A skinny, young, decrepit boy with dark circles under his eyes was lying in a small, hollow tree. Trying not to slide back from the slope it was on, he put his hand back to catch himself on the inside wall.

  “Err!” He yelped, biting down.

  Drizzles of dark blue liquid flowed down his forearm while droplets fell from his elbow. A bristle of small sharp spikes pierced his palm, and dark blue blood was oozing from his wounds. The tree appeared not cleanly hollowed but rather dug through, leaving most of its walls impure.

  A pile of leaves was covering the front of the hollow tree; the boy peeked through a slight crack in the leaves. A small, cloaked woman tilted her head up, speaking to a young man in a blue tunic; he had a sharp-edged silver sword with a golden glowing tip.

  ‘A knight sent, that fast? Damn!’

  “I think I saw him run that way!” The woman yelled.

  The boy saw the finger pointed near him and ducked down and quivered. He was about fifty meters away, and the forest had animals moving throughout it; no normal man would see him from that far away, especially in a darkened forest–but knights weren't normal

  “Cree-ckle”

  The boy felt a gooey substance under his foot; he looked down and saw leaves, straws, and eggs. He had stepped into a nest of some creature and even destroyed two of its eggs.

  ‘Crap’

  The yolk from the eggs was crimson, meaning they were monster eggs, and if its guardian decided to come back while he was still there… it wouldn’t end cleanly or quickly.

  “Grr-ur!...”

  The boy inhaled sharply. His bloodied left hand pressed against the wall as he scooped up egg mush with his right and forced it down his throat. His stomach twisted in hunger, demanding more... He gulped it all down, even feeling some eggshells scratch his throat; he kept eating.

  The boy thought the guard had no chance of finding him unless he could see in the dark, but he doubted that. He was more worried about when the mother of this nest would come back, so he had to move soon.

  ‘I should grab some eggs’

  As he packed the last one in his pocket, he felt an ominous aura near him. He peeked out and saw a shadow of leather boots the size of his body. Barely daring to breathe he decided to lay back out of view so neither he nor the knight could even catch a glimpse of each other.

  “Come out, witchling, and I’ll only bleed you once!”

  The guard chuckled while swiftly drawing his sword out.

  ‘How the hell did this bastard find me...’

  Mid thought the guard bent his knee down his shadow stretching inside the tree. The boy held his breath and tightened his grip on the egg. Once the guard knelt, he glanced and quickly caught sight of the broken eggs, and crimson yolk staining the nest. He used his hand to push some leaves away, gave a squinted look, and stood up.

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  “Now, I have to report this to the lieutenant,”

  The guard sighed and stood up with his shining silver sword reflecting the boy's body through the leaves.

  ‘Thank goodness he’s g…’

  Excruciating, Terrifying, Blistering pain exploded through the boy's shoulder, boiling like acid throughout his body. With his vision impaired and his breath hitched, he could barely register the glint of silver shining toward him before it was enriched with his dark blue blood.

  In the next moment, he could barely recognize anything through his blood-fogged eyes, but once it cleared, he saw his right arm with a deep gash. It went through his shoulder down to his bicep, cutting through almost cleanly.

  The knight grinned. “Found you, damn witchling.”

  The boy was terrified and could barely move but the knight leaned in closer and stated.

  “This will only take a second, all you witchlings only serve one purpose anyway, and that is for your fangs to be harvested.”

  While the boy writhed in agony and screamed, his mouth was widened, and two coral-blue fangs glistened reflecting the moonlight off his teeth. With his blue blood splattering and dripping into the nest and his right arm severely wounded, something felt quite strange. The egg in his hand was tough; he gripped it in pain, and it didn’t even have a small crack on it…

  With his bloodied sword still in hand, the knight inched closer to the boy. He reached out with his left hand and grabbed the boy by the throat.

  “Nothing personal, withling. Your suffering will bring life to others. You should feel honored.”

  Using his little strength, the boy gripped the egg and threw it at the knight’s face, hitting his eye directly and loosening his grip on the boy's neck. The boy fell back, sliding down the tree.

  The knight stumbled backward falling on his behind, his eye began swelling slowly like a black grape turning plum. His eyes flared up, his veins almost popped out of his forehead, and then almost spontaneously his face became calm and stoic. He calmly cleared his throat.

  “I was planning to end this quickly, eh, I got time to make your demise worse.”

  He sheathed his sword back to his side, and as it slid to the bottom, the blade was out of sight. The knight then slammed his arm down the hollow tree, barely missing smashing the boy’s head in. The knight’s missed attack sent a powerful gust of wind into the boy’s face.

  The boy’s arm had started to burn and darken, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. With little space, it forced him to either escape or be killed, as he couldn’t move. His left hand grabbed another egg and threw it towards the knight. This time nicking him straight in the nose yet barely harming him.

  “Throw another egg, and I’ll bleed you while you’re hanging from your foot.” The knight said more like a promise than a threat or warning.

  The knight took a couple of steps back.

  “BA-BAM!” “BA-BAM!”

  The tree started shaking. All the boy saw was a leg rapidly slamming into the side of the tree. It felt like it was about to come crumbling down, and the boy was getting dizzy. So he grabbed another egg and, with all his might, threw it towards the knight.

  “Uuge-ahh-la-la” The knight was bemused and could barely stand up; the egg hitting him right between the legs his body moved flimsily.

  ‘Now’s my chance.’

  The boy scrambled up the tree slope, shoving aside leaves in a desperate dash for freedom. As he ran past the knight, it looked like he was going to get away.

  “Wh-Wham!”

  The boy was picked up by the neck and slammed on the ground, all the eggs he had left rolling out of his pocket toward the knight. The boy rolled over to his side, clinging with his hand to his chest while trying to gasp for air. The knight slammed his foot into the kid, sending him flying and tumbling into the forest grass.

  “Gonna take a lot more than that to hurt me, damn rascal.”

  As the knight unsheathed his sword, stepping forward he felt a slight tremble under his foot. He then paused and stood silent as if he was in shock and trying to erase his presence.

  “Cla-Clank!”