Tobias stepped away from the cooling bear carcass and drew his dagger from the beast's neck. An easy hunt.

The beast lived in a rock cave in the middle of the woods. Draw it out from its lair - rouse the beast, clang rock on rock. Light an arrow, fire it down the cave. The animal is mad - it will charge. Snare the entrance - bear trap, fittingly enough. Get out of sight, climb the cave mouth. Wait. The beast will charge, step in the trap, rear onto its hind legs in pain and surprise. Leap for the kill, land on its back, hold tight and stab the side of the neck. Dead in twenty seconds. Next to perfect.

Tobias wiped the blade on the side of his sleeve and sheathed it. The bear had been a killer with a taste for humans - one hunter, a miller's wife and two children, to be exact. Tobias hadn't come to this place to hunt it - overhearing its location had been a mere happy accident on the trail of his true quarry.

He considered returning to the town, telling them the bear was slain. No, they'd find out soon enough, and in these parts, they'd probably attribute it to another kill by 'The Woodsman', a mythical guardian spirit that Tobias supposed was him. Let them think that, then, if it gave them comfort.

He turned from the corpse and beheld it again. A floating orb of light, circling lazily in the air. It had appeared to him in the woods a month ago, and since then he had been following it like a fool on an inexhaustible course. Northward.

A trap? No, a message. Someone wanted 'The Woodsman.' Perhaps they'd be disappointed with Tobias. Perhaps not.

The light drifted away again, and Tobias rolles his shoulders and began to jog after it.