[Redd]

"Hold up." Lizzie raised a hand, the caravan rattling to a halt behind her. The driver, a man in his mid thirties, jumped off the wagon and immediately began talking to the horses in a soothing voice. After a bit of scuffling, the back door swung open and everyone started hopping out. Their crew was small but... for a caravan, 5 was a pretty large number to keep cooped up in the back and strange mist or no, any stop was a good opportunity for air.

"Weird stuff ahead, and we're not gonna risk the horses by going through it." Lizzie shrugged, jerking a thumb in the direction of the mist. "Tiff, you know this area best, what's the best way to go?"

The woman frowned in the direction of the haze. "There's a town, in the opposite direction, not too far. We can stop over there. Maybe the locals know how far it spreads. Here, Azrael, let me show you on the map dear." She waved the driver off to the back of the caravan, the rest of the troupe reluctantly behind her.

[crow]

"Flyers! Get your hot, fresh flyers here!" A young man was waving around a sheaf of colorful papers in the middle of the day. He had placed himself right in the center of the market district, but even then, not many people spared him a glance as they passed by. To be fair, not many people passed by at all. It was a small town. Things were like that.

It was pretty hard not to get disheartened by it though. After about two hours of trying to solicit passers-by to no avail, he finally decided it was time for a break.

"Man... Cut me some slack," he muttered, pouting as he gazed out at the impassive populace. Just then, however, he saw something that made him sit up straighter. What was that in the distance...? Some kind of black mass?

[Redd]

After some convincing, the rest of the crew reluctantly agreed to the new plan and Azrael turned the horses towards town. They'd be late to their next planned stopover, but it was a better alternative to losing the horses if they spooked or risking it if the mist actually was dangerous in any way.

Once they arrived, Azrael and Tiffany quickly got to business, securing the horses and asking around for an inn. The town wasn't exactly used to visitors of their size but they managed to get a room for the women at the very least. Lizzy wasn't really part of that group but it didn't really bother her. Her job was to watch the animals and the cargo. Though, since Azrael would have his hands full grooming the animals and Reyes would be sorting through their gear to see what they could sell, that meant Lizzy had the afternoon to herself.

She turned her eyes towards the direction of the mist. Maybe she'd see what that was all about.

[crow]

Hurriedly, Shiki looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. However, it didn't seem as if anyone was paying this stuff any mind. People continued to go about their business, as if nothing was the matter.

Was it just that no one else was paying attention? It was possible, since they all looked as if they had things to do or places to be. But it was also possible that they couldn't see it, and that Shiki was able to only by virtue of being... well, not human.

He made up his mind. Rising, he headed to the outskirts of town, in the direction of that black mass.

[Redd]

Huh.

Lizzie stopped dead in her tracks, a thin haze just in front of her. A little futher ahead it started to thicken up into a dead black mass. Yeah, it was definitely a good idea they hadn't bothered taking the horses through this. They would have been absolutely spooked.

A not-so-smart bodyguard on the other hand? It'd take a bit more than a wrong colored mist to scare her.

She knelt down and picked up a small rock, before throwing it as far as she could into the mist. She held her breath as it fell through and hit the ground with an audible thud. And nothing bad happened. Maybe she'd test walking through it next? She'd sworn she'd seen birds in the distance darting in and out of it.

[crow]

As Shiki got closer to the black mass, he could see more people gathered around, paused in what they were doing to stare at it. That worried him, though he supposed it could be worse. They could have been charging into it.

"Hey!" he said, yelling and waving his arms. That caught their attention. Most of them looked up, some scared and others even annoyed, but Shiki didn't pay the latter any mind. "Hey, everyone needs to get away from this stuff! It's dangerous!" Okay, so he didn't necessarily know that, but it sure didn't look like it was just regular weather.

The townsfolk traded looks, but none of them knew what the stuff was any more than he did. And even though Shiki didn't look like an authority, he did sound sure of himself. He saw them start to shuffle away.

But then he saw it: some fool going right into it. "Hey! Hey, lady! Stop, you can't go in there!"

[Event posts end here]