Within the largest house of Tannberg, one hunter and one village elder sat across each other. With bated breath the hunter looked below, where an unconscious boy, dirty and hurt, lay.

“Does that mean bandits are roaming, elder?” he asked the skeletal figure opposite of him.

The elder just shook his head, dabbed his hand into a tray of water, and cleaned the young boy's face, almost ceremoniously.

“These clothes, this clean skin,” the elder mumbled, almost to himself, but certainly audible enough for the hunter to hear: “the reason is within the murky waters, yet the present is in danger.”

The hunter’s face turned stern almost immediately: “Then, what do we do?”

“Bring him to the castle,” the elder responded: “She’ll know,” before he turned away and left the hunter to do his bidding.”

What was worry turned into distress, and the hunter leaped up and blocked the elder’s way: “We may not last the winter if she lashes out!”

“It is a gamble, yes,” the elder began and pushed the hunter to the side with his meager strength, “but the winds are in our favor. Tell the mistress that …”

The hunter’s distress turned into reluctance, and then it turned into his all too familiar determination. He picked the boy up and went on his way, following the cobbled street to the castle atop a hill in the west.

Within the brightly lit and luxuriously decorated halls of the Tannberg castle, the hunter bowed his head. In front of him lay the unconscious boy and further was a regally clad woman in an enchanting red dress sitting relaxedly.

“So you’re saying you don’t know where he comes from?” asked a voice opposite to him. The hunter dared not raise his head when he responded: “Yes, I found him out cold in one of my traps. He likely didn’t have anything to eat or drink in half a week.”

In response the woman raised one leg above the other and leaned back into her velvet couch: “So instead of locking him up, you brought this runaway slave to my castle?”

When she moved the hunter could not help but glance at her leg and found his mind clouded in an instant. He only managed to persevere due to his experience and because he knew about her charms, but still, he stuttered: “O-our elder advised me. He spoke of a child of fair birth and without struggle, yet not noble.”

The hunter gulped before he continued: “He spoke of a gift. Yet he didn’t speak of any giver.”

The hunter waited and waited, yet he did not receive a response. He knew better than to fall to the pressure and waited.

Finally, the mistress responded: “Leave.” The hunter didn’t waste a second.

On his way out of the castle, the hunter didn’t see any guards, only a lone maid watching the mistress’s room.