‘Cut off the head, and the body will die…’ Kanz wasn’t sure he liked the particular phrase that was uttered in response to his misgivings about the task he had been set, but he was assured that this was the easiest way in which to strike true fear into those construction workers who still remained within the village, as well as those who dwelt there. There had been a significant amount of rather heated debate amongst the Lords and Ladies as to what would prove to be the best course of action to take in stopping those who wished to continue the destruction of the forest and hasten the awakening of the Ancient, but it had finally been agreed that striking at the place the humans most often gathered communally would be the best way to strike discord into their ranks.<br/><br/>In this case, that place was deemed to be the town’s pub. And so he was told in no uncertain terms of the task ahead of him – to set light to the building, to drive those who frequented it away, to show them all a sign of the Courts displeasure and in turn send a sign to those who knew of their ways, so that they might in turn beseech their kin to stop with the task of demolishing the forest. ‘They are already aware of our displeasure, and they have already done much to fight against those who would invade the forests’ he attempted to reason, his nature allowing him to see a little more reasoning in the humans behaviour, and to be able to differentiate the specific groups involved. But it was not his place to question the orders of the Court – something he was reminded of rather sternly and harshly by those who assembled to inform him of his task. He didn’t go as far as to question if this wasn’t something suited more to the way of thinking of their dark cousins – there was a limit to which he was prepared to push.<br/><br/>And so it was that the study boggan found himself abroad in the land of mortals that evening, pacing back and forth around the edge of the village nearest to the pub in question – hands clasped tightly behind the small of his back as he thought on what course of action best to take. He had an order – and if he did not follow it through then there would be repercussions, of that there was no doubt. But he couldn’t help feeling that this just wasn’t right – this wasn’t what they did, no matter how his kin view humans. Sure, he had been told to make sure it was just a small fire – enough to scare off those within without any casualties, but he could no more control fire than he could control time.<br/><br/>He was no sorcerer, and he was no arsonist.<br/><br/>He sat down for a moment – stretching his arms out behind him, palms flat against the cool ground beneath him, and he studied the pub. He watched the shapes moving within through the smoky glass windows – although whether the windows were naturally smoked, or whether it went to show exactly how much was being smoked inside the pub, he didn’t quite know. ‘I can’t be responsible for injuring any of those people’ he thought to himself as he idly dug his fingers into the dirt behind him, rubbing it between forefingers and thumb. ‘We help, we don’t injure.’ Indeed, his kind were known for helping those in need – although those people rarely if ever knew that they were being helped, and it was even rarer still for those people to know exactly what it was that helped them.<br/><br/>As he sat and mused over what he was going to do next, his eyes caught sight of a movement by the back door of the pub. It was small – too small to be human unless it was a child, but too big to be an animal. And besides, animals and children in general didn’t tend to wear blood red caps – but he knew what creatures did, and he felt his stomach begin to turn as he recognised one of his dark cousins making its way stealthily towards the semi opened back door to the pub. Red caps. Murderers the lot of them, evil sadistic little creatures who got their names from the red caps they wore upon their heads – regularly stained with the blood of their victims. He could see the large iron pike that it held within both its hands as it made its way into the pubs back rooms – an iron pike that while it would be quite adept at using upon foes no matter what their size.<br/><br/>For a moment he found himself rather thankful – the red caps presence here gave him an excuse to at least delay his task of torching the pub, and perhaps the Court in that time would come to their senses. The sense of thankfulness was short lived however – the dread of having to face a red cap, a rather fearsome fighter indeed, creeping over him like a cold wet hand slithering up his spine. Those people, whether they knew it or not, needed his help.<br/><br/>Suddenly, as he moved shakily to his feet and began to stalk towards the open back door, setting fire to the place didn’t seem all that bad an alternative…