The thick, heavy air inside the pub was warm and the smell of liquor mingled with the sweat of attendants. Chats here and there are mostly about the latest events of the attacks on woodcutters and questions about the nature of actions the lord of the village will take.

Death here wasn't a rare event, mainly due to the deformities of newborns or chronic diseases. Sometimes to a passing epidemic. But because of unknown predators, this was a red alarm. It meant that there were savages who dared to cross the great lord's borders as well as to tamper within his territory. This was a dreadful crime in the eyes of the residents.

Madam Linda's eyes were swollen and red from crying. Nevertheless, she continued her work as always, serving the customers of the tavern with her coworkers and registering the travelers' names. If one of them decided to stay a couple of nights, they would arrange for him a room in the connected inn if one of them showed the desire to join the villagers as new residents. They will record all his information and arrange a room for him in a different inn.

A deep silence took the tavern like a storm when one of the main housemaids made her entrance. All attendant's eyes were in her direction, giving their full attention to her and waiting in anticipation.

She stood in front of the door, watching their faces with her narrow eyes before she advanced to the center and spoke in a loud voice: "The representation and the chief of menservants are discussing now the present case, together with his lordship, and as a first measure, I am here to collect the lists of passing travelers and the names of those who wish to join our community."

A small chatter broke in, next one of the residents shouted: "The killer is a beast, I saw him with my own eyes, he overthrows a tree by one swing with his claws."

Another one shouted: "I have seen his face, he was one of the travelers?"

Then, voices came from every corner and got mixed into clutter. The young maid wasn't sure how to deal with the situation. A few sounds escaped her throat and blended with the background noise without clear meaning. She couldn't avoid the intense stares from the listeners, the hesitation in her voice was worrisome. When she finally mastered her will, she cried out: "They can't uphold the possibility of him being one of the passersby."

The same first resident shouted again: "This is dangerous. We should close and stop welcoming newcomers."

An uproar started to break between the attendants, expressing their fears and bombarding the poor maid with a torrent of questions she couldn't answer. Finally, she decided to flee from the intolerable situation.

The individual who caused the wave of panic was sitting in his chair, drinking his beer and eyeing the expanding chaos. He murmured between his lips: "What a great coincidence. They saved me from wasting the time thinking of a way to start the wave of panic. They should have used another maid to carry her to work."

Linda put a cup of hot tea in front of her eldest daughter, which she was stiff from the earlier exposure: "I shouldn't have said anything..." the maid declared.

Linda sat near her and sought a confirmation: "so it's true. One of the travelers was the killer."

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"Yes, and worst he is a metamorphic beast, I heard them talking about it when I was doing my routine." The girl paused for a while before she continued: "If my words reach the head butler I will be fired for sure, I wasn't supposed to say anything." she concealed her face with her hands, "I will be the first maid in the history of the manor to get fired."

Linda got up and stated: "Better than missing your father and sister's funeral." Her voice was cold.

Chewa stormed like a mad dog throwing a cup of tea to the floor and screaming: "There is no meaning even if I attend, they won't come back to life! This stupid way of thinking was the reason why you won't be more than a waitress in a tavern, and the reason why my father is just a woodcutter who got himself killed. I am different from you all. I am not going to stay here in this miserable place, I am going... I am going..."

A deafening sound came from slamming the door. Linda has been already outside the room. The young maid observed her reflection in the mirror, then poured cold water all over her face in an attempt to wash her flapping heart from all lingering feelings of anger and despise toward her origin and her family...

What an ugly body and what an ugly reality, she thought...

But she had made her resolve to survive, to continue whether this mission that was assigned to her now or in her life. She gripped the list of the new residents that were lying on the floor. When she read it, she noted only two names in it, then she looked at the record of the travelers to find hundreds of names. She murmured: "No wonder only unfortunates without choice want to stay here".

And now she needed to collect herself and go to check on those unfortunate souls.

The cool air that bumped her face when the new resident opened the door of his room made her sneeze. Her eyes were also reacting, they became more red and tearful. She couldn't open them because of the intense burning.

She screamed desperately, "What is this?"

"Don't worry, it is only the fume of the leaves of eucalyptus trees." A gentle voice responded:

"What?..."

The bed had occupied half of the space in the narrow room. Chewa sat on the only chair available near the window. A wet piece of texture was set on her eye and again the same gentle voice asked her: "How are your burning eyes now?"

She lifted the texture a little to see the owner of the voice, but a blurred image with no lines puzzled her. She shouted in confusion: "I can't see."

The next thing she sensed was a pair of fingers compressing her eyes soft.

"Try to open them now." a commanding tone asked her.

The fuzzy blur image started to take shape with each movement of her eyelids. Finally, she regained her sight and a sharp image materialized of the person who was speaking to her.

The mere sight of him made her lose balance and fell on her back together with the chair. In her life, she never met someone with this guise. She didn't even think that this kind of creature does exist.

White hair, white eyebrows, and white eyelashes, a pure white like the falling snow, were the only image she could think of.

When he helped her to stand, she noticed the difference in the color of his eye; one was like light blue of the clear sky and the other a pale shade of gray. She asked him in a broken voice attempting to conceal her infatuation, but she failed to make a coherent sentence: "Am... You... Signed... Sign..."

"Miss, you should have a seat, then take a full breath. This smoke isn't noxious or it's going to hurt your eyes."

A few moments later, Chewa was perched on the chair watching this enigmatic individual trying to boil some water on the stove.

She took as much time as needed to inspect his belongings. He doesn't have a lot, yet the things that raised her curiosity were the set of the white papers on the small tree trunk table in the corner. She noticed the grayish lines on them, shaping some bizarre pictures she couldn't understand. The bed was likewise suspicious, the mass of the sheet above it resembled a cadaver wrapped in covers.

She felt nervous, but she couldn't refuse the cup of tea that he offered her, because how can a person who looked like a blessed angel hurt people or harm anyone... Right!