"What's that?" Asked the petit figure clutching onto the edge of the desk in the center of the grand Duke's office.
With her mismatched eyes widened and dilated in curiosity, the little one continued to bore holes with her gaze at the parchment held in front of her.
With the man seated by the desk, her father, holding up the sheet, he cleared his throat to speak. "It is known as Sliqruki."
"That's a funny name, Papa," she turned back to the image inked on the page.
It was a detailed old sketch of a humanoid creature represented to be as tall as a tree, with black feet and hands; the creature had long, fleshly hair shaded black with what looked like several eyes dotted on the hair that shrouded the head and face of the creature completely.
Benjamin then added, "It is also known as the forest feeder. It is said that all the wild beasts and fiends in the mystical forest bow and obey it and even hunt for it. Its long tentacle-like hair then wraps around any live prey submitted to it, and hangs them off trees in some sort of cocoon."
"Cocoon? Like... Caterpillars?"
He nodded. "Yes. It creates a cocoon for its prey with parts of its hair and slowly digests them until they melt and nourish its body."
Young Sylteena's eyes dilated in fear, taking a step back as her brows scrunched slightly. "Papa, that's scary..." She pursed her lips, "What if it comes to our state and eats me in its cocoon?"
Benjamin's expression immediately softened at the realization of the fright he instilled in his little one, dropping his head to scratch the back of his neck. He indeed got carried away with his tales again...
"Aww, my little Heiress, it can never be..." He stretched out his hand to her, subtly motioning her closer before lifting her off her feet and onto his lap.
Sylteena's lips remained in a pout. "What if slikuliki comes to send its hair through my windows? And drags me to the forest?"
Benjamin laughed softly at her adorable mispronunciation and juvenile worry.
"How can any harm befall you when your father is still here and alive? Never, my darling!"
Sylteena leaned to his chest as his arms enveloped her. "But why is it even there, Papa? Where did it come from?"
"Nobody knows, my little one. It just roams the forest but never stepping out into the settlements or cities."
"Then who saw it to paint these pictures?"
"These were done by hunters from a few years ago."
Sylteena looked back at the art line on the desk, grimacing in anxiety as Benjamin couldn't hold from poking her further by saying, "You know... No one has ever seen its face underneath its hair. And they say its skin is white as this sheet despite its black limbs."
Sylteena clung to him with tensed shoulders. "Papa... I don't like this story. It's too scary. Change it."
"Okay, okay, okay, little one," his palm gently stroked her blonde strands. "I'll change it to another mystical beast."
She nodded, pushing away the haunting image to the side as her father pulled out another sheet from his folder with a more docile-looking mystical creature sketched on it.
"This one looks like a fairy!!" Her shoulders relaxed as her lips tugged to a smile, pointing at the sketch.
"Yes, yes. This one is like a fairy and even smaller and friendlier."
"Hehe... I like this one," she resigned to her father's embrace as he started a new story about the more accommodating creature that seemed less haunting than the last.
Sylteena smiled.
• • •
With a moist warmth that enveloped her being, Slyteena felt suspended in an enclosed space with her body coiled into a ball; a tingling sensation crawled over her bare skin despite the immediate warmth she was in.
Shards of her disoriented mind started to settle as she regained her sense of self and awareness, causing her brows to scrunch with her body slowly waking up.
Sylteena attempted to move her limb, only to feel a certain obstruction keeping her body in place.
Breathing in softly, the air felt stuffed and hot before Sylteena finally opened her eyes to immediate darkness. She instinctively pushed out to feel the fleshly wall sealed around her, putting in greater force as she felt the sense of dread and panic make the little air around her suffocating.
Her hands finally tore through the fleshly wall around her as a sharp ray of light shone in — almost immediately, the flesh enclosing her split into half — her body plummeted onto the grassy earth as she let out a painful grunt at the impact.
Sylteena coiled into a ball as she clinched unto her ankle, groaning to the sharp ache from her misplaced fall.
Taking a moment to wallow in pain, she finally calmed herself before raising her gaze to see where she fell from. Her eyes widened.
The black fleshed cocoon was torn in half and dripping off a white gel, causing her to look down at herself and note the goo smeared on her and her nightdress.
Her mind still swirled in a pool of bewildered confusion, feeling her chest heaved rapidly at the settling reality.
The traumatized sight of what stood before her the previous night, although still fogged from her frightened mind, caused Slyteena to remain seated on the ground as the warm rays of the morning sun basked her and the tall trees around.
Sylteena slowly raised her gaze to what looked like a normal forest, then back to the dripping cocoon latched onto a black vine that trailed between a network of branches leading deeper into the forest.
She felt her survival instinct kick in as she slowly pushed up on her feet, staggering back on one foot before limping in the opposite direction.
Her body, clothes, and hair still reeked of the musky scent from the goo soaked on her as her ragged breathing drew longer and deeper with each painful step she dragged herself in.
Confused about where exactly she was and how she could escape, Slyteena only kept walking away from where she woke up, battling to grasp whether it was a dream, hallucination, or reality.
She limped, tumbled, and stumbled down the dirt path she paved through, glancing every moment over her shoulders and around in anticipation of the horror she saw last night.
Anything... Her heart gripped in fear, pleaded. She would give anything to walk out of that place alive and safe.
Please... Her fingers dug deeper into her palms by the strength of her clenched fists. She just wanted to be alive...
Papa... Her eyes welled with tears as the overwhelming emotions of her father's memories flooded her traumatized mind, pushing herself to limp away fast. She needed his protection and courage now more than ever.
After the long tiring moments of what felt like hours, Sylteena's steps came to an abrupt halt as she sighted a dirt road by a village downhill.
Her eyes widened in hope at the sight of civilians of a small settlement roaming through with their donkeys and carriages around large crop patches and animal pens.
A surge of joy filled her heart as her body regained unexplained strength to suddenly run down rocky hill, numbing the burning sensations of the wounds on her bare feet and legs.
On reaching the settlement, her distorted appearance and ragged loud pants seized the attention of the few villagers on a farm patch.
Their eyes widened as Sylteena staggered forward — her skin and hair dirt-smudged with her now brown nightdress; Sylteena had the edges of her lips pulled slightly to the bumbling elation in her heart at the sight of living things seemed humane.
She hoped with every fiber of her tarnished being and soul that it wasn't an illusion and not still within the forest, starved, exhausted, and scared.
She finally halted before the small group of farmers that stared at her with wide eyes.
Sylteena fell on her knees. "H- Help..." Was the only word her dried throat could force, feeling an overwhelming sense of weakness and pain in her injured body.
She watched them with dilated hopeful eyes — almost immediately, Sylteena's heart cringed at the welching sight of both spite and disgust flash in the eyes of the farmers as they stepped away from her.
Their faces scrunched into horror as if they had just seen something worse than the plight she'd witnessed the previous night.
Her brows knitted, glancing at herself and back. Was she perhaps curse into some monster or creature of a sort, and she wasn't aware...
"I- It's..." A whisper from one of the villagers suddenly reached her ears. "The cursed One..."
And in that very moment, Sylteena's soul felt a hard blow as her expression fell in an instant.
Of course... They looked at her with so much disdain, not because she looked horrible or inhuman.
But because of who exactly she was born as... The hope in her eyes slowly dimmed as she stared poker at the wide eyes surrounding her.
They looked at her no different than any other person in her life has...