NOTE: this is my first attempt at a story for fan fiction so I'm sorry if I offend anyone, its not intentional. Some characters or instances might be based on other works of fiction by well-know authors (such as Tolkien) I do not own anything of theirs, even though I might like to. I really hope that you enjoy my story and let me know!

-Heartly

Chapter 1: The Daemon

Nay, go no further!

Search no more for what none have dared to search before,

For it lies in waiting, within the thickened leaves underfoot.

In the thickets and the thorns it breathes.

As we enter into our heroine's world let us note that the story has already started. For the moment, our heroine's past is irrelevant along with her name. We shall refer to her simply as M. At this very moment, when we enter the tale, our heroine M is racing through the darkened woods of Kelt faster than a shrieking wind rips through the trees in midwinter. However, her plight is not without good reason: twilight is fast approaching; soon it shall no longer be safe for young girls to be out of doors let alone in a wild forest. Within the Wild Woods, Daemons and other unknown creatures walk, some as upright as any human, but we mustn't follow them. Let us return to following our young heroine as she rushes through the trees. M is convinced that a Daemon is hunting her. She is correct to fear so; a young girl straying from the safe paths winding through the woods makes a tasty treat. Who could possibly save her should the daemon suddenly lunge from the shadows and attack? For how many seconds would M's shrill scream pierce the air? Would dying, at the hands of a foe, be painful?

Twiggs snapped in the underbrush and M spun around to face her hunter. Enormous firs and ceders towered hundreds and thousands of feet above M, the trunks of the thickest ones were large enough in diameter to house a small colony. While the arms of these monstrous trees elegantly extended towards the heavens, their masses of pine and leaves canopied the entire forest blocking out the light. M spun around again thinking that she heard a raspy breath being drawn behind her. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted one of the smaller, worn trails used by witch doctors to travel safely through the woods to collect their herbs and medicines. M turned her back to it; surely whatever creature that was hunting her would not cross sacred ground in order to attack.

Silence…

Utterly enclosing and complete… The silence that filled the forest made M shiver. Brandishing a large fallen branch in front of her, braver than any soldier, M struggled to keep her breathing steady while her heart raced and her hands shook. Then, out of the shadows, appeared two massive eyes. M would never have imagined that those two eyes could belong to any creature, wild thing, or daemon that she knew of if they had not pierced her soul with such malicious evil. Floating in the dark M knew the eyes, black pupils and irises wreathed in sickly yellow orbs, belonged to a thing more terrible then she dared to imagine.

"M!" her sister's voice echoed through the trees. "M…! Where are you…?! Come home…! Come home, please…!"

M looked to the yellowed eyes of the daemon and watched him as he slowly drew back into the thick of the forest. How long she staring out into the darkness, the branch held out in front of her as if it were a sword, M knew not. Her sister's voice echoed through the trees again, incomprehensible this time; the words blurred in M's mind as she slowly backed up onto the path never taking her eyes off the spot where the daemon had disappeared.

Time slipped out of mind as M tore through the Wild Woods following the path set before her by the witch doctors of Kelt and beyond. In her panic and desperation to reach home M often lost her footing bruising her knees, slicing her palms open on jagged tocks and tearing her pants and tunic till nothing remained but shreds of dirty fabric. Out! Out! She must get out of these woods it is dangerous. This forest, never was it understood, its dark magic ran too deep in the earth; M dared not test its limits, nor its mercy.

x x x

M's breath came and went in frantic gasps as she raced away from the forest and through the village to it's outskirts where her mother's house lay near the fields beyond the western wall. M's stomach heaved and churned, but the thought of the daemon following her through the village fueled M's legs to carry her to safety even faster.

"M!" her sister cried out in astonishment as M stumbled to a halt in front of their father's bookcase. She had almost ripped the door off its hinges as she blew through the house. "M? I didn't think you'd heard me… M...?"

M was searching frantically through each and every book she could lay her hands on, tossing most of them aside.

"What's going on?" demanded the girls' mother, Padma, as she swept into the front room a loaf of bread and a pitcher of mead in her hands.

Upon seeing her youngest daughter in a state of blind panic ripping through the family's ancient books, Padma dropped all that she was carrying onto the dinner table and rushed towards M. M sank into her mother's warm embrace, clutching a small gilded book to her breast.

"Sweetheart… oh, my darling," Padma cooed, rocking her daughter back and forth in her lap. "What is wrong? What happened…? Tell me, you can tell me anything."

M shivered against her mother as the thin layer of sweat coating her body turned to ice on her skin in the evening chill. Padma looked down worriedly at her daughter.

"Fayevin start a fire."

Happy to be given something to do, Faye bustled about the small cottage gathering tinder and wood.

"What is it M," Padma no longer questioned her youngest child, but demanded to be told exactly what had frightened M senseless.

Timidly, M lowered the gilded book she clutched to her chest till her knuckles burned bone white against her skin. Padma said not a word, nor did M. A mutual understanding passed between the two of them as the magnitude of what M had seen in the Wild Woods set in. The same beast stared back at them from the page of the ancient book M clutched:

Bloodlust, a Guide to the Most Dangerous Daemons of the Dark.