The leather handle of the dagger stuck out of the cold and damp soil. Next to it lay the body of beast that had been slayed just moments earlier, the soil freely accepting the seeping red liquid from the beast. Suddenly a gloved hand wrapped around the leather handle. The steel blade cut through the fresh flesh of the beat. The blade easily extracted several pieces of the flesh.

A gloved hand went to the sliced flesh and set it onto a rock with was under lit by a fire that was started less than an hour ago. As the meat cooked, that gloved hand reached to a belt line withdrawing a reddish brown vial. The cork was removed and the vial's opening was pressed lightly to lips as it flowed freely.

The vial dropped onto the cold damp soil and so did a body. Hours would pass by before green eyes would open. Clothes ripped, muscles expanded, the body raised from the ground to stand over the fire. The beasts flesh had been burned by the hot stones and fire. It was time to move on.

Blood.

Blood dripped from where the blade had separated the skin right below the the complex junction of bones in his wrist. Green eyes stared down to the wound before closing. The blood would seep down the stone and into the small adjacent lake before the body started to turn pale and lifeless.

A group of students wearing assortments of green, yellow, red, and blue approached. Through cunning efforts they managed to return the body back to the safety of the castle.

The hospital ward is where the body lay. A beating heart, breathing lungs, but something now lifeless. The green eyes stared up at the ceiling motionless.

The forest was a distant past. There was something awaiting in the future.