Chapter 1:

  Midnight Elegy

Two pairs of wheels creaked and shooked above uneven and rocky remains of a road. Even as the moon reigned proudly over the sky, the occupants of the carriage could not catch a sliver of rest.

“They task us with checking out some backwater trash heap, but none of them thought it wise to assign us mounts. The wheel’s going to come off before we reach the first village, assuming some monster doesn’t ram into us first.” Complained a tall, stocky man as he sipped from his flask.

“Don’t try to find logic in aristocrat whims, Yohan. You’ll be searching forever.” The man sitting to his right rebutted.

“Yeah, well, I hope you’re ready to pay the driver for any repairs out of your pocket then, Istval.”

Armed with spears and dressed in leather armor, these men proudly displayed their identity as soldiers. Among the nine men in the carriage, only one individual didn’t fit that description, only one who didn’t share in any of the talks.

The person in question was a young man with jet black hair and a pristine, expensive-looking black cloak covering his torso. The cloak gleamed under the faint moonlight, drawing attention away from the light brown, torn, and hole-ridden clothes hidden underneath.

Just as with his clothes, his soft visage untouched by the marks of war or conflict stood in stark contrast with the heavily damaged hilt of the blade held on his back within an old and torn sheath.

To complete the perfectly contradictory image was the strident auburn-colored mandolin strapped to his back.

The young man, a mandolin player, going by the name of Aidan, was absent-mindedly staring at a picture held within a pendant even though the light of the moon was too weak to illuminate it.

For the past few days, ever since he had picked up the trail of his quarry, his mind had been flooded by a mixture of excitement and fear. It was only the memories tied to the pendant that calmed the torrent in his heart.

“Hey kid, since we’re not gonna get any rest anyway, how about singing us something nice?” Yohan asked.

Aidan’s head snapped upwards to face the soldier, a look of surprise plastered on his face.

“I’m still very much a novice. You won’t get any enjoyment out of my songs.”

Aidan’s words were no lie, but they concealed the complete truth.

“Perhaps so under normal circumstances. Still, anything to take our minds off of this bumpy ride and our insomnia is more than welcome.”

“I assure you, anything I play you will only make the trip worse.”

“Nonsense! You ought to have more confidence in yourself!”

The soldier plucked a coin from his pouch and tossed it to Aidan.

“There, to make up for the pestering of an old man.”

The young man hesitantly pulled out his mandolin. Though he tried to hide it, there was a visible sense of agitation in how he handled his instrument. The soldiers wrote it off as the nerves of a beginner.

The truth was much darker.

How am I supposed to do this without them catching on to me? Maybe if I sing them something soft enough, they won’t suffer as much.

Aidan slowly plucked the strings of his mandolin. He recalled the one song his father always sang to him to help him fall asleep no matter how cold and harsh the ruins they slept in were.

Aidan’s fingers trembled slightly as he reminisced on those days.

The soldiers, meanwhile, were surprised by his choice of song. Their expectations were low, but to receive what was essentially a child’s lullaby...

The strumming itself was, by all means, that of a beginner with a year or two of practice under his belt, and the way he sang was, if a little somber, nothing special.

Despite such a standard-sounding melody, the soldiers felt an ever-increasing sense of rejection. It was almost as if they were being followed by a predator looking to pounce on them.

“Alright, kid, that’s enough,” Yohan ordered.

“Sorry. As I said, I’m not skilled enough to sing to others yet.” Aidan said with clear intent to remove himself from the conversation as fast as possible.

“You might want to apprentice under a master.”

Aidan shot Yohan a glare.

“I mean no insult to you, lad!”

“It’s not me you are insulting.… Whatever, let’s leave it be.”

“Hah, I always said you had a way with words, Yohan!” Istval said while laughing.

“Oh, quiet down. I was just trying to be nice!”

Aidan stared at the men cracking jokes. He felt disgusted at the thought of talking to them any further but now was the perfect opportunity to get information out of them.

“You guys...Where are you traveling to?”

The soldiers glanced at each other.

