Chapter-31 The Redcaps

Frederique held the third book Lysandro had given her, the worn leather cover embossed with a single crimson sigil... a gnarled, jagged crown like dripping ink. The scent of old parchment lingered as she opened it, the pages yellowed and brittle.

Lysandro had said the books were ancient, though not all their truths were trustworthy. Still, as she read the first lines, the words felt weighty, like they carried a truth older than the world she knew.

" The Redcaps: The Hunger That Walks "

" In the beginning, when the Threads wove life and mind together, the first thoughts were born: "

" Eat. Reproduce. Sleep. "

" But from thoughts came consequences. When a body went too long without food, it felt pain. Hunger twisted inside the flesh, gnawing, demanding. The need was primal, absolute... so strong that it left an imprint in the Dreamworld. "

" And where there is pain, there is fear.

In the vast chaos of the Dreamworld, the feeling of Hunger took form. It was not a creature at first but a force... an endless mass of teeth and darkness, devouring anything that strayed too close.

It consumed not for pleasure, not for malice, but because it needed. "

" The dreamers who felt this endless void returned to the waking world trembling, haunted by nightmares of mouths without faces, of being devoured whole."

"But as humanity grew... so too did Hunger.

The first great shift occurred when mortals stopped fearing the pain of hunger and began to imagine it instead. They gave it form in their nightmares... shapes, sounds, faces. Stories of monsters with endless appetites spread from village to village. The more stories told, the clearer Hunger's shape became."

"A beast no longer. "

" A hunter. "

" A predator."

" But even a predator must learn to survive. "

Frederique paused, gripping the page tighter. The way the words flowed reminded her too much of Frideria... the way her fey stirred when she was hungriest, the way her teeth felt too sharp when she felt her stomach twist.

She pressed on.

" Hunger, as a single being, was mighty but vulnerable. It was too large, too terrifying. Prey could sense it long before it struck, and though it was feared, it was also fought. "

"So Hunger changed."

" It split itself... shattered into a thousand fragments, each carrying a piece of the void. No longer a vast consuming mass but countless pieces, tiny and subtle. Now, the hunt was easier. Hunger could creep closer.

The fragments grew clever. They took shape."

" Not monstrous. Not terrifying."

" Human-like. "

" Legs to chase. "

" Eyes to see. "

" Hands to grasp."

" A mouth... to devour. "

" But the mouth was no longer all-consuming void. No, Hunger learned to hide its true nature. Teeth, once bared openly, were tucked away behind lips. The void within... concealed."

" And so the first Redcaps were born."

Frederique blinked.

"Wait... why Redcaps?"

Lysandro, leaning back on his fainting couch, didn't even glance her way. He only smirked.

"Keep reading, my dear. It gets better."

" In the Dreaworld, form is shaped by story."

" The Redcaps took the form of small, misshapen humanoids. Their skin pale, almost greyish, like something long starved. They seemed harmless, even comical... like gnomes or twisted faerie folk."

" But they had one defining feature."

" Upon their heads sat caps of white cloth.

White, because they had not yet fed."

" You see, when a Redcap hunts, it does not strike for mere survival. Its hunger is older, deeper. It consumes not just flesh but fear, pain, and suffering."

" And when it devours?"

" The cap turns red."

"Bloodstained, soaked so deeply into the fabric that the color can never be washed out. "

"The red is their triumph. Their mark.

A Redcap who stains its cap does not hide. It flaunts. Because once fed, it grows stronger, faster, crueler."

" It becomes the Hunger it was meant to be."

Frederique shut the book with a snap, her pulse quickening.

"That's... that's horrifying."

Lysandro's voice drifted softly from across the room.

"Is it? Or is it simply nature, my dear? Hunger must be fed, after all. The lesson here is not fear... but understanding. Redcaps exist because the world fears what hunger represents. What it could drive us to do. It is a reminder of excess, of savagery hidden under polite smiles."

Frederique swallowed.

She remembered the way Frideria stirred when she was hungry. The way her vision blurred with red that night in the alley...

"Do they still exist? Here?"

Lysandro finally looked up, golden eyes glinting.

"Perhaps. But if they do, they are not the same. The Redcaps that linger in this world are... refined. Cultured."

"Cultured?"

"Oh yes." He chuckled softly.

"They have learned. No longer do they rip their prey apart. Now, they starve them. Withhold. Break the will before the flesh. Those who live long enough to see such hunger... they do not fear the teeth anymore. They fear the waiting."

Frederique shivered.

"Did the Night Court create them?"

Lysandro shook his head.

"No, but they have certainly made use of them."

She exhaled, staring at the book, its bloodstained sigil gleaming faintly under the lanternlight.

And from deep within her mind, Frideria stirred.

' Hungry. '