The forest was quiet and peaceful. The tall trees blocked much of the summer heat, and the path was well trodden and flat, save the occasional branch or small stream running through it. Ellie had lots of time to think during her walk.

But no matter how long or how hard she thought, she couldn’t remember what had happened to her. Eventually, she gave up on trying to remember and instead started to theorize. Perhaps she had fallen into an unexpected river and it had washed her down here. When she finally managed to swim out, she tripped and hit her head on a rock.

This theory was plausible enough, but Ellie was able to pick it apart quickly. If she had been in a river, she would’ve been wet when she hit her head. She doubted even the summer heat would’ve been able to completely dry her clothes. She had a feeling that Marie would’ve been competent enough to change her out of wet clothes to keep her from getting sick, and if not her, the doctor certainly would’ve been. Thus, she reasoned, since I was still in my old clothes when I woke up, a river had nothing to do with it.

She felt rather clever until she realized she was back to square one. So she theorized some more. ‘Maybe I was kidnapped!’ Yes, perhaps while searching for mushrooms, a single or group of scoundrels had carried her off. Why they would just drop her, she didn’t know. Maybe she had managed to run from them, hit her head, and they either didn’t find her or left her for dead. It was an unpleasant idea, but more logical than the river.

In either case, Ellie knew that she had to get home as soon as possible. If it would take a week and a half to get back, that must mean it took at least a week and a half to get here. That plus the three days she was unconscious meant that about two weeks. Her parents must be panicking by now! By now a search party must be combing the forest! Ellie started to walk a little faster at that thought, nervous about what she would find when she got home.

She was sure her parents would be relieved. But that would only last so long until they were angry. Where did you go, why did you go?! Do you want to put me in an early grave?! The answers to those questions were ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, and of course not!’ But she doubted her parents would buy that she had bumped her head and forgotten her little week or so long trip. They would be furious at her for lying, even though she really had no earthly idea how she got there.

Ellie sighed and slowed her pace a bit. There’s no point in rushing too fast. You’ll wear yourself out and it won’t do any good for alleviating the anger that was coming.

And so Ellie brooded and chewed over the problem like that until the sun was high over her head. She realized that she had been walking until noon. Her legs were aching and her throat was dry, so she backtracked to a little stream she had passed a few minutes ago. The water was clear enough, and since she wouldn’t reach town until tomorrow, this was the cleanest water she could get. She drank out of her cupped hands and after she’d had enough she on the dirt at the edge of the path. She pulled a loaf of bread from the basket and broke it in half. This would have to last until tomorrow, at least, so she wanted to ration it.

Just as Ellie had finished up the half loaf and started on a hunk of cheese, she heard a great deal of snapping and crackling from across the road. She put the cheese back and stood, alarmed as the noise was getting closer. She heard a lot of shouting and…roaring?

The brush and bushes were trampled as a grizzly charged through them, great fangs barred and foaming at the mouth. Ellie shrieked and threw herself aside before the bear trampled her. She landed hard on her side, scraping her arm on the rocks. The bear was now facing her, but instead of attacking her, it was rearing up on its hind legs, growling and snarling and foaming at the mouth. It was wrangling as though trying to buck something off of it.

And then it fell to the ground dead.

Ellie was stunned for a moment. The bear looked like it had had quite a rough time. It was covered in scratches and gouges, and it looked as though something had knocked its teeth out. And then that something crawled out from under the bear.

It was a young man. He stood with his back to Ellie, facing the bear. “There we go. Was that so hard?” The bear didn’t respond.

The man stooped by the bear’s head, pried open its muzzle, and started, to Ellie’s horror, to yank out the rest of the bear’s teeth. As much as this shocked her, she was immediately distracted by a black flash across her vision. It took her a minute to figure out what she was seeing. And when she did, it took all of her power not to gasp.

