[Eönwë]

The village clamoured around.

The Day had started with the entire village wondering whether or not they should perform vigilante justice on Nogrod, the same way they had with Legate the day before, leading to the death of another innocent.

Today the conclusion was that it was probably a wolf trick and that Nogrod should be kept alive another day. Soon the talk turned to other village-people.

The fool spent many hours reciting forgotten words of the villagers in the past few days, and people were amazed by his surprising intellect and conclusion-drawing. "How about Inziladun?" he said, and cast his vote to kill thusly.

Nerwen tried to sing to the wolves instead, but lost inspiration. She soon also voted for Inziladun.

Few voted that day, and it was decided that it should be Inziladun that would die that day.

They led him out of the village, and found a tree stump. He would be beheaded with a sword. They sent Nilpaurion the Fool back to the village to get a sword for the proceedings, while the village assembled.

Nilp had looked, but all he could find was an old, slightly rusty sword. Nerwen took it from the fool's hands and brandished it fiercely. She went towards the stump, on which Inziladun's head was resting.

She raised it up, and then swung it down upon his exposed neck. But a transformation was beginning. Dark grey fur rippled across his back, and the blunt sword glanced off his tough hide, leaving only a small mark where it had cut through the skin.

He stood up, reaching full his full height, which was increasing. The fur rippled across his body, until only his face remained. And then that changed too, with his nose elongating into a snout and his mouth moulding into it. And his eyes did not turn into the eyes of a normal wolf, but into the eyes of one bred by Melkor himself in the darkness of the Days of Old.

He now stood at full height, that of a Númenorean in their days of glory. His dark fur shone in the light of the failing sun, and the colours were shifting in the sky and upon the land.

Nerwen stepped forwards, unafraid, armed with her blade, and rushed forwards. She swung it, leaving a large gash in the arm of the Werewolf, but the sword was wrested from her grasp. The wolf crumbled the blade in his powerful hands.

He went down onto all fours, assuming a more wolf-like shape in the blink of an eye, attempting to escape the circle of his foes. But as he brushed past Nilpaurion, the fool pulled out one of the daggers he used for juggling, and plunged it deep into the neck of the wolf. The wolf stood up in the more mannish form of before, and howled a long and piercing howl, before collapsing at their feet.

And slowly, as they looked, his body melted back into that of Inziladun, once a noble villager, who was forced into evil by the bite of the Great Wolf, just as the other three had been. He still had the knife stuck in the back of his neck.

Nilpaurion stepped back, shocked at what he had done.

The villagers burned the body of Inziladun, hoping that the fire would cleanse his body of the evil, and that his fëa would be able to leave the circles of the world, honourable once again.

They returned to the village square, wondering who they would guard for the night. The villagers narrowed it down to three people- Shasta, Nerwen and Pitchwife. The people each favoured their own choice, and would not give in.

So Eönwë took the traditionial six sticks. They were rectangular with two faces, one of white and one of black. A one or a two would Guard Shasta, a three or four Nerwen, and a five or six Pitchwife. Five sticks landed face up. Pitchwife would be the one to be guarded tonight.

The Night Guards went to take their place and Eönwë bid the village a good night. He left the village square last, looking at the stars that seemed to shine brighter than ever before.

So there is still hope after all for this village he thought to himself.



Living:
A Little Green- the village butcher
alonariel- the village blacksmith
Boromir88- the village pig farmer
Brinniel- the village witch
Hakon- the village innkeeper
McCaber- chief (only) miner, head of miners' guild
Nerwen- a wandering minstrel
Nessa Telrunya- the village seamstress
Nienna- the village potter
Nilpaurion Felagund- the village fool
Nogrod- the retired bourgeois
Pitchwife- the village mason
satansaloser2005- The village librarian (Mistress of the books)
Shastanis Althreduin- the village apothecary
wilwarin538- the village barmaid

The Dead
Kitanna- the village hermit - Seer
Mnemosyne- the village coquette - Innocent
Legate of Amon Lanc- the village broker - Innocent
Thinlómien- the village chief gardener - Innocent
Inziladun- the village brewer - Wolf

Night 4 has begun. People of the Night, do your stuff.