The Hunter in the Mists

The legend of the hunter in the mists is fresh blood to an old tale. It
was nigh fifty years past that our tale begins. Wheaton, a small farming
community in the country of Mordent, near the bend of the South Road on
the Arden across from the Lightless Wood, is from where tis said the hunter
hailed; the youngest son of the hamlets mayor. He grew up in opulence; his
father fancied himself the local aristocrat, with wealth left to him by a
forgotten uncle. This, in fact, was what put our would-be hero on his path to
legend.
One day in the height of summer, the mayor received an invitation to a
grand party in Mordentshire. The whole of the family was invited to meet
Lord Weathermay himself. The trouble was two-fold, the messenger arriving
not only late in the day, but he had been sent out nearly a week past, the
mists delaying his arrival. Moreover, the party was to be the following eve;
the only way for the family to attend was to travel as the moon rose. In
haste, the mayor gathered his wife and children into the carriage, he ordered
his servants to make ready. After the family was seated and their luggage
loaded, they set out just as the last rays of the sun sank over the horizon.
The household never heard more of the mayor and his family, other
than they had never arrived in Mordentshire.
~~~
The trip to Mordentshire from Wheaton, is normally a gentle ride of a
day or so, leaving in the morning to arrive just before the moon fell over the
lands. Knowing this trek to be a dangerous one, the mayor ordered his driver
to double the normal pace, so as to lessen the time traveled out -of-doors in
the night. His man agreed readily with the time schedule and set the horses
to the whip. The pace was hard on both the horses and the carriage; with
the roads in ill repair, the chances were high that an ill fate would befall
them.
Tis said the carriage hit a dip in the road and over-turned, the yoke
broken and the driver crushed by the carriage. The mayor and his family
have never been found, though the lamplighter assigned claimed fell beasts
of the mists had been responsible, werewolves, if his suspicions were true.
The lamplighter also noted that there was likely one survivor of the incident,
noting that small footprints were found in the dirt running away from the
carriage, only to vanish before too long. It was presumed the mists had
saved the child from his familys fate.