She woke with a start when he touched her shoulder and backed away from him, hiding behind a tree, like a deer chased by his hounds. It took Ayuso a while to convince her of his good intentions. She looked like she hadn’t eaten for days so he told his men to bring her food. When asked for her name, she told them she couldn’t remember it, so one of his soldiers suspected she might be a surviving victim of the Pale Man, a creature who roamed the area stealing children from the surrounding villages and dragging them to his underground lair. Only two victims were known to have escaped the Pale
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