A little boy was playing at being a mage while another child pretended to be a monster. In the middle of their game he ended up tapping her on the head, hard enough that she stopped and asked how he could hit her for real.
"Monsters are supposed to lose to mages," the boy said, as if that were an obvious rule of the world.
The village elder, Harambert, watched the scene from the path and remarked that they were quite energetic that morning. The boy took the opportunity to ask the old man what he had to do to become a mage.
Harambert explained that it was not something a person could become just by wanting it. Mages were the pinnacle of humanity. They were the ones who held the highest positions, nobles and knights who had inherited mysterious powers from their ancestors. He made it clear that ordinary children like them could not simply become mages.
One of the adults standing nearby found it strange that he said something like that so bluntly to children. The conversation shifted before anyone could argue about it, because someone mentioned that a monster had appeared near the village.
Harambert confirmed it. Hope had encountered the creature the previous night, and described it as a gigantic leopard the size of a house, its body covered in a pitch-black shadow.
Even so, the elder tried to reassure everyone. The village chief had already gone to the city to ask a mage for help, and that mage would surely be able to deal with the monster. In the meantime, everyone should avoid the forest, especially the children, because without a mage it would be almost impossible to kill such a creature.
One of the adults asked whether everyone in the village already knew about the situation, and Harambert said yes. The man insisted. Did even the shepherd on the hill know?
Meanwhile, that very shepherd was lying on one of his sheep with his dog beside him, bored by the repetition of the same scenery and the same routine every day. He thought that at this rate he might even forget how to speak, since he barely interacted with anyone.
At that moment a shadow fell across him. Harambert had climbed the hill, and he complained at once that Turan really was lazy, since the sun had not even begun to set and he was already resting.
"Move," Turan said, irritated. "You're blocking the sunlight."
Harambert asked whether he was still resentful about what had happened before. He mentioned his mother's death, and the business of the sheep the village had tried to turn into shared property.
Turan admitted that he was. He said he was not generous enough to share his own inheritance, and that the two of them were not close enough to be discussing such matters anyway. He told the old man to just say what he had come to say and then leave.
So Harambert explained that a monster had appeared. A giant leopard, the one Hope had seen. He was warning everyone in the village.
Turan acknowledged that it was a serious problem, but showed no fear at all, which made the elder remark that he would most likely be the monster's first target, living out here in isolation the way he did. He could not say where that courage of his came from. Still, he emphasized that the village chief had already gone to fetch a mage, and that he had come all the way up here out of concern for him.
Turan retorted that the old man was not being honest. He was worried about the sheep, not about him. He told him to leave.
Harambert walked away irritated, and Turan stayed where he was, thinking about monsters. They were the counterparts to mages, he reflected. Just as humans had mages, beasts had monsters. He wondered whether he might finally get the chance to see a real mage, though he suspected that one summoned by a rural village chief probably would not be very impressive.
Then he smelled blood.
He got up and went toward the forest, exactly where the monster would be. On the way he found Harambert's body, completely destroyed, split in half and covered in blood. Despite all the warnings about being careful, the old man had been caught first. Judging by the severity of the wounds, it could only be the work of a monster.
Soon after, he heard something approaching, until the creature appeared just as it had been described. A gigantic leopard shrouded in shadow.
Back in the village, the boy who had been playing at being a mage asked his father how strong a monster was, and whether even adults could not defeat one.
His father replied that if an ordinary person like him ran into a monster, not even bones would be left. Then he tried to reassure his son by saying that the village chief would bring a mage, and everything would be fine.
The boy wanted to be sure. The mage would win, and punish the monster?
His father guaranteed it. Mages were powerful beings, capable of defeating monsters with a single word.
In the forest, when the monster lunged at Turan, he simply told it to die.
For a moment the creature recoiled, as if it might actually obey. He found it strange when it did not fully work. He tried again with a command to stop, and realized that the monster could resist him, which meant it was a strong creature.
When the leopard attacked with its claws, Turan dodged and did what he knew best as a shepherd. He took out his sling, hardened a stone with a few muttered words, and increased the speed of the shot.
At the right moment he launched it, with enough force to tear off half of the monster's head.
Even so, the creature still came forward to devour him. So he adjusted the attack, saying aloud that he was aiming for the head, and the stone came back and crushed the monster completely, finally bringing it down.
Afterward, Turan admitted to himself that it was the first time he had ever used that kind of power against a monster. Then he began to wonder what he was supposed to do with the body, and imagined that the villagers would probably make him deal with it himself.