It was the day after the attack on the village, and night-time had come once again. Salomon knew he had to act fast. The two humans had been suspicious of him, and if they convinced Ylva to let them investigate his testing room, they would find damning evidence. He needed to get to Siegfried while he could. He had managed to sneak into the room that the injured Siegfried was resting in. He held a vial with him that would secure his plan. It was the updated version of his serum. The only problem was… he wasn’t sure how well it would work. The first serum worked well enough, but for the modified version he should have to prepare the person’s body first. But for now it would have to do. If he could bring Siegfried under his control then he could fix any problems later. He moved over to the bed and whispered the words of a spell to keep Siegfried asleep. Then he pulled back the covers.

Siegfried wasn’t there. Instead there was a human. The tall, dark haired human who always kept one of his eyes hidden was there where Siegfried should have been, sound asleep thanks to Salomon’s spell.

“It is true then.” came Siegfried’s voice. Salomon quickly chanted a spell to create a small light in his hand. Standing at the back of the room was Siegfried, bandaged up due to his missing arm. If only he hadn’t been quick-thinking enough to cut his own arm off, he would already be infected and under Salomon’s control. Also standing there was the white-haired human, as well as…. Ylva. Salomon’s heart sunk.

“I didn’t want to believe it…” she said. “But it really was you after all wasn’t it?” she asked. “We all thought you were working day and night on a cure… but instead it’s you that caused all of this isn’t it?”

“Believing what the humans say?” Salomon asked, his mind working fast to try to make an excuse. “I didn’t do this! I’ve… made an antidote. I thought it’d be best to give this to Siegfried just in case he was infected.” he said, brandishing the vial, thinking on the spot.

“How about you let us look into your secret room before you give him that, then?” Kail asked.

“We’ve caught you in the act, doctor.” Ylva said, her expression stern.

“Don’t believe them.” Salomon pleaded. “Look, Siegfried, just take this, just in case. Honestly!” he said, but he knew he was in trouble.

“The animals were afflicted with a disease.” Kail said, stepping forward, sword in his hand. “The animals attacked and infected some of the people here, causing them to become ill and increasingly violent. But they didn’t turn into werewolves… Until Soxolfr reached out to the other tahkean tribes for help, help for this unknown disease. That’s when you turned up and starting caring for the patients. It was only after you took them in that they turned. There have only been werewolves since you came here. In fact… over time the disease that had afflicted the animals disappeared. Then a human girl wondered into the forest. You found out about this because you can control the werewolves that roam the forest, right? I don’t know how, but they’re under your control. You found her, kidnapped her, and started experimenting. You wanted to infect Siegfried, to make some sort of super monster, I guess, but the monsters you’ve already made weren’t strong enough to infect him for you. So you experimented on this girl, creating a new type of werewolf that could pierce Siegfried’s flesh. This is the werewolf that he came across last night during the attack. I found the girl in your secret room, and when I did a werewolf conveniently attacked me and Kin at the time, so we couldn’t get to her. By the time we killed it, you had taken the girl and gone. Then you transformed her and set her after Siegfried.” Salomon was starting to panic. Had he really worked all of that out? “And because you realised I was on your tail… so to speak… you thought you’d take a chance and try to infect Siegfried now, before we caught you. Am I right?” Kail finished. Siegfried had also stepped forward, his metal spear held ready. Salomon sighed.

“So what?” he asked. “Even if you know now, you can’t stop me. The disease that spread through the animals was my doing as well by the way. A simple but effective disease that spreads fast, it causes animals to become violent and infect each other… but it wears off after a while. I just needed some of the people in this village to get infected, so I, who have made a name finding and curing these diseases, could get here, and already have the trust I needed… This village has been a good testing ground… all to perfect this.” he said, brandishing the vial.

“Why?” Ylva asked. “Why are you doing all this? My… mother… my grandfather… Why did they have to die for you to… what? Create some horrible disease that turns people into monsters?”

“There is no need to answer you…” Salomon answered. He’d have to use the serum while he could and infect Siegfried that way. He uncorked the vial and drank it.

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“No!” Kail shouted, stepping forward. He was too late. Salomon immediately started coughing and grasping at his throat. His body contorted and his limbs swelled, gruesomely growing larger as his skin stretched to keep up and hair sprouted all over his body, while his clothes ripped apart. He was becoming much larger than any they had fought so far. He had already grown bigger than Torbjorn.

