Winter

Everything was well in the world for President Boris Menshikov. The opposition Svoboda Deatelnosty party was in disarray and Svoboda Misly was firmly on-side. The economy was booming and they had just passed a substantial Tax Cut. And then he saw the Paper.

"MikroInfo Under Investigation: Software Giant Monopolist?" it said in bold letters across the top of the page. Boris frowned, grabbed the Paper from the table, and stormed into the Presidential Office. He waved it and bellowed, "What is this! Some kind of joke?"

"No Mr President," replied his secretary, cringing, "Chairman Rumyantzev announced he couldn't ignore them any longer, and is investigating them for antitrust." Boris frowned again and seized the phone, dialing the number for Rumyantzev's office. "Vasili? What is the meaning of this!? What do you mean your legal obligation, your obligation is to serve the President! This is Zemnaya Svoboda? I am Zemnaya Svoboda!!"

A few days after President Menshikov's phone call, several different reports started to flood into the office. The first set of reports were of "tears in the fabric of reality," as many seemed to describe the phenomena. Many people saw small areas bordered by a rainbow and within were strange places of dead forests, tall ice buildings, sometimes even Heaven and Hell, again as some described. These reports came from all over Zemnaya Svoboda, over a span of days. The first one came in the day of Menshikov's phone call.

The second set of reports were of mass power outages all over the nation. Many reported it as being a creeping darkness that blocked out even sunlight from the windows. Flashlights could not break through this darkness.

The next set of reports were of missing persons. Some people even said that they saw strange creatures carrying off the missing people. There might be some sort of connection between the missing persons.

The final set of reports were the rarest only because barely anyone could believe their own eyes. They were of the creatures, the ones carrying on the missing people. "Trolls, faeries, and goblins!" they would say.

What is going on?!

Corporal Ivanov was not a religious man. He was a sensible fellow, who read a sensible paper at a sensible hour and kept a sensible level of discipline at the Novaya Zemlya Tertiary Air Force Base. When, however, he saw a... creature... break through the window of his family's suite, grab Antosha, and jump out again, he crossed himself. Twice. While screaming at the top of his lungs, "Demons!!" and running to the window.

Sergeant Petrov, rushing to his comrade's call, saw the smashed window and followed Ivanov to it. "What's the matter," he asked. "Some.. ???????*.. just took my son!!" Ivanov responded emphatically. The sergeant looked through the window to see tracks in the snow of a kind he had never seen before. "Let's go," he instructed Ivanov while climbing through and activating his walkie-talky. "Leaving base to investigate a kidnapping by creature unknown," he signaled as Ivanov followed.

Anton Ivanov appeared to be putting up quite a fight, as the could hear yelps and screams coming from the darkness ahead. They trudged through the snow steadily, pistols at the ready. Climbing over a snowdrift, they sighted the thing...

[size0]* Lit. Unclean thing: catch-all term for malevolent spirits, devils, and other undesirable supernatural beings.[/size]

Sensibility...reason...logic...sanity... These did not exist anymore. The things that were happening in this nation...people couldn't place any semblance of sensibility on them.

When Ivanov and Petrov crested the hill, they spotted what was the rear guard of a party of creatures...hobs. The creature was short, only a little bigger than a toddler, and its eyes were milky white. Other than its hunch and its brown barky skin, the hob appeared fairly normal: two eyes, one mouth, one nose, two ears, one head, two arms and two legs. The darkness of the evening was enough to provide them with a comfortable environment. Too much light, and they can't function.

Looking ahead, Ivanov and Petrov could see the rest of the party: a group of 7 hobs, including the rear guard they had spotted. One, in the center of the party, was carrying the son of Ivanov on his back. They could see him thrashing around against his captor, but the hob only grunted and screeched back at him in frustration. Looking around, they could see that all of the hobs were armed with primitive stone age weapons: spears and axes.

The rear guard turned as the two soldiers rose up over the hill and spotted the pursuers. It let out a high-pitch, ear-splitting screech as a warning to the main party. The hob turned and ran for the main party. The main party had stopped and waited for the straggling hob, and when it arrived, 6 of the hobs charged the pair, axes and spears waving and flailing.