It was not yet dawn—the light barely peeked out from beneath the heavy darkness—when Anise reached the woods on her white mare.

"Solana, can you please hurry up? Look at the sun, it's almost dawn," the young lady muttered. "We're already running late because a certain someone wanted sugar cubes."

The horse snorted with indignation and she slowed to a pace that a child could outwalk.

"Sometimes, I wonder why I even bothered to bid an entire gold coin for you? You're just proving all the men -- both the nobles and peasants -- in the world right with your attitude, you know that? Do you really want me to also think you're only worth at most a few silvers -- just because you're a girl, and meant for breeding and all that?"

The horse stopped. She turned her head and snapped at the young lady's bangs. Anise jolted her head back and laughed at the horse's expression. The horse flapped her lips, a deep hate in her eyes, before turning back to the road.

The girl hugged the horse's neck and stroked her mane. "Tell you what, old friend, if we get to the clearing quick, I'll end practice early. Then we can spend the way back admiring the winter scenery."

The horse, of course, offered no response. She was much too proud to answer someone she considered inferior to herself. Solana simply kept on going through the large woods.

The young lady smiled wryly, “You sure hold a grudge, don’t you? It has been five years since I bought you. In just a few days, I will turn sixteen—then, I will be of age. Can we please put the past behind us?”

The mare offered no response. She did, however, slow her pace even more than before.

At times, Anise thought her own mare was more fit to be a noble than her: Solana had both the pride and intelligence to survive in that world of nobility. Even after being a noble for some time now, Anise was still often lost in that particular world.

Anise snorted and said, “I was only ten when I first bought you. How was I supposed to know that I wasn't suppose to use your mane as the reins? Stop acting childish and let us have a nice and civilized conversation. After all, the time I can spend with you so leisurely is almost gone. So can you please respond?”

The mare snorted in response and continued to stroll forward at her own pace. Anise smiled with a shake of her head and continued to caress the mare’s mane. The duo continued like so on the snow-burdened path. Even the trees seem to be sculpted from snow.

The wind started to blow. Some of the snow caught on the young woman's long amber hair, complementing her fair complexion. Her cheeks grew red from the wind. Anise pulled her black hood over her head such that only her emerald eyes peeked forth.

What she had on was sparse, but much warmer and practical than her normal dresses: consisting of a cheap black wool tunic, a baldric strapped around the shoulder, leather trousers, and a pair of boots with wolf fur lined the cuffs. The caped-hood and the belt with many pouches around her waist were personal requests.

Anise had the local seamstress make the outfit the year she stopped growing—though she never grew much in the chest area, a fact which she felt quite conflicted.

Often, she found herself ridiculed for her lacking breasts—thus, a great curiosity when the baron's eldest son took interest in her and arranged for marriage. Of course, the baron's heir was rather spoilt—all royals were—and would not wed a woman by only her virtue or name. It was by gift of Anise's youthful beauty which entranced the man-child. Her face made the flowers weep and the stars pale when placed alongside her grace.

The young woman fiddled with her bangs as she thought of the marriage. She sighed deeply. It didn't help that the baron was her estranged uncle.

However, a burst of noise jolted her from her worries. Screams resounded in the distance: eastbound. Solana staggered her gallop. She neighed in annoyance, almost in a nagging way. The screams were youthful in nature and weak in tone. Intertwined, though, was a more primal and disturbed howl. Quickly, the shrill screams calling for help turned into wails and cries. Soon the noise perished and the howling of the wind filled the silence of the woods once more.

“Solana, east,” the young lady shouted. For once, the mare bolted forward, kicking up a white storm behind them. Her body tilted forward, and the two broke through the wind—an unstoppable force, free of all restraints. Hair and snow caught at Anise’s face; she paid no mind. Instead, her smile grew until her happiness exploded into laughter.

Solana simply shook her head with deep irritation in her heart.

However, that levity of the heart vanished the moment the two reached the predicament which produced the ear-splicing screams.

What met the young lady and her mare was a hulking beast. A beast which simply seemed impossible. A special nightmare manifested which defied the gods and nature, man and magic, and even demon worship.

Its head was recklessly balanced on a body much too small for its gigantic head. Though, it was more accurate to describe the abomination’s crown as a cluster of orifices divided into various odd regions. One region was much like the vessels and pumps of a heart with bulging veins; another region constituted entirely of grotesque eyeballs similar to barnacles; and interspread throughout, dividing the other two regions, was a region simply of slits. And each orifice spewed an ooze the color of rotten eggs.

Its body was an amalgamation of various body parts: centipede limbs, long and bent like broken bamboo; enormous piles of flesh cushioned its nether regions; and an abundance of perfectly preserved human heads protruded grossly from a torso made up entirely of tentacles whose suckers were instead eyes which constantly swiveled around the environment.

Situated above the monstrosity, clinging madly to the branches of an aged oak, was a pair of children. The two children were young and had identical faces, though one had a rounder face and long hair which reached her foot.

Anise gazed upon the creature and abruptly pulled Solana’s mane, causing the mare to trot backwards. The children noticed her and screamed desperately.

“I-I will be right there,” she shouted in response. Solana turned to face her rider and grunted. Anise slapped both her cheeks. She breathed in a deep breath and shouted at the abomination.

Every single eye on the beast shot over to her outburst.

Anise grew pale and swallowed down what felt like vomit. She gripped Solana’s reins tightly and took in another deep breath and shouted at the beast again.

The beast screamed back. Immediately, Solana turned around and bolted deep into the woods.

