DYLAN "NITE" ORR - CONSPIRACY AND PARANOIA

Dylan “Nite” Orr, an asexual writer born in Missouri and raised in Minnesota. A writer in the hopes of eventually making stories for video games.

Conspiracy and Paranoia
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Drinking meade in a local inn that doubles as a tavern, a conversation happens with one of the locals and me.
            "You're new here, what brings you to Radskin," says a burly Nord with long brown hair and light-grey blue eyes.
            I reply, "I was hunting a bear that was on the white mountain. For three days I tracked it and wounded it with many arrows."
            "Did you catch your bear at all," asked the Nord.
            "I eventually followed it and found its body close to town. It had giant gash marks and its guts open and eaten when I found it," I explain.
            "Sounds like something bigger came and killed your bear, not many creatures are bigger than the bear around here. Perhaps what people around town are talking about seeing is true after all," he rambles.
            I question with, "What are the people here talking about?"
            "People say they have been seeing a werewolf roam about outside the walls of the town and one saying he saw the werewolf out in the streets one night and it turned into an ally way and that all he saw," he explains.
            "Well, at least the beast didn’t rough up the bear's hide too much. I did get a pretty decent pelt out of it. Hopefully, I won't have to encounter this werewolf myself anytime soon," I say as I let the last bit of the sweet, honey crispness down my throat.
            "I hear that," he says, ordering himself some meade.
            I pay for mine and head upstairs to my room. . As I’m getting ready to sleep,  there’s a knock at the door. I  open the door, and outside is a blond-headed elf, looking jittery.
            "Hello, sorry to bother but I overheard you talking to Sam at the bar earlier and was hoping to talk to you quickly about something since your not from town," says the elf.
            I say, "No," thinking the elf looks too energetic for it being dark and very late and possibly on something like red moss or the like.
            I close the door but he wedges his body in between and he says, "I have gold, plenty of it. Just hear me out and then decide."
            I stop trying to close the door and motion him to come in. He sits in the chair in the corner as I sit on the bed while he explains himself.
            "I need you to stalk a couple of people for me. I think they are watching me and I think they want to kill me. I have no proof of this and the guards won’t help. Just follow them around and report back to me at this tavern at night, Oh and don’t speak to me during the day, I don’t want them to get the idea that we know each other," he says, very jittery.
            "I'll check it out but who are they," I question.
            "Oh yeah, that's very important to know. The man you spoke with tonight was Sam and the other is a man who works the vineyards outside the town's walls by himself. His name is Stromm," he explains.
            "Why do you think these two want you dead," I question again.
            "I think they are werewolves, and I think that they found out that I suspect them both," he replies.
            "Look, I don't think Sam is a werewolf. I found the bear I have been tracking, it was killed outside the town by a werewolf and when I got to the tavern, it looked as if Sam was here for most of the night. I'm pretty sure he’s not one," I say. "Who are you exactly," I inquire.
            He's thinking and nods his head "That makes sense and my name is Gerdur, I mostly stay at home and read my books. I'm still willing to pay you if you want to watch Stromm tomorrow," he asks.
            I say, "sure." I shoo him out of my room and I finally go to sleep.
            The morning I collect my things and put them in my backpack and sling my bow on my shoulder and head out. I go and check out that vineyard outside the walls and see a dark-skinned man with black hair and a well-kept beard working. I go out into the woods across from the vineyard while he isn’t looking and sit behind a bush and a tree. I sit and wait for anything interesting.
            It gets dark and nothing of interest happens, just him working. He’s inside his home and I decide to go and ask about Gerdur and tell him that he asked me to watch him.
            I knock on the door and he opens a few seconds later. we say hello and I explain who I am and ask him about Gerdur.
            "Oh him, he’s mostly in his home but when he goes outside he can’t stop talking to himself and other things. He’s the town eccentric," he says.
            I explain that Gerdur wanted me to watch him and why.
            "I know that people are seeing things but I didn’t think he was so paranoid that he would hire someone to stalk someone. I should have called the guards when I saw him trying to break into my house. Thanks for letting me know," he says and closes his door.
            I wait for Gerdur at the tavern to tell him that Stromm was not a werewolf and that I was heading home, I wait about an hour when I hear screams from outside. I head out to hear growls and more screaming. I head over to the chapel and ready my bow to find the body of Gerdur, dead. With the body of a woman and two guards. One guard, badly injured with his sword in Gerdur's mid-transformed body.