The village had gone silent again.
The chief remained in the road, staring toward the forest.
"Stay here."
The Traveler looked at him.
"No."
The chief's eyes widened.
"You don't understand."
"I understand enough."
The Traveler turned away.
The elder sister stepped forward.
"Where are you going?"
"The forest."
"No one goes there."
The Traveler didn't look back.
"Then no one will follow me."
And nobody did.
Not the chief.
Not the elder sister.
Not a single villager.
They watched from behind locked doors as the Traveler walked alone beyond the final house.
The trees swallowed him.
The forest was different from the village.
There were no birds.
No insects.
No wind.
Only the sound of his footsteps pressing into damp earth.
The Traveler stopped.
Something was nearby.
He could feel it.
A presence.
Not like the undead.
Not like the creatures from the mountain.
Something quieter.
Something watching him.
He continued deeper.
Branches scraped against his coat.
The light between the trees gradually disappeared.
Then—
a woman's voice.
"Why did you come?"
The Traveler stopped.
He looked ahead.
Nothing.
"Show yourself."
A soft laugh came from behind him.
He turned.
She was standing between two trees.
The Traveler's expression didn't change.
She was beautiful.
Not merely beautiful in the way humans described beauty.
There was something unnatural about her appearance.
Long dark hair fell around a pale face.
Her features were almost impossibly perfect.
Her eyes were bright and mesmerizing.
Her presence seemed to alter the forest itself.
Even the darkness appeared to hesitate around her.
She stepped into the moonlight.
For a normal man—
looking at her for too long would have been dangerous.
The beauty was unnatural.
It pulled at instinct.
Confused thought.
Judgment.
Desire.
Fear.
The kind of beauty that could make a person forget why they had entered the forest in the first place.
But the Traveler simply stared at her.
Not fascinated.
Not frightened.
Studying.
The woman noticed.
Her expression changed.
"You aren't afraid."
"No."
She smiled.
"Most men are."
The Traveler's eyes narrowed.
"You're one of the serpent women."
The smile disappeared.
"So the village told you."
"Yes."
She took another step.
"And yet you came."
"I wanted to see what they were afraid of."
The woman studied him carefully.
She had expected another frightened human.
Someone whose mind would become clouded the moment he saw her.
But this man was different.
His gaze didn't wander.
His breathing didn't change.
He didn't even seem impressed.
She couldn't understand it.
"What are you?"
The Traveler answered coldly.
"You came looking for me."
"I asked first."
"And I don't answer questions from strangers."
The serpent woman's eyes narrowed.
For the first time, something resembling irritation crossed her beautiful face.
"You are arrogant."
"So I've been told."
She moved closer.
Slowly.
Gracefully.
The forest seemed to move with her.
Her footsteps made almost no sound.
"You should be afraid of me."
The Traveler looked directly into her eyes.
"Why?"
Her smile returned.
"Because men usually forget themselves when they look at me."
The Traveler remained still.
"Then I'm fortunate."
"Why?"
"I don't seem to have that problem."
Silence.
The serpent woman stared at him.
Something about him was wrong.
Not human wrong.
Something deeper.
She couldn't sense his true nature.
She couldn't see the Abyss.
She couldn't understand the mark beneath his clothing.
She didn't know the being standing before her was the one whose existence belonged beyond worlds.
She simply thought he was an unusually resistant human.
And that made her curious.
"What is your name?"
The Traveler paused.
Then answered:
"I don't remember everything about myself."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Interesting."
She circled him.
The Traveler tracked her movement without turning his head.
"You came from the mountain."
"Yes."
"You survived the Blood Moon."
"Yes."
"You killed the dead."
The Traveler said nothing.
Her smile faded.
"And something else is inside you."
The Traveler finally turned toward her.
"What?"
The serpent woman looked into his blue eyes.
"I don't know."
For the first time—
she sounded uncertain.
Then she smiled again.
"But I intend to find out."
The Traveler's expression hardened.
"Try."
The forest went completely still.
The serpent woman stopped smiling.
A faint hiss escaped between her teeth.
Then scales slowly appeared along her neck.
Her beautiful human appearance remained—
but something beneath it had begun to reveal itself.
The Traveler lowered his stance.
Neither moved.
Neither spoke.
Then the serpent woman whispered:
"You really don't know what you are."
The Traveler stared at her.
"No."
A strange smile appeared on her face.
"Neither do I."
And somewhere deep beneath the forest floor—
something enormous shifted.
The Traveler felt it.
The serpent woman felt it too.
They both turned toward the darkness.
Something had been awakened.
And whatever it was—
it had nothing to do with the village.