As they made their way through the Forest, the giant revealed more terrible things that might or might not have been lies. It liked eating women and killing infants. It was a bit hard to believe that people still went into the Forest, with these rumors spreading around, but the spirits in their physical forms were but a joke to half of the villagers.
Serenica felt nauseous. She wanted a bath, some real, warm food, and she wanted her friend back, but as they were walking back to the village, the forest spirit stopped them.
"Wait," it said. "I hear noises."
At first, it was something only a being of the wilderness could hear. Then the drums started to be audible for humans as well.
The beating of the drums came from a direction that Serenica supposed to be the south, but the rhythm was northern, tropical, very much out of place in the cool spring of the Land of Lakes.
"Do not move," the forest giant said. "Do not…move. I will deal with this."
