When Annan entered the Oak Forest again, he felt as though the Forest had fallen deathly still. No birds or beasts passed through, and even the wind had stopped, as if time itself had frozen here.
The Crystal Skull kept pointing toward the Skeleton Duke. But carrying a skull around really did make Annan look like a Necromancer.
Annan walked for a while with a deliberately fierce expression, hoping to intimidate anything that might be watching him with malice. Then he stopped because it felt too stupid.
As he walked through the sparse trees of the Woodland, Annan remembered that he had forgotten to ask the Skeleton Assistant for a Skeleton Horse. Who knew how long this would take on foot... Or perhaps not long at all.
A cabin appeared ahead among the trees. The crystal skull pointed toward it too.
But the Wooden Cottage looked uninhabited. The Skeleton Duke was no ghost, so how could he have left no trace?
Wary, Annan took a detour around it. The crystal skull's direction led past the cabin and deeper into the Woodland.
It seemed the cabin was merely an old hunter's shelter...
Annan continued forward, curiously studying the cabin that had stood abandoned for so long...
Bang!
The tightly shut wooden door suddenly shuddered, shaking loose a shower of dust.
Annan stopped and looked toward the cabin in confusion.
Then the door shook violently and burst open with a bang. A young man tumbled out.
"Help me..."
Covered in wounds, the young man crawled away in terror. "Don't come over... Stay away from the cabin..."
He was warning Annan, too.
A figure emerged in the silent cabin: a charred shape wearing a long dress. It stared at the young man and crept outward slightly faster than he could crawl, revealing that