The beast followed, slithering on its limbs and thrusting forward with its tentacles. A constant screech sounded from it as it chased its prey.

“Solana, once we reach a clearing, you must head back and rescue the children,” Anise said quickly. Solana grunted in response. Anise patted Solana’s head and said, “I will be fine. Meet me at the entrance of the forest. If I do not reach you even after the sun has risen to its highest point, go to the nearest village. Don't argue with me.”

Solana grunted once more and said nothing else.

It did not take long to reach the clearing. It was undisturbed and perfect in its white covering of snow. And the clearing was large enough to maneuver about easily.

Anise lept off Solana, tucked in her body, and rolled to the far-end of the clearing. Solana raced further into the thickets of woods. Anise quickly stood up. She unsheathed her rapier from the baldric at her hip and, from a holster on her belt, she pulled out a long dagger. The young warrior took a low crouch at the approaching monster; her dagger pointed outwards with the rapier on the inner sanctum of the body. It was an unusual and unconventional stance. The balance of the weapons was awkward and the girl seem to tip over from the slightest force, especially in such a slippery field.

She breathed heavy. Her heart pounded, slammed, and crushed against her chest. This was her first time facing anything other than a tree. Her hands were also freezing.

“I should have worn my fur gloves,” she mumbled to herself in a slight daze.

The entirety of the beast (which measured from end to end, a length of three men) slithered disjointed into the clearing.

Now that Anise was within a close proximity to the grotesque creature, she was finally able to smell how putrid and utterly rancid the creature truly was. The girl was a fool and covered her nose with her left hand out of instinct, leaving only her rapier to guard her.

The beast howled in joy. Its tentacles quickly surged forward like waves. The dead faces dangled and bobbed merrily with inviting smiles. They were loose, gaping smiles without teeth.

The lady swore and quickly dove to the side. She was not quick enough. Fortunate that she even managed to lessen the weight of the brutal onslaught with her two weapons.

Else, her ribs would not have just cracked. No. It would have been much worse. Each bone in that slender frame of hers would have snapped and pierced through her thin skin from the insides.

Though, it was not as if she came out unharmed. Already she felt a harsh burning at her sides. And her arms felt heavy; she could not feel her hands at all. More arresting was the crushing sensation at her lungs just by breathing.

Her vision grew hazy.

The beast roared in triumph. Pungent ooze overflowed from its heads. The dead faces seem to shake as if barely able to contain their excitement of getting a new “friend”.

Its tentacles launched forward again like a rain of spears.

Anise grunted. She screamed. She forced the pain to leave, and she pushed her body to roll. She narrowly dodged her execution. The beast growled in annoyance.

The young noble tasted blood as it trickled from her lips. She spat. It was a disgusting and irritable metallic taste.

Anise moved into her stance again. She no longer smelled abomination’s terrible stench. Or perhaps she smelled it so deeply that it melded with everything else. The same could be said about her sight and her hearing. It was as if she could not see or hear clearly, or she sensed with such intensity that she could only rely on instinct and nothing more. She mused about these things with a smile, an innocent haze-filled smile.

It was a smile much like the petals of trees in bloom: beautiful and short-lived. Soon, fear and indecision grasped her face.

The beast howled and launched forward on its thousand centipede limbs. Tentacle shot forward. Ooze spewed forth.

The girl stomped the snow-painted floor. She clamped down her teeth. Her emerald eyes reflected the pale drifting light of dawn.

She dashed forward. With an uncertain yawp, she swung her dagger. The blade glanced off the tentacles and caused no harm at all.

The young lady swore, but she pressed forward. The tentacles were already at full momentum and could only continue forth. The beast struck nothing but the snow-layered earth.

Meanwhile, the girl entered its range. Anise bit down on her tongue to keep her blade hand steady. She closed her eyes and screamed.

The beast howled and scrambled back on its thousands of limbs.

It was not quick enough.

With a simple thrust of her rapier, Anise pierced one of the beast’s prized-heads. The blade sank into flesh easily, as if there was no flesh there at all.

The beast screamed and cried. One of its “friends”, one of its treasured and beloved and wonderful “friend”, has been pierced through!

The beast moaned and moaned. Its other “friends” wailed. Its many eyes closed and weeped blood. The beast had gone mad. Its tentacles lashed out like thunder, striking the air, the trees, and the snow. A storm brewed from its anguish.

Anise jumped back and landed in the snow. She was pale. The girl looked at her rapier stained with blood. Then she looked at her hands. If there was blood on her hands, it had been washed away by the snow. She swallowed down her vomit and ran.

She scrambled recklessly away from the beast while she could. She ran until her legs gave out. Then she threw up on the oak which she rested her hands.

She shook. Her chest heaved intermittently, sometimes violent; other times, it was as if she did could not breathe at all. Tears spilled from her eyes.

“I have to find Solana,” she said weakly. She stood and immediately collapsed. Her legs were still shaking. The girl beat on her shaking legs. “Stop shaking! You’re going to become an adventurer. You can’t be like this, you can’t.”

Anise clenched her fists and began to hit her legs. Again and again. When her legs grew numb, the girl pulled herself up and dragged herself to the forest’s entrance.

Author's Note: I always wanted to do this. If you made it this far, then I thank you greatly from the depths of my bottomless void I call a heart. And if you skipped to the end because you felt the beginning was too slow, then I also understand where you are coming from. I personally enjoy when the author takes time to develop an atmosphere; I am not skilled or experienced enough to develop a mood with a single phrase. I also like slow pace stories in general, I guess. Hope you stay for more.