"It doesn't make any sense," Lord Kedmon shook his head firmly, his fist clenching on the handle of his sword. "If the healeress had gotten out of the cave, she would have left a trace. Have you ever seen a dead body crawling around? I haven't."

"Ravin, a wraith? Like the one Raimont told me about?" Jules hurried after his master. The hunter circled around the cave's mouth, bent in half, his eyes combing the litter leaf after leaf.

The boy looked around; the forest was full of shadows, gusts of cold winds that came from nowhere and sunlight seeping through the dense tree crowns. In the silence, voices whispered, their words too quiet to understand their humming.

"What's the boy is talking about?" the Lord demanded. "Have you fought a wraith before?"

"Long ago," the hunter straightened to give his apprentice a warning gaze. He put his pointing finger to his lips, a gesture that the Lord didn't notice, then motioned at the forest ahead of him. "She went this way. Went, on two legs, not crawled."

Jules looked in the indicated direction. There were no footprints he could notice, no tracks he would be able to follow. Something else occupied his mind - a memory he'd almost forgotten, one that resurfaced as he heard what Melissa had changed herself into.

It was a story Raimont had told him a few years ago, to scare him - which he had succeeded at. It was a story of an undead monster, a witch that had been burned on a stake and returned in a form of the two-headed beast to take revenge on the village. It had happened long ago - as Raimont claimed - when Ravin had still been Pritchard's apprentice.

"She had two heads, each of them with three eyes, and two sets of arms," Jules could remember Raimont telling the story as they had lain on hay, left in a barn, while Ravin had been away fighting a Midnight Bride that haunted the town. "She grew them feeding on the bodies and blood of her victims. Ravin and Pritchard had twenty knights armed up to their teeth, and she killed them all. Pritchard barely survived, but his and Ravin's wounds didn't scar for months. Then she, the wraith, slaughtered the whole village, not sparing a single life, and disappeared. Are you scared, Juli?"

Jules gritted his teeth. He'd often wondered how many of the scars that marked Ravin's body were a reminder of that fight, but then, as time passed and new stories were told, he had forgotten about the wraith.

"Jules," Ravin's voice woke him from his memories. "Are you listening to me? I told you to get the horses. We'll follow the trace."

"Yeah, sure," the boy muttered absent-mindedly.

He ran down the hill, where their steeds waited, cropping at the blade of grass that had fought their way through the thick layer of old leaves. Clicking his tongue at Opal, he took the white mare and Grumbler's rein and led the horses toward the two adults that had already followed the trace.

"Just to be sure," Lord Kedmon took the mare's reins from Jules. He strapped the axe to the saddle."Once we find this wraith, we'll kill her and it all will be over?"

Ravin stopped and turned around to face his old friend. His dark eyes sparkled brightly with gold magic, turning his irises almost honey - a shade Jules had never seen them assuming before.

"You can't kill an undead, Kedmon," the hunter shook his head. The long, metallic reila's handle rapped against the ground as he walked. "It's not how it works. You have to destroy both its body and spirit. And no, I don't have the means to destroy them now, but finding the wraith's den will be a good first step."

The magnate nodded slowly, visibly uneasy with the change of the hunter's eyes. They were like eyes of a predator, a wolf or an owl, barely human.

Jules tied Grumbler's reins to Opal's trusting the black stallion to lead the borrowed horse while he ran to catch up with his master.

"What happened to your eyes?" he whispered, trotting to keep up with him.

The hunter rolled up his sleeve without looking up at the boy. On his forearm, black runes twined together, like a fresh tattoo with skin reddened around its edges.

"I have no idea what these are," Jules' eyebrows rose in a puzzled expression.

"I'm using my Sixth Sense to strengthen my eyes," Ravin muttered, scanning the ground as he walked. "This way I can see the residue of her Aura. It's not much, hardly visible, but it's enough to tell the direction more or less. And here, look," he pointed his finger at a shallow pit in the soil. "She probably stopped here, supported her weight on her heel. See?"

"Not really," Jules squatted to examine the trace. He rubbed his temples. The constant whispers and shadows sneaking at the edge of his eyeshot made it hard to focus. "Do you really see it, or are you just kidding?"

"It's not the time for jokes. We're on the hunt," Ravin motioned at the boy to stood up and follow him.

"So, if you can see Aura," Jules hurried to keep up with him. "Does it have colours? How does it look?"

"Like lucent jelly," the hunter muttered. "Now, stop distracting me."

