The cursed forest is infamous.

Stories describe a huge, inhuman creature roaming its depths—tearing apart everything it encounters, leaving mangled remains as warnings. Travelers speak of shaking ground, deafening roars, and glowing eyes in the dark.

None of it is true.

Eiryn Voss is not enormous. He is not monstrous. He is a small man with white hair, a slight frame, and eyes the color of dried blood—dark, pure red. He lives alone in the forest’s deepest cave, far from roads and people.

He hunts constantly.

Not humans. Never humans.

Animals only—deer, boars, wolves—enough to survive, enough to keep the forest in balance. The carnage people attribute to a monster is simply the aftermath of survival, misunderstood and exaggerated by fear and distance.

Eiryn does not correct the legends.

Fear keeps humans away.

And humans complicate things.