The mist, like a predator, sneaked up on the world with each new turn of its soulless clock, but today it seemed to retreat before Lim's persistence.
Yesterday's experience left him not only with an imprint of fatigue, but also a semblance of confidence. He was no longer a defenseless victim of darkness; he was a part of this darkness, her child, and, like a wolf learning to bite, began to master its rules.
He left his hut not as a prisoner, but as a hunter, ready to win back another day from the darkness.
Today luck smiled at him with that stingy mercy that only darkness is capable of. The traps he made from branches and dead leaves brought prey.
Several large rats trapped squirmed in powerless agony. Lim acted quickly and with the coldness that this world instilled in him.
He killed them without blinking an eye, without hatred, without regret. There was no place for sentiments or pity in this world.
Only survival mattered.
With the prey in his hands, Lim went deep into the forest to find a place to cook. He knew that even the slightest hint of smoke was a signal that could attract uninvited guests, but hunger, like an ancient beast, scratched in his womb, drowning out any fears.
He turned off the trampled animal trail, hoping to find a seclude place where he could hide from prying eyes.
That's where he came across it.
A creepy picture hung among the trees, like a curse. A dead man was swinging on a torn branch of a tree. Not a man, rather a pitiful likeness of him.
His limbs were unnaturally turned out, and his neck seemed to stretch out in a crazy cry from suffocation with a rope. The look, frozen in the empty eye sockets, was directed to the eternally gray sky, as if calling for his silent testimony. On his shabby clothes, eaten by fog and time, some signs embroidered with faded threads were visible, as if he belonged to some long-forgotten order.
Lim stopped, unable to look away. He has seen death many times, but he has never seen it so frankly, as if flaunted, as a trophy or a warning.
It wasn't death from hunger or the teeth of a monster. It was someone's cruelty, someone's cold-blooded murder. It was the kind of death that he did not understand, which he could neither explain nor accept.
A strange feeling moved in Lim's chest. Not fear, no. Rather, something like a painful curiosity, seasoned with horror and bitterness. He knew that something was wrong here, that this man, whoever he was, died for a reason, that his death was not an accident.
For a while, Lim stood silently, looking at the swaying body, as if looking into his possible future.
Then, after fear and curiosity, he forced himself to move on. He had to return to the hut, where coal was smoldering in a rough stove made of clay and stone, he had to prepare his prey to warm up and gain strength for a new day.
But the terrible picture of the hangman, like a shadow cast by the past, haunted him both in the darkness and in the vague light of fire in the stove, as an integral part of this creepy world, in which he tried not only to survive, but also to preserve himself.
Having had enough, Lim felt thirsty. His exhausted body required water. He decided to go to the stream he knew nearby. The way to it was short, but danger lurked at every step.
In the dim light, he carefully made his way through the trees, trying not to make noise. The same heavy smell of rot and damp earth that has always reigned in this world was in the air. When he approached the stream, his ears caught a strange sound. It was something like a squeak, deaf and disgusting.
Lim froze, straining his hearing. The sound was approaching.
His instinct told him to hide. A few steps from the stream there were large boulders, hiding from eyes.
Lim, bending down, crawled to one of them and hid behind him. From here he could observe without attracting attention.
And what he saw made him forget about his thirst.
There was a creature on the bank of the stream that Lim had never seen before. It was like a human, but with the head of a goat decorated with unusual horns. His skin was pale, almost white, with a little wool cover, which made him even more stand out against the background of dark trees.
As if it was made of marble, but at the same time its poses were alive. It stood motionless, slowly turning its head, which resembled the movements of an animal.
In his hands were the remains, something very small. And only then did Lim realize that it was. These were the remains of the body, small bones, broken and defiled. Remains of a child. The creature slowly, slowly and with some disgusting pleasure, gnawed and chewed the bones, chewing sounds spread through the night forest, like the death cry of the victim.
Lim didn't dare to move. He understood that this creature was more dangerous than he could have imagined. He understood that he himself could become the next dish of this disgusting creature.
He sat motionless, holding his breath, watching this creature devour his terrible prey. The thirst went away, replaced by nausea and fear that penetrated into the very depths of his small and vulnerable body. He knew that he was very lucky this time.
A deaf roar, like the rolling of thunder, swept through the forest. The ground under Lim's feet trembled. The creature, as if waking up from its terrible feast, rose sharply. In his eyes, if they could be called that, some kind of inhuman mind appeared.
