.”

I turned to a quiet place again to talk about this matter to Aeron. “What do you think?”

“You better think about the previous problem, remember? You add weight to your mind again,” said the compass.

“You're not curious?”

My mind is just like the dead end alley where I stand. I didn't want to do it, but I don't know why I linked the missing people's cases to traces of black blood. I believe these two things are related. Instead of opening up the closer possibilities, I was more confused and more and more not knowing where to go.

I went back to the liquid that was still standing like black ink leaking on a white paper. I kept looking at my own reflection in the liquid. People started talking about it, but did not talk about my presence, the Snow Witch. That's very sad.

The activity resumed as usual. They trade as well as gossip. When they talked about the missing girl, I started listening. “Surely the girl who cheated. When the man found out, the girl ran away and disappeared, I was sure it was.”

“You think that guy killed people?” The customer was interested and opened the conversation longer.

“Yes, his sadness became anger, his anger became murderous lust. He killed anyone he met that night and hid them as if they were lost in a blizzard.”

I glanced back and another merchant appeared, joining in on the engrossed conversation. “Not, not the man. It's a snow ghost! Stalking whoever comes out on a stormy night like a ghost. Ghost Elfor!”

“What makes you sure it's Ghost Elfor?” ask the customer.

“Because I saw it myself. Wearing a black robe with red eyes like a man who hasn't slept in days. You see that black liquid over there? That's his blood.”

“Nona Nivalis!” Rowan showed up breaking up the conversation that got me dissolved in it.

“What's up?”

“The man wants to talk.”