The Fright crows scattered in the noisiest way possible. A hurricane of beaks and feathers accompanied by curses and insults of all kinds filled the echoing lake cave. A single petrified human boy stood in the eye of that hurricane, trembling but not staring at the birds like one would expect. No, the boy's eyes were fixated on the blood red gaze that was currently sizing him up. The owner of that gaze was a strange creature, lower part looked like a goat, with fur stained by mold, plant matter, and blood. The upper part of the creature was something akin to a human child, except the huge bug-like eyes and the lack of a nose. It had long green hair and a pair of goat ears peeking out of the lush mane of hair. Its skin was the color of ash and all in all the short creature looked kind of chubby.

The half-goat cleared its throat and the flock of Bansheep that stood behind it shifted, marble hooves scratching against the floor. The half-goat made a face when the boy wet himself in fear. These goats were nothing like the birds. The birds had just screamed insults and pulled his hair, it had been kind of scary at first but they never did anything worse than that. The goats, however, emitted a silent bloodlust and a crushing pressure just by glaring at him. Every inch of his being screamed at him that these are the apex predators of this place. These creatures could kill him in an instant without batting an eyelid.

One of the Bansheep nudged the half-goat in the side. It responded by pushing its head away gently and muttering some raspy noises. It then turned its head towards the boy and said in a raspy yet oddly feminine voice;

"What a fuss yer making, we haven't even done nothing yet. Go clean yerself of in the lake, ye stink... We ain't here to mash ye up so stop trembling already."

Mikvel just blinked. The goat girl sighed.

"We wanna talk to yer owner so we're keeping ye in one piece for now. Them birds are a bloody pain so chasing them away is just a bonus."

When the boy still didn't move the goat girl grew impatient.

"Shoo shoo, off you go! Go clean that stench off already!"

Mikvel bolted for the lake as the barely 1 meter tall satyr started walking towards him while waving her hands towards the lake. When he had waded far enough into the lake that the water reached his waist the terrible monster goat girl finally stopped chasing him. She just stood there with her hands on her hips and glared.

"Ye humans are pretty damn dumb aren't ya?... Water. Clean. Do I have to get in there and help ye?"

The human quickly lowered himself into the water and let it reach his shoulders. He kept his gaze on the goat girl. She sighed again. This kid was such a dumb little runt... Why would that wolf want this one? Surely there are better humans to choose from, the intruders some days back were much bigger and bolder.

'It's just sitting there?'

'The wolf didn't just sit in the water to get clean. Is this one stupid?'

'This one's not a wolf though. Maybe humans are just dumber than wolves?'

"Shush ye'll scare the kid, ye fools."

Said boy didn't notice the goats talk since they didn't communicate with actual words. He did notice the goat girl talking though.

"W-w-w-what do you w-w-want?"

"... If the water's cold just get up already..."

The boy practically flew out of the lake. The Fright crows whistled from the ceiling.

"We wanna get friendly with the wolf since she's strong enough to not be mere meat mush. She dragged ye into our home and told Maker to not murder ye and Maker agreed on the deal. That wolf's building a weird flock outa rodents and that spider, her wanting a human isn't such a big surprise at this point."

Mikvel just kept on shaking on the dirt floor. The water was freezing. What is this goat girl babbling about even? Goat girl sighed at the human's blank stare. What a pain.

"Look, name's Dessi. I lead the Bansheep flock. Yer owner, miss monster wolf, queen of rats, murder god of glory gore or whatever those rodents call her, is strong. So we don't wan be enemies with her. Yer hers so if we treat ye well then we're doing the wolf a favor see? Favors lead to friendship right?"

Mikvel was kind of getting what she meant. He wasn't getting who the wolf she was talking about was though. She called her Queen of rats just like the crows... Didn't ring any bells. One would think being the son of the mayor of a town mainly made up of bards would lead to him knowing most legends and stories but... yeah, nothing comes to mind at all. Ah, the goat- Dessi, is staring at me again, better say something...

"Uh... M-my name is Mikvel. W-who is this wolf?"

"Erhm. The long one? With the legs? Not ringing a bell?"

Mikvel shook his head. As far as he knew he didn't know any long wolves.

"What was her her name again? Hey guys."

The other goats, (she called them Bansheep?) began shuffling around and bleated.

"Ah yes, Fanv it was. Fanv the queen of rats, Maker's current favorite."

