Hans awoke with a start, then dove headfirst into a coughing fit. He was shaking, and it took a force of will to keep himself from jumping out of bed and frantically trying to brush off the nightmare images which still crawled all over his skin. Hans groped in the darkness for the tallow-candle on his nightstand, and poked the tiny creature until it lit up his simple log cabin. He had to get a drink; his throat felt as if it was filled with sand.

A cooling breeze wafted through the open window, which made Hans realize he had been sweating. With the mild spring night, that meant his nightmares had affected him more than he realized. He drank deep from his rainwater collection, then splashed his face with the cold liquid. Deciding he wasn’t getting right back to bed, Hans stepped outside for a walk around his cabin, leaving the candle just inside the doorway.

The unblocked starlight made the night outside considerably brighter, though the trees sent the surrounding landscape into stark contrast of light and shade. Still, the air was pleasant and the night was calm. Hans thought about his last few days in town as he walked.

A charming young maiden had come to town recently, and had even set up a small business selling finely-woven fabrics. Hans had taken a liking to her immediately, seeing himself as quite the charmer. She, however, had spurned all his advances, even refusing a marvelous stag which he had felled, a gift which any other in the village would have accepted without a second thought.

This woman had occupied much of Hans’s mind as of late. Something about her, whether it was her piercing gaze, her all-knowing smile, or her foreign, exotic aura, she had captivated him since first arriving. Hans had never seen her with another, though, he thought, surely she must have other suitors. Not a man nor woman of the village wouldn’t let their gaze linger on her, he reasoned.

Eager to show his strength and dedication to her, Hans had been tracking one of the Great Beasts of the forest. It was a devilishly difficult thing to find, but Hans would not let himself be bested. The Great Beast would be his, and then, the lady Eddel.

Hans cleared his throat. His throat still felt sandy, though the walk had been relaxing. Thinking little of it, he took another drink and returned to bed for the night.

In the morning Hans walked into town to purchase some fresh vegetables from the local farmers. He decided first to visit the idol of his affections first. “Good morning, Eddel,” he greeted her.

“Good morning, Hans,” she replied as she counted out her customer’s change. “Have you been sleeping well?”

Hans hesitated, unsure of whether to be honest with her or to wave off her concerns. Before he had made his decision, she turned her piercing gaze to him. He felt himself tense. Hans always felt as if she could look right into his soul when she turned her sapphire eyes on him.

“You have bags under your eyes,” Eddel said to him.

He relaxed at that. “Ah, yes, how silly of me. Something woke me in the middle of the night, but think nothing of it. Gald takes good care of me,” he said, referring to the tusker beast he kept as a guard dog.

Eddel smiled at him, her gaze piercing as she stared into his eyes.

“And how has your throat been?”

Hans found his mind wandering as he prepared a stew that would cook while he went out looking for the Great Beast of the forest. Eddel’s question had put him on-edge. She had offered no explanation for her observation as she had with his sleep, and had left him standing dumbfounded as she returned to selling her wares. Hans had quietly walked away, and it had eaten at him all morning.

Hans smarted as he cut himself cutting the vegetables. He sucked on his finger for a moment, cursing his absent-mindedness. He shook off the thoughts and returned to the stew. Finishing the stew and placing a cinder-stone under the pot in the hearth, Hans grabbed his bow and set out into the forest.

By midday, Hans and Gald were deep in the woods.

Gald led the way, nose close to the ground as it sniffed out their quarry. Hans knelt to look at the prints they were following. The three-toed pattern was distinctive, and could only belong to the winged nightmare that stalked among the trees. The Great Beast always seemed infuriatingly out of reach, leaving trails hours old but never nearer than that.

Hans took out a piece of dried meat and looked about as he chewed. An off-colored bruise on Gald caught his attention. Gald’s normally tough brown skin underneath coarse hair was stained a bright violet. He called the beast to his side, offering it a piece of meat to keep it still as he inspected the bruise. It was already the size of his palm, and had a pair of small holes in the center where Gald had been bitten by something. Hans felt around the wound, and while Gald didn’t react, stringy white pus came out of the wound.

