1 Blackness of Nigh

-Day 1-

A vast forest lay shroud in the false security of night as its evil clutches lay its gentle plight upon those who fear it, but fear isn't enough for the darkness as it begins to gather into a single form of that a small human female but no features are present only the pitches of darkness devoid of any light makes the body of the foul creation. Its only feature is two complete red eyes piercing through the darkness as its body begins to take form and its life black creeps into being.

The creature looked at the darkness of the forest around it and felt comfort in the dark of night as if it were a mother to it. It trudged froward a few steps into the forest looking around itself at the depressing black lens that covers the forest, the night only letting the faintest of colour to emanate through. It was hungry. It did not care for the forest around it, it only craved food at that very moment and so it began to search with lustful eyes for any form of food.

Soon it found something, a green humanoid with grotesque features holding a long stick in its hand and a thin cloth was wrapped around its loin. The creature was shorter than it and so it didn't feel threatened and approached it in the silence of night the green humanoid did not hear or see the creature as it gradually snuck closer to pounce upon the unobservant creature. It reached out its hand towards the creature and grasped it causing it to convulse as it began to pull a white stone out of the vile green creature causing it to go limp. It inspected the odd stone that it had pulled out of the creature and became increasingly ravenous when looking at it and ended up absorbing it into its body making the creature feel stronger. Now it knew more about the strange place it was in, it was called a 'forest' and what it just consumed was an animal known as 'goblins'. It had also had some idea as to what it was herself but only knew to stay away from the sun light and thrive in the night also to eat those white stones.

It lurked into a strange area nearby the now dead goblin where there was sticks and rocks put together in strange ways that seemed to house more of these goblins upon inspection. It was confused as to what they were doing sleeping in piles if sticks but paid it no mind as she reached into the goblins and took out the white stones and learning new things as she continued to absorb the stones. It discovered that they were living in 'houses' from an abandoned 'village' where tall creatures called 'elves' had left to build another village.

It was very curious about why they left but there was no more goblins to take stones from and when it tried to take stones from a dead goblin again it didn't work. It decided to continued exploring this forest and find out what is meant by forest. 'Is it these giant sticks with green things on them that made it a forest' it wondered. It kept looking a the strange giant sticks when it felt an immediate fear which surprised it and in panic it ran towards a hole in a giant rock wall where sh hid in the shadows watching with fearful eyes as sunlight covered the once dark forest trying to beckon her outside like the fox and the hare.

It watched the hole's entrance and saw many peculiar creatures passing by such as some elves but not as tall and didn't have long ears. It was curious about what they were but it was too afraid to go outside into the daylight and investigate what the strange creatures were and shrunk back agains the wall hoping for the warm embrace of light to return to the world outside the hole. That is when it noticed the hole extended further away and it became curious and began to follow it until it found more goblins to its surprise they also had a village in a large room in the hole. It decided to take their stones and crept through the village taking and eating the stones of every goblin in the village turning the once noisy hole into a quiet one. The creature was curious as to why the goblins went quiet when they died and kept prodding at them but all they did was move with its finger surprising the creature when it first did it but it soon found out it was still dead when it reached for its stone.

It moved back towards the entrance of the hole and looked outside to see the sunlight was till there not allowing it to be leave. It sat against the wall of the hole and again continued to watch the entrance of the hole.

-Human Adventurers-

They had been ordered by their clients to clean out a large nest of goblins in an abandoned elven village and were all surprised at the pay for clearing out some goblins. They were all confident that it would be a swift victory but one thing that hung on the back of their minds was to see if their was anything unusual in the area and report back their findings after killing off the goblins. Nonetheless they presumed if that they meant to investigate if they arrived from an external source and continued forward all stuck in vibrant conversation and merry along the way until a scout returned saying the goblins all seemed to be dead.

They all rushed to the village and discovered an ominous sight, fifty goblins lie in their village with no marks or anything dead. The guards that were at their post seemed unpacked and little to non resistance was seen. The majority of goblins were seemingly asleep in this mass death meaning that most of them had died in their sleep with the occasional goblin seen lying against a wall or the floor with a face of panic. They inspected the village further and suspected it could have been a plague that had killed off the goblins duet o their lack of hygiene. They found goblin tracks leading into the forest and so they followed them to a large cave where they presume the eternal source would be.

For caution they decided to wait until night when the goblins would be asleep if they were still alive to enter and clear out the goblins. When nightfall came a few priests and priestesses exclaimed at the sight of a child like dark mass pass through the trees but was dismissed as goblins and a few adventurers were sent after them. The group then entered the cave and was surprised to find another goblin village in a similar state to the last with no survivors however this time there was some struggle present amongst them as there was evident signs of seizures or cowering among a few of the dead goblins and so they deduced that it was a highly dealt disease that had killed off the two goblin villages and was most likely killing off more villages. That wasn't their worry however as there was a chance that the disease could effect humans too leading them to speculate what could happen if such a disease infected something like a city or the capital leading to mass death. They decided to take three goblin corpses with them for analysis by the biologists in the town and decided to leave the village intact and were vey surprised that there was still zero sign of decay from the corpses.

They packed up and left to the village and told the biologists and other researchers about what they found in the forest and presented them with the three extracted goblin corpses. The biologists inspected the corpses and were surprised at what they found. The corpses weren't rotting and weren't showing signs they ever would and that there was an absence of their monster core. The researchers became very intrigued by this discovery and decided they would ask the locals about the bodies or if there was a disease in the area that killed off goblin populations.

*Knock**Knock*

"Coming!"

Albert answered the door and was surprised to see two researchers at the door and was even more so when they asked questions about any local diseases that would destroy the mana core of monsters with out harming the creature except in anyway except death. Albert asked them to elaborate and when they mentioned no sign of rotting he rushed back into the house and informed his mother and father whom rushed to the door and began answering questions in his place. Afterwards, the researchers left and his parents sighed as they explained to him as long as they think that it is a disease they should be safe. Albert gave them both a hug fully trusting of their words.

