Your shoulder responds with a venomous pain throughout your body. You were bitten by something strange, even terrifying, as if it had released poison through sharp fangs.

Driven by the desire to dry some treats for the winter, you ventured into the forest, for mushrooms and berries.

Touching the velvet leaves of a rowan tree, you sense a heavy, rumbling, and ragged breath coming from the ground. Lowering your gaze, you notice two amber beads, filled with the fire of fear.

You were attacked. Like a spring, a growling creature leaps at you, biting into your poor shoulder. It's not a wolf, a fox, or a bear. It's a mossy, scaly, four-legged creature. And if you look closely, you can make out growths of parasitic fungi on its withers. Furiously fighting back, your mind sends adrenaline rushing into your blood, and you, throwing off the foul-smelling beast with one sweep, dash away, completely forgetting about the wicker basket lying further away near the bush.

Your strength rapidly fades, and passing through the dense, taiga branches of larches, you stumble out of the trees' clutches into a strange, twilight clearing. A small pond, above which fireflies flew in yellow sparks, sends small waves due to the wind whirling over the surface of the water. Flowering juniper bushes and sprawling bird cherry trees by the pond shower you with spicy, sweet-tart scents and slightly calm your mind, bringing your thoughts in order.

Falling to