Chapter 49: Nightly Movements.

A mouse twitched its nose in the darkness, sniffing for predators. It knew all their smells and noises instinctively. It could tell rabbit from hare, dog from fox, cat from all of those, and it tended to avoid the lot of them. Any other normal animal smells were likewise ignored. The mouse would only move towards food and other mice. There was safety in numbers. Yet there was a different smell in the air tonight. It was similar to that of a human, yet it had a musky tinge to it unlike anything it had smelt on a human before. It sniffed the air again. The smell was still there, downwind, stronger if anything.

Not a sound could be heard apart from the talk of humans where they massed in groups around sticks that glowed with a strange orange thing flickering above them. Nothing other than the wind blowing through the bushes and whistling past the rock face just above the mouse could be heard. The mouse relaxed, focusing its senses on finding the nuts and seeds that would sustain it through the winter to come. The smell, though strange, was bothering it very little, and with no other hints of danger it carried on foraging for whatever it could find.

Suddenly, a dark blur shot from the sky and snatched at the mouse with sharp claws. The tiny creature smelt an overpowering wave of the same smell as before, but could only emit a tiny squeal before sharp talons embedded themselves in its neck and side, sinking deep and tearing flesh, and the mouse passed into the void.

Solembum picked the pathetic creature up by the tail, swung it into the air, and caught its body in his mouth, biting with force and easily crunching through its ribcage. He returned to the top of the rock he had been watching from in a roundabout way, looking for more prey. The mouse was barely any sustenance at all, and he needed more meat.

Solembum was in his cat form, always preferred to that of a human when hunting, for obvious reasons. His ears pricked, he prowled around the edge of a bush, glancing around for any sign of animals. A sniff and a worn path through the dry landscape revealed a rabbit trail. Solembum stalked along it, wary of any trouble or ambushes, his eyes glancing around in what to any human would be the pitch black darkness of night, though he could see perfectly well, despite the late hour. Nothing suspicious revealed itself to him, however, and he reached the end of the trail unhindered. A hole, dark even to his eyesight, appeared ahead of him, with the scent of rabbit becoming stronger around the area.

He peered in, ears twitching uncomfortably, to see if there was any way he could fit into the burrow's entrance. He considered making himself into a smaller form, but discarded the idea as he got a small glimpse at the occupant of the hole, which, it seemed, had come to investigate what was happening at the surface, outside its home.

Two gleaming, red dots, glowing slightly in the shadow, came into view. The scent of rabbit came over him again, but it was less tempting now. The eyes were unnerving him, and Solembum hissed and backed off, heeding the warnings Angela had given him once about such creatures as the red-eyed one which crouched ahead of him. He hissed, and spat at it, before turning and waving his tail above his body and walking off, pretending to ignore the unnatural creature behind him. He heard scuffling behind him as he walked off, and quickly reached out his mind to determine the location of the creature, though giving no outward sign.

He only caught a glimpse of a strange and twisted mind heading underground before his tendril of thought was met by earth and could go no further.

Returning to the boulder, his hunt forgotten, Solembum leapt gracefully onto it and sat, twisting his head around to get his bearings. The two camps-one for the cavalry, the other the main body of the Empire-were behind him, sentries vigilantly patrolling the barriers erected around the camp; or at least, so was the plan. While the men in the rather smaller camp of the cavalry were alert and watchful, the men assigned to the main camp's boundaries were simply crowded around fires, keeping warm in the cold night. They almost didn't deserve Solembum to be keeping watch for them. But he disliked the King of Surda, and if watching in the early hours of the morning would foil his plans, the werecat would happily accept the sacrifice.

In front was more of what to any human eye would be pure blackness, yet Solembum could see in great detail. He saw the multiple bushes and trails through them. He saw the movement of several mice like the one he'd caught as they picked their way through the undergrowth. He saw the shadowy, ominous shape of Uru'baen in the distance...

He saw the movement of thousands of people in the darkness ahead of him. He heard their armour clinking as they walked, but their movements were slow, in order to make sure that the sounds were reduced as much as possible. Solembum's ears flickered as the quiet snort of a horse was heard somewhere to the left of the group he had seen. A much larger force of cavalry came into view, moving along with the infantry towards the right flank of the Empire's camp, where Solembum had positioned himself. He glanced around himself in all directions, noting the fact that none of the lookouts had seen anything yet, before taking a glance up at the sky.

Two great shapes hovered there, above the camp of the Empire. They flew in circular paths, gliding mainly, so as to avoid the sound of wingbeats alerting anyone. Solembum could make out the forms of Riders on their backs.

Warily, the werecat stood up, crouching on the rock in preparation as the large army advanced in front of him. He reached out his mind to the tent of Stronghammer, finding the leader awake, thinking about his wife and the upcoming battle. The man hastily armoured his mind at the werecat's touch, but Solembum was already in.

You wanted a warning about the attack. A great force of infantry and an even greater one of cavalry approaches the right flank, which remains unaware of any danger, and dragons hover above, ready to strike. It would appear that you are needed to lead your people and horses to defend the king, and all the rest of it. Basically, get moving. As the man sat up in alarm and started to dress hurriedly, Solembum retracted his mental probe. He started to alert the other leaders with his mind as well. Jormundur summoned his captains, Angela began to prepare her Huthvir, and the Rider, Dusan, jumped to his feet and cast a spell of invisibility over himself before charging out of his tent and running to the location of his dragon, Laenar, who was some distance away from the camp in a position of observation and ambush. He left it to the Rider to wake his dragon, as he was certain that Laenar would be severely angry at being woken up by a strange consciousness at night.

The werecat, still in his cat form, switched to a hair colour of midnight black. The sleek, dark form slipped off the boulder where it had been sitting sentinel, and prowled off into the night, shadows embracing the form of the cat as it was lost from sight within the bushes, heading for the larger of the two camps. Behind it, men rode forwards, ready and prepared for the signal to attack as dawn grew ever closer, and fate advanced on those who would fight.

The next day would decide the fate of the human race.