"Worm-eye! Ya be seein' anyting?"

Martyll Dragoneye shut his eyes tightly as if he suddenly had a headache and took a deep breath to calm himself. It did not work apparently, because he leaned over the side of the rickety watchtower and yelled down at the troll, "I've told you a thousand times, you blithering sand-whelp, not that you can count, of course! It's Captain Dragoneye! Captain! You will refer to me with my proper name and title or you will get thrown to whatever hungry beasts are wandering this Light-forsaken hell."

The tall, lanky troll, Gubcha, rolled his own eyes and made a mock bow. "Alrighty den, Captain, ya see anyting? Some of us be hungry and we not gonna be standin' 'ere waitin' for you ta be done witcha sightseein'."

"I am not sightseeing, you idiot!"

The other trolls behind Gubcha began to grumble and some of them wandered off in search of food and more interesting endeavors. They lose interest in things like children and imbeciles, unless they're looking for something shiny, thought the captain. "You will wait until I tell you that you can do otherwise," he said, turning his back on the trolls. He scanned the twilit landscape again, actually squinting, despite his extraordinary eyesight. He did not want to miss a thing. No, Martyll, you dolt. The beast won't strike, even if there's a little bit of light. It likes the dark. "So I wait," he muttered.

"Captain!"

Captain Dragoneye shuddered in anger as he spun around again and leaned down, expecting to have to face Gubcha's ugly, disgruntled face again. Instead he found the faces of Ranger-Lord Dargal Sunstep and Lieutenant Lith Starsword looking up at him. The Ranger-Lord had an amused look on his smooth, pale face and his bright golden eyes were narrowed in a smirk. He was the oldest elf that Dragoneye had ever met, but a person would never be able to tell. Elves aged gracefully enough, though the Ranger-Lord had seen his fair share of years. His hair, the same color as his eyes, was braided ornately behind him.

Next to him, Lieutenant Starsword blinked up at Dragoneye with large, bright green eyes. The lieutenant seemed harmless enough to Martyll, but with a weapon, she was vicious. She has silver hair that fell just past her waist when it was loose, but at that time it was braided to her right side.

"Martyll, what in Light's name are you doing up there! Come down, the whole camp's about to have their supper!"

The captain groaned, though not loud enough for Sunstep to hear. He had never seen the Ranger-Lord angry, but he did not wish to find out about it. "With all due respect, sir," he answered, as respectfully as he could muster, "we have to keep watch for the beast."

Sunstep roared out in laughter and nudged Starsword with his elbow, nearly knocking the unaware elf right off of her feet. "Do you hear this, Lith? The beast, he says! Leave the beast, Martyll! It attacked at Hunter's Hill. That well enough away from here, and across the rift to match! Even if the damned thing is coming here, there's no way it'll make it tonight. Come down here, relax."

Starsword sighed softly and said quietly, "S-sir, maybe it is best to keep watch.. We don't know how fast the beast can move.."

She was cut off mid-sentence by another roar of laughter. "Hear that, Martyll? Lith here will stand watch with you!" Martyll groaned again as he saw Lith turn a furious pink in the dim light.

"I would prefer to stay up here, sir. I was at Desolation Hold. I know what this beast is capable of. You will not see it until it is too late. If we can get even the smallest bit of warning, we can be better prepared than the Hold was." He shuddered again as he remembered the screams and shouts of panic. Was there only one incredibly fast beast? Or many, descending on their attack point all at once? No one knew because no one had seen anything. There had only been shadows, moving so swiftly that it was impossible to pinpoint them.

Now the Ranger-Lord frowned. "Now, Martyll, I'll hear none of that. Enough with your morbid stories. Surely it was just a loose wolf or a lion or such, if there even was a 'beast' at all. You know how oddly these animals act, especially lately. Come down here and enjoy your supper, don't make me order you."

The twilight was gone, replaced by the inky darkness of night. It was incredibly cold at night in the Barrens, with nothing to buffer the wind except a few sad, thin trees and perhaps the odd hill or two. Captain Dragoneye took one last look to the east of the Crossroads, and then to the west. From what he could see, everything was calm. Half sighing and half seething, he swung himself over the side of the watchtower and dropped down, landing directly in front of the Ranger-Lord. "Very well, sir, dinner it is."

As the three of them walked back to the large tent that housed their eating quarters, Dragoneye's ear twitched as he thought he heard the sound of a quick, strangled squeak. As he looked towards the West gate, he saw one of the guards drop, seemingly without reason, but then the torch he had been holding was immediately snuffed out. Before Martyll Dragoneye even had time to open his mouth and sound an alarm, the shadows were darting about again and his nightmare was unfolding once again.