The lightning was deep in the demon forest, and his mind was blurred. In his ignorance, he seemed to see the picture of a long time ago, those years that had almost been forgotten by him.

Tiyanetti, a small nameless mountain village by the Kodori Pass.

"Monsters!

"Shoot him!"

During the off-season, a group of children frolic on the threshing floor in front of the village. They were screaming and scolding a naked little boy. He looked like he was eight or nine years old, and he was scarred all over. His hair was scorched by the flames, his skin was bruised and swollen, and he was barely able to find a single place on his body.

Strangely, even with such a serious injury, he did not receive any treatment. Instead, it was firmly locked to the stone pillar by a thumb-thick iron chain.

When the adults are not there, the children will not miss this opportunity to play. Brave boys picked up stones, and everyone stood a few meters away and threw stones at the little boy who was chained.

"Die!"

The little boy had a stone on his forehead, spilling some blood. Because of the pain, he bared his teeth menacingly at his attackers. The girls pretended to be afraid to cover their eyes, and the boys laughed and continued to provoke. Someone found a long tree trunk to poke the locked little boy, but the little boy simply closed his eyes and ignored it. After being exposed to the sun for three days and three nights on the threshing floor, he really didn't have any strength.

The prank continues, children of this age, there is no so-called sympathy at all, and there is no difference between good and evil in their eyes. Children are considered pure, but if adults do not correct them, they are likely to become pure evil.

Fortunately, someone finally put a stop to this. However, it is a foreigner.

"Go home, all of you, or stay and be whipped by me. ”

The visitor rode a tall horse, wearing a delicate cloak and shiny riding boots that only the old men of the city had. He held the reins, and the whip in his hand snapped against the stone pillar. The horse snorted impatiently and dug the earth with its hooves.

The children were forced by this momentum to flee back to their homes in fear. The stranger glanced at the little boy who was chained and his eyes were closed, and turned his horse's head towards the only inn in the village.

It's a nameless run-down mountain village, but twenty or thirty families, and only travelers who cross the Kodori Pass occasionally stop here. The inn is run by the head of the small village, and there are some groceries piled up under the awning in front of the inn.

After feeding the horses at the inn and replenishing their bags, the stranger asked for a cup of absinthe to moisten his thirsty throat.

"Boss, when I entered the village just now, I saw a little boy locked at the entrance of the village. What is the reason for this?" the stranger asked curiously.

Although this foreigner is not a local, his clothes and demeanor are either rich or expensive. Even the gray zebra tied to the door is the only good horse that the boss has seen in his life. Such a person is far from being something that a poor villager like the innkeeper can offend. The innkeeper did not dare to slack off, and explained the cause and effect in detail to the outsiders.

The boy was the ninth child of a local hunter's family, and before him, his mother had given birth to eight boys in a row, all of whom had died. He was the ninth, and luckily survived.

But the villagers began to talk. Because there is an old legend in this small mountain village. If a mother gave birth to eight boys and all of them died, then the ninth, if she was still a boy, would be a werewolf.

Sure enough, as he grew older, the little boy's demeanor became more and more bizarre. He often howls at night, and on full moon nights, the hair of wild beasts grows all over his body.

His parents were terrified and handed him over to the village for trial. And the villagers chained him to the entrance of the village for the sake of safety.

"But rest assured, my lord, that wolf cub has little strength, and it is safe to be tethered there, and it will not hurt your horse. The innkeeper said flatteringly.

When the stranger heard this absurd legend, he laughed and said, "Werewolf? This can be an atavistic phenomenon. When I traveled elsewhere, I also saw people with tails behind them. ”

"Isn't it? The innkeeper chimed in, "That's what the town's housekeeping commissioner said, it's atavism. ”

"What are you going to do with him, then?" asked the stranger again.

"The mayor has informed the scientists of Tianaetti that they will be there in the next two days to take this big trouble away. He may be dissected, or he may be made into a specimen, who knows. Thankfully, the village is safe again!"

The stranger pinched the wooden wine glass, and his eyes were deep. After a while, he pulled out a stack of rubles and threw it on the counter.

The innkeeper's eyes almost popped out, he had never seen so much money in his life.

"No, my lord, a glass of absinthe won't do much!" he pushed the money back in fear, but his hand didn't let go.

The stranger laughed and said, "Sir, this is a deal. ”

Seeing that the innkeeper was puzzled, the stranger drank all the wine in his glass and explained that he ran a large circus in Moscow and was in great need of strange creatures like wolf children.

"Ladies and gentlemen, look at this, if this wolf child can tear a rabbit apart on stage. They will scream and pay obediently. The stranger summed it up with a slight sarcasm.

The innkeeper himself is the village chief and can make decisions in this matter. Even if he can't, he really wants to make this money. This is a huge amount of money that he never thought of!

The village chief summoned two villagers, opened the chain that tied the boy from the stone pillar, and handed it to the stranger with his own hands.

The stranger raised the brim of his hat to express his gratitude and waved goodbye.

"Your Excellency, you might as well stay overnight. The innkeeper graciously took the reins, "Look at this day, a storm is coming." It's not a good choice to travel at night in this kind of weather. ”

The sky was already covered with dark clouds.

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm in a hurry. They say time is money, don't they?"

The stranger politely refused, whipped his horse, and left the way he came.

It was only then that the innkeeper who nodded his head straightened up, staring at the back of the stranger and falling into deep thought.

The strangers walked out of the village along the rugged mountain road. After a while, he jumped off his horse and unchained the little boy. He took a jug and two pieces of ham from his bag and threw them to the little boy.

The little boy stared at him warily with ice-blue eyes. The stranger didn't care, and turned back to arrange the saddle. When he turned around, he found the little boy biting the ham and burrowing into the dense forest next to the mountain road. The stranger smiled, and without any more movements, he mounted his horse and continued on his way.

By the time the sun was setting, the strangers had already rushed to the interior of the Kodori Pass. The terrain here is dangerous and inaccessible. On a starless night, a rainstorm is coming. The strangers found a col where they could shelter from the rain and lit a bonfire.

A pot of tea was boiling on the campfire, and he read a thread-bound book by the warm light of the fire.

The wind was howling, the bonfire was flickering and extinguishing, and the stranger stroked the ancient pages and suddenly said:

"Fire can bring warmth or destruction, the key is distance and degree. The same is true of desire, and the right thing to do is to be temperate, not to deny that it really exists. ”

After saying this inexplicable sentence, the stranger continued to read. After a while, the little boy emerged from the darkness and sat down by the campfire and stretched out his hands to keep warm.

"I don't understand. ”

"You'll understand later, take your time. ”

The little boy stared at the stranger reading carefully through the campfire. For some reason, such a scene made him feel warm and calm inside.

"Sir, you should hurry away. He said, "They're coming after you." ”

That's why the little boy came along. After escaping on the mountain road, he found that all the villagers had been gathered and followed by the strangers.

He didn't know the world, but he could smell the malice in the air. This malice was all too familiar to him.

He had to remind the stranger because, when he was hungry, the stranger gave him two pieces of ham. The ham is so delicious because it has a lot of fat flowing down from it!

It's a pity that this stranger didn't seem to be nervous at all, he let out a faint oh and asked, "Do you want tea?"

The tea on the campfire was already boiling.