“My queen, is your second in command not joining us?” One of the nobles who gave his name as Anlow said, he was one of the leader of this settlement whose name I had learnt was Magelyn. Apparently that name has been one of the many things which its origin has been lost.
I smiled as my heart gave a twinge at the hurt which Sorens must have been feeling but there was nothing I could do about it. It was better I did it this way than I keep on hurting him.
“I am sorry but he won’t be able to make it, so please tell me, you said children has been disappearing, I want you to fill me in on what has been happening.
“Of course.” The noble nodded. “It started about Five days ago, normally the wood around Magelyn are safe. They have always been. I played in them when I was young as did all of us here did.” Anlow gestured around the table at the rest of the nobles who nodded their agreement.
“We don’t think of it when a child goes off to play in the woods, it was first two girls who went inside to pick some berries which their mother sent them, they never came back, a search party was sent after dawn and we found the basket of berries but the children were not seen. The next day, it was three children who wandered too close to the river flowing through it. They went missing, a search party, their clothes were recovered, not their bodies.
The next day after that was six children. They went playing ball while a parent was close to the forest but not close enough to disturb their game. The parent heard screams and ran into the forest only to see blood on the floor. The children bodies were missing, all that was seen was blood. She ran for help and according to her, she felt something was chasing her and it stopped at the edge of the forest, she didn’t turn back to look or neither did she stop running until she got here.
“Where is she?” I asked after listening to the story that suggested that a wild animal was set free.
“In her home, we can send for her.”
“No, it is late already. First thing tomorrow is to see her and then we pack our bags for a night of hunting.”
“That place is not safe and you want to spend the night?” Another noble asked.
“We.” I corrected him. “We are going to spend the night, besides it is the night when all terrible things comes out and if we want to rid Magelyn of this child taking fiend then we will go there and won’t come out until the cause is taken care of.”
It has been a long time since I went hunting, I needed a way to release my excess energy and the anger in me. This thing will rue the day it decided to attack my people.
***********
“Sorens.” I called out when he walked beside me the next day as we moved towards the noble house which I was in the evening before.
“My queen?” He asked as he turned to look at me, his face blank.
“Please don’t shut me out, you know the reason why it cannot work.” I pleaded with Sorens who sighed and then looked at me, this time with his guards dropped so I could see the pain in his eyes.
“I do know that you are married Gwenn but I don’t understand why you won’t let yourself be happy if the happiness comes in another form, it is like you chose that without a whip, you will give up fighting. Either that or nothing at all and I don’t understand it. I keep hoping that you would change your mind and until you do, I am not going to stop my feelings for you Gwenn.” Sorens said before he continued walking again.
There was nothing I could do to stop this crazy person from changing his mind so I did the only thing I could do. I ignored the fact that we ever had this conversation and went back to the way things were between us.
We got to the house, only to be directed to a room where Anlow was waiting with some other people and a poorly dressed woman whose eyes were red while her face was swollen.
“You lost someone?” I asked her as they all jumped to their feet and gave me a bow, I didn’t pay attention to them. My whole focus was on the woman who nodded.
“I didn’t want my boy to go out that day, I was worried but he wanted to play so much. They have been planning for weeks so I let him go and trailed behind him thinking that if it was an animal that was doing it, I will be enough to scare the animal away but it wasn’t one. I don’t know what it was but there is no animal that could move that silently and cause so much harm within a short period of time.” The woman stated.
I glance at Anlow who shook his head. “I don’t know what happened to her, she went there sane and when she came out, she babbled about how it is not an animal and there is no other thing that can do this. She is still distraught.”
“I am not!” The woman yelled.
“An animal would leave claws marks, an animal would not spit out their clothes, this is not an animal. It is a Gurumapa.” She said.
My eyebrow raised at the weird name and I leaned towards Sorens who whispered in my ears. “Gurumapa is a child eating demon who eats only flesh and nothing else. She is wrong though because it is nothing but a myth, a folktale used to scare children into obedience by their parents.”
“I am not lying, neither am I crazy?” She repeated. “I heard the song.”
“It is also said that a Gurumapa uses a song to entrance children and make it easy for it to get to them without chasing them.” Sorens added.
“Don’t make the queen think that this is normal whereas, there is no record of one ever seen.” Anlow glowered at the woman.
“I would not lie, I will do everything possible to make sure that the thing which took my son is killed or brought to justice. I wouldn’t withhold any information about anything.” The woman said looking at me pleading.
“You don’t have to worry, whatever it is, we will find it and we will kill it, this night.” I answered.
“You are serious about us sleeping in there.” Anlow asked alarmed.
“As serious as a war threat Anlow. Get ready.” I ordered as I left the room with Sorens.
“Where to my queen?”
“A store where they sell traps for wild animals and if possible, folktales creatures too. I am not leaving anything out, whatever this thing is. We will catch it and torture the hell out of it for fun.”
“Bloodthirsty.” Sorens chuckled.