"V-Vance!"
Aurelia shouted, and she was 'answered' quickly.
"KEKEKE!"
"GRRR..."
It was a loud, menacing laughter, coarse and cruel, and along it was a guttural, chittering growl that was unmistakably monstrous.
Dup-! Dup-!
Aurelia froze in her spot. Her heart hammered against her ribs. She clenched the fabric of her simple traveling robes in white-knuckled fists, her earlier resolve crumbling into sheer, cold fear. She couldn't see anything through the frosted window. She could only listen.
The laughter was followed by the sharp ring of steel being drawn - Vance's sword, she was sure of it. A voice, slurred and aggressive, shouted something she couldn't quite make out, but the taunting tone was clear.
"Vance…" she whispered, her prayer a breathless plea in the confined space. She squeezed her eyes shut. 'Please, please let him be safe.'
Outside, the laughter had suddenly stopped, replaced by a sudden, tense silence that was somehow more terrifying than the noise.
