MEAD OF MADNESS
Erouk hefted the heavy pack on his shoulder and continued with his journey. He had to walk another mile or so until the forest came into sight. It was then just a matter of minutes before he reached his small, lonely home. But it gave him time to think.
Erouk was thinking about his past. All the mistakes he had done. It was bad for him, he knew, but on the long journey home, Erouk simply couldn't help himself.
Erouk wasn't old; he had just become a man a few weeks ago, when he turned seventeen. But he had been alone for long before that. At the mere age of thirteen, Erouk's father died. His only parent has passed into the void. Actually, Erouk didn't know his parents from the moment he was born. But this man, who had taken him in when he was a small child in a crib on the street, was the closest thing he had to a father. And he had died.
Technically though, he didn't die naturally. He was old, of course, and death would have come to in within a few years. But even a few years was better than what he got. He had been executed, by the King's soldiers. For stealing. He and Erouk were starving, they hadn't had food for days, and he managed to grab hold on a small loaf of bread. But not before the baker saw him.
The soldiers came for him five days later. They had put him on a platform in the middle of the city, and the axe took his head a minute later, warning to all the thieves in the city.
During all the confusion, Erouk stole the bread.
A week later, after he had gathered his meager belongings, Erouk left the city of Daret, traveling to the nearby woods. Or a mountain-range forest, more like. They were huge, traveling against the entire western border of the nation of Liberia. It was sometimes known as the Dark Forest, or De Ar't Noir. The Devil's Lair.
They say that none can travel through it and survive unharmed. They were wrong. Sure, there were many beasts in the forest - overlarge wolves and bears and such - but it was no more fearsome than the next forest, if you knew how to survive. Except for one thing.
And so from that fateful day, Erouk would gather fruits from nearby trees, and perhaps hunt a rabbit if it was possible. On very lucky days he would bag a deer. But every week, every single week, he would hike back to Daret, and just stand at the platform where his father was killed. He would just stare at it. Then he would curse the merciless gods and turn away, browsing the shops for anything that caught his eye. Then he would steal it.
He had never been caught, not once. He had become quite the thief and cold probably sneak away an entire chicken.
Erouk's train of thought stopped abruptly as he hit the edge of the forest. He would have to concentrate on his surroundings now, for an unwary man is just what the beasts would look for. He entered the forest, treading forwards carefully. He felt a shadow run amongst the trees to his left, but he ignored it. That ... thing was always there. A huge shadow-beast that would roam around the forest. At first Erouk was wary about it, and would try and see what it was. He had gotten close, one time, and caught a glimpse of razor-sharp teeth, a snout, a curling horns, before the beast had run away. There were signs of it everywhere, its food - torn apart deers and lions - and there would be trees with deep chunks torn out of them -presumably when the beast sharpened its claws.
Erouk stumbled into a clearing, in the middle of which was a tiny cottage. It wasn't very well-built, Erouk had found it abandoned years ago. It had solid walls, no windows, a weak door. It's roof was simply a whole load of straw strapped together an placed on top. It would do fine, except when it rained, which almost never happened in the Western regions of Liberia. So Erouk had built a stronger door, formed a bed out of a fallen tree-trunk, and added some straw for a mattress. And his home was complete. Of course, he added a few additions throughout the years.
