The young hero's heart beat quickly. Very fast. He ran through the forest at a speed that his battered feet would not allow him, the sword on his belt seemed as heavy as lead. Endless rows of trees stretched before him. And next to him. And behind him.
The moss swallowed the sound of his footsteps and he could only hear his shaky breath in the starry night.
His eyes searched desperately for something familiar, some stone he had seen before, a particularly crooked tree, a fallen branch.
But there was nothing. He didn't stop, although the burning sensation in his throat grew stronger and he ran. And yet it seemed to be getting closer and closer.
His bumpy path led him to a clearing and ended there. Panting, he fell to his knees, not a cloud could be seen in the sky.
He only heard his shaky breath, felt the burning sensation in his throat.The fear of his presence. The fear spread like poison in him and paralyzed his limbs as it slowly approached him. It crept through the night like a predator. Targeting its prey. His heart pounded wildly against his chest.
The young hero got up heavily, drew his sword from its scabbard and the will to fight stirred again in him. He turned to look his enemy in the eye and ------




"Get your dirty paws out of my pocket, man!"
"I want something to eat!
"You just had it, fat sack."
"You want trouble?"
"Shall I give you a punch?"
"Quiet back there!"
Two little stones can work wonders, even with arguing robbers. At least if they are deliberately thrown.
"Boss!"
The figure that ran in front of them turned around again and looked critically at his companions. The man was tall and ... pretty well built.
Lank, unwashed, dark brown hair fell in a knot on his shoulders.Metal shoulder pads were scantily tied over tattered clothing. A small dagger lurked cunningly from behind his belt.
He would have looked pathetic had it not been for those crystal blue eyes that surveyed the surroundings with vigilance and confidence.
“Stop arguing.” At the moment he was probably not very willing to compromise. "You know, I don't like to travel during the day. Your noise is just drawing people's attention to us."
The one on the left with the knobbly nose screwed up his pig's eyes and raised his thin arm in protest.
"Where are people here, here-"
An ice-cold look silenced him.
The one on the right stared at the floor, emptied. Sweat slowly ran down his angular body.
"But boss. The forest here is really strange. Very quiet. I don't like it."
Not a single bird twittered demonstratively.
"Where else do you want to travel? Through the swamp? We have to make sure that we get to the next one before sunset."Something seemed to bother the leader, too, but he hid it as best he could.

The further they went through the forest, the closer the trees seemed to come together.
“Are there only goddamn trees here?” The nagged words cut the silence so suddenly that even the leader winced.
The short one already raised his arms protectively to defend himself when they stood in a clearing.
In front of them stretched a circular area of ​​dry grass, at the edges seemingly huge rows of trees loomed threateningly and the sun dazzled the robbers' eyes, which were used to darkness.
The angular looked around uncertainly
"Why are we suddenly standing ..."
The leader interrupted his deliberations abruptly:
"Shht! There's something back there!"
In fact, there was, right in the middle of the clearing ... something.
It looked like a small pile. The men approached, daggers drawn.
"Is this- "
It was a body, and it didn't look very much alive.The little one rubbed his hands
"H-hey, it looks like you should have a lot of valuable stuff with you."
The figure lay with its back to the companions.
With a few steps the angular was with him and nudged him with his foot. He wanted to turn it around and was amazed that the shape was so light. And so stiff.
The short guy stood next to him curiously.
"It's over, isn't it?"
The sight of the face gave them a clear answer.
If you could still call it a face.




It was raining all day. Oh what the whole week. Thick raindrops pattered in the same rhythm on the roof and from one corner it dripped into an almost half-full bucket.
"Plop.
Plop.
Plop. "
"Boy, shut up, shut up!"
Annoyed, I closed the big book in front of me. The little boy almost drove me crazy. All that long day he had nothing better to do than crouch in front of this bucket and synchronize falling drops of water.His mother always sent him to me when she went to the neighboring village so that I would take care of him.
She probably thought I was an educated man. Well, I was educated. Basically. But I didn’t care about letting the little toads tyrannize me.
If you think like that, the little crap was below my level and only damaged my intellect through its constant junking ....
Maybe his mother thought I could teach him something?
Anyway, the cattle got really on my nerves.
It moved away from its bucket and slowly crawled towards me.
Breathe calmly. Breath in, breath out. It is not worth it.
The thing tried to fix me with its big googly eyes.
"Youuuu ~ huuuuu?"
Simply ignore.
It actually seemed to work!
"Thanurieeeeeeel?"
That went too far! I knocked my fist on the table top in anger, so that the small carafe filled with caustic liquid jumped at least 3 fingers' breadth into the air, tipped over and its contents spilled over ancient, well-preserved documents of my great, great, great, great ancestors passed down from generation to generation."Never say that name again!"
My beloved mother was no doubt a wonderful woman. I could just forgive her everything, especially since she was always careful not to harm anyone at all. But I still hold one thing against her to this day. It was the worst thing she could ever do to me: give me that name.
What did I do here before I was born?
Was she expecting one of those gay elves? With a waving, blond mane, cheekily plaited little pigtails on the side and bright blue eyes?
I am now lucky that none of this was true: my hair did not reach my buttocks and was pitch black. They were probably so long that you could have braided them with braids, but the life of the person who dared would have come to an abrupt and, above all, bloody end ...
Only my eyes were blue. Ice blue and maybe a little too light to look human. With a longing look into the distance, my mother used to tell me that I got her from my father."Read something to me!
The dwarf abruptly pulled me out of my thoughts. Slightly absent-minded, I looked down at him to see at least a bit of intelligence in him. Nothing.
"Bittöööööööööö!"
Well, I thought to myself, maybe you can at least help a little, sighed in resignation and opened the big tome again in front of me.
"Bloody excesses on the limbs ... no, boring ... Mental illness?"
I take another look at the boy. I toyed with the idea of ​​giving him a lecture about it, but then let it go. I didn't mean to give him foolish thoughts.
"That'll be more interesting: Vampirism? But I guess your mommy and your daddy told you about it enough ... Werewolves are boring too .."
This one side caught my eye in particular. With the best of my will, I couldn't remember her. The font was different from the others:
Closely entwined, the neatly written words seemed to dance across the paper."Shadow games ...
I write these lines in sheer desperation:
It's getting closer and closer, every night when the light goes out I hear its breath. I do not know what it is. I'm afraid.
Why me ? Why is it chasing me? I haven't done anything bad. I've only done good. I killed dragons. I destroyed hordes of orcs.
I have protected villages and punished robbers and highwaymen for their actions. But it chases me.
Do I have to leave my beloved family? I light candles in the dark. The shadows grow longer and longer and dance ominously on the walls
until they devour the light in their greed. Then it's black ...
Even now it's quiet and all I can hear is the scratching of my pen and the raindrops drumming on the roof.
No. It's not quiet anymore, I- "
Loud knocking on the door destroyed this wonderful atmosphere. The little one gave a startled cry and I had to grin.
The originator of the knock stormed into the hallway as soon as I opened the door for him.He trudged the beautiful red carpet in his muddy boots and shook his soaked hair until it splattered.
"Thanoriel!"
That name again.
"Khan. What do you want so late?" I replied gruffly.
Something was wrong with him. Normally nothing and nobody upset this man, but when a ten-foot ledge wrapped his muscular arms protectively around his massive body, he must have seen something really bad.
"Please, you have to see that. You have to come with me, into the forest"
Without asking questions, I put on my coat and followed him (of course, after I had responsibly directed the dwarf to bed) into the darkness ...