[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Marsilion moved carefully through the wood, his long legs carried him quickly between the grey trunks of the trees. He lifted his face and smelled. The smell was getting stronger. He knew what it was, he'd been finding the carcasses for three days now. Deer, rabbits, birds... he thought this one must be a larger animal, he'd been following the smell for almost a day. It was midafternoon and the flies were buzzing around the man's head as he walked, but he didn't spare them a thought. He turned his dagger in his hands, eyes searching the ground for signs of the passing of an animal. Bending down he caught tracks of a deer. Quickening his steps he hurried farther into the woods.

The doe was lying on its side in a clearing. Marsilion approached it quietly, the smell hanging in the air like smoke, he could hear breath rattling in and out of its lungs. The ranger knelt beside the animal's head. Her brown eyes were wide with fright, but she could barely move. Marsilion pushed a loose strand of his dark hair back while debating what to do, whether to ease her troubled passing, but as he pondered the deer grew still. The man sighed, placing the blade of his dagger under its throat, looking for the telltale sores. Sure enough the area was covered with the open blisters. Marsilion wiped his dagger on the grass and stood up.

The first time he'd seen this disease was three days ago. A hobbit child from Combe had gone missing and Marsilion was among those who searched. They found the girl, she'd wandered into a neighbor's fields and had been unable to find her way home. Marsilion had been searching alone when the girl was found, he'd found something else. A young rabbit lying facedown in a bed of rotting cabbages. A peculiar smell surrounded the place, a smell that made Marsilion's nose twitch. That had been the first, but he'd found others since then... Many others.

The ranger thought as he walked back toward the village. He hadn't been far from Archet that day, but it was to Bree he was headed now. He'd left his horse in the stables at the Prancing Pony, and he was ready for a bed and a hot meal. A chance to wash the stink of rotten animals, rotten vegetables from his hands would hardly be unwelcome either.

Marsilion reached Bree just as the sun was setting. He was well known to the people of the town, as he passed through once a month or so, and the gatekeeper recognized him on sight and waved him through. "Came through right in time, sir, 'bout to close up for the evening." He called.

Marsilion nodded and called back, "Thank you friend, I'm bound for the Pony tonight!"