The setting sun

You descend into the valley quickly enough but the snow deepens and alternates irritatingly between slippery ice and slushy goop. You get a depressing amount of water in your boots but you aren't cold anymore, the slogging through thigh-deep snow is giving you quite a workout. The foxes frequently have to stop and wait for you to catch up and you do your best to pick up the pace but it's exhausting. By the time you reach the tree line the sun has set below the peaks to the West, dousing the valley in a bitter cold you wouldn't have expected to come on so strongly. Fortunately the ground hardens enough that you only break through the surface ice every fourth step or so and you start making decent time.

The woods are still. Almost unnaturally so. The villagers need to hunt in these areas, so there must be game in the valley but you see not a sign of life that wasn't a tree. Amber looks unsettled as well and keeps close to Vila, whose face is set grimly. As the light on the peaks fades you hear something. It's loud but far off, like the scream of an elk only higher and weirdly modulated. It makes your skin crawl and your eyes tear, you find yourself frozen in animalistic fear for a moment, "Run." Vila sounds just as alarmed as you are and all three of you take off at a dead sprint through the woods, the kitsune rapidly outpacing you. Since you were already armored you find yourself wishing you'd gone the extra mile and brought a helmet, or some kind of neck guard. Sure, there were plenty of things that could rend armor like paper but it would have set your mind more at ease. The cry sounds again, closer but from no particular direction.

In the distance you can see the lights of the village and the open space between the buildings and the trees. You realize with dread that the villagers had cleared out the area so they could see whatever was coming. You ran down the list of things that could be out here and it becomes increasingly more unsettling. You give up when the list starts including things that could kill you with a just a look and focus on breathing, the freezing air stabbing your lungs.

The cry calls a third time. It's close. Practically on top of you. Amber and Vila break through the trees, sprinting over open ground. You're a long way behind them. Damn.