“We need to move outside!” Ylva shouted. Kail took a step towards Salomon, realising that Kin was still on the bed behind him, but he couldn’t see a way through. The monster Salomon was turning into violently swiped around it with claws that had already turned into deadly weapons. It stepped towards them and they had to leave or be eviscerated by its claws.

They moved outside and Ylva effortlessly jumped over to a separate platform, as did Siegfried, even though he had his spear in his one hand. He landed gracefully onto his feet. Kail just looked at them, realising he couldn’t jump far enough to follow. So, instead, he moved along the platform away from the entrance and waited with his sword held high.

Its head emerged from the room. Even its horns had changed, splitting in different directions like the horns of a stag. It roared a roar unlike the others. It didn’t sound so bestial, but instead more… demonic. Kail couldn’t think of a more fitting word. It didn’t sound like it was from this world.

Kail brought his sword down, making sure not to get blocked by the horns, and his sword cut into the monster’s head. It didn’t slice very far though. Like the werewolves he had fought before, it seemed to have an incredibly tough body. His strike did interrupt its roar though. It turned its head slowly to Kail, growling threateningly. As he watched he noticed saliva dripping from its mouth onto the wood below. When the saliva touched the wood it started to sizzle and Kail realised it was burning the wood as if it was acid. Then the monster pulled back into the room, almost taking Kail’s sword with it, and an arm came out to try to grab at Kail. He retreated further along the platform and watched as its claws sunk into the wood as if it was clay. He could hear it struggling against the doorway as it tried to get out of the room. It was too big, luckily. Then it withdrew its arm and Kail advanced again to see its head remerge. It bit at the doorway and its saliva burned away at it, allowing it to easily tear a chunk free. Its saliva dripped down, burning away at more of the wood, and the creature burst its way through. Kail noticed something unusual then. It was bleeding from its mouth.

Then a horn sounded. Kail looked to see that Siegfried had blown it. It was the same sound Kail had heard when the werewolves had attacked the night before. The sound, however, also drew the attention of the monster.

“Its saliva is acid! Don’t let it touch you!” Kail shouted to them. The monster then roared in their direction, sending bits of saliva and blood from its mouth flying towards them. Ylva jumped to safety. Siegfried, however, jumped away with his spear still in hand, and couldn’t grab onto the tree he was heading towards. He slammed into it shoulder first and fell down into the darkness below. The monster turned back to Kail.

Its arms were abnormally long, although there wasn’t anything normal about its body. Certain bones like its ribs jutted out as if they were too big to be contained inside its body. As saliva dripped down its body it burnt at it. It seemed like it wasn’t resistant to its own acidic spit. It took a step towards Kail but there was a flash of light and ice crawled up its legs, freezing it in its tracks. It looked down then turned its head to the side, as if trying to see behind it. Then its tail whipped around and grabbed hold of something. Kail watched in disbelief as it brought Kin from behind it, firmly held with its tail, and held him over the surely fatal drop below.

“Well… this doesn’t look too good.” Kin said, looking to Kail and offering a shrug. It dropped him.

“Kin!” Kail shouted, outstretching his hand even though Kin was too far from him. Then an armoured warrior jumped to the rescue. He caught Kin and together them slammed into a tree, but the warrior grabbed onto it with his claws, keeping them safe. Kail breathed a sigh of relief, then he remembered when Kin had killed a werewolf with his broken spear. He had aimed for the eye. Kail did the same, bringing his sword up ready, but the werewolf whipped back around to glare at Kail, stopping him in his tracks. It snarled at him. He was sure the ice wouldn’t hold it back for long, like it hadn’t held Torbjorn back for long.

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Then something hit it. Something flew threw the air and hit it in the back, causing it to lurch forward and scream in pain. Its tail whipped up and pulled out a sword that had been impaled into it. It was a smaller sword than Kail’s. Thinner too, with a silvery shine to it. He recognised it as the swords the tahke used. The werewolf threw it into the darkness below. Kail looked to see the owner of the sword; a tahke wearing armour perched on a branch high above them.

“We heard the horn.” came a voice from behind Kail, surprising him. He turned to see another of the tahke warriors that patrolled the forest at night. “Although we also heard this creature roaring and screaming anyway.” she said. Somehow Kail had forgotten about them. They had been fighting werewolves since before he’d arrived, after all, yet he hadn’t seen them in action himself.