Swishing about behind the man was a tail. It was long and whip-like, and ended in a tuft, a bit like a cow’s tail. But this tail was about as long as the man was tall, fully five-foot-ten inches, and the tuft was thick and fluffy looking. It wagged leisurely near her, the plume trailing a bit on the ground.

Ellie tried to carefully back away from him before the tail brushed up against her. SNAP! She glanced down to see that her hand had snapped a twig.

The man was on his feet and had whirled around to face her before she could look back at him.

He was a lean man, with black hair that stuck up in an odd way and large, completely black eyes that stood out starkly from his pure white skin. He stared at her for a moment with those black eyes, his hand full of the bear’s teeth.

“Oh…umm…hello.”

Ellie could only stare back at him.

He hesitated for a moment before shoving the teeth in the bag that hung from his shoulder. “Are you okay?” Ellie realized that he was about to try to help her up, so she scrambled to her feet.

“Yes! I’m quite alright!”

He backed off at her hostility, “Ah, good. So…what are you doing out here?”

It was then that Ellie noticed that his hands were covered in blood. She couldn’t see any sheath or other weapons on him. ‘Did he kill that grizzly with his bare hands?’Ellie was horrified at the thought and took a step away from him.

“I’m…on my way to Flatrend. Who are you?”

He seemed to have noticed Ellie’s gaze. He pulled a rag from the bag and started wiping his hands off on it. The rag was a dark crimson. Ellie was willing to bet it used to be a different color.

“I’m Chevias. Sorry about the bear. That must’ve been scary.”

“Why’d you do that to it anyway?”

He looked back at the hulking corpse, “To put it simply, it’s my job to collect things people want. I don’t know why, but someone wanted bear teeth. Unfortunately, bears don’t like having their teeth ripped out.”

He sighed, “It’s a shame. I tried to give it a sedative, but it didn’t take fast enough. It started rampaging for the road, so I decided to kill it in case there was someone was on the road that could’ve gotten hurt.” He looked back down at Ellie, “Though I didn’t actually expect someone to be here. Where are your parents? It’s dangerous for kids to be walking alone out here.”  

Ellie hesitated for a moment. ‘Well,’ she pondered, ‘if he wanted to hurt me, he probably would’ve done it already. Someone who can kill a bear with no weapons probably isn’t too worried about potential witnesses.’

“I…found myself far from home, and I’m on my way back.”

“Wait, you live in Flatrend?” His onyx eyes flicked up to the bandages still wrapped around her head and left leg.

Perhaps he sensed that the situation was something Ellie wouldn’t be comfortable disclosing to a stranger, so he abruptly changed the subject. “Anyways, if you’re going to Flatrend, you need to get to Tyman first. And you won’t be able to get there today. Are you prepared to camp?”

He clearly already knew the answer. Marie hadn’t given Ellie anymore than two days worth of food, not even a box of matches. Ellie quietly shook her head.

“Well, you can come with me if you want. I’m heading toward Flatrend anyway, and it’d be safer for you to be with someone else.” He said, seeing the look on Ellie’s face that said ‘I wouldn’t trust you as far as I could throw you.’

“Relax. If I wanted to hurt you, I’dve done it. Beside, we’re going the same way anyway.” This was a fair point. So Ellie thought about a moment more before nodding.

“Ok, great! Let’s get moving. I know a great camping spot for tonight, and if we hurry we can make it there.”

Before he started off, he looked at the bear’s body. “Ah, shouldn’t leave this laying the road.”

He bent down, grabbed the corpse by the fur, and dragged it off into the woods. Ellie stared open mouthed. Perhaps making a traveling companion out what could only be described as a monster was a bad idea after all.

But before she could consider hiding behind a tree and waiting for him to go ahead without her, he returned and smiled at her. For the first time, Ellie noticed that his teeth were sharp and triangular, like the maw of a shark.

“Well, let’s go…right, what’s your name?”

She swallowed, her throat a little dry, “Ellie. I’m Ellie Wormwood.”

“Right, let’s go Ellie.”

And so Ellie followed Chevias down the path, hopefully towards home.