“Should we tell him?”

“He’s a fellow travel companion. I say might as well.”

“Right. So, kid, the local villages have been sending out reports about attacks on their livestock, amongst other, less believable things. We’ve just ignored them at first, but they kept coming in, so here we are.”

“Do you know what you are dealing with?”

“Not yet. They say it’s a monster. That it takes the shape of a girl to try and gain your pity.”

Aidan’s eyes narrowed. Their target was the same, after all.

“And…do you believe their claims?”

“Bah, it’s complete hogwash. If they were really haunted by a monster, they’d all be dead already. The only defense these remote backwater peasants have is not being found.”

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Just what I needed to complicate the ritual…No, perhaps that’s good. If they chose to send only middling soldiers, it must mean they aren’t aware of the true nature of the creature taking harbor there.

“What about you, kid? What are you traveling to the outskirts of the empire for?”

“Inspiration,” Aidan answered instantly. This was a question he had rehearsed for.

“From peasants?”

“Everyone has a story to tell. Maybe I will leave the villages with a new song or two to share with the rest of the world.”

“Then I wish you all the best with that, lad!”

The banter of the soldiers continued even despite the late hours. Aidan, meanwhile, did his best to tune out their voices as he went through the steps to the ritual over and over in his mind.

And so, the carriage continued onwards until the path carried it into a forest. The road, already damaged and poorly maintained, became too precarious to traverse on such little light, forcing them to come to a stop.

With the sleep knocked out of them by the bumpy road, the soldiers made a small fire nearby to share a few drinks.

Aidan waited for them all to be preoccupied before finally exiting himself. He got out of the carriage carefully so as to not pressure his legs.

As he walked past the fire, its light shone upon the tears in Aidan’s pants. Though too faint for any of the soldiers to see, the red light of the flames met with a weak purple shimmer coming from within the tears.

Feeling the warmth upon his legs, Aidan grunted softly. The pain was still fresh even after six months had passed.

The mandolin player retreated from the group and rested up against a tree, away from the ears of his fellow travelers.

Finally alone, Aidan placed his pendant upon a stone and opened it so that the moonlight gently fell upon the man pictured within it. Before the watchful eyes of his teacher, Aidan practiced his mandolin once more.

He played uninterrupted for hours until a sudden shift in the wind broke Aidan’s rhythm. The cold air of the night disappeared, replaced by a suffocating warmth. Even though each manifestation was unique to the specimen, Aidan had experienced enough of them to recognize it immediately.

The site of the reports was still dozens of kilometers away from where the carriage stopped, with a large forest in between them and the cover of the night protecting them, and yet...

It found them.

Aidan clutched his mandolin with a trembling grip. He tried to get up and run for the source of

the anomalous event, only for his legs to tense up.

I need to go! If it finishes killing them before I arrive, I’ll lose my chance!

Despite knowing that, Aidan couldn’t overcome his fear. Never before had he had to face one on his lonesome.

It’s too soon, I’m not ready! I don’t know a single thing about it! If I try to perform the ritual like this, I’ll die for certain!

Aidan grabbed hold of his pendant and glanced at the picture within.

No. If I let this chance slip, I might not find another one before it’s too late.

Aidan hurried back to the carriage.

Meanwhile, at the camp, the soldiers had formed a tight-knit circle around the campfire which was now casting an otherworldly blue light. Blinded on all sides by the pitch-black veil of the forest, the men could only wait and hope that whatever assailant stalked them would step out into the small area lit up by the fire.

“Looks like whatever’s been causing trouble found us first.”

“Excellent, I’ll get to cash in the reward sooner.” Yohan’s spear shook despite his bravado.

The world around them grew quieter and quieter as all sounds died one by one. The crunching of leaves beneath their feet, the panicked neighs of the horses, the crackling of the fire, all faded away. However, with their minds entirely focused on survival, the soldiers failed to take note of the change.

“Damn, Istvan, do you think it got the kid first?”

“I pray not, but we can check after we split its belly op-” Istvan suddenly went quiet.

