Have you heard of the tale?

No?

Well listen up. It was a few years ago now that rumours of him surfaced. A strange man one day arrived at the village. He was a man of the wild. A lush unkempt beard inhabited his chin, overgrown like the forest itself. He wore fur coats and hats of leaf and twig, as though no different from a tree or beast himself. A distant ringing would always accompany him, a chilling sound that brought one fear, the very hand of death could be felt on your shoulders as you heard that terrifying chime. He spoke of people long gone as if they were there, he told of disasters and monstrous attacks. And when we told him that the people he spoke of were dead and the village long gone, he left. A few brave souls elected to follow him. It was not difficult. A trail of rot and decay lead out of our village. The grass turned black, the trees collapsed - nature itself trembled before his presence. Wherever he went, he brought the end. The leaves spoke his name with reverence, the twigs screamed warnings as they snapped, the winds carried stories of him - for he was the man of the woods.

Those kids that ran after him followed the path of rot and decay up to a small cabin. Around all was silent, even sound died before his power. The land was bare, the air still and stale. The cabin towered before them, its windows stared at the unwelcome intruders. The door lay open before them, beckoning the fools to enter. Behind lay an impenetrable blackness, unnatural even in the dark of night. You could see nothing through it, yet shapes flickered within. It was an emptiness, a visage that no man should see and live - for that was the home in which death dwelled.

Yet emboldened by curiosity, the kids continued in. The house groaned a lament for their rash actions with rotting floorboards far older than these very woods. And the door swung closed, a thunderous slam, the final nail within their coffins. Within they found the skins of beasts, the flesh of things. these were the trophies that the man of the woods collected, final mementos of the lives he took. They hung from every spot and every crevice, a gallery of corpses for the eye to see. The eyes of the children opened wide as they realised what fate they had doomed themselves to. And then they heard the bells ring.

They rushed out to open the door, only to come face to face with death itself. They saw the true form of the man of the woods, a wolf who hungers for the lives of all. They watched green turn to grey before them and were frozen in almighty fear. The wolf approached, slow, unhurried, until they could feel the brush of death's fingers. Their bodies aged, their muscles weakened and the forest screamed to them in a single chorus to run from the man of the woods. And so they did. They ran and ran until they could not recognise the trees or sky. And the man of the woods had left them, a warning for all of us not to wander too deep into these woods, for they are his to live in, to consume.

It had been years now since you'd seen everyone from the old Sanctuary. You'd met a few along the way, but those reunions were few and far between. But now you had finally made it. You'd arrived at night, but still the place was unmistakeable. Various tents were set up around it and before the entrance sat a familiar guardian - Cassandra. There were so many things you wanted to talk about, so many questions you had to have answered.

Such as exactly why you'd been left behind.

No! You quiet the voice in your head. You hadn't been left behind. You chose to travel with Ash. You just want to know how everyone is doing after all these years. How Cassandra is doing. You've little reason to believe the voice anyway, considering the fact that it also claims that you are in fact a wolf, which you clearly are not.

That is because you're blind. There is a good reason why people speak of you as the wolf that brings death.

You know full well that that was probably due to Ash. An unfortunate consequence of travelling with your deadly Tempus/wolf companion. Made it pretty difficult to communicate with people across the different villages. The lack of ability to buy more supplies and travel with people only made you more unkempt, which in turn made you seem more like “The Man of The Woods”. But that doesn't matter now. You'll finally be able to talk with people who know and remember you, though you'll still have to stay outside the city to keep Ash company. He gets lonely easily, and you wouldn't want to risk him seeking out new companions, even if he knows better than to do that now.

She doesn't remember you.

You met with Fig and reminisced over the old days. It was a touching reunion. She had spent much time asking around about you and thought for so long that her decisions had ended up killing you. How fortunate for both of you that you had just been left… you just delayed your departure. The Hunters are no more now, no leader to lead them, no monsters to protect the city against. It is striking to see how much things have changed. Tern has left the Hunters. Rennyn has patched things up with his child, Min Min. Opularia is nowhere to be found, though people claim that she has locked herself in the large house at the corner of the new Sanctuary. Some others have even decided to leave the Sanctuary.

As for Cassandra… she doesn't remember you. You greeted her with such joy at the gates of the new Sanctuary, yet she showed no reaction, giving no more than a polite welcome in return.

I told you that you were abandoned.

No, just because Cassandra doesn't remember does not mean that she abandoned you. Maybe something happened that caused her to forget, maybe she was injured. You'll be spending the days outside the entrance to the Sanctuary anyway, so you might as well spend your time talking with her. Maybe she will remember…

You asked Fig not to tell Cassandra yet, you want to have her actually recognise you. You've spent many days keeping her company now. There is a sort… kinship between the both of you. You had thought that the new Sanctuary would be a joyous place for all, but it seems to have left one person out. Both you and Cassandra have spent the past few years mostly alone - you wandering through the forests, her sitting at the gate. Both of you have dangerous auras around you - you have the one around Ash that makes everything wilt and die, she brings bad luck and destruction to everything around her. Both of you have had a single friend that has been by your side across all these years - you had Ash, and she had Fig.

And you also had me.

Yes, you also had Lupin.

You sit beside her, or at least as close as you can get without endangering yourself. The both of you sit in silence. It is then that you hear a familiar ringing of bells. You glance over to see Ash running at you. Quickly you dodge out of the way and shout to Cassandra to do the same. Yet you see that Ash goes right for her. The scream of pain pierces your ears as Ash bites into Cassandra's shoulder. You rush in. You grab Ash, ignoring how your body screams at you to run, and throw him out. From behind you feel Cassandra push you away. Just as quickly as it started, it is over. You look around to see the damage that has been done - Cassandra bleeds, Ash limps, coughing up blood, and you feel exhausted and in pain. Something wells up within you. You feel possibility. You feel like you could shape reality to your whims.

“…Remus?” - from behind you, you hear her voice.

She remembers.

But at what cost?

…and there he sleeps, at the very heart of the woods. The world around him rots even as he dreams. Who knows what horrors dwell in the mind of the man of the woods. And yet he continues to slumber. The wind sings lullabies to him, the trees sway like a cradle, so that he may slumber evermore. A kind soul built signs and fences around his resting place. Among them all, a single word stands out, the name that was given to that monstrous beast by our benefactor - Ash. How fitting, for the man of the woods shall one day turn the world to ash if he wakes up. So listen well and never enter into that cursed place. There are only two fates that you can seek there - death and the death of all. Know that if you hear the chiming of the man of the woods ever again, it shall be the death knell for us all!

And what of the benefactor?

I do not know. Perhaps he was taken by the wolf, perhaps he still lives to this day. I know only that he was a kind man who lulled to sleep that force of nature. He must have been quite kind, to even have sympathy for that monster.

Among the monument to a certain wolf, among all the warnings of danger, there is a single inscription. An epithet.

              Here lies Ash
             
            They meant no harm,
   And helped me pass the days of solitude,
            Goodbye, old friend