Jules nodded silently, then looked ahead. Before them, a clearing could be visible between the trees. Bathed in sunlight, the glade seemed peaceful in the whispering forest. As they came closer, Jules saw green like glimmering in the sun. It's surface, largely covered with the scum of frog spit.

Something big moved by the shore, a heavy body stepping between the trees. A moose? Jules stopped when Ravin's hand rested on his shoulder. The hunter's gaze fixed on the shape that now moved toward them.

"Ravin, what is it?" he whispered, as the creature emerged from behind a clump of bushes.

It was no moose, though it was as big as one. The body, heavy and hefty, resembled a log of decaying wood, with tiles of bark and patches of dark-green moss. The limbs, each like a thick bough, were soundless on the litter. The head, turned in their directions, was surmounted with antlers like a crown of branches.

A scrape sounded from behind them - the Lord had unsheathed his sword. Jules reached for his bow, but the hunter caught his wrist and guided his arm down, throwing his reila onto the ground at the same time.

"Ravin?" the boy looked up at his master, his bi-colour eyes huge with bewilderment. "What are you doing?"

"Sheathe your sword," the hunter ordered calmly. "This creature won't harm us until it sees us as a threat."

"You sure? I'd rather not be killed by a walking log!" Lord Kedmon stepped forward with his sword ready. Ravin grasped his forearm and forced the blade down.

"We call it a forest buddy," the hunter watched the creature approaching them, its steps slow yet firm, the big, green eyes observing them. He let go of Jules' wrist, posing a hand on the boy's back instead, and giving him a gentle push. "Come with me. It's only polite to say hello if you see a friendly face."

"I don't know if it's a face, let alone if it's friendly," the boy tried to step up, but then reluctantly yielded to the pressure as Ravin patted his back reassuringly. As much as he wasn't eager to approach the weird forest creature, he knew his master would have never exposed him to danger. "Are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Forest buddy is just a nickname. Officially, it's a leshy," the hunter gave a short nod. "I've already taught you about this one, haven't I?"

"It's a forest guardian?" Jules tried to remember that particular lesson but finding it hard to focus on the strange creature being closer and closer. He looked around, at the Lord that seemed rooted to the ground, and three horses that used the break to pasture, ignorant to leshy's presence.

"They're rare these days," Ravin stopped a few feet before the creature and knelt on one knee. He tugged at Jules's arm, and the boy squatted next to him. "There aren't many backwoods in the central regions of our kingdom anymore. Their dwellings were destroyed long ago. Relax, it won't hurt you. I met this one once, years ago, when I got lost in this forest, and it brought me safely back to the road."

"It did?" Jules froze, as leshy, now towering above them, lowered his head to sniff at them. Ravin waited calmly, his eyes locked with the creature's, and the boy chose to follow his example.

The leshy bent his front legs to gave the boy a sniff, then exhaled deeply with a low, guttural grown. The gust of his warm breath enfolded Jules' face; then the creature walked past them, toward Lord Kedmon and the carefree horses.

"See?" Ravin stood up and flicked some dry leaves and needles from his trousers. He extended his hand to Jules, and when the boy took it, he pulled him up. "You know I wouldn't let any dangerous creature near you, now don't you?"

"I know," Jules crossed his arms. "And I wasn't scared or anything!"

"Of course you weren't," Ravin looked at him from under an arched eyebrow, before turning toward Lord Kedmon. "Easy there, it'll just give you a sniff or two. Kneel down, so your heads are on the same level."

"I'm a lord," the nobleman dropped on his knee with reluctance, arching back as the leshy sniffed at him. "I kneel only before the king!"

The leshy turned away, took a look at the horses, then walked away, disappearing between the trees. Jules hurried back to get Ravin's reila.

The neared the lake and halted only on its muddy bank. Jules stopped by the hunter's side, their eyes fixing on a footmark, perfectly visible in the drying mud.

"Now we know why Leshy was here," Ravin motioned at the trace when the Lord caught up with them. "She walked into the lake. We won't track her down."

The hunter took his rod out of his pocket, rolled his sleeve again and cancelled the runes. His eyes faded to their usual, almost black shade. He untied Opal and Grumbler's reins, attached reila to his saddle and mounted his horse.

"She'll stay hidden until the night falls. And you should be back at the castle, Kedmon, before she's ready to prey."

- Author's note - 

Hi everyone, I'm sorry to inform you that due to the exam session I'll be able to post a new chapter only on Sundays for the next two or three weeks. I have so many tests and exams and work that I wouldn't be able to edit my chapters before posting.

Have a great day!