1.Strange Creatures

In the darkness of dawn, the bells in the forest rings along with the strong whistle of the wind and heavy breaths of a creature-like man. He glances to every direction as he struggles to run away. He swings every leaf and every branch that blocks his sight, he needs to get away. Someone was chasing him and he knew his life was at the verge of his death. As he struggles to escape, he reaches a peculiar tree with an incredible size and it has huge roots around it, giving fine surfaces between the land. Its small leaves with blood-looking veins falls from time to time and every part of the tree was full of human blood and bones attached. He stops to catch his breath after a long run.

"There are to many of us now!" he yells, aware that he was about to die. "You will suffer! You will pa–"

Shwing!

A sound of a metal sheaths through its cover, like a samurai after a killing strike. A simple man with a peasant hat dressed with a white open vest. He had a look of an innocent man but not so serious type of face. He wore knee-length grey shorts with round bells made of tin for Christmas decorations accent on the hem, and native slipper made of abaca fiber. In short, he wa a native man of Malau, and out of nowhere, he appeared and ruthlessly beheaded the struggling creature.

"'Pay' was that the word?" he says as he drops on his knee with a confused look on his face. "I should've let him finish."

He quickly sheaths out his weapon, picking up random leaves, looking for a way out the forest. While doing so, he walks and found his way out, walking whilst wiping the blood shredding on his weapon with the leaves. After a moment, it was already morning.

He sees an old man chopping logs. Looking at him did not even surprised him of what he was doing.

"Good morning, job well done again?" Sarcastically, says the man who was chopping logs, with a long grey beard and a bald head.

A man with a veteran posture, with scars all over his body, wearing a pair old pants and wielding a woodcutting axe. The man has got a pair of fierce brown eyes and angry eyebrows.

"Old Boy, just like the usual thing to do."

"You know, nothing will change unless you do something Kasel, believe me."

"Your old- old Boy, I'm always listening." Kasel smirks, wondering what he means. He did everything to stop these creatures.

"These creatures will never stop, soon to be war for peace. Its either for us or for them." old Boy tells Kasel in a serious tone.

"You killed a lot of them before." Kasel answers while raising his eyebrows. "Is this not the war yet?"

"The war is yet to come." old Boy yells angrily but slowly lowering his voice. "You must end this Kasel... this war is serious, so should you."

"Naaah, I'm tired, I'm going home now." Kasel says tiredly as he walks out without hesitation, not minding the words he was saying as he was heading to the town.

Kasel is a not so serious type of a character, yet a straightforward man. He does not like being criticized but he is indeed a good listener.

A warrior with a short and thick rapier-sharp sword. A 'sundang' as what they call it.

The old man looks at him from behind feeling worried of Kasel who acts carelessly, then continues cutting logs.

After a few seconds, he heard something in the forest where Kasel came from, he saw the leaves with blood-like veins, pumping like live natural tubes but then he saw the head.

Did Kasel killed a human? Was that the reason why he acted childishly earlier?

The creature Kasel killed was indeeed a monster and there is a lot of them called Tikbalang. Tikbalang is a humanoid body figure but has the head of a horse and legs of its legs. The mentioned creature can be a normal citizen in the morning, but turns into one lurking creature at night.

Old Boy cannot believe his eyes, it has a head of a man and not a monster, its mouth was left opened and there were flies infesting all over it. The smell start to decay, and the body was completely turned into a man, with the head and legs of the horse nowhere to be found. Old Boy then heard again the gentle sound of drums and tiny noise. He has never been so scared in his life as he saw a group of child-like creatures, each with blue pointed hat, like those of a warlock, blue coat, white inner sleeves, bone earrings and inconceivable looking drum sticks. The Dwendes'.

Dwendes'? Elves?

Solemnly performing a ceremony under the roots, intended for the death of a man in front of the tree, pugnacious eyes, staring at him knowing the humans are to blame of what happened. Old Boy runs towards the town catching up for Kasel but suddenly old Boy got knocked out then fell to the ground, unconscious.

Bughs!

A Tiktik fled to the sky after witnessing the incident and the ceremonial display.

A Tiktik is a bird summoned to scout the area and spot humans alone at night for its master's intentions, this creature can shape-shift into different types of bird and can lurk in the morning and at night to hunt but never at noon and afternoon.

The group of Dwendes hid themselves as well after seeing the old Boy being smashed at the back of the head, for it served as a message to commemorate the humans. The creature then flew away.

Kasel reaches the tribe and the people of Malau greets him with pleasure.

Malau is one of the tribes in the land of Ozima which most hunters are using sundang to kill the creatures that they call "wakwak". The Tikbalang is only one of the different types of wakwak. Aside from that, many can turn into one particular kind. So most of these creatures are just humans transforming into wakwak. Every tribe are known to be suspected to any of these matters, and they already know what to do if someone was suspected. The tribe will immediately execute the said suspect in front of the public.

Of course, men can be burn when they are at their weakest but flaming when they are at their strongest.

Looking at the task board in the middle of the tribe, Kasel notices a strange paper note that says "Encanto" and written with it was the name and address of the owner.

Task boards are available in every tribe where bounty hunters are paid once the task were finished. Addresses in the notes are necessary as these letters will be disseminated to every tribe for the bounty hunters can take the task. Most people, on the other hand, were not willing to hunt and chose to live peacefully but with fear and terror.

Once the hunters take the note and find the owner of it, they will negotiate the price. If the task were completed, the hunters will immediately take their rewards and that is how bounty hunters in each tribe make a living.

Kasel have never once take any of the task available in the board.He hunt these creatures because they are growing in numbers and besides he found it fun. However, the "Encanto" letter intrigued him the most as he thinks there was a message and not only because of one word was written but the paper appears to be too old with the ink was quite wet compared to other notes on the board. The letters took much time to be delivered in each task boards in every tribe, so it was not new.

He tries to unpin the letter but a sales lady beside the task board grabs him and introduces a bottle of rum.

Unfortunately, the rum is much more convincing than a paper with one word in it.

Drinking while walking isn't a bad joke, but a drunk man is, especially early in the morning.

Being drunk can help Kasel sleep quickly. He can sleep anywhere without any hassle.

Sitting in the bench while drinking across the task board and from the hard work done of hunting, he falls asleep.