Falko rode westwards, heading for the second story, as he wanted to pursue every trace of dark magic. What sort of choice did he have to find some trace of the man who had destroyed his fiefdom and made it a somewhat unnatural one? He had to follow every trace for the time being.

In the late evening of the sixth day he arrived in a village, it had rained almost the whole time of his journey, and he was glad to sleep in a dry inn. He put Marush in the barn next to the inn and went inside.

The inn was not full, which to Falko was welcome, as he could go to a quiet table and think about his next step. He ordered a beer and sat down in a seating niche to drink it. Some of the other guests looked at Falko suspiciously from the corner of their eyes. He had no problem with it, as long as they were not too curious and discovered what he was.

Falko pondered for some time, but then was distracted by a fight. He looked around and saw that the inn was no longer empty. He was wondering if he should go to his room, but one of the contestants was now heading for him. Before he could react, the man asked while he was pointing to Falko's weapons.

"Can you handle that?" Falko replied, "I'm a bit rusty."

The man ordered two beers from the innkeeper and sat down in front of Falko.

"I'm Balduin, I'm sorry, i'm usually more friendly, but i was still a bit irritated. Some want to accept any help and others believe they can do everything better." After a sigh Balduin continued "To get to the point, there is a beast in the area that we want eliminated, there is also a reward. "Falko suddenly became very attentive, as he might have found a trace of Cil, and that sooner than expected. Balduin seemed to notice that Falko was interested and said "You seem to be interested, maybe I can pitch it to you, but first, what is your name? "

" Falko. I'd love to know more about the beast and especially if it is the beast of the story i heard about. The story should come from this area."

Balduin was astonished " This story it seems to be well known by know. Well Falko it seems to be the beast that has struck terror into people's hearts for centuries."

The waitress brought the beer, and Balduin continued after a sip. "You seem to be an experienced warrior and I hope this story does not frighten you. At least I can tell you that the story is overly exaggerated, and that the beast has killed only two people in the whole time. It mainly affects our cattle."

Falko was disappointed, this sounded more like a wild animal, dangerous yes, but none of Cils conjured creatures, and thus no trace.

But better be safe than sorry and at least he can get a reward.

Falko promised Balduin to help and asked him to tell him all that he knew about this beast.

They talked long into the night about things like

- Where the beast appeared the most and if it showed itself during the day or if anybody has seen it all -

At the end Falko promised again to look for the beast before going to his room to sleep.

On the next morning he mounted Marush and went to the South-West of the village, where a dense forest stretched along the foot of a mountain. Falko went to the fields that bordered the forest to look for tracks. All the rain made it hard but after some time he found tracks but they somehow felt strange, then he realized it, the beast walks like a human on two legs.

Because of the rain there weren't enough tracks to follow so Falko took his Bardiche from his back, before going into the forest. Slowly he made his way through the forest to the foot of the mountain. He wanted to search for caves as he was most likely to find a beast there.

Falko searched nearly the whole day. He found some caves, but the biggest animal he found was a suprisingly small brown bear which he never saw before and a wolverine .

The sun was already setting and he decided that after searching the cave he saw a bit away from him he would head back. As Falko was approaching the cave he smelled smoke. He carefully approached the cave. He looked inside and he saw some light deeper into the cave. Falko carefully snuck closer to the light, as soon as he was close enough to see so details, he stopped and took it all in.

In a small room a young man sat beside a campfire, behind him a bedroll a big backpack and some bags of various sizes. On the fire sat a pot with some broth in it.

Without looking up the man spoke "Hello friend, your chain armor is not very silent. Come here, sit and we can talk."

On Falko's face was a grin, he walked to the fire and sat down next to it. "My name is Falko, what is yours?"

"Call me Ulf. "

Falko saw Ulf had two daggers hidden in his sleeves. Ulf wanted to show him that he was not defenseless.

Falko spoke, "Are you the one they call the beast that kills cattle and also men?"

Ulf laughed "Yes i'am but i'am also not it!" "Before you do something you regret let me speak. When i arrived in this region i killed a few cows, after that i hunted in the forest. For me that was enough, but it seems the ones that hunt me arrived in this region. They probably killed the humans and recent cows. Most likely they wanted information from the humans. Stupid, as if i would show myself around here, where everything non-human is seen as a demon and has to be killed."

Falko was suprised, "What do you mean with non-human and are you saying you are not a human?"

There was a grin on Ulf's face as he said, "Yes i'am not 100 percent human"