Heart Of The Dark Souls

*{SARPAX}*

Charles hastily collected his luggage together as the sun began to summarize the day's work slowly. The weather didn't seem favourable and he was the only one who took the Panther's route and he knew how it usually was as soon as the sun began to sink into the red clouds. He was a bachelor, who usually distributed goods and also rendered services to people in the Heritage town market on the outskirts of the town, returning after dark when he would take a cross cut through The Panther's Forest so he could get home early. He was a man of his own principles and, of course, he was never flinched by what people said about him.

Whenever there was strong wind, the tall thin pine trees made uncomfortable, moaning, eerie sounds that kept most people to the main, straight road, which might be a longer route but a safer one as well. But Charles was not the kind of person who gets agitated easily. He was not an imaginative man. He believed that there was nothing that could fright him or hale him in the forest. ‘Not in this era’, he would encourage himself. He believed in the shields of the almighty, but he was still a pagan.

He carried a dark lantern and its wan glimmer. The fuel was getting exhausted - he pocketed along fitfully over the strait forest path, ignoring the moaning sounds made by the trees, when its flickering light dropped on that figure. The figure of a young lady who was sitting alone on a banquette at a railway station that crossed the forest . She looked like a girl in her early twenties. There was no one there apart from her. Initially, Charles wanted to run seeing her because he didn't expect to find anyone on that way. No one except him took that route and ever since he had been taking this path home, he had never found anyone in the forest, not even a trace of a human once, so why today?

"God's shield's with me , I shall not fear." He halted to peek closely at the lady.

People were not supposed to be out at this time of the day, not even in a place people idealised as being haunted by witches, ghosts, monsters, goblins, demons and other creatures similar. They couldn't say they reared lions or other wild animals . They had been stereotyped as those mythological things which Charles found difficult to believe. These things were mythology, there were nothing like that these days. That was Charles' belief, but he was still cautious. No one should be here by 7 pm because the railway station was also closed by 6 pm because of this weird stereotyped belief of everyone in the town and it was past 8. Charles said to himself thoughtfully, glancing at his wristwatch as he approached.

Charles moved closer to the observatory to see if he would be able to recognize the lady, but as he approached the lady, he sensed that something was not right with her. The lady appeared to be pulling or even purring like a cat. Her head was hung down and her body shook spasmodically as the cold breeze slapped her body back and forth. She was shivering as she wrapped herself in her own arms. The sound she was making was too eldritch to the ears and Charles began to feel a bit apprehensive and nervous, yet he wanted to know what she was doing there.

"What is the matter? Why are you alone here? You shouldn't be." He asked, his heebie-jeebies giving way to concern.

"Did you perhaps lose your way? I can help you out here . Look it up please." Charles wondered if she was dumb because she wasn't answering any of his questions.

The lady jerked her head up and looked up, palpebrating her eyes. "Yes, yes...Please, take me out of here." She said, her voice quivering as she shook. She seemed to have lost her way for real. She stood up and began to walk after Charles, who was now relieved and comfortable.

Charles began to tell her about the place and how the place had been pigeonholed to be hunted by different scary creatures as they both slowly sauntered away from the railway station.

The lady asked him more questions about the place, and she responded innocently, flickering her eyes and straightening her ears now and then as she heard something shocking. She looked very naive, just like a new baby born, unaware of a thing.

"According to what I heard, to be specific as the surveyors, according to surveys, this area is haunted by different scary creatures like the restless ghosts whose soul hadn't attained salvation, etc. But the one who is said to have been banished from her coven, comes out every night and tricks people so she can devour them. This is a Sarp ....." He explained.

"A Sarp? What or who is a Sarp?" The lady asked again. She sounded shocked and curious and Charles chuckled amusedly, believing that this lady was indeed ignorant.

"Not that I believe it actually, I haven't seen one before, but people say that she is a very dangerous creature, she is a witch actually. She comes out every night to prey on humans, especially stray people like you. You really need to be very careful of where you let your legs take you. If I hadn't found you, I am afraid you would have been a victim. We just have to leave here as soon as possible, so you can find your way home." Charles said and the lady nodded, but with her countenance Charles could tell that she had begun to get scared. He didn't have the intention of scaring her, but she looked terrified because she had started to shudder out of fear.

"Are you scared? You shouldn't be, I amn't saying that to terrify you ... I am only explaining people's thoughts about this area ... She will not come tonight, nothing's gonna happen to you, okay?" Charles said and the lady nodded.

SARP'S DEEDS

"Can you tell me more about it?" The lady asked, surprising Charles but he did not protest. He shrugged and continued.

"You see, this is not the first time I have taken this route and I have never seen a creature like that and that even made me believe that those things were just lies to keep people away from this path, though I never thought of what the reason could be. Trust me, we will get out of here soon with no problem." Charles assured the lady and they kept on walking down the forest. Then another things popped into Charles mind.

"But do you know one thing that weird me out the most about her?" He continued, he seemed quite comfortable with her, perhaps because he knew he wasn't alone anymore. "I have seen many visualized images of that Sarp that stays here . With the description, She has soiferino red hair, big black chapped lips, her eyes are like that of a cat, her skin is also covered with seve