Kail looked around to see several of them arriving, swords at the ready, perched among the trees. The monster looked around too, and tried to roar, but it stopped as if something was stuck in its throat. More blood came forth from its mouth. Its like its own acid is killing it. Kail surmised. It went down to all fours, with its legs still frozen to the platform.

Then Kail saw a strange sight beyond the werewolf. Siegfried was making his way back up a tree by using his spear to stab into it and then to pull himself up.

The werewolf rose back up and pulled its feet free of the ice, almost effortlessly like Kail had feared. It looked around, noticing the armoured tahkean warriors appearing. Then it turned back to Kail, snarling, and took a step towards him and the tahkean next to him.

Siegfried had stabbed his spear firmly into the tree and pulled himself onto it so he was standing precariously upon it.

“Throw me a sword.” he commanded of the nearest warrior, who did as they were told. He grabbed a hold of it in his only hand and crouched upon the spear. He then jumped as far as he could, which was far enough to reach the werewolf. Sword first, he landed upon its head, going over its body and impaling it through the head into the platform it was on, so that it never reached Kail. It slammed hard, and with the impact the werewolf’s body fell off the platform, threatening to take Siegfried with it. The sword held it in place however. Siegfried remained calm all the while, glaring down at the monster.

“He turned himself into this. He had a choice, unlike everyone else. Even this is better than he deserves.” he said.

There’s a chance we could’ve turned him back to normal. Kail thought, recalling Soxolfr using the water of the lake to turn Torbjorn back into a tahke. Maybe we could’ve ended this without another death. He chose not to say anything though.

Then came an audible crack. Kail realised that the creature’s saliva was burning through the platform where its head had been impaled. The platform broke, and the creature fell with Siegfried still on top of it. Kail reacted immediately, jumping forward and reaching for Siegfried, who managed to extend his hand and grab his arm with a tight and painful clawed grip, but Kail gritted his teeth and didn’t let go. Siegfried was heavy, however. He was more worried that he’d be pulled over the edge as well. Then the women who had appeared next to him earlier was at his side, helping him pull Siegfried up as the body of the werewolf hit the unseen ground below with a loud thud. Kail looked at his arm. There were indeed claw marks where Siegfried had pierced the skin.

“My apologies.” Siegfried said, seeing what he’d done. “Sometimes I don’t know my own strength.”

It hurt, but Kail hid the pain. “It’s fine.” Kail responded. “A small price to pay. We should probably go down there though, to check the body just to be safe.” he said, changing the subject. Siegfried nodded.

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“How can this be?” Ylva asked in shock. Kail, Kin, Ylva, Siegfried and the tahkean warriors had made their way to the ground. The body of the werewolf had transformed back into a tahke on death, although it lay broken and covered in blood. Thankfully the sword wasn’t still lodged in its head… but it was still a gruesome sight. What was wrong with the sight, however, was that it wasn’t the body of Salomon. It was the body of a girl. Kail’s stomach sank as he thought it resembled the girl who had kept an eye on Kail when he’d been recovering.

“Siv?” Siegfried asked in confusion. It didn’t make any sense to him. He had killed the monster, believing it to be Salomon. They had all seen Salomon transform into it, yet here was Siv’s dead body in his place. He fell down to his knees next to her, looking at her body in horror, unable to remove his gaze.

“Kin….” Kail started. “Could magic explain this?”

With his words everyone turned to Kin for an answer. He looked fearful, putting his hands up in helplessness.

“I… don’t know.” he answered. “There is a lot to magic. I only know what I know. Changing people’s appearance? Maybe… maybe… but I couldn’t say for sure. I’m not an expert.”

“Changing people’s appearance?” Ylva asked. “You think he could have changed her appearance to look like him?”

“Again… I don’t know. This is out of what I know.” Kin said.

“He didn’t just change her appearance…” Kail said, earning a questioning look from Ylva. “The way he… or she… was talking. It was as if he was controlling her as well.”

“I’ve…. never seen her wear this.” came Siegfried’s weak voice. In his hands was a broken amulet that had presumably been around her neck. Kin gasped, gaining everyone’s attention again. He looked around and sighed, then stepped forward.

“Well, you see, magical items… like amulets… are definitely a thing when it comes to magic. I’ve… seen a fair few of them.” he said.

