#WritcoStoryPrompt23

The howl that rang out the silent night was heard across the slumbering tents.
The shriek was enough to make every hair on his body stand on end.

The monsters had found them...

"Strike the lights! And someone find that accursed Sandish guide!"

The camp transformed in an instant, all the sleepers were quickly aiding the watchmen, the drill practiced so many times they could have done it in their sleep, indeed some probably were.

Veltros alone ran to find their guide.
His tent was a little apart from the rest, marked by the heavy wooden door- hideously perched on the tents entrance.

Enscribed on the door were the words everyone in the caravan had memorized.
"Knock three time then wait for the invitation, how absurd!" Veltros rushed into the tent. They had just finished the dusk count and Katimarah, was missing- now the Bleeders were upon them. Surely the Sander would know this was urgent.

"Sander," Vel gasped roughly as he gulped air, "role call... missing... and ble..."

"~You~ were not invited sir." The dark form seated at the table turned his head just enough for Veltros to see the crimson stain surrounding the Sanders mouth.

"Waters wrath upon us all! You're one of them!"
the captain was frozen with a terrible dread, not sure rather to draw his sword or to turn and flee.

"One of whom?" the sander calmly as he returned to his meal. The heavy black cloak he wore made it impossible to see exactly what he was eating, but it sounded like slurping soup.

"You... you're... one of ~them~ ... a bleeder."

"If I was one of ~them~ Velt you would not have been dead in my arms before you finished that sentence." suddenly the Sander flashed across the room and had Veltros by his throat lifted a heads height or so off the ground.
"You are a good man Velt, and a better soldier or I would kill you. You want to travel without being tracked, hire a tracker as your guide. You wanted to avoid bleeder packs, I am ...~was~ a bleeder once."The sanders grip relaxed and he captain dropped to his feet. "That is why I can ferry caravans through the sands without incodent."

Veltros turned his gaze to the table. ~Katimarah~
"You took her"

"NO!" Sanders eyes grew dark, almost feral. "She volunteered..."



To be continued... (after 19 likes)
Or I'll start with another story.
: )
© #jmattpearson