It was a cold sort of morning. Snow capped the Eastern mountains, and the sun was yet to show itself. The thick forest outside the grass hut looked dark and uninviting in the early morning fog. The fields around the edges of the forest were slick with dew from a rainfall that night. Stars were still visible, twinkling in the brightening sky, and the crescent moon was slowly sinking in the west below a thin line of grey clouds. A small pinprick of yellow light suddenly appeared in the wood, then as quick as it had appeared, it was gone. If someone was awake at that time and had seen it, they would most likely have dismissed it as a trick of the eye. But no, there it was again, and there were two of them now. Now three, and now four. And they were getting closer to the little hut in the centre of the damp clearing.
Still no sound was coming from the lights, but lights they most defiantly were. There was no way they could have been imagined now, for they moved in and out of the dark trees, sometimes disappearing completely as they passed behind an especially thick trunk. Then the lights flickered, and went out.
Silence. Stillness. Not even the rustle of wind or the song of a bird could be herd in the trees that morning. The fog lazily wrapping itself around the floor of the clearing was disturbed by something at the edge of the forest. Then, a quiet snap of a twig, and through the hazy darkness, Six figures slowly emerged from between the trees. Four were tall, two were short. the short ones were hardly visible above the still grasses of the forest, but the tall ones were human. The fog swirled around their feet like brook water around stones. Slowly, and silently, the six figures approached the dark hut hardly making a sound. They seemed to glide over the ground, and even the grass that parted before them was more silent then ever. Almost as if the land knew what was about to happen. The six figures slowly made their way through the last of the trees, and into the field, always moving closer to that little hut. What seemed like eternity passed, and the six figures were up against the hut, backs to the door. They stopped, and looked about the clearing. Two of the men bent down to the short figures, that were unmistakably dogs of some type. The tinkle tinkle of a chain being undone wove it's way through the still morning air. The four men nodded at one another, and took positions around the door. Then, everything happened at once. With a savage, blood curdling cry, one man threw aside the door, and the other two men holding the dogs suddenly released their grip, and the hounds took off fast as an arrow in through the door into the dark hut. The fourth man followed the dogs into the hut, yelling loudly. A woman's scream pierced the still air, and a mans yelling in pain swiftly followed. the remaining men outside rushed into the hut brandishing a club in each hand. A baby started to scream for its mother, and the dogs barking and frenzied yowling added to the hellish noises. Then the baby went silent, and a dog came out of the doorway with a dark lump hanging limp in its mouth. The woman still screaming was dragged out of the hut shortly after by her hair. She flailed about with her arms and legs to try and shake the man off, but to no avail. Then a gunshot pierced through the night, and the dark hut went silent. The man who had been wrestling with the woman struck her across the jaw with his club, sending her spinning unconscious. A silent scuffling was coming from inside, then two of the other men flung a half naked body out of the inky black and onto the grass, where it landed with a dull thump.
Silence.
The four men stood panting and looking about as if to check wether or not someone had heard them. After a minute or so, they stopped.
"Is he dead?" Asked one of the men.
"Shot himself in the head" Replied another, spitting on the corpse of the man.
"Well, we still might be able to sell the other one over there for a good price" Said the first man.
The others nodded in agreement.
By this time the sun had peaked over the mountains, bathing the landscape in a dull red. The four men regrouped, put the dogs back on the chains, set fire to the hut, threw the two corpses onto the fames, and dragged the unconscious woman back into the forest.
The smoke from the hut coiled up over the heads of the Sansha and their catch, smothering the blood red disk in an oily black.
And as silently as they had come, they were gone, leaving only piles of ash.