**The Forbidden Forest - Bloody Sunset**
Ryan retreated among the giant pines, the winter snows creaking under his feet as if to denounce his presence. His antler bow was heavy on his shoulder, but it was the only one that had repeatedly saved him from the claws of hunger. The deer he had just shot was slowly bleeding, its warm blood painting a crimson colour on the white snow.
"Well, deer... I guess my bad luck was your bad luck!" Ryan whispered sarcastically, tying the rope around the deer's legs.
Suddenly, the air turned into a biting frost. The distant cry of an eagle pierced his silence, then he heard a muffled roar. He turned quickly to find a black-eyed wolf staring at him from behind a tree, its fangs stained with rotting flesh and dripping with yellow saliva.
"Ah... hello, beautiful!" "Don't you know it's bad luck to get close to me?" said Ryan, stepping back.
The wolf leapt for his neck, but a giant boulder suddenly broke off from the nearby cliff and crushed him to smithereens. Ryan shuddered at the sound, then laughed nervously: "Thanks, mountain... but you ruined my dinner!"
But his laughter froze when he saw the shadow.
An intangible black object, like thick smoke, forming over the wolf's corpse. "Rei...an..." the shadow whispered in a voice that sounded like the friction of stones underwater.
He wanted to run away, but his eyes were glued to the gold ring that shone among the wolf's remains. He picked it up with a shaky hand, only to find a strange inscription (✸) shining in the moonlight. Suddenly, he heard a heartbeat beating beneath his feet, as if the earth itself was alive.
"Is that... my pulse?" Ryan laughed nervously, as he began to dig into the snow with his fingernails.
But an icy hand swooped down on his shoulder from behind...