Dessi kept talking but Mikvel didn't hear anything past 'Fanv'. He only knew one Fanv and she died a few weeks ago... Peter shot her down in the forest. She had become a monster and died. Fanv was dead. She couldn't be-

"Hey, are ye even listening to me? How rude! I was-"

A goat nudged her and suddenly the entire cave went silent. Mikvel followed the Bansheep's gaze and then he saw her standing in the cave entrance. A ghostly white version of his childhood friend. Her ghost most likely. She wore a simple dress that was just as white as her skin and hair. Tall slightly curved horns and piercing yellow eyes. Her hair was braided just like the-... spider... standing next to her...

Mikvel stared, dumbfounded at the spider. It had many tiny braids and bits of fur tied up all over its furry body. It looked ridiculous. A strange rabbit sat on its back and it too had small braids (if they could even be called that) all over its body. Many smaller rodents stood all around Fanv and the braided duo. What in the world... Fanv stared suspiciously at the Bansheep as they moved to make a path between her and Mikvel.

"Fa-...nv..."

The ghostly Fanv turned her attention back to her friend and then leaped down the sloping path. Silver hair and silky fabric flowed behind her as she ran. Dignified and beautiful right until the moment she tripped on her own hair and fell right on top of Mikvel. Their heads smashed into each other with a thud and the world blackened for Mikvel.

When he came to he was met by the image of Fanv screeching and complaining about her hair. The hare nodded sagely and the spider was braiding her braids into one big braid. A soft hand stroked the side of his head. When he turned his head he noticed he had his head in the lap of another pale woman. He also noticed the snake that was currently inches away from his face. Ah yes, this must be the afterlife. He must have died in the bandit raid or after he got abducted and now he was in the afterlife, watching strange dream-like things happen. He is currently resting his head in death's lap and the creatures here must be fighting over his soul. Yup, that must be it. How long until I can pass out again?

"Mikvel! I'm so sorry I fell on you! I can't believe I did that!"

Ah, Ghost Fanv is apologizing.

"Your voice..."

"My voice?"

"It's... echoing? I hear it in my head!"

"What?"

Ghost Fanv looked confused. The hare made a strange noise and then understanding dawned upon her.

"I'm still using telepathy? Why did no one tell me? How do I turn it off?"

"Telepathy?"

A short pause.

"Yes what Maker said."

"Who's Maker?..."

The woman who was still cradling his head waved at him with a smile.

"Wait so he can't hear you at all? Oh, I see. That makes sense."

"Ye really are dumb aren't ye..."

"Shut up. Why are you even here? And what are you??"

"Hmpf, I'm Dessi and I'm a Dryadess! We're here to make friends with ye."

"Dryad-... dess? Maker that's not how it works. Dryads are females from the starts you can't just-. No, that doesn't make sense at all. Lioness and Baroness are different from how the word dryad works..."

What are they arguing about... Who's even arguing? The only ones speaking are Ghost Fanv and Dessi...

"...Are you really Fanv?"

She paused her argument (It was getting rather heated.) and looked at him.

"Yes. I'm alive and well. Not dead yet haha..."

"...You turned into a monster."

She looked a bit hurt at that.

"I'm not a monster anymore... I learned to control it. Look I'm perfectly human! Same girl, you've always known!"

"...You have horns."

"Minor detail..."

"You look like father winter puked on you. All colors are gone."

"Living in a cave makes you pale."

"..."

"...OK! I might have changed a wee little bit. Just a tiny bit. But it's all just for looks. My mind is the same!"

"Yer such a crappy liar, wolf girl."

"Shut."

"Why do they keep calling you 'wolf girl'?"

"Err, you see... I actually turned into a wolf... But I'm not a werewolf! I'm a Visvarg, a good wolf, no danger at all!"

"Vis- a what?"

"New magical wolf girl. Without past flaws and anger issues! A Visvarg everyone!"

"... Really now..."

I FIGURE IT OUT!

Everyone jumped with a screech.

Ops that got pretty loud... Turns out giving myself telepathy is way harder than giving you others telepathy. Anyways, now our human guest should be able to hear me! I will link you others up as well. Just see it as me forwarding your words to the human, you will not even notice the time gap!

'Hooray for our great genius Maker!!!'

"What in the world..."

"Oh, I guess you can hear the rodents now. Don't mind most the things they say, they are all insane."

'I am hurt by your words, Great one.'

"Except Pohc, he's alright."

'I have successfully made another dress!'

Round of applause everyone! My least liked creature has moved up to 'almost least liked' because of his usefulness!

"You are such a bully."