The researchers were curious as to why the village didn't speak about the disease that had been killing off the goblins and were all just agreeing to their beliefs and closing the door before trying to end conversations as fast as possible or simply say they don't know and slam the door shut. The adventurers also received the same response from the local and were surprised at their reluctance to speak about what killed the goblins after they explained what they discovered about their deaths and most often ended it upon discovering the lack of rotting in the corpses.

The sun set over the horizon once more as the questioning came to a close.

-Day 3-

It had taken all the stones of lots of villages now and began to find a lot of new strange creatures such as small humanoid beings with wings that seemed to be very afraid and aware of it. It was confused as to why they were running away, did they not want to give it stones? It had also discovered the best method of getting stones easier rather than just taking them upon noticing them. It would watch and as it did it noticed the one it followed and watched every night would become more paranoid towards the people around them until one day they would storm out from their village into the woods where it would take their stone. It did this one or twice but found no need when it discovered it was much simpler to just walk in and take the stones of the goblins as they seemed to be very basic in structure of life.

It wasn't curious as to what they did but learned their daily lives when she observed them and discovered they were only good for giving it stones. It continued to eat more of the goblin stones until she could not find anymore goblins in the forest and began to worry about a source of stones when it noticed a village inhabited by 'humans'. It knew they were going to be difficult prey and she would have to observe them and find a way to isolate prey and take their stones.

And so it stood by a house on the edge of the village where a family slept soundly inside unaware of it appearing in their home and observing them in their sleep before taking their stones leaving a house with a scene similar to the goblin villages as they lie their not knowing if they are dead forever trapped in their dreams.

-Day 12-

"My God!"

The village folk had gathered at the house of a now deceased family who had died suddenly in their sleep, the researchers overheard many talks about worries for their lives and some others were talking to contact the shrine maiden. The researchers and adventurers were very confused by this prospect however for now they need to see what has the village so worried and first they need to find this 'shrine maiden' and find out what is happening in these woods.

"Doctor Adam the maiden has accepted your request and as such you are to meet her a the shrine." A young shrine maid had came to his house and informed him of this news and he rushed out of the door upon her leave to alert Eric the current leader of the adventurer group but upon arriving at his location he noticed a troubled look on his face as he was talking to his comrades.

"What's happened?"

"You remember the adventurers sent after what we though to be a group of goblins?"

"Yeah?"

"They haven't returned."

Adam grew concerned at this revelation as he started to think the perhaps the disease had claimed the four from contact with infected goblins and their death followed soon after. However, he couldn't find out how the disease started to infect the village if there hasn't been a single goblin enter the vicinity of the village and potentially spread the disease. He then considered the possibility of a carrier due to their handling of the first discovered infected areas and became worried at the prospect of a disease carrier. That's when he noticed a man calming down his panic stricken wife who seemed to be extremely paranoid of her surroundings due to her frantic checking of her surroundings.

"Are you ok?"

"She's been extremely paranoid ever since the death of the family."

"That is normal."

"But it's just that she is unnaturally suspicious of everything and even tried to claim I was a demon impersonating her husband and ran out of the door and I chased after her ending up where we are not."

"I am to see the shrine maiden do you want to bring her with as she may know what is happening?"

"Yes sir."

Doctor Adam, Eric and the couple all headed towards the shrine to meet the maiden and where greeted by a very large shrine with statues of a woman in a robe seemingly the goddess of the village. They entered the shrine and was greeted by the maiden whom seemed to be a woman in her early twenties. She showed them into a room where they sat on their knees and began to talk.

"Is there a disease killing the goblins and the family?"

"Yes and no."

"Elaborate."

"A curse you see that I would not like to go into however it seems like that young lady over there has been marked by it."

"Curse?"

"She's cursed!?"

"Keep her in the shrine for now and she should be safe and keep watch over her especially at night."

"Yes Ma'am."

The couple were shown into another room by the same shrine maid that had given Adam the message before and Adam began puzzling over the idea of it being a curse. He denied it at a logical standpoint as even though magic exists as the elves proving it to be so despite being the only ones able to do so. Curses were proved to be non existent many years ago when a king who thought the genetic disease his family had that ensured cancerous growth within their lifetime to be a curse asked the elves for help whom said that there was no such thing as a curse and that the problem was his genes rather than a curse. Adam told the shrine maiden this in which she shook her head and looked at him "Curses cannot be set by mortals only by the gods."

"What do you mean?"

"The elves denied its existence as royalty are blessed by the gods rather than cursed and as such they denied the existence of such a curse. A curse does not affect ones bloodline or other such things a curse is a malevolent force that plagues a land or singular person or in this case the curse is more like a virus but it isn't. The most I know is that the curse can be dispelled after a period of time and the tomes of lifting it have bee lost all I know is that the key to stopping the curse is the sun."

Adam began to process the information given to him by the shrine maiden and came to the conclusion that the absence of the disease in the bodies is because sunlight kills off the disease hence the spread only occurs at night and most victims are either asleep or infected during the night hours. He looked at the doo r where the couple passed through in worry.

"Do not fret she will be put in a secure room full of sunlight during the day but locked up at night to help prevent the curse from affecting her any further."

"Thank you for your time."

Adam climbed to his feet and left the shrine and greeted Eric whom waited at the entrance and told him what he had learned. The two walked back to home base discussing their plans of action for killing off the disease before it spreads throughout the entire village. As the sun began to set and the woman began to cry in panic and scream about eyes in her panic and crawl into the corner as her fear of the unseen watchful eyes filled her with a primal fear that ebbed into her very core.