6. -part 1- The Creeping Horror

The burning of Buckland brought more work for the Crafting Hall as they were trying to rebuild what was destroyed in the fire. Ern was going to work earlier than usually and returning a little later sometimes, leaving Aggy alone most of the day, but, with him he brought coins, enough to feed them but also to put some aside for the barn and the animals. All this work was keeping his mind off the incident and he managed to forget it. Now it was only working with the wood, make something beautiful for others before returning to his beautiful wife. Now he was even taking the breaks as the others, he had to after all with all those work. Skillfully he started to carve something for him, he had a thin wooden plank on him and on it he carved Aggy's face, her beautiful features and full cheeks, the strands of hair messy and some in front of her face, as he liked and her beautiful brown eyes, the brightest he has ever seen. Every day he was carving a part, carefully, taking his time during his breaks. That kept him happy the hours that he was away from home.
All over him though the rumours were coming and going about the burning of Buckland, bandits, evil beings from the old forest, drunken Hobbits or drunken men, a careless old Hobbit who dropped his pipe when he saw a big pie. Rumours, everywhere, but he wasn't listening, he was concentrated on his task and job until one morning and as he was getting ready to get to work a Dwarf arrived, he was running, an odd sight to see, and stopped in front of the Crafting Hall, panting. Everyone turned to look at him, at first curiously, never having seen him run, he was always serious and did his work with care, never gave anyone the chance to say anything about him. He bent forward putting his hands on his knees trying to  catch his break and then looked towards the others, some of them were snickering.
-Did you see it? Those lights and the sound.. It was a nightmare...
-What are you talking about Dwarf?
-I am talking about those lights in the night, those lights that came so close to catch me,, those lights that set Buckland on fire and are scaring these lands!
-There are no such lights here! Don't scare folk!
-From what I've seen there are, and they were chasing me, if my pony was slow they would surely get me. Those bloody lights. And cursed in Dwarvish.
The others looked at him and then at each other.
-What do you mean?
-That the rumours are true, something is out there, moving with great speed and chasing Dwarves around...
-Hey! It's Hobbits that it killed!
-Well, tonight it was chasing me! No Hobbits. It was behind me, moving fast... Getting close... Those lights. They'll give you nightmares if you see them. They came from the trees and hunted me here, I was lucky that I crossed the bridge... They stopped behind it and kept looking at me until I entered the Gates.
The Dwarf's words startled the people and now even the bravest started having second thoughts, they knew that a Dwarf wouldn't lie about such a matter and especially this one. Him being afraid now meant something... Something dangerous! Ern became pale and almost dropped his tools as he made his way inside fast and started working to keep his mind off the matter, but not for long... From the Eastern side of the town and beyond the walls came the piercing sound of a whistle, everybody turned towards that direction but they couldn't see anything, it was the building and the wall and then the forest covering whatever it was that made that sound. Those that managed to "track" the sound realised that it was coming from North and went towards the South somewhere beyond the walls. The sound stopped as suddenly as it started but then it was heard again, once, then again and then again, three times and all together, three whistles ascending to the sky and then dying out.
Everyone stood still from horror and looked up but couldn't see anything, their blood ran cold and they couldn't move, nor talk, they just turned their heads up and looked at the morning sky. Ern was frozen, his heart was pounding and this time the tools escaped his hands and fell on the floor. He knew that sound, he heard it once before when he was returning home with Aggy. He became pale and started to get dizzy, despite having his eyes open he saw those eyes coming right at him, and then, everything stopped...