A boy, no older than 7 years old, ran through the snow, his feet pattering against the smooth and crunchy texture of the snow beneath. A panicked expression on his face, he ran into his home. Where an old woman stirred a hearty soup, her smile as warm as the fireplace that lit up the rooms.
"Grandma! Grandma! I saw a demon in the forest!"
The boy's grandmother looked towards the child and lifted him into her arms.
"There are no demons in the forest child. The moon hasn't reached its peak yet. Your eyes must've been tricking you."
The boy's panicked expression was slowly removed by the warm embrace of his grandmother.
"B-But…Grandma, I swear I did! It was cloaked! Just like you said they were! And it was carrying a beast on its back. And was holding an axe!"
The old woman simply smiled.
"Ah, don't mind him, thats simply our local hermit. Don't be afraid of him, he is friendly."
"B-But Grandma, why does he never come to the village? I've never seen a man like that before…"
"Well child, 2 years ago...a man came into our village at the peak of the moon. You wouldn't remember, as we were keeping you safe. But that man came, and he quelled that demons that hunt us. The demons that used to take our children. The hermit only comes in the middle of the night in order to quell the demons and sell things. He's an honest man at heart."
"Well...what's his name, Grandma?"
The boys grandmother looked towards him and sighed softly.
"I'm not sure. But that's normal, this is the place where people come to be forgotten, the place that the gods and all things abandoned us. We have been forgotten. So people come here to be forgotten as well."
The boy and his grandmother ate a calm dinner before she settled him to bed. She waited quietly, sipping on a cup of tea until the moon reached its peak. Outside, in the village. Shadows started to stir. Horned creatures cloaked by a veil of shadow emerged from the mist. And started to move towards the homes of the people that lived there. Until they heard footsteps in the snow. There was a man, cloaked head to toe, dragging a large wolf and an axe. The creatures swiftly moved away from the houses and bowed towards him. The man simply sighed and looked towards them.
He walked towards the boy's home and knocked quietly. The boy's grandmother opened the door for the tall man, as he left the poorly butchered beast lying in the snow outside her house, and the creatures vanished back into the shadows. The man shook the snow off his cloak and took it off. The man was modestly attractive. Young, tall, and quite fit. The man's long blonde hair was tied into a neat bun, with excess hair slightly falling over the edges. His blue eyes almost seemed to pierce the air. As he settled his axe onto the doorway.
"Hello, Astor."
The boy's grandmother had a soft smile on her face.
"Hi there, Arthur."
She knew his name after all.