Yohan quickly turned around, fearing the worst, only to find Istvan and all the other men still there.

“...” Yohan gasped as even the words that left their mouths no longer entered the world.

The air, before uncomfortably warm, was now scorching as their bodies sweat profusely under their armor. Meanwhile, their backsides were shivering intensely as the campfire froze the air behind them.

Fear gripped their hearts. Only their rigorous training was stopping them from dropping their weapons and running panicked into the darkness of the forest.

Brought before the peak of the silent world, their minds couldn’t hear their own thoughts anymore. All faded into the void.

And then, sound.

A soft, angelic song, carried like a mother’s lullaby, crept into the hearts of the soldiers. Everything made sense again. All would be alright in the end. The world was silent no longer.

The soldiers smiled. Their weapons made no sound as they touched the ground, let go as their owners no longer saw reason to fight. Their bodies quickly followed suit as all feeling fled their beings. As their consciousness failed them, they caught a glimpse of a white figure, tall as the trees approaching from the woods.

Aidan came running back as fast as he could to the campsite, following the dreadful notes of the song.

When he arrived, he was met with the sight of a pale beast, standing easily three times his height as it shone faintly against the black backdrop of the night. The bodies of the soldiers and drivers were laid at its feet in a large pool of their combined blood.

Aidan thought to look for the men who had spoken to him, only for a sudden drop in the song to send shivers down his spine. His arrival had not gone unnoticed.

The monster turned around on its two legs to face Aidan, giving the young man a good look at its victim, the disembodied body of one of the soldiers. His blood glistened as it ran down the guts stretched out by the demon’s long teeth. Though torn and gouged with holes, Aidan could still barely recognize Istvan’s face beneath the mangled mess.

Even with its mouth full of meat, the demon’s song continued uninterrupted. Drops of blood ran down the monster’s mouth, leading Aidan’s eyes to its neck and then to its gaunt torso. There, Aidan saw just how tightly the monster’s skin hugged its bones, almost as if there was no flesh separating them. The beast had not eaten in a very long time.

“You’re really here…” Aidan’s heart was pounding out of his chest.

The demon’s eyes met with Aidan’s. He froze, left staring into the beast’s intense auburn eyes.

The monster tilted its head as it analyzed the young man. It stepped forward, reaching one of its freakishly long arms towards Aidan.

A terrible trembling took over the young man, knocking him out of his trance. Mandolin in hand, he strummed its strings in the same way he had seen his master do so many times before. With an unsure grip on his instrument and a shaking voice, Aidan sang back to the demon. Their songs met in the middle, Aidan matching his song to the demons to form an unholy duet.

The demon’s engorged auburn eyes went wide with shock. The newcomer’s song had pushed past the demon’s to strike a chord in its heart, and its own song faltered.

With the monster's song stopped, two of the soldiers on the floor started to regain their consciousness.

The demon spat out the guts it was feasting on and leaped for the cover of the trees, still holding on to the body of its victim.

Aidan watched the demon leave, his body and mind frozen and trembling.

With the demon’s departure, sound returned to the world.

“Kid, is-is that you?”

Aidan recognized Yohan’s voice, but he did not spare even a single thought towards the well-being of the soldier.

Without wasting another second, Aidan gave chase to the demon, but its long gait hopelessly outmatched his. Trying to increase his pace past his limit, he stumbled over a tree trunk and fell face-first into the dirt.

A sharp pain shot through his legs. It took all of Aidan’s willpower not to fill the forest with his screams.

Once the pain abated, Aidan checked his legs for any damage. Much to his relief, everything was still more or less intact.

His fear set aside, Aidan wiped away the mud from his eyes and slammed his fist on the ground in frustration.

When he stood back up, the light of the moon shone through the leaves of the trees and illuminated the ground beneath his feet. There he could see the trail of blood left behind by the mutilated body of the soldier the demon carried.

“Perfect…” He whispered.

With a way to locate the demon, the mandolin player slowly trekked through the forest after it.