Luicia always did things unhesitatingly and every time she hesitated, she would lose her deciding factor.
As soon as Luicia saw the silhouette, she checked for herself that the things she had seen were true. While there's nothing wrong with that, she was torn between continuing the hunt and notifying everyone. But after one more look through Bony Bird's eyes, Luicia unhesitatingly stopped and said, "Trap." The moment Luicia said this everyone stopped in their tracks.
Rather than running on flat ground where they could run as fast as they needed, they were treading mountainous terrain. Even a small distance like ten meters would take some time to cover, and like everyone, they wished they could learn how to fly. Such a wish was unlikely to be granted, nor did they want everyone in the mountains to shoot them down.
The moment Luicia revealed that she had discovered something, everyone took cover behind the nearest tree to them. While everyone else could not see what Luicia had discovered, they believed what she said as she had already surprised everyone today.
But unlike others, Luicia could see for herself what was following them through Bony Bird.
The moment everyone stopped and took cover they heard a voice. Though the words sounded sinister, the somewhat joyful tone made it seem like every word they were hearing was an illusion.
A voice echoed in the distance, "SOMEone fouND Me! Oh! HOw cleVER of YOu!" Every word of it was difficult to understand.
A man or, more appropriately, a humanoid emerged from the shadows. Though the humanoid looked like any other man, it had a few distinct features that no normal person would want.
His sparse waist-length hair which had a bald spot in the middle, made his head look like a lake in a forest clearing. The shiny bald patch was surrounded by long waist-length hair and his ankle-length arms touched the grass from time to time. In addition to that, his wide eye socket, thin lips, and black attire added to his bizarre appearance.
Everyone was on high alert, but the only one to recognize this appearance was none other than Ursula. The moment she recognized who that humanoid was, she was filled with utter dread.
Ursula once heard a story but she never thought that one day she would come across such a similar situation.
In the north of the continent, in a group of villages sheltered by tall mountains lived a family. The tall mountains stopped most of the frost winds of the chilling winter, but when they shifted, they brought torrential snowfalls.
That particular year to the villagers' surprise no snow fell. Villagers thought it was a blessing and decided to organize a feast. Most of the villagers in those villages were particularly wealthy due to the natural resources of mother nature. Those who worked in the field, on those lands, would never sleep hungry, or so they said.
In a particular family of three, the parents were ill but they didn't want their daughter to miss the feast so they sent her with neighbours.
For a small kid like her, anything they get to eat a few times a year would be a delight. This small girl wanted to share this delight with her family but what she had not noticed was the man following after her. After all, all she had in mind was reaching home and surprising her parents.
As she was jumping back home joyfully a thought flashed through her mind. Mother would always scold her whenever she played with food, so she picked a dessert 'o' in shape and looked through it. Her innocent mind felt ecstatic when she did something mischievous, something her mother always scolded her for.
She did it once and wasn't satisfied. So she hopped back home as she stared at the odd 'o' shaped dessert.
Sometimes she would see trees through the hole, sometimes she would look for peculiar stones and sometimes she would see a strange bald man with very long hands.
Just when she was about to skip him again, a thought entered her mind. 'What is this strange uncle doing here?...'
What her innocent mind saw was a poor thin man not a stranger with sinister intentions.
She hopped near the oddity and offered him dessert. The oddity could not comprehend what she was doing, but still accepted the dessert. After that, the oddity began looking at the dessert strangely.
As soon as the little girl saw the strange gaze, she slapped her forehead in imitation of an adult.
"Ah, sorry. Mamy always reminds me not to give someone cold food but here I am." The little girl said.
His expression did not change, but his eyes blanked out, giving him an eerie look.
"How can I help you?" The oddity did not speak in a strange tone, but spoke normally.
"Big Uncle, can you really help little Jiji?" The little girl's eyes shone in wonder. "Can Big Uncle help me warm up these treats? You know, my parents are really ill..."
When the oddity waved his hand, the treats floated to him, and soon, fire elementium was attracted to his hands from out of nowhere and heated the food.
Obviously the girl couldn't see the elementium particles since she was a mere mortal but her eyes sparkled when she smelled the delicious fragrance.
"Big Uncle, can you teach me how you did that?" The little girl asked mischievously. There was no malice behind her innocent question but the oddity was not a regular person too.
"GREED!" The oddity's eyes turned crimson and attacked the girl. Using only his palm, he cut off the girl's neck.
When the crimson glow in the eyes of the oddity subsided, he turned his neck and looked at the man hiding behind the tree.
The oddity approached the man and asked, "CAn yOU PLEase giVE me A HAnd?"
Suddenly, this man, who was terrified moments ago, was confused, but he didn't dare refuse. He didn't dare refuse and agreed.
This man thought that the oddity needed help disposing of the girl's corpse.
In fright, he ran and held the girl's legs but he got no response from the oddity. He looked at the oddity with a questioning gaze but what he saw gave him a huge fright.
The oddity's eyes were slowly turning red, but this time with a calm voice, the oddity asked the same question. "Can you please give me a hand?"
Whenever the oddity was calm, he would talk differently than a normal person, and this very fact almost made him shit his pants. This man was preparing to kill him!
The man in question had already fallen on his butt in fright and all on his mind was this question, "Give him my hand? My HAND?..."
When he was in the depths of despair, a thought struck him: 'Give me an arm... Give him an arm... An arm... But he didn't say my arm...'
He turned to the girl's corpse and bit her arm without a second thought, and severed it after a few tries.
His whole body turned red, covered in the little girl's blood but the man didn't flinch a bit and gave the arm to the oddity.
When the oddity received the arm, he regained his normal state and gave the man a wish.
And this man was none other than the Dafin Family's head, Faygan Dafin.