Lord Fujioka woke up when the sunlight streamed in through the window.
He got up from the bed, got dressed and planned on leaving.
But Yoruha Kageyama had woken up along with him and treated him to a nice breakfast.
When the breakfast, which wasn't anything spectacular, was eaten, he stood up and opened the door to leave.
What he saw…wasn't too exciting. His horse…was not only dead but mangled beyond recognition.
Lord Fujioka froze at the sight, the snow around the body was red and it was not pretty.
"What's wrong?"
The mage asked, walking over to see for herself.
Once she got a good view she also froze up in the doorway, slightly behind him.
It took a moment before she asked another question.
"What…happened? Could've it been some wild animal?"
Yoruha looked at him, waiting for an answer.
"I doubt that. We would've heard the commotion. And also…"
He pointed up at a particular tree branch, a tree branch with the head of the horse stuck on it.
The mage turned her head and looked up at where he pointed to, suddenly feeling the need to empty her stomach.
She looked away before it was too much for her.
"...I doubt that a bear or any wild animal could stick the head of a horse onto a tree branch."
Lord Fujioka then walked over to the corpse.
How will I get to the capital now?
Lord Fujioka was caught off guard when a spear flew at him half way to the corpse.
…
Reiji Kurozuma woke up when the sun came up.
You see, he had to sleep in a safe, warm place because it started snowing yesterday.
His solution? Force a bear out of its cave and sleep there instead.
He was too tired to care about the consequences.
Seeing the light, Reiji got up and walked out of the cave, making his way back to the capital.
As he walked, the forest was too silent.
Something felt wrong, like he was being watched.
"Not another one."
He muttered, stopping and looking around.
After seeing that nothing was wrong he just kept walking, but he never let his guard down.
The only sound in the whole forest was the sound of his footsteps but he was positive there was another sound, as if someone or something was walking with him, mimicking his footsteps.
Reiji suddenly ran a short distance before abruptly stopping.
There wasn't supposed to be any sound after he stopped but he heard something to his left, not far behind him.
It was as if something just came into an abrupt stop, failing to mimic him.
He turned around very slowly and he saw a tall, skeletal creature with an extremely unnatural body.
It looked like a horse but its limbs were long and thin, almost stick-like, but bent in a strange, definitely not natural way.
It was moving on all fours, though its front limbs were longer than its hind ones, way longer.
Thanks to the stretched, pale skin clinging tightly to its frame, you could see its ribcage and even some of its organs that were outlined.
What was most disturbing was what seemed like the upper half of a human attached to its back.
It had the same, pale and stretched skin, outlining its organs and skeleton.
Instead of eyes, it had two black holes.
The head of the horse and human were both looking at him. It was at least five meters tall, an absolute unit.
How does something like that even move so silently?
Reiji thought to himself, sighing.
He had a stare down with the monster before he turned and made a run for it.
"I'm not fighting you, dumbass!"
He yelled while he ran in a slightly panicked tone.
The monster took off after him in an instant, letting out a scream that sounded like a human in a lot of pain.
Using his life force to enhance his body, Reiji reached an inhuman speed. Combine that with his smaller frame and the dense forest, Reiji could maneuver far better.
At least that was the logical conclusion, looking back, he saw that the monster could just push over trees as if they were just sticks in the ground.
Back over to Lord Fujioka, the spear got stopped by a magic barrier casted by Yoruha in a split second.
Lord Fujioka saw what threw the spear, it was a creature with long and sinewy limbs, with two clawed feet gripping the bark tightly and one arm that was now holding onto the nearest branch.
Its skin was pale gray, almost blue, with mottled, spot-like markings.
He couldn't really see its face because it had a cloth wrapped around its neck with sticks attached to it. These sticks were used to stretch out the skin of a dead person's face in front of its own.
A portal opened up in between its legs and as it opened, its width grew bigger than the distance between its legs, causing the portal to burn through them.
It let out a screech that was like nails on a chalkboard because of the pain and distress.
Its only arm was too thin, too weak to hold it up and so its grip slipped and it fell inside the portal.
The portal closed and Lord Fujioka looked at Yoruha, seeing that she was the one who casted the portal.
"I remember you saying to me years ago that portals were impossible to create without pre-made seals."
Said Lord Fujioka in a confused tone. The magic barrier in front of him slowly retracted until it was gone.
"Magic and technology aren't different, they both change and get more efficient. Though that portal would cause you to puke your soul out if you would go through it."
After a moment of silence Lord Fujioka spoke.
"I need to get back to the capital."
She nodded in response.
"I'll prepare a portal seal for you, you aren't going out there with things like that roaming around, setting up ambushes no less."
He nodded, going back inside of the cabin with her.
Reiji was currently running through the forest, trying not to get caught by that thing.
I need to disappear from its sight.
But something like that would be impossible. In his red clothes he stood out like a sore thumb against the white snow and leafless trees.
As he ran, it was as if the forest was ending a good distance in front of him.
Seeing that there was an actual drop off, Reiji came to an abrupt stop.
This wasn't here yesterday!
Looking down, he saw a blood forest that also wasn't there before.
"Shit…"
He looked back at the monster closing in on him. and back down at the blood forest.
"...Oh, fuck me!"
He said, jumping down.