A cold wind swept across the black glade, carrying with it the whispers of a thousand voices of the lost dead. Where once was crisp green grass, lay dead blackened soil where the great war of Foryyst had been held three hundred years ago. The lifeblood of innocents choked the lush green plants, smothering the life out of the landscape. The glade became a pitch coloured wasteland, a scar on the land, which stood as a memorial to the thousands that lost their lives to defend the country of Foryyst.
The citizens of Foryyst knew better than to go out onto the black glade after dark. They knew that creatures of the dark lurked behind every blackened tree stump, behind every dark hill, behind the white fog that often crossed across it. A hunter appeared from the mists that night.
A black, twisted monster with useless grey wings absurdly folded on its back, sticking out at ridiculous angles. It hobbled across the dark land in search of food. It was nothing less than a scavenger, picking off the last remains of dead animals. Occasionally, it caught a lone, unknowing rat in its mangled jaw. But things like that were a delicacy on those dark nights. It scrabbled around on the floor, its large nose to the ground trying to pick up any scent of a fresh kill. It stopped dead in its tracks.
The monster pricked up its ears and turned its head to the sound of the noise. Its green eyes turned a shade of brilliant yellow, which were able to cut through even the thickest fog. He could hear the thing running clumsily, making a whimpering noise as it went. His eyes shone and he could see that the thing was a human girl. Its mouth began to water at the thought of having a fresh kill all to itself. Saliva dripped over its grey muzzle as it began to pant with excitement.
"Fresh kill, fur me tis. Fresh kill, fresh hooman alls fur me!" It squealed in ecstasy. It watched as the human stumbled a few hundred meters from where it was laying down, blending in perfectly with the soil. The monster had a very poor understanding of human behaviour. He didn't know that the girl was weeping as she ran, her face wet with tears of shame, embarrassment and anger. Her brilliant purple eyes saw blindly past the fog, her arms clutching at a thick, heavy cape, covering what was once a beautiful dress. Now torn and ripped in several places. She sobbed heavily, the sound smothered by the fog.
The monster grunted in irritation, and crept a little closer. It didn't want the huge-scary-black-beast-eater to get to it or its kill. The huge-scary-black-beast-eater was known throughout the land by the monster-beasts. It was a monstrous size and walked around the land on four clawed legs. It had been in the area recently and scared off a lot of the beasts. Many had died from starvation which meant easy pickings for the scavengers. But humans were a delicacy in the black glade and this monster wasn't going to let it escape from its jaws.
The girl kept on moving closer and closer to the monster, her ragged breathing so easily heard. Her dark auburn hair began to untwist from the knot at the back of her head and hang around her high cheekbones. Her pale hands were dirty from scrambling up from a the times she fell over trying to get out of Forryst that night. She had spent just an hour running but she was already past exhaustion. Her eyelids hung heavily over her large, wet eyes. She gave one last withering breath before collapsing to the ground, half-conscious and exhausted.
The monster yelped in excitement and began to move quickly towards the girl. The woman gasped as she heard the noise, her eyes wide and terrified as she tried to peek through the fog towards her attacker. The monster no longer cared. The human had fallen, the human was weak, the human was easy. It skipped and hopped towards her like a demented dog. The girl tried to stand, but her legs were too weak. She collapsed back onto the ground, gasping with fear of her immanent death. The monster bent down and leapt towards the girl, its olive tongue lolling over its black teeth. It saw her eyes lock onto his own. Those wide, purple eyes suddenly darted behind its shoulder at something unknown. It was less than a meter away before it came to a complete halt in the air. It was completely frozen. The beast saw the huge-scary-black-beast-eater behind it and would have cried out in fear, but its jaw was locked tightly in an invisible gag. The human's eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted. The beast heard a noise behind it, two legs, a swish of hair. In front of it walked another human. His hair was the colour of midnight and his eyes a brilliant blue. They shone with frustrated anger at the beast. The man flicked his hand at the monster, casting it across the glade towards a dead tree. The monster's neck broke instantly and it crumpled to the ground like a broken toy. The man frowned until he heard the satisfying snap. He nodded and looked down at the woman at his feet. She had a purple bruise on her cheek and her lips were badly swollen. He picked her up easily, as if she weighed nothing and carried her back to the huge-scary-black-beast-eater. Little did the monster know, that it was the Wizard Howl's Castle.