Taking out his knife, Hans used the flat of the blade to push more pus out. Idly he muttered “What has worked its way into you?” As more pus came out, Hans thought he could see tiny little clear-bodied insects in the mush.

A sound in the underbrush caught Hans’s attention, and Gald immediately ran out to investigate. Hans followed closely, watching the shadows for any sign of their target. Gald quickly outpaced him, and soon Hans was following the sounds of his companion rather than looking for the Great Beast of the forest. The two weaved around and over trees and brush as they rushed through the forest, seemingly hot on the trail of the Great Beast.

The strangled cry of a trapped animal rent the air, though this shriek didn’t belong to any animal Hans could recognize. He called Gald to heel, making sure they both approached slowly. Whether it be their prey or not, rushing upon a cornered animal was foolhardy.

The sight they came across caused Hans to pause. He gazed up at the thrashing creature, the Great Beast they had been stalking. It resembled a great horned stag, but a great pair of bat-like wings sprouted from its back, and a thick tail lashed about as it fought against its prison. The Great Beast hung suspended above the forest by a thick carpet of webbing hanging amid the branches. It looked almost pitiful, as its fighting covered it in more of the sticky thread.

Hans looked back down as Gald was scratching and biting itself, trying to remove more webbing which had been scattered across the forest floor. “Gald-” he started, suddenly overcome with a coughing fit.

He coughed something up, and looked at it as he caught his breath. The white lump he had spit out looked exactly the same as the pus he had previously extracted from the lesion on his tusker beast.

“Fascinating material, isn’t it?” came a voice from behind him. Hans recognized that silky, alluring voice, and it sent shivers down his spine. He turned to see Eddel standing there, clad in her usual silken wares, appearing much more menacing than he’d ever considered her being. “Stronger than any sword or shield yet finer than wool,” she said.

Hans was still dumbfounded, only managing to ask, “Eddel?”

She chuckled. “You obviously haven’t been paying attention. Then again, no one in your little village has. Why don’t you look behind you.”

Hans rose, fear suddenly driving him. He felt himself shaking again, just as he had last night. He could hear Gald struggling in the thick webbing. Something plopped down behind him, and Hans chanced a look back. It was one of the leathery wings of the Great Beast, and a glance up showed the thing deathly still and crawling in spiders. Hans faced Eddel again, bringing his knife out again and ready to attack the woman previously the target of his affections.

She smiled, just like she had smiled at him this morning, only now Hans could see how predatory the smile it was. There was no kindness in those eyes that searched his soul. She made a moue at him. “Oh, like you can harm me with that pigsticker,” she said condescendingly. “Let me tell you a little secret.”

She came in close to him, and Hans leaned away. He held the knife before him with both hands, and Eddel leaned into the point. Hans felt the pommel dig into his stomach, Eddel’s clothing completely rejecting the sharpened point. She placed a warm hand on his chest, cupping his chin in the other.

She whispered into his ear, “You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet.”

Hans felt something twist in his chest, directly under her hand, and fell to his knees coughing. This wasn’t like before, as he felt something crawling up his airway. With a great cough, something leggy and hairy entered his mouth and crawled out.

With Hans left gasping for breath, Eddel reached down and plucked the thing off of his cheek. He looked up at her, and saw her cooing over the coin-sized silvery spider sitting on the back of her hand. Horrible realization dawned on Hans as he looked at Gald. The large animal was already laying still on the forest floor, crawling with the same silvery spiders he had just ejected from his own body.

Hans looked at the knife still in his hand. He heard Eddel’s satisfied chuckle from above him. With a small prayer, he plunged the knife into his heart.

Eddel plucked the knife from the hunter’s chest. She plunged her fingers into the stab wound, twisting them around to open the hole. A handful of tiny, still translucent spiders crawled out. She frowned slightly. If only he’d lived a little longer, she thought, he could have birthed more of her precious pets.

Still, he would be useful. She laced the air with her magic, casting fine filaments of possession and lacing a touch of illusion around him. Hans’s body rose as if on strings, and the blood on his chest disappeared. His eyes opened.

“I meant what I said, you know,” Eddel said to the walking corpse. “Not a single one of you dumb little peasants has caught on to me.” She smirked. “And I very much doubt they will.”