It landed halfway down the block from where I was standing. It was halfway between a human and a white bat. The arms and legs ended in hooked claws. Its head had enormous ears, and a huge pair of wings stretched out to nearly the width of the street.
The wings wrapped around its body like a greatcoat. It slowly walked toward me while turning its head to look through the windows it passed. Villagers disappeared and reappeared once they were sure the monster wasn't looking at them anymore.
"Are you supposed to scare me?" the creature asked in a woman's voice.
"You're still sane," I said. It was a bit surprising after seeing how fast the beetle had lost his mind.
"And you're weak. Letting those bugs overpower you."
I broke free from the ropes and stepped away from the gazebo. "Not quite. My name is Henry. I'm trying to find a cure for our ailment."
She took a few more steps forward and cocked her head. I noticed that she had a bandage wrapped around where her two main eyes would have been, but a dozen smaller eyes were set in her forehead and her cheeks.
"I am Annalisa, last surviving daughter in the House Delwoods. You are trespassing on my family's land."
"I apologize. I smelled a demon here, but if I had known you were still sane I would have gone somewhere else."
"Be that as it may, you are scaring the townsfolk. I am forced to remove you."
From a scabbard on her back Annalisa pulled an old sword free. The steel was dusty but still sharp. Set in the pommel was an emblem of an upside down pine tree.
I walked across the square and retrieved my cleaver. The windows were filled with faces. Her sword seemed to glow in the moonlight.
She leaped toward me as her wings unfurled. Her sudden increase in size startled me, and I dropped down to the cobblestones. The sword bit into my back as she flew over me.
I turned around as she ascended high into the sky. Annalisa was easy to spot against the night sky, but there was nothing I could do to her from the ground.
"Next, your head!" she cried from far above me.
Annalisa dove toward me with her sword raised. The wind whistled past her, and the sound grew louder as she closed in on me.
At what I thought was the last moment I jumped to the side and slashed blindly with my cleaver. The blade only hit air, but I'd managed to jump out of her sword's range. She spun and hit me with one of her wings before climbing back into the sky.
My cut burned from where she'd hit it with her wing. The feeling was like being slapped with a sheet of leather. I looked up at her wings as she ascended for another pass. It gave me an idea.
As she swooped down I saw her sword was raised. If I misjudged my head would be cleaved in two. My ears were my guide, and I waited for the sound of air rushing past the metal of her sword. When I heard it I jumped to the side.
Annalisa thought it was another dodge, and she swerved to intercept me. She wasn't ready when I pointed my head toward her. Her left wing flew right into my antlers.
Too late she tried to pull back, but it only made it worse on her. The thin membrane of her wing was easily ripped as she struggled to free herself from my antlers.
The moonlight cast a jagged shadow through the remains of Annalisa's wing. In the windows the townspeople had a mixture of hope and horror on their faces.
Annalisa shrieked and charged me on foot. She had the longer blade, but I had the longer arms. My cleaver swung above her sword and left a deep gash in her shoulder.
Annalisa was thrown to the ground by the force of my swing. Now I was the one on the attack. I hurried to press my advantage before she had a chance to get up.
I felt a stab of pain and looked down to see a red mark above my hip. She'd managed to get a glancing blow in before my strike had landed.
I limped toward her, not really knowing what I would do. In my mind I saw visions of saw toothed monsters dead at my feet. The monsters transformed into Annalisa, and then I was standing over her with my cleaver raised.
Her undamaged wing shot out and swept my legs out from under me. I fell backwards as she jumped to her feet. Using mostly her good wing she managed to get airborne, but she was slow and definitely not on the attack. I watched as she slowly managed to fly back up to the manor house.
I'd walked away from the fight mostly intact. I sat down on the pile of sticks that villagers had been planning to burn me with. Somehow the fight with Annalisa had felt more dangerous than my fight with the beetle.
The faces in the windows disappeared then reappeared through cracks in the doors. They began leaving the houses and cautiously approaching me.
"I'm not in the mood to be tied up again. If one of you tries it I could end up hurting you, so just leave me alone for a while," I said.
"You almost killed her," one of the townspeople said in a tone of awe.
"Is she your leader?" I asked.
A skinny old man in a baseball cap stepped forward. "In a sense. She ate any demon that wandered too close to the village, but in exchange we have to go alone with whatever she says."
"Any time she killed something we had to throw a big festival and have a parade," a thin lipped woman said.
"Sometimes she demands all the children walk up to her manor for tea. They come back a week later and refuse to tell anyone what happened."
I thought about leaving. The townspeople had been nothing but rude to me since I'd arrived. However, being a person was also about taking a stand against injustice. As I looked out at the tired faces of the townsfolk I felt pity overcome my anger.
"Can you tell me more about her?" I asked.
One of the women stepped forward. Clutching to her skirt was a young girl, the same one who had spotted me by the river.
"Why don't you come to our house tonight?" the woman offered.