Having grabbed the remains of the child, it disappeared in the thickets, dissolving in the light fog of the forest.
The silence is back, heavy, pressing. Only the churring of water in the stream broke it. Lim, still trembling with horror, waited a few minutes before getting out from behind his shelter.
Thirst, which seemed unbearable a moment ago, has now receded into the background, giving way to the motionless fear that bound his whole body. He carefully leaned over to the stream and drank water, trying not to think about what he had just seen.
After getting drunk, Lim slowly got up, getting ready to go home. He felt exhausted, as if after a hard fight. But something in the shower prevented him from going home quietly.
The feeling was so strong and obsessive that Lim, involuntarily turning his head, saw something moving behind one of the boulders. What he saw made his blood run cold in his veins.
Creature.
From the same shelter where he himself had just been hiding, it appeared. Without hiding, slowly, it looked at Lima like a cat playing with a frightened mouse. His goat's face, with drops of blood on his lips, seemed to be smiling.
In his eyes, devoid of any sympathy, there was knowledge, understanding, and what scared Lim most - superiority.
It knew that Lim was watching him. It didn't just notice him, it allowed him to see this horror to enjoy his fear even more.
The horror that gripped Lim was inexpressible. He didn't understand what it was up to, but he already felt that it would be worse than everything he had experienced so far.
The creature slowly came out from behind the boulder, not taking his eyes off Lim. His movements were smooth and unnatural, as if he were a puppet controlled by an invisible hand.
It approached him by a few steps, and Lim could see every detail of his creepy face. The blood on his lips dried up, but did not go away, leaving dark streaks, like a disgusting mark.
And then it started talking. The words that broke out of his throat were rough, hoarse, like stones rolling against each other. As if the darkness itself was trying to find a voice.
- Delicious... - the creature hissed. The voice was distorted, like an old, sick animal. - Small... sweet...
Lim froze, unable to believe his ears. He had never heard anyone speak in this world, but this voice, this wicked muttering, instilled in him only fear and disgust.
The creature took another step forward, and an ominous light lit up in his eyes, which were more like dark abyss.
- You too... - it muttered, now more like an animal's roar. - Meat... Delicious meat... I'll like how you scream... How you wheeze... When I tear off pieces...
The creature licked himself, and Lim saw his sharp teeth flashing in the dark. He realized that this creature not only wants his death, he wants to enjoy his fear, his torment.
Every word, every movement, every look was imbued with sadistic pleasure.
Lim retreated, stumbling on a stone. A cold, animal fear was born in the soul, from which every muscle tensed up, preparing to flee. He didn't know what to do, how to save himself. He knew only one thing - he was a prey, and this creature will not stop until he gets what he wants.
The creature rushed at Lim, his clawed hands stretched out to grab him. Lim didn't even have time to scream, when suddenly something hit the creature in the head. The blow was so strong that it recoiled, roaring in pain. Lim, taking advantage of the creature's confusion, tried to retreat even further.
Another blow, and this time in the head, was so strong that a dent ran over the creature's forehead, and a dark sliquid mixed with bone fragments splashed from the skull. The creature fell to the ground, twitching in agony.
From the darkness of the forest, as if from another world, came a figure that Lim had never seen before. A short creature covered with white fur, with horns similar to tree branches, held a small stick in its hands, to which a piece of leather was attached, with a stone embedded in it. Lim didn't understand what it was, but he saw how this thing had just saved his life.
The creature approached the defeated monster and once again launched a stone from his thing, and this time his blow brained his head, turning it into porridge.
After that, the creature turned to Lim. And Lim saw that his eyes were bigger than an ordinary person, but they did not have the wicked malice that the monster had.
On his face, despite the horns and white wool, there was a certain sympathy, and, what surprised Lima most, kindness.
The creature tilted its head, as if looking at Lima, and said in a quiet, melodic voice:
- Are you okay? My name is Kiki.
Lim didn't answer. He didn't know how to talk, he never talked to anyone.
Kiki, seeing his silence, smiled softly:
- Don't worry, I won't offend. I'm just traveling around this world, trying to find my younger brother, Icarus. He was taken somewhere, and I'm looking for him. And I don't like it when someone offends others. And this... it was a bad monster.
Kiki came closer, looking at Lim with curiosity. Lim didn't know what to think. He was alone all his life, and suddenly, this creature appears and saves him. In this world, where only death and despair, it seemed that this creature was a dream, a hallucination or some strange deception.