Esvas - Hippodrakon diomedon

"V Iounios, 6,465 (956AD), Théma Makedonías, Romanía 

The corpses—a herd of red deer—had been thoroughly picked clean. It looked of wolves, but we heard no howls. Lions hadn't graced these lands in ages. Bears don't hunt in such numbers. Poachers scarcely take more than two. Scythians leave nothing. The prints on the ground were hooflike in shape, but the toe indentations suggested claws. And then there was the difficulty of the silk. It was vaguely reminiscent of snake silk, but so much more massive. There were great sheets tangled in the brush, translucent and pale, fluttering like palace curtains in the morning wind.

XXI Iounios, 6,465 (956AD), Théma Makedonías, Romanía 

The valley erupted in a crescendo of trumpets and horns, the thrums thundering across the Rhodopes in concentric cycles. Our troop, jolted with equal parts awe and dread, spurred onwards, hoping to catch a glimpse of these silk shedding equine hunters, the very animals locals claimed the great Herakles tamed centuries past."