Time to get up.

Xuhn grimaced, his eyes still shut. He hated his brain. How did it always know when it was time to be up? He opened his eyes. It was morning and he could hear roosters crowing. He grimaced again. Time for work.

He removed the blanket from his body and immediately caught a chill. It would be winter in a few days and then he would need the firewood bad. He dragged himself from the bed and went out of his one-room house. He went to the well and pulled up a bucket of icy water, still quite sleepy. After he had done his needs and gotten fresh and the sleep had finally left him, he retrieved his ever faithful chopper from below his bed and left for the hills.

Aunt Laxmi, his neighbour, was watering her vegetable garden. A plump lady, she had a warm smile always playing on her lips. Too bad her son, Vivek, had fractured his legs sometime ago and she was working twice as hard to meet needs, losing some weight in the process. Aunt Laxmi greeted Xuhn on seeing him.

“Bound to the hills?”

“Have to get some wood,” Xuhn replied with a smile.

“Bring some for me too. Winter is coming and the water is getting colder every day. Vivek needs warm water.”

“I will,” Xuhn said. Due to Vivek, Aunt Laxmi had been buying more wood from him so Xuhn actually had some coin to spare on ale and the like for a few days. It wasn’t the best thought, but the truth was what it was.

Xuhn made his way towards the Frozen Lake, away from the houses of the villagers. The lake had always mystified Xuhn. It was frozen all the year round, even in blistering summer when not a drop of water survived out of shade. Now wispy vapour floated above the lake, which was easily one-sixth the size of their village. Nobody knew what caused the lake to be frozen. Some of the older villagers said that a great beast dwelt in its depths. They claimed that during the time of their fathers, the ice had suddenly cracked one day and then somebody had seen a big head emerge on the surface of the lake, right at the centre, before disappearing in an instant. The lake had then frozen again completely in a day’s time.

Maybe one morning like today, Xuhn thought, the ice will crack once again and I’ll have a glimpse of the great beast. He would be able to boast about it to people till he drew his last breath.

Xuhn looked at the skies. No sign of his pigeon, Ritu. He hoped the bird would be home by the time he returned with the firewood. The fear that someone would shoot down Ritu always plagued his heart. If that happened then the luxury of communicating with Mayesha everyday would be gone.

Xuhn had first met Mayesha about a month ago at the yearly fair in the little town of Maskhowa, which was about twenty kilometres to the south.

He had fallen for her the moment he saw her amidst her friends. How he had managed the guts to actually speak to her he didn’t know. But he had, and she seemed interested in him. She had given him her pet bird, Ritu, so the two of them could keep in touch after the fair. Xuhn had been very worried that Ritu would not reach Mayesha’s home when he had first sent her a letter through Ritu. But apparently the bird knew its way well, and the very next day Ritu returned with a letter from Mayesha. Xuhn didn’t know how long the relation would last, especially since the only time the two of them had met was at the fair. But the letters meant that the roots of love were still in ground and there was hope. He planned to visit Mayesha the coming month.

When Xuhn reached the spot from where he usually cut firewood, he set to work. Unlike other wood cutters he knew, Xuhn preferred cutting branches instead of bringing down entire trees and chopping them to pieces. So he climbed up one big tree and began hacking at one branch after the other until each fell down. His muscles felt leaden, but the cold abandoned him altogether and so he rather enjoyed the strenuous work.

It was when Xuhn was finally tiring that a scene unfolded in the distance and grabbed his attention. At least ten wolves were chasing a person on the frozen lake. The person was Mitral, a newcomer who had arrived in their village last year but had left suddenly a couple of months ago. The villagers had been worried that something had happened to Mitral due to his disappearance. But here he was, being chased by wolves. Mitral was skidding on the ice and occasionally tumbling down and it was a wonder that the wolves hadn’t caught him so far.

But if they did they were sure to rip him to pieces. Xuhn couldn’t allow that, not when everything was going on in front of his eyes. He had to intervene by all means.

Xuhn climbed down and raced towards the lake. He wanted to sit down and catch his breath, which was already strained due to his previous labour, but he pushed on. Maybe he could scare away the wolves with his chopper.

Mitral saw him and ran towards him, arms flailing wildly.

“Help me!”

Xuhn picked up some stones and threw them at the wolves as Mitral reached him and cowered behind him. The wolves made angry noises, but Xuhn held his ground, his chopper raised and ready, lest any animal lunged at him.

“Back off!” Xuhn yelled at the wolves. They wouldn’t understand his words, but his tone would be obvious to them. The wolves continued to make angry sounds. Xuhn could not help but shiver with fright and wondered what would happen if the wolves didn’t go away. Thankfully, after some time they slowly retreated and disappeared into the woods.

The threat gone, only now Xuhn remembered he was standing barefoot on ice and the stinging cold shot up his legs.

“We would rather move away from this lake,” Xuhn told Mitral.

“Okay,” the latter replied, his teeth chattering due to fright and cold.

“So how did the wolves get you?” Xuhn asked Mitral after sometime as the two sat down on grass wet with dew.

“They weren’t any ordinary wolves!” Mitral said and then his eyes widened, as though he had spoken more than he meant to.

“What do you mean?” Xuhn asked as doubt on Mitral quickly sprouted in his mind. Had those been werewolves?

Mitral hesitated, then decided to go all out.

“Werewolves they were,” he said, not meeting Xuhn’s eyes.

Xuhn got to his feet, refusing to believe his ears.

“I don’t understand. Werewolves and humans are at peace… They only attack vampires.”

Mitral put his hands over his face.

“I am one,” he confessed.

Xuhn could only stare at Mitral. In the north war was going on between the vampire and werewolf races. The kingdom of Sura had been declared a neutral zone due to its human majority. The vampires and the werewolves were breaking the treaty by bringing their war to Sura. While werewolves were known to dwell in the woods in northern regions, vampires were a wholly alien race to Sura. Xuhn recalled the strange death of a pig belonging to a fellow villager called Uncle Mada. Now he knew what had killed the pig.

“Why are you coming here?” he asked Mitral and he didn’t care if his words were offensive. “You killed Uncle Mada’s pig and quenched your thirst for blood, right?”

Mitral nodded. His facial muscles convulsed suddenly and he let out a remorseful sound.

“I was going mad… what could I do?” Mitral said, sobbing. “I thought I could suppress my thirst for blood and live among the humans in peace. But how could I go against how the gods designed our nature? One night I was losing my head thinking of blood, so I ran away from your village to the woods. But I am no hunter, the rabbits and squirrels I caught occasionally had little blood in them. Deer were too fast for me and I was on the verge of insanity. So I returned to the village one night and… that pig. If I had the money I would have bought it first!”