He woke up, in a small clearing in the forest. Well it wasn’t that forest they camped, but that realization hit him only later. Even if he was in one piece he could still feel the pain all over his body. He felt nauseatic, sore, weak, and the thirst… thirst was unbearable.

Light shone on the forest, but it was dim. At least that didn’t hurt his eyes. He was alone, but such thoughts didn’t bothered him. Yet he moved without a clear reason at first.

He eventually started to run, not knowing why. All seemed to make sense for him, when he caught sight of a deer. Given a moment to think he could’ve swore, he heard the heart beat of the animal. But such things like thoughts eluded his mind now. He hurried his steps. Only one thing dominated his mind: the hunt. It was just a few seconds from there that he laid hand on the creature, even if it fought back almost freeing itself once. He subdued the deer soon enough squeezing it to the ground. He bit one of its main arteries gulping on its warm blood even after it didn’t move a bit.

And then that moment came; the moment of clarity. He could think again. It was like waking up from a bad dream, just to realize it, it wasn’t a dream. He looked on the scene he was in. His hands was covered in blood. That image was enough to make him trembling. He just knelt there in shock. He even think twice before squashing a bug before, now this deer lay before him dead. He killed it in cold blood.

Totally losing the sense of time, he only noticed two things. First a darker thought nagging him, to wake him up from this state. A thought what said “It had to be done”. It not as if he was vegetarian up until now. He ate meat, it was just the same. He was hungry and that’s all. The second thing was the dim daylight becoming even paler.

He looked around, but still all he could saw was the forest. It was fairly quiet. But strangely in the end, it was the cause for him to stand up. Staying here and doing nothing meant that nothing will change. He will know nothing better, what happened, where is he, how can he go home, or is there still any chance to find Sisy.

Still without knowing where he was and where to go, he chose a direction random. As he put one of his foot in front of the other he felt empty inside. He could recall every moment of him chasing the deer, but not a single though. It was all but instinct, a swirling bundle of notions he didn’t have before. Without noticing he started to count his teeth with his tongue, again and again. It took long minutes for him to come to terms with the carnivorous fangs that took the place of his humane ones.

There was no denying, he turned into some kind of monster the night before. And he was probably more further in the forest. Whoever attacked them last night didn’t left him near the Weeping Driad.

Minutes went by fast, growing to hours, and the night came without mercy. Freyan didn’t mind it first. He didn’t had the faintest’ where he was going even before, above that he was walking in a straight direction. And he didn’t notice first that the darkness didn’t even impaired his vision. It was different than seeing by light. He could tell if it was dark or not, but he could see the shapes and even the colours. His vision was crystal clear, maybe even more than by the dim daylight.

The first thing what made him care for reality again were the moving shadows following him. First he thought they were the same attackers from last night. But it didn’t matter if they weren’t. He shot out like a stone from a slingshot. What he couldn’t comprehend in that moment, that it was too late. The shadows already surrounded him. He ran through one of the wraiths, and the pain caused by that was horrible. His skin froze in an instant, cracking up, it would have started bleeding, if his blood didn’t froze near the surface too. His uncontrolled scream echoed back to his ears. And as he could take a few more steps, the wraith turned to him, and slashed his back with its sword like claws. The pain made him collapse. Seeing their prey vulnerable, the wraiths descended upon him. Freezing solid, Freyan couldn't even scream again, as breath couldn’t leave his lungs, and his first tear froze to his cheek.

In these last moments there was that dark instinct again. The one that would do anything to survive. The one that would make him roar, if it was possible. Instead an otherworldly hiss left his mouth, as a pulse of dark energy burst out of his body, pushing the wraiths back. He stood up, with uncertain legs. He slashed back towards the wraiths with his claws just appearing in place of his nails. It didn’t matter they looked like toothpicks compered to the drifting shadows’.

His lungs started to thaw in seconds, and he groaned like a wild dog at them. But in fact it was the dark aura surrounding him made by the same energy as the first pulse, that kept the attackers just out of arms length. He tried to attack the closest one, but it just swayed away.

Realizing what he is doing he stepped back one, then two… after that he started to run. And the wraiths followed. Until the trees started to loosen. Sickly light of a shattered moon shone through the gaps.

The light filled the clearing he arrived at. Surprised by the scenery Freyan stopped. A moment after that he wanted to run again, but the wraiths were nowhere to be seen. This fact made him a bit at ease, and his protective aura faded away as quick as it came.

Having a moment to think, once more he looked upon the breath taking sight surrounding him. The image of the great shattered moon above mesmerized him. There was no doubt anymore he wasn’t in the Northern Forests. But the question “Where was he?” remained unanswered.

He walked to the lake nearby. Starting to wash his face, he got startled by his own reflection on the water. Even if most of the frozen wounds miraculously closed up, he looked grim. His long blonde hair was stick together in curls by blood. Was it his or the deer’s he hunted for lunch? Probably both. The drying blood also covered his face. His faint blue eyes gleamed up vaguely because of the moonlight when he tried to check his teeth in the reflection. Managing to scare himself he jumped back tripping in his own leg.

“I am a monster...” he whispered into the coming breeze. He felt broken as the realization of the night before tried to invade his mind again.

He was so preoccupied with the rush of feelings, it made him unaware of his surroundings. Ripples appeared on the surface of the lake. Moments later a huge snake like creature emerged from it.

Surprise pinned Freyan to the ground. Even his new found speed couldn’t help him. By the time, he tried to move the snake got him by the leg. The creature lifted him in to the air, then as it dragged him to the dept of the water and his scream went silent.

The pain was insufferable. The pain from flesh-piercing needle like teeth, made the cold water filling his lungs almost bearable. As he struggled he made a discovery almost swept irrelevant by his hardship: he didn’t need to breathe. Still lungs filled with water wasn’t a pleasant feeling.

The water-serpent changed direction in an instant, putting so much strain on his leg, it was almost a miracle it didn’t tore apart. In fact, probably that was its aim; twisting its prey back and forth until it was torn in pieces.

Would have been Freyan still human, he would be probably in shock right now. Not to mention suffocating. This night would’ve been too much already, without this creature trying to eat him. He pulled on his strength, trying to face the creature, then he trusted his appearing claws in to its face. Again and again. The scales seemed to be hard, but the relatively thin claws found their way in between them.

The creature released him just for a couple seconds, but all these moments were what Freyan needed. He started to swim up. It felt as he won, but he couldn’t believe totally. He looked back, just to see the snake-fish launching at him again. He turned his body to avoid the attack. He didn’t succeed, but at least he avoided an even greater danger. The creature only got his foot this time. He faced the serpent again, clawing at his head. Which almost failed. But it didn’t matter at the end. He got his grip on his enemy, then poked its eye out.

The water was already starting to get tainted with blood, now it turned crimson. But it was enough to make the snake-monster back away, and Freyan could swim to the surface.

Reaching the bank he tried to run, but he couldn’t even stand up. His leg was pretty much mangled. Even in this state he managed to crawl to the edge of the forest where he could feel at least a bit safe. Collapsing on the ground he struggled hard compose his thoughts to simple words.

“What’s… wrong with this place?” he thought as he coughed up the last bits of water. “What… Why… Why me? And where… ?”

He couldn’t keep his eyes open, it made the pain even worse. As dawn came, he wasn’t able to stay awake, the darkness of dreams came for him.