The carriage ride proved lengthy, but not by Johanna’s account, as she had dealt with carriage rides over greater distances, this, this was nothing. Once the carriage began to draw to a stop, Johanna leaned over in her seat, as she sat in the middle of the carriage bench, and pressed her cheek against the window to achieve a better view of her surroundings. [i]Strange[/i], she thought to herself. The fog had yet to lift from the area, even though the sun was well past sunrise. The hour hand on her pocket watch showed time a little past 11:10a.m. Her driver hopped from his seat in front of the buggy, and came around to open the door for Johanna, as gracious as any gentleman. Johanna gathered her belongings she had brought with her, and stepped out of the carriage, and onto the miniature steps leading to ground level. As she looked around the clearing they had come to a stop at, Johanna pondered as to where her guide was that Adam had promised her. There were no chirping birds, no rustling leaves from squirrels, and almost the absent noise of the wind through the branches. It felt as if the whole world stopped before her, and was waiting to hear her speak. A twig snapped in front of her, and her eyes snapped ahead to see a thin, and rather dirty, lad before her. He was past his teens, she could tell that much, but Johanna deciphered that he was still rather young.

“A-Are you Miss Johanna Valerivicus?” The lad appeared to be uneasy, as if he was nervous about being here, amongst the fog, or in the woods; she could not tell which.

“Yes lad, I am. Who might you be? The guide promised to me by a Mr. Ware, I would hope?” Johanna returned as she raised one eye brow in concern. She wondered if the man thought of robbing her, or some other darker deeds. Johanna withheld a visible shudder of the body, and instead, approached the young lad at a cautious pace, with her sword cane in tow.

“The name’s Havel, miss. Mr. Ware told me to look out for a woman such as yourself, in a carriage. ‘Said you would stop right here he did.” Havel’s head trembled in a shaky nod.

“Yes… That’s right. On Mr. Ware’s behalf, I am here to investigate accounts of suspicious activity that have been reported. I hope you can enlighten me as to the source of such activities. Would you be so kind as to show me the way? I seek to gather further evidence on these circumstances.” She said.

“Of course, miss, that’s what Mr. Ware hired me for. The freshest scene is just this way, down this footpath here. Is your driver coming with us?”

“No, why do you ask?” Johanna retorted as she followed the lad’s gesture to the footpath, which was little more than a game trail through the trodden leaves.

“I don’t suppose it’s very wise miss, ‘specially with what’s been happening around these parts.” Havel headed down the muddy path before her, and gave her a quizzical glance over his shoulder. Johanna stopped in her tracks, but her guide kept going. She looked back at her driver, and even though she couldn’t help but shake a feeling of dread, Johanna felt it would be best to leave him behind to attend to the horses.

“He’ll be fine. So what do you think it is?”

“Pardon?”

“The creature. It’s only removing hearts, correct?”

“Yes, miss.”

“You’ve never had that problem before?”

“No, miss. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“You don’t suppose it is a creature then?”

“I didn’t say that miss. I said I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Do you think it’s the workings of a man?”

“Could be, but that’s not what the forest hears.” Havel said.

“Not what the forest hears? What do you mean by that?” Johanna didn’t like how the lad spoke in short sentences, with little information yielding in his responses.

“Listen.” Havel stopped suddenly in his tracks held a finger to his lips. It was then, once more, that Johanna heard it. Silence. Not a birdsong, not a rustle through the branches, no pitter-patter of squirrel’s feet; nothing. 

“The forest is never silent like this, miss. Ever since this [i]thing[/i] moved in, all of the game has left. I can’t find a single deer, nor a rabbit, nor a bird.” The young man returned with a pathetic frown; but it was a truth Johanna couldn’t deny. She had never heard of the villagers around Prague suffering so badly, until now.

“When was the last kill?”

“A little over a week ago.”
“Are you taking me there then?”

“Aye, that I am. I’m not sure if you’ve a strong stomach for this sort of thing, it’s not something for a lady to see.” He sounded sympathetic, as if he warned beforehand, she wouldn’t feel so bad, or not want to go at all.

“I assure you, Havel, that I have quite the constitution.”

“Well then miss, what do you take of this?” 

	Havel gestured towards the clearing the duo had come to stop in. Before Johanna lay a stag, long dead, about a week by the smell of decomposing tissue. She placed her hand over her nose, forcing back a rush of bile, and approached the carcass. Immediately, she noticed how the massive deer’s legs were broken, and its back as well. If one was a scholar of the arts, they would’ve noticed the same thing as Johanna, the deer’s limbs were eagle-spread, like that of a man. However, the chest cavity to the deer yielded a single, square, cut where the heart had been extracted. Kneeling down alongside the dead deer carcass, Johanna turned the beast’s head towards her, and looked into its now lifeless eyes. 

“Help me carry this back to the carriage won’t you?” Johanna pleaded, though none to nicely.

“What for?”

“I have means to examine the body, and I want to be certain the corpse isn’t missing any other organs.” Johanna bit, she didn’t mean to sound frustrated, but the boy and his frustrating questions annoyed her.