The daily life of monsters

Chapter X-1: Newspaper

A stranger to this quiet village, you walk through the silent cobbled streets during the dead of night, scanning the dark surroundings around you and skittishly searching for signs of life. Over your head is a ragged cloak, slightly too short to properly cover your whole body, leaving your ankles exposed to the freezing air around you. On the outer side of your thigh, the brand of a crescent moon burned into your skin itches, the skin still feeling as raw as the day that it was forced upon you. On your left hip is your knife; your trusty tool which feels almost like second nature to use, but something you have no recollection of practising with. Strapped onto your left leg is a small bag with a few essentials, just enough to get from town to town alongside a small sum of money that came from doing odd jobs during your travels. Your hair is frayed and wiry, the blonde you used to have being degraded to a dirty brown after years in the castle's dungeon being tortured and programmed. You work for the crown, hunting down other immortals like yourself; the only reason they managed to crack you was because of your comparatively weaker abilities.

Just as you begin to relax slightly, a sudden movement towards the right catches your eye. Almost instantly you jump into action, charging towards the movement and reaching for your knife with your right hand, pushing the target to the ground with your left arm and pressing your weapon to where their throat should be... if it was a human.

Now pressing down against a few pieces of parchment, you quietly place your weapon back in its sheathe and stand up, making sure to keep a foot over the corner of your 'target'. Quickly dusting yourself off, you lean down and pick up the parchment, striking a match from your bag to see what was written on it. Almost immediately, you recognise it as the monthly news, directly from the capitol itself. Quietly thanking the gods for your good fortune, you begin to read the first page, hoping for a lead on your main objective.

Mysterious burns discovered in the forest of blestemat by hunters

Numerous large, vaguely humanoid shaped burns have been discovered by hunters in a previously unexplored area of the forest. According to reports, these burn marks have scorched the earth, leaving the ground warm despite not a single sign of life within five kilometres. The reason for these burns is unknown, leaving even the greatest minds in animal behaviour completely baffled.

According to ethologist Yenv Bihin, "This behaviour is something that we have seen in the past, but not in the large concentrated number that was discovered recently. This is something wholly new and personally, I'm excited to look into this further."

There is an important point to consider before taking this incident into consideration; the massive forest of blestemat still remains mostly unseen. It has been only in recent years where hunters, mercenaries others seeking glory have ventured into the unknown, now that the monster sightings often associated with the forest in the past have faded away. It has yet to be seen if the monsters have truly vanished, but these strange burns brings an important question to the forefront.

Are they really gone?

Quickly, you flick through page after page, finding nothing more interesting than the first article. Without a word, you snuffle out the flame of your match by wrapping your hand around it, the singed skin only feeling like a mild sting. After a few moments of evaluation in the silent streets, your next move seemed crystal clear.

It was time to head west towards the forest of blestemat.