Alexandros was gifted with perfect eye-sight, perhaps a by-product of his duel heritage, perhaps simply luck, it was none-the-less an important tool for any warrior or hunter. He utilized his sight then, at the top of the small hill, staring down onto a mostly bare forested region. If it had not been for the seasons change Alexandros would have had a poor chance of spotting anything save the smoke he was expecting, which considering the circumstances would have ultimately left him disappointed. However, when he abandoned the search for smoke he could in fact make out a goodly distance through the trees by his elevation and their lack of leafiness. The fruit of his labour was his eventual making out of some indistinct but evidently large square shapes roughly lined up a good mile north of his position. 

“Carts?” he muttered quietly to himself. Then his young mind recounted the short filling in it had acquired from the Village Chief who hired him. At first the Chief was sceptical of the single mercenary, but a brief tourney on the streets had swiftly proven Alexandros’ skill. From there he was hired alongside two others who worked as a duo to hunt down what was expected to be bandits killing merchantmen. That was the relevance of the carts then, he had likely just discovered an ambush sight. With a boyish yelp of excitement he started down the hill in a short jog, before speeding along through the forest in the direction of the carts.

He arrived four minutes later, slightly out of breath. The enthusiasm in his eyes dimmed briefly as he took stock of the devastation that had been left behind whoever or whatever ambushed the poor merchants. Their remains were horribly mutilated, so much so that Alexandros immediately began to suspect that a Monster was responsible, rather than common bandits. Monsters were incredibly rare in Epirus, with perhaps a single sighting a month, so to find one here was an unexpected predicament for the young warrior. He took stock of the scene, noting scratch marks on the trees where bark had been ripped away from the trunks by a passing creature. From these signs he could quickly gain some idea of how big the monster he was facing stood, almost man-height and from footprints, four legged. The stride was massive, he guessed it could easily be as long as eight feet, and the devastation was evidence to its tastes. A man-eater then, Alexandros was in for a challenge. 

The creature was not a difficult one to track, for indeed it seemed to have little need nor capability of stealth. He set off after it, it could easily have been up to half an hour since it left the area, so he had to pick up the pace. There was a Monster to slay.