Not rushing, he always kept the same pace - speaking, walking, and fighting. He didn’t stay for the night even though they offered him a room. He followed the scent of rage through the forest. Unwavering, even when he hit a wall of mist, obscuring everything around him. Even when his feet hurt so much, he could hardly step on them. Even when his stomach growled and his vision blackened. To everyone else, he was made of stone. He wouldn’t scream in pain or cry out in ecstasy. But he was still only human.

When his eyelids weighed like anvils, only then did he stop and lean back on a tree. He pulled out a piece of salted meat and chewed with his last strength. When they had come here, his land was a sea of chaos. A disarray in which gods fought for dominance, sparked the war between brothers and played with people’s lives. But with their help, what was once a sea, was now reduced to mere drops. He’d help to clean them up as well.

At first light he thanked the lord for giving him another day to live and serve him and continued through the forest.

If there was a path, he could no longer see it. If there was sun in the sky he could no longer feel its warmth. But he didn’t rely on sight. The stench gave enough of a direction. Pointing him deeper into the forest, where the bushes were like castle walls.

After another day’s walk, the mist and the trees suddenly parted, giving way to the sight of wooden houses and a clear sky, unobscured behind the grid of branches and leaves. The village wasn’t on any maps the man in black had seen. No one mentioned it, and reaching it wasn’t easy. Hidden deep inside the embrace of the trees, only the mist knew it existed. It wasn’t near a river. The land didn’t seem fertile enough to grow anything worth eating. But they had found the means to live, and the man in black found the monster he was chasing.

For that little town was drenched in anger.

The man in black walked towards the houses and slid his fingers across the surface of a wooden fence. It felt like you could squeeze it like a wet shirt. Ahead, a woman and a man walked, dragging a goat behind them. The man in black was still far away, but they turned around to the sound of his footsteps. They said something to each other, and she continued walking into the village.

He was a big man - broad shoulders, a big belly, and thick forearms crawling with veins. His face was covered with a thick black beard with grey streaks. The man in black wore a thick coat, and the cold air still chilled him to the bone. That giant of a person in front of him was wearing only a half-buttoned shirt with rolled-up sleeves.