“Like this?” Siegfried asked.

“Err… let me take a look.” Kin answered, carefully taking it from Siegfried. “Well… it has a crystal of some sort in it… I think they’re meant to be good for holding magical power…” he trailed off as he inspected it. “I can… sense magic in it. There are runes engraved upon the crystal as well, but they’re too small for me to try to read. And even if I could…. Like I said I don’t know about magic to change your look or control someone’s mind.” He looked up from the amulet. “Anyone want to try it on?” he asked with a mischievous smile. No one said anything…. “Err… Nevermind.” he said, looking down at the ground.

“His clinic… We should have a look inside.” Ylva said, taking the spotlight off Kin, thankfully.

“He’s… still alive.” Siegfried said. His hand curled into a fist. “He will pay for everything.” he promised.

What’s… going on? whispered a ghostly voice. Kail noticed Ylva look around in confusion. She had heard the voice too. He caught her eye. He nodded towards Ylva’s body. She concentrated on it and Kail realised she must be looking at her spirit. Is this what people see when I do it? Do I just… space out all of a sudden? Then he joined her. As he suspected, what they saw what the spirit of Siv.

Am I dead? she asked.

Kail didn’t know what to say.

Yes, Siv. came Ylva’s voice. What is the last thing you remember?

It was a strange situation, seeing the spirit of someone who hadn’t experienced their own death. Soxolfr had known he was dead, but Siv hadn’t been herself when she had been killed.

I remember Doctor Salomon… he was acting strange. He wanted me to put on a necklace. He was really insistent about it and… then nothing.

It really was the necklace then… Kail said.

What was it? Siv asked.

Well… Ylva started. We think Salomon is behind the infection that’s been turning our people into monsters… and he did the same to you… I’m sorry Siv. We will stop him though.

I see… she responded. Did I hurt anyone? she asked.

No! Kail said emphatically. We… we stopped you before that could happen… But it wasn’t you. It was him. He was controlling you.

I see. she responded. Thank you. For stopping me… So I became one of them… because of him… And I thought he was a good person. I wanted to help him…

As did we all. Ylva said to reassure her. He tricked all of us. It was all part of his plan.

Why? What does he want? she asked.

We’re not sure. Ylva answered. We think he’s after Siegfried, but we’re not sure why.

Siegfried? Siv wondered. Don’t let him take him. Siegfried is a good man… Will you tell him I said that? And thank him for protecting the village? Don’t let Salomon turn him into a monster too.

Kail’s heart sank. He couldn’t tell her that Siegfried had been the one to kill her. Although… would it matter? She seemed like she would forgive him, especially considering the circumstances. And wouldn’t knowing she forgave him help him with any guilt he might be feeling?

Siv… Kail started.

Kail. Ylva said firmly. We should go, and leave her in peace. We still have a lot to do. There was meaning in her voice, as if she was intentionally stopping him from continuing. We’ll tell him. she said to Siv.

Alright then. Kail answered. Perhaps he should talk to her about it later. Would Siv’s spirit still be around? There was still so much he was unsure about. He knew spirits didn’t stay forever, but he didn’t know how long they lasted for, or what happened to them. If Soxolfr’s spirit was still within the forest then maybe he could tell him. Then he returned to the world of the living, and saw the focus return to Ylva’s eyes as she did the same. Kin was giving Kail a questioning look, whilst Siegfried was still kneeled next to Siv’s body.

“I just talked to her.” Ylva announced, gaining Siegfried’s attention. “The last thing she remembers is putting on that amulet. Salomon made her wear it.”

“Damn him.” Siegfried said angrily.

“She said… thank you, for stopping her.” Ylva said, directing it at Siegfried, whose eyes went wide in shock. Technically she wasn’t lying, but it seemed like she wanted to be misconstrued. “And she said she doesn’t want us to let him have Siegfried.” she continued, making a point to address everyone, especially the tahkean warriors who trained with him. “So that’s what we’ll do. We’ll defend Siegfried from him, and any more werewolves that might come. And when we find him, we’ll kill him and end all of this.” She received nods from the people around her, a sad but determined look going around. “I don’t want any more deaths in this forest… except for his.” she finished coldly. Kail got a very different feeling from her than from Soxolfr, although he had to question whether Soxolfr wouldn’t be similar if he was still alive and Ylva had been the one who died.