Chapter 1

Never did I think that this particular day would change my life forever. It started the same as any other day. I got up early to draw water from the well and cooked breakfast for my father and I. Soon after he left to take some furniture to a town quite a distance away and told me that he might have to stay over somewhere on the way home. I cleaned the house, washed clothes and fed our cow, Bessie, and the chickens. It was nice to have fresh eggs and milk whenever we needed. We didn't have much, but enough to get by. Father was a carpenter. I worked at the bakery every second day. Today was my off day.

When I had done everything I could at home I decided to go to the library. I loved reading. The ladies there knew me well and would always tell me if there were any new books that I might like. After chatting to them for a bit and taking out two new books I left. On the way I passed the bakery to confirm that I would come to work the next day and just left the store when a man bumped into me. It was Erik. He was the town's most eligible bachelor, owning two estates and lots of money. All the girls I knew looked at him with doe eyes daydreaming about becoming the next Mrs Hunter. What an apt surname. Apart from the fact that he hunted everything and anything that moved in the woods and had so many trophies mounted on the local bar's walls, which he owns, that he had a store built to throw the others in. I found it disgusting. How could he kill so easily without remorse? Didn't he have any feelings for animals?

"Pardon me Madame!" he quickly said and picked up one of the books I had dropped. He looked at the title before handing it to me. As usual he was dressed up to the nines, shiny boots and all.

"I honestly don't get why girls like reading these," he said in a disinterested manner.

"Well...I don't get why some guys like shooting everything that moves," I replied sarcastically, carefully avoiding saying "him", but we both knew who I was talking about. I never thought twice about giving him a piece of my mind. I hated how he acted like the whole town was his.

"I guess we are just very different from each other."

He was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, which meant he was scheming. I didn't want to be part of anything he thought up so I excused myself.

"Hey! Wait up!" he called out to me and easily matched my pace. What did he want now?

"Father will only be home later so if you are interested in furniture I will let him know to come and see you tomorrow."

"I'm not interested in furniture."

I stopped walking and squared my shoulders.

"Then what do you want, Mr Hunt?"

"Perhaps...I want you?"

"Very funny!" I said and turned to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.

"I'm serious! Annabelle, you are the only girl that doesn't just...fall over when I come near her. You are not afraid to speak your mind and I like that you are not intimidated by me. Lately...I've come to think more and more about you. I..."

"Don't!" I interrupted, "Mr Hunt, I do not have romantic feelings of any sort towards you."

He had a shocked expression on his face and was silent. I continued walking, hoping that he'd just leave, but I was wrong.

"Hah!" he finally exclaimed, "Don't think I'll give up that easily, Annabelle! I will make you mine soon enough!" He had yelled this and a couple of people heard him. Great, now I would be the talk of town. How Annabelle turned the great and noble Mr Hunt down. I realised too late that what I said would only encourage him. Women were no different than hunting to him; the easy targets didn't excite him anymore. My heart felt heavy as I walked down the dirt road that led to my home. There were heavy clouds in the sky and I knew it would rain soon. I hoped in my heart that father would be okay wherever he was.

I was surprise to find Maggie waiting outside my door, looking very worried. She was the butcher's daughter.

"Hi Maggie, why do you look so worried?"

"Annabelle! I'm so glad you finally came! You have to help me!"

"Why? What happened?"

"I lost Mr Piggles."

Mr Piggles was her dad's prized pig. It was the biggest pig in the district and won many prizes. Maggie apparently took it for a walk in the nearby woods. She had tied it to a tree and went for a swim, but when she came back to rope was broken.

"I've got to find him! Dad will be very angry if I don't!"

"Don't worry, let me just put my books inside and then I'll come and help you look for him."

After an hour of searching we still hadn't found Mr Piggles. We saw some footprints from where the rope snapped towards the deeper part of the forest and followed it. Maggie had the leftover piece of rope with her in case we found him. We could here thunder and knew it would rain very soon.

"We should go back for now Maggie, I think your dad will be even angrier if something happened to you."

"I...guess you are right..."

I felt very sorry for Maggie. Anything could have happened to the pig in these woods... Just then we found some more footprints. They looked fresh.

"Mr Piggles must be nearby!" Maggie yelled and started running.

"Maggie don't!" I called out, but she didn't listen. I followed as fast as I could and bumped into her. She was standing still staring at something. I looked and saw it too. There was something partially sunken into a quicksand pool. I shivered when I thought that it could have been Maggie.

"What is it?" she asked in horror. It was some sort of...creature. It had dark-grey skin, horns and wings. It must be some kind of demon? It seemed unconscious.

"Did it go after Mr Piggles and got sucked into the pool too? Annabelle...it looks evil! We must get away from here!"

She was trembling. I don't know why, but I couldn't bring myself to leave the creature to sink to its death.

"Maggie, give me the rope."

"What are you..."

"You don't have to help me if you don't want to, but I can't let a living thing die this way. No one should have to die like this."

Maggie reluctantly gave me the rope and watched as I tied it to a nearby tree and around my waist. I then carefully crawled over to the creature. My heart was beating fast as I reached and took hold of one of its wings. The demon didn't move. I adjusted my grip and slowly started pulling him out of the sand. It was very heavy.

"Maggie, please! I won't be able to pull it out by myself, you have to help me!"

"I...I'm scared!"

"I know you are. Please, I'm asking you as a friend. I will take full responsibility for it, I promise. I won't say anything about you helping me."

"Promise?"

"Promise!"

With Maggie helping me we eventually managed to get the demon out. I was starting to doubt whether or not this was such a good idea. Nonsense! Mother always used to say to help all creatures great or small, human or not. I know she referred to animals, but surely this...demon is also a creature?

With the demon out of the quicksand I carefully felt its wrist and could feel a faint pulse, confirming that it was indeed alive. We left to get a horse and cart since there was no way we could carry it. Maggie thankfully didn't run off as soon as we got back to town, but helped me borrow a horse and cart from their stables. They had several, so one would not quickly be missed. When we returned to the wood the demon was still lying there. We had to cover the horse's eyes so that it would not see it. It would definitely get spooked by the sight of the demon. It took a while to load it onto the cart. We tied rope to the demon and the horse and with both Maggie and me pushing and the horse pulling we managed to get him on the cart. How Maggie and I got it out of the quicksand by ourselves was a miracle...

Just then we heard a sound and saw the pig. It was shivering underneath a tree not far from us.

"Mr Piggles!" Maggie called out to it. It slowly came nearer, keeping its eye on the cart. Maggie quickly tied rope to its neck collar and we left the woods as quickly as we could.

I was very tired when we arrived at my home and pushed the cart into the barn. We unhooked the horse so that Maggie could ride it back home. It was dark and raining now.

"Are you going to be okay in this weather?" I asked Maggie.

"Yes, don't worry about me! I found Mr Piggles so my bacon is saved!" she said winking at me, "besides, dad will be very worried if I stay out even later. The cart is not a problem as we only use the spare when it is harvest time. I've put hay underneath the cover to make it look like it was still there. I will say that I went looking for Mr Piggles on horseback and found him."

"Okay. Please...don't say anything about...you know."

"I won't!"

Maggie seemed very scared of it.

"Will...you be okay?" she asked.

"Don't worry about me, if I can handle Mr Hunt, I can handle anything!"

Maggie laughed, but I could see the unease on her face.

"I will send a messenger tomorrow, please let me know if you are okay."

"Fine, I'll do that. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."