I come to my senses as my stomach fills and my blood lust wanes. The sight before my eyes that I can now comprehend is of the Serpent's corpse, with smashed head and skin ripped wide open. The rip expanding from the head bares the flesh that has been half gouged out and devoured. Bite and claw marks decorate the now slowly rotting meat and the once delicious smell of fresh blood turns putrid. But I don't mind and begin to stretch the wound larger to eat more.

Having filled my stomach I come to fully realize the situation. Friends, if they so can be called, left to bury their dead as I run to hunt. Even the hunt itself comes to my mind reckless and stupid. And now I'm mostly naked and covered in blood, dirt and mucus from the fight and more blood from the feast. I bring my hands to my face as I wonder if I can ever go back, if I can actually live with humans like this or if they have already sent someone after me. This goes for long time, with my face hidden behind my hands and my mind in deep thought.

I finally lift my head, and decide that I should go back, if only to confirm what they think of me. I try to locate any source of water to clean myself, but all I found are puddles on the forest floor. Better than nothing. Locating my clothes is easier, still reeking from the sweat after all the running. Torn by me and dirtied by the ground they aren't the best choice when trying to appear like civilized human, but they are my only choice. So now I stand, slightly reeking of blood and sweat, with my parts of me still dirtied and covered in mucus. At least most of the blood is gone.

I follow the same trail of blood back to the camp and I'm met with distrusting gazes, not that it surprises me. Walking through without minding people trying to stop me I make my way to the cabin and step in without knocking. William sits by the table and looks up to me as I walk in. He rises without saying anything and takes two mugs from the cupboard nearby and pours us more mead. Nice to see something hasn't changed. With us sitting around the table William stares outside from one of the cabin's windows.

Having gotten at the bottom of the mugs William finally begins to talk: "Don't know if you cared about the others, but we have four eaten, ten dead and five wounded." He breathes in and out and keeps going: "Biggest losses we ever had in the outpost, with most dying in accidents rather than attacks." His stare is far away from this place. "So, I'm not surprised that you would just leave without helping the wounded or helping us to bury the dead." His speech comes in fragments. "But were did you exactly go?" He asks, now finally looking at my directions. I think for a while and answer: "I felt like going for a walk; maybe get a snack while at it."

William keeps staring at me as his mouth moves in motion of speaking, mostly to himself. Even I can't hear what he is whispering. Then he suddenly asks: "Did, did you find something to eat?" Having prepared my answer it comes out rather forcibly: "Yes, not the best I had, but went down fighting." The corners of William's mouth curl up and I respond with smile of my own. "You know, with most of the men down and next change of shifts in two more months; I think we should hire more people for the camp." He says rather formally. "Is there anybody in mind?" I ask. "A man with rather good hearing and sight for the scout position, so the tragedy doesn't repeat would be good, I'd say." William inclines for my option. I simply say yes.

Having chosen to accept the position of a scout and nightwatchman, I finish my mead as William makes the declaration for the troops. Most still look at me with hateful eyes, but now some fearful ones are mixed in as they realize from William speech what happened during the night. Only Sam claps at the end of the speech, but for the death of me I can't find Alcott's shiny armor from the group or amid the wounded.

Author note:

This marks the ending of season 1, so the story will go for a hiatus. The hiatus won't last for more than a week and that is the maximum length of it, so I might continue it after just two-three days. I will also update the description to include the seasonal aspect of the story, but I won't mark chapters or what season they belong to. If you're wondering why I'm going for the season cut style story, it's because this story is my first one ever, and I need to take breaks between the writing sessions. It also helps to throw in a few time skips without having our MC get lost in the Forbidden woods...

Now this story is also otherwise experimental and is meant to test my writing skills and grammar. This of course means that the story isn't written out beforehand, and most of my time logged in is used in writing sessions, so I haven't answered all the comment, but I have read them and I want to thank all those who left a comment for their support. I have a plan for the story in my head, so those who got scared at the"not written beforehand" -part thinking that I'm just winging this out as I go in don't need to worry. But lot of things do change as I write so the story can be little disjunctive, sorry about that.

Of course all this comes down to that when I'm finished with this story, my writing and grammar skills have evolved and I have the grasp on what I need to do to write a great story. That doesn't mean that I have thrown this story to wolves thou, and I but my best effort to make this a worthwhile read.

I hope you keep reading and that my story stays interesting enough to read. By WritingForFun.