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A chance to join in the fight.
>90
It wasn't hard to find a suitable weapon. A shoddy wagon nearby had a huge plank sticking out the side of it, not unlike the kind of planks you'd spent your chore time hauling around back on the farm.
You headed over to the thing and yanked the plank out, thankful that you still had just enough energy to drag it behind you, approaching the stump... carefully.
Yeah, carefully. That's... that's why you weren't approaching yet.
...no, this was silly. You needed to get ahold of yourself. Your fingernails dug into the plank, gripping it with gusto, raising the thing right above your head, forcing your shaky legs forward--
--bringing it down on the creature with a loud <span class="mu-i">THUMP.</span>
Before the creature could move you immediately scrambled atop the plank, stomping on it, repeatedly, constantly until you heard a <span class="mu-i">crack</span> pierce the persistent silence surrounding the six of you.
You wanted to go further after that, but your mind continued waging war on you-- maybe that wasn't-- you shuddered-- any kind of <span class="mu-i">specter</span>, maybe it was just... maybe you were just unfamiliar, maybe this was... maybe this was just some kind of neofau--
The doubting was cut short. A <span class="mu-i">whiff</span> of black smoke shot out from underneath you, the floating log from before somehow <span class="mu-i">flying after it from underneath you,</span> the horrifying haunt turning its piercing red eyes back at you.
For one last moment, the two of you held eye contact.
Every feature of its horrid, crooked, bark-laden face was burned into your brain, its image permanently finding a place in your nightmares, the stranger's scream from before echoing throughout your empty crainum...
...before the specter vanished, zipping out of town in the blink of an eye.
Indiana attempted to run after it, attempted to slash at the air where it had once been. Instead, the mole found itself hitting the earth snout-first.
...
All this, and you still hadn't found Mary.
-----
You wouldn't rest until you found her, you'd insisted.
Steele had tried to talk you out of it, as usual. He'd failed, of course, and was less than happy about it. There was a reason he was at the inn, after all, and you weren't.
At least Indiana was by your side. It was odd, being accompanied by neofauna that wasn't your own. Steele's mole kept looking up at you with these odd expressions that you couldn't decipher, his claws somehow returned to keratin from their previously-metallic state without explanation, ignorant of your questions and unwilling to respond to commands. Despite this, the mole seemed to appreciate being talked to. You couldn't fathom why.
