The villagers wanted the creature dead.
Elena wanted answers.
Neither was getting what they wanted.
"Open the gate!" someone shouted.
"No!" Rowan yelled.
The village square erupted into chaos.
Men grabbed torches.
Women pulled children inside their homes.
Several villagers raised their spears toward the creature.
But the creature remained behind Elena.
It didn't attack.
It didn't even defend itself.
It simply watched the forest.
Elena finally turned toward it.
"You can talk," she said.
The creature stared at her.
"Then tell me what is coming."
For the first time, it looked directly into her eyes.
"Night."
Elena frowned.
"What?"
"Not night."
The creature struggled with the words.
"Something wearing it."
Before Elena could ask what that meant, Rowan grabbed her arm.
"You're coming with me."
She pulled free.
"No."
"Elena, that thing killed two hunters."
The creature suddenly looked at Rowan.
Elena noticed the blood on its hand again.
"Did it kill them?"
Rowan hesitated.
"I found their bodies."
"That's not what I asked."
Silence.
The creature slowly opened its hand.
Something small fell onto the dirt.
A silver pendant.
Elena recognized it immediately.
It belonged to her father.
Her father had disappeared eleven years earlier while hunting in the northern forest.
She dropped to her knees and picked it up.
"No."
Rowan's expression changed.
"Elena..."
"You said my father died."
"I said we never found him."
"You told me the forest took him."
Rowan looked away.
The creature made a low sound.
Elena turned.
It was staring at the pendant.
"You knew him?"
The creature nodded.
Elena's hands began to shake.
"Where is he?"
The creature pointed toward the forest.
Then it pointed toward itself.
Elena understood only one thing.
Her father had encountered this creature before.
And the creature had kept his pendant for eleven years.
Suddenly, a child screamed.
Everyone turned toward the northern gate.
The gatekeeper was standing frozen on the wall.
"Something is outside," he shouted.
"What?"
"I can't see it."
Then the torches along the wall began going out.
One.
Then another.
Then another.
Darkness moved slowly toward the village.
The creature suddenly grabbed Elena and pulled her behind its massive body.
Rowan raised his spear.
"What are you doing?"
The creature didn't answer.
It stared into the darkness.
Two pale eyes appeared beyond the gate.
Then four.
Then eight.
Elena heard whispering.
A voice came from the darkness.
It sounded exactly like her father's.
"Elena..."
She stopped breathing.
"Come home."
The creature stepped forward.
Its horns lowered.
And for the first time, it roared.
Not at the villagers.
At whatever was standing outside the gate.