Just seconds after the lady of the forest disappeared the ground spit out a perfectly healthy goat right in front of him.

There was no hesitation in Freyan’s moves. He lunched at the unsuspecting animal so fast it couldn’t even make a sound. There was nothing on this world what mattered to him in these moments just the blood he could drink right now. And when he was done with the critter the scene left behind was unseemly. Even if he didn’t eat the meat from it, he left the animal scattered across the ground in pieces trying to squeeze out the last drops of blood.

As he came to his senses he was left with nothing but shame and not a trace of satisfaction. He tried to bury the remains as well as he could. Still he was left agitated. He looked around the garden after he finished. He was hoping to find something to clean him self up, but as it turned out his movements were limited to a fraction of what he could see around him. Every direction he tried he bumped into a barrier. Soon he gave up, and chose a spot where he could wait for the dawn. He put so much effort not to think about it, but time to time he caught himself staring the mound what hid the remains of the poor animal.

He woke up in the morning to the ground beneath him literally tossing him out of the witch’s territory. He never even noticed when did he fell asleep. He looked moodily toward the house and put his hand on the barrier near him. It was there for sure keeping him and everything else out. There was nothing he could do. There was no way to say thank you, apologise or to do anything like that. He had to accept it and the fact there was the forest waiting for him.

Days and days went by again with wandering in the forest. This time however Freyan tried to stay on the less dangerous parts. He was trying to figure it out where it is relatively safe to go, so he could focus on practicing his magical abilities. Although time to time his legs took him back to the mysterious house as he moved about. There was no helping it; he wanted to talk again with that wondrous woman who reside in it. Still he never saw a sign of her and the barrier always stayed in its place.

One night his legs took him on a longer distance, farther than his usual area. Light shining through the woods caught his attention again. Lights, to be more specific. These ones though emitted a colder tone. Its periodic flickering made it obvious that is not natural. Freyan would say ‘it could be also man made’, but who knows what kind of creatures roam around here. They don’t have to be humans to be sentient. He was the first example of it… Sadly.

As he arrived to the source of the lights, he looked around. There where numerous enchanted sticks planted in the ground all emitting the same pulsing blueish light. The lights were not placed out without reason. They followed a road made only by all that tread upon it. There was an uneasy feeling in Freyan’s chest as he examined the light-sources. Yet he was more curious in the end and decided to follow the cart-road.

He stayed alert all time walking the road. He was sure of it as time went by, that wraiths lurk outside the lights of the road. And he heard other noises sometimes. Maybe there were more monsters strolling about. But what ever they were they didn’t come closer either. Who knows how long it was before he got even a passing company.

He heard the creature approaching long before turning around to look for it. He stood ready. Maybe it would’ve been better to hide, but he didn’t wanted to step out of the light’s reach. The thing was coming with heavy footsteps.

It was slightly bigger than a horse. Its head looked like a combination of a canine and a lizard. And it’s massive body was covered in shiny moss coloured scales. What was most surprising, there was a person riding on its back. Freyan didn’t noticed him until they got closer. The person was wearing a long hooded coat. As they passed near Freyan the rider shouted at him something but he couldn’t understand a thing.

Curiosity made him quicken his pace without noticing. He could’ve ran, ran by his full speed, for some reason he didn’t in the end. So it took an hour or so after it to reach where the road was leading.

As he approached the blueish light began to widen. Then he could see it mixing with an other red light. The two protective enchantments outlined a small town like settlement. As far as Freyan could tell from the border of it the town consisted tawny small makeshift houses. Many of them had flat roof or an even poorly designed second store. Lanterns and colourful cloths decorated the main street.

Even in the middle of the night, the main street was crowded with merchants and a bunch of uncommon folk. The first one that caught Freyan’s eyes was a man wearing a head of a dear as a helmet… or was he? There were vivid beads hanging on the antlers. He wore green cloth robe with a brown shroud around it. What made Freyan think again, was the bald lady with orange toned skin walking by that person. She had snake like eyes. As he studied the crowd he could barely see a few people with normal humane features. If a phaladrian woman is a simplest sight in crowd like this, maybe the other creature did had a real head of a dear.

It was so surreal. For weeks he roamed around these woods and barely met anyone; the Lady of the Forest only. He started to befriend the idea of walking around alone lost. But in this moment he noticed, how unusual was it for him to be totally alone. All his life he knew nothing better than the liveliness of towns.

He hesitated. He longed to look around, to be one of the busy crowd again. But he was afraid. The wild woman’s words came to his mind that he might hurt somebody. As he watched from distance, he noticed a big ogre like figure, almost twice his side push aside a meager man, he had second thoughts. As the big ones growled at the fragile, bone white skinned thing, the tides have turned quickly. He, or it, looked one of the most humane like creatures, even with his bald head and black beady eyes. Then to answer the aggression, he opened his mouth and shrieked at the colossus. His mouth was so huge, even his opponent’s head would fit in it. He had small, pointy teeth also in the colour of black. And the sound! It was so loud, so horrible, if not hideous. Freyan felt pure dread running down his spine, and was awfully sure of it the whole town have heard it too.

After this… nothing happened. The muscly giant seamed to retreat. The pale figure crossed his hands before his chest. Then with his second pair of hand, which was behind him until now, put his fingers together, mimicking a gesture of thinking attitude. In the end both of them just walked away, as if it was nothing.

“All monsters… All of them. We are all monsters!” thought Freyan. And somehow this cheered him up a little bit this time. What was there to fear among a city of monsters?