0.03

Running through the night of the forest, I curse loudly in front of my subordinates.

“Overprotective coward.”

And I can’t help but remember the face he wore as he told me all about his daily adventure. He continued to speak with an obviously forced poker face as he described a diseased child that fell prey to beasts, donning enough scars to cover the night sky with his back.

“Then, have you brought him to the infirmary.”

His face cracked, and I could physically feel the dread - or is it guilt - wrapping around him as his body shook, and he slowly shook his head. Fortunately, he finally left with a battered face, otherwise he would be making the infirmary his new home.

“Spread out and search every stone and crevice.”

Gusts of wind brushed by me as they proceeded with their orders, faithful and silent in their tasks. I raised my chin and focused my hearing on every little sound.

A dying child is the same as a dying generation, especially when the one in question has the blood of beasts within him.

I needed to give him a longer thrashing.

Removing my boots, I walk upon the soft ground and feel the dirt resisting my pressure. I need to calm down, nature doesn’t need to be tamed and it never will be. Stretching my toes and feeling the earth once again, I am delighted to find a feeling of coexistence and no longer one of opposition.

My senses enlighten and I feel pulses all around me, they land upon me and I accept them all with open arms.

Opening my eyes, I start as a beast shrouded in darkness stares into eyes. It, hiding most of its body underneath a tree where only the eyes were clear, but “clear” the beast’s eyes were not. It feels as if I am staring at a hollow shell.

I do not feel this one's pulse at all, even as I am staring at it directly.

Although I do not feel hostility emanating from this beast, I still make the first move and mount it from behind. It falls easily with audible snaps and I straddle it, placing the tip of my dagger near the location of where the eyes were.

It shows no resistance and it ended all far too easily. However, I started to feel a sticky substance covering my right hand. Not easing the pressure on my dagger, I sniff my hand and almost faint.

Vomit, pus, shit, death...what is this creature made of.

Dismissing the sticky substance, I quickly swipe my hand over the body in order to identify it. Sharp, skinny, rough. Is this a baby spider? No, spiders have more than two eyes.

I really don’t know when, but the moonlight had struck the surroundings and increased the brightness slightly. And it was enough for me to make out the creature lying under me. His faint pulse resonating around me, made me regain composure.

A demi-human with a tail like that of a sickle.

I found the child- corpse.