Yoren seemed to consider his options and slowly raised his hands as a sign of surrender.

"I give up. You're the chief here, missy." I wish he could stop calling me that. When he saw that the nickname displeased me the man pleaded. "It was my mistake, my lady. I shouldn't have bitten more than I can chew. Let's call it quit and let me walk you home, eh?"

"No, thank you." I firmly rejected his idea and urged him to leave.

"I can't leave you here. What if you became the next victim?" He still didn't want to go away. I guess the real reason why he was still single wasn't his perversion about being in an open relationship, but his stubbornness. I needed him gone to continue looking for clues on my own. I let him in on a few details, but I wasn't going to trust him completely just because of that.

"...I need to go into the bushes and pee. I was holding it for most of your blabbering. Are you going to stand there and watch?" I asked and started to go towards the nearby bush.

"I'm leaving!" Yoren yelled and left abruptly. Still standing my back to him I waited until his footsteps faded away in the distance. Finally I could do what I wanted since I came here.

"Was it fun to be eavesdropping on our conversation? Come out, I know that you're hiding." Only a fool would ignore such visible large marks of a bear's paws. I was right after all. Before the Beast approached me there was something else in that forest. Or someone?

A few moments later after I finished talking the bushes started to rustle.

"There's no use in trying to run away. I'm armed." I added and pointed my gun towards the source from where the sounds were coming out. I was glad that I had something to threaten people with, pulling a knife every time someone acted suspicious wasn't the best method to convince people with. And definitely more unpredictable.

The creature must've been persuaded by that sentence, because after a few seconds something slowly and hesitantly crawled from the hideout.

"Come closer." I ordered.

They did as ordered and thanks to that I was able to have a closer look. The person hiding in the bushes was a young boy, probably in his teens. He wore a dirty, ragged sack seemingly similar to a stable boy's uniform. It must've been once white, but now it had a color similar to the earth he was crawling on currently. His hair, almost as dark as mine, was disheveled and looked like a bird's nest. I bet that if one searched well there would be even bugs inside it.

"Halt." I glared at him and took a few steps towards him, close enough for my gun to touch his forehead. "Hands up and you better explain why you were watching me that night and what is it for you to eavesdrop on someone's else's conversation."

He slowly gulped and while shivering replied. "I-I-I don't know what-" He wanted to weasel his way out, but I wasn't the one he would want to play games with. "I guess you don't need those legs that much, isn't that right?" I asked and moved my gun a little to the side and shot a bullet next to where his right leg was located. I was a great shooter. The meat that we served for our customers in the tavern didn't come from nowhere after all.

He flinched and started feverishly apologizing for telling lies.

"Shut it and better start talking, this time it won't end with just a warning, so you better think twice before trying to deceive me." I said and fixed my firearm once again to his forehead.

"I was in the forest then too and I saw everything that unfolded that night." He whispered.

"Why would a young boy like you be in the forest so late? Was someone with you?"

"No, I was alone. As for what I've been doing there..." He hesitated and looked around as if he wanted to check if there were only the two of us. "I'm cursed too." He whispered, his voice less and less audible with every word he said.

"What's your curse?" I asked curtly. Even though on the outside I looked calm, inside I was slowly calculating my chances of survival in case he was put under the curse I've been thinking he was and whether my pistol would be useful if I had to fight him in that form.

"Every night I change into a huge black bear." So my assumptions were correct. "It was truly only a coincidence that I stumbled upon you that night! I was using that woodshed as my temporary hideout but when I heard people approaching I ran away to hide between the trees. When you shattered that flashlight the noise must've allured the Beast. I was scared too." He added.

That explains why the shed wasn't as dusty as I'd been expecting it to be, his rushed escape must've been the reason why the door was hanging on its hinges too. And that dried blood inside of it...

"Were you eating your victims there? Are you the real reason why suddenly people started disappearing more often?" Maybe the Beast wasn't the only one hunting in those parts. And maybe it wasn't the one to eat my mother.

"I know what you're thinking about, but it wasn't me, I swear. Even while being transformed I'm still able to keep my mind intact."

"Are you saying that the other cursed person is also aware of the things they've done when they're under a curse?"

"I don't know." He said scared. Maybe he was worried that I would shoot him for real this time if he didn't give a satisfying response.

"... I see. Then, if you're not the one to kill my mother, have you seen what happened to her?"

He hesitated and started to look around once again. "Speak." I hurried him.

"I didn't see a thing. I was too far to see what was happening. I was hiding in the forest, I only saw the Beast later after it started to run after you to that abandoned barn. I didn't want to come closer because it seemed agitated."

I didn't want to cut our conversation short, since there were many more questions I wanted to ask, but it was getting late and I was already too long gone. My father and brother could start to wonder what I've been up to.

I decided to take the boy to tomorrow's meeting with Yoren. I wanted to keep an eye on him, but my family would question his origins and reason of his visit. It was also impossible to hide his curse, since he transformed every night into a large animal.

"Since you eavesdropped on our conversation earlier, you're aware of tomorrow's meeting. You're going with me to it. I'll be keeping an eye on you. I can't let you stay here, since there's a chance you will probably consider making a run for it. So we're going to that barn we both know and I'm keeping you there locked until the morning comes."

"I won't run away. If you succeeded in dissolving the curse or finding that witch I was hoping that It would be able to make me stop being a bear every night too. But I will do what you said."

We went to the abandoned barn where Brich took his last breath. The boy was in front and I was behind him keeping my eye on him. And weapon in case he tried anything funny. After we reached the designated location, he went inside and I locked him.

Despite his unpresentable state he didn't seem to be starving and even if he was I didn't have anything to eat with me to share it with him. He must've endured being hungry till I released him in the morning.

After checking whether the barn had any other doors or holes he could slither his way out I went home. I needed to plan what I exactly had to do tomorrow and eat something. I hadn't eaten anything almost all day, only the two sandwiches before the burial. And that was several hours ago. I also wanted to check if my father was feeling any better, since I promised to Larry that I'd take care of him.

Today was an eventful day and I was exhausted, but still glad from the progress made. Until recently I've been feeling down and in the standstill.

I was too blinded to notice that there were dark clouds gathering on the horizon, right above my home. When I finally arrived and entered the house I could tell that the atmosphere inside of it was way different than before I left.

'Maybe father is still feeling down after the burial'. I thought. It wouldn't be that strange of him to do so, it was his wife after all. So many years they spent together only for it all to come down the drain because of some unknown creature created by a prohibited dark magic.

They weren't in the tavern, so I went to the second floor to check if someone was there. Larry probably went to Caroline to do things lovers do, but it was really getting late and I wasn't expecting father to still stand before that mound in the backyard.

The doors to his room he used to share with mother were closed so I intended to knock, but before I had the chance, someone opened them from the inside. But instead of my mother the person to do it was a young beautiful slightly tanned woman with hair that one could describe as being in a nutty color.