The Dog Days are Over WHO: Hawke & Ken WHEN: Sunday Morning WHERE: Along the tree line WHAT: Cerberus attack. RATING/WARNINGS: Hawke likes to swear, violence and blood. STATUS: In-Progress
It was a sure sign that something was deeper in the woods because Hawke couldn't hear any birds. He stood a few feet back from the tree line with his armor gleaming brightly in the early morning sun and his staff slung across his shoulders. Emma hadn't been very specific about what she saw or thought she saw in the trees but Hawke would not take chances. No matter how sad he was about Killian's sudden departure from this world he was not reckless and stupid. He would not risk his life to escape this hollow pain in his chest. He was old enough and wise enough to be past such dramatics. He even had a few vials of elfroot tea in case he was injured by... something in the woods.
He turned and walked down road with the blade of the staff pointed towards the trees. Hawke had only moved a few feet before he stopped and listened. From the woods came a baying, a haunting sound that sent a chill down his spine even though he had lived around dogs his entire life. It was not wolves as those had longer, deeper howls. This was the sound of hunting dogs. Hawke knew that song very, very well.
In another place or another time he might get excited. Dogs were wonderful, amazing creatures but in this world he only knew of one dog worth knowing and he doubted that tiny little pup could make that noise. This had to be some sort of monster of this Marker forsaken place. A pack of monsters judging by the different modulations he heard in the baying.
Hawke had the good sense to be a little nervous. A pack of mabari hounds were a formidable enemy. The warhounds were trained to drag fully armored knights off their horses and after killing the knights kill the horses. He was not going to underestimate the killing power of dogs. He turned towards the woods and spun his staff around with the gem facing forward. He could create a wall of fire if need be.
The first dog slunk from the woods and Hawke smelled it before he ever truly saw it. It was a nasty beast, undead and rotting. Were it alive it would be a nice dog, sleek and obviously built for hunting. It snarled at Hawke and then began to split down the middle of its face. Now, Hawke had seen a lot of weird stuff in his life and faced a lot of horrors but this threw him off his step for a moment. The dog literally split in two to howl at him. The beast was nothing but a mouth full of fangs and some sort of tongue thing in the middle.
"Who's a good puppy?" Hawke managed after a stunned moment.
That was when a dog came from the left. Years of fighting and fast reflexes allowed Hawke to respond with a blast of pure force magic that threw the ugly beast back before it's jaws could close on his unprotected left arm. Adrenaline kicked in and Hawke began to fight as a pack of five monster dogs came from the woods to kill.