Lusien pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders, the wind had picked up after the sun set beyond the western mountains and brought with it an unseasonable cold. The boy had an argument with his brothers and decided to leave the safety of the farmhouse and stand watch over the remaining goats of his family's farm.
The family's troubles had started a few weeks before when Lusien and his older brother Mytier had discovered one of the goats slain, at first they assumed that a wolf or some other predator of the night had killed it, but as they looked over the remains they were both dumbstruck. No meat was missing, and while the poor thing was seemingly torn to bits there seemed an unnatural order to it all. The goat's guts had been piled while its legs had been cast in odd directions. Repulsed and frightened the pair had fled back to the farmhouse to tell their father Coldyn, and other brother Ingall of the grim sight.
The family decided to leave one son and their dogs in the pasture with the trip of goats so they could catch the creature that had done such a gruesome thing. Mytier being the oldest and almost a man had decided to take the first few nights watch and for a time there was no loss of livestock. On the fourth night the hounds rose from their rest beside Mytier and bolted into the dark howling and barking, the boy bravely gave chase but soon the dogs fell silently and could not be found, shaken by the loss of the dogs Mytier retreated to his home and roused his family with the news.
In the morning Coldyn gathered all three of his sons, they armed themselves as best they could mustering a brace of long knives and a pitchfork between them. The family set out in the direction the dogs had run beyond the pasture and towards the edge of the woods bordering the farm. In the early light of dawn beneath a large hearthwood tree they found their dogs, both skinned and seemingly bent backwards with their hind legs shoved into their mouths. Somehow the slain animals still stood on their front legs, posed across from one another like guardian statues of a temple. Young Ingall shrieked and buried his face into his father's chest. Coldyn gripped his son with one hand and made the beak sign of Viridia with the other. All four staggered back from the horror, "Back to the house!" the boys and their father fled running across the field the way they had come, the little group barged into their house and bolted the door behind them.
For a long time the family sat in silence, Ingall quietly sobbed while his brother Lusien tried to comfort him, the heartbreaking sight made up Coldyn's mind about what to do. Coldyn bundled up some dry cheese and stale bread, tucked one of the long knives in his belt and then kissed each of his sons on the forehead. "I must go to Northbank, there I can get the aid of some guards, perhaps a priest of Viridia. I will return with help and we can banish this evil. Please my boys, stay in the house. Do not venture out, there is salt meat and cheese in the cellar and I should be back in less than three days. Mytier you are the oldest, watch after your brothers." The oldest boy nodded sternly.
The boys did as they were bade and stayed in the house, during the day Lusien would gaze out of the narrow window by the door, he could see some of the goats when they would venture near the house. At night the three would huddle near the hearth and hope for the dawn to come and banish their fears. They did this for two nights and two days, when Lusien saw something move among the goats in the pasture close to sunset, a man, but not like his father or the other farmers in the vale. The man seemed hunched and yet tall, taller than he should be, clad all in dark cloth that draped about him like a shroud. Lusien watched the man for a time and wondered what he was doing, the goats didn't seemed startled by him even though there was something in the way he moved that made Lusien afraid. Suddenly as if sensing the attention from Lusien the man turned to face the house, frail and overly long fingers seemed to slide from the shadows of the man's sleeves and slowly rose to the dark shade of the hooded man's face. Slowly the hood slid back, in the waning light a pallid face with a wide smile and dark eyes was revealed, but as Lusien looked he realized that wasn't right, the man had no eyes just empty voids and that overly wide smile was just teeth as if the man had no lips. "What are you doing?!" Mytier shouted at his brother. For the first time Lusien was aware of the sound he was making, he had been screaming since the man-thing had turned to look at him. Broken from the spell by his brother's words Lusien had stopped, he looked back through the window but the man-thing had gone. "I saw something... someone... we need to go out there."
Lusien and Mytier argued for an hour or more till Lusien made up his mind to leave the safety of his house, he had grappled with his older brother and snatched up the remaining long knife, his younger brother had pleaded that he stay but Lusien needed to know what the man-thing was, grabbing an old horse blanket for warmth he set out to find out what the man-thing wanted with his family and their farm. Lusien stormed into the dark, wandering till he found the trip of goats. Hours past and the wind picked up, Lusien grew cold and finally decided to rest by the trunk of a small stone fruit tree. The sky was clear but the stars seemed dull, the moon hung low and full in the sky and it lit all the land in an eerie amber. "Did you like my craft?" The voice cut into Lusien thoughts, gone were the feelings of the cold night, replaced with a tight heat deep in his guts that made him instantly sweat, Lusien looked into the moonlit dark till he spotted the source of the words, seemingly wrapped in shadows the man-thing was just a few feet from the boy. Lusien stammered and coughed but couldn't find the ability to make words. "I could teach you. I have yearned for an apprentice who is both brave and curious." The words were like a rasp on the base of Lusien's skull, his eyes watered and his bile rose, just when Lusien thought he would be sick on himself words tumbled out of his mouth, "What are you?" The man-thing made a sound like pebbles falling into a dry well, it took a moment for Lusien to realize that the thing was laughing. "I am all that men of great power wish to be but have not the means to achieve. I am ever-living. I could teach you to be the same." Lusien wanted to weep, to jump up and flee into the dark from this twisted thing, to turn away from it and pray to any of the pantheon that it would leave him alone, but all he could do was quietly agree, he nodded and spoke through the dryness he felt in his throat, "Yes." The man-thing drew closer, its hood falling away from the skull like visage that was its face, it knelt in front of Lusien. "Your first lesson waits for you in that farmhouse." Lusien felt hot tears run down his face as he suddenly understood the nature of his first lesson, but knew he would do exactly what the thing expected of him, and for his obedience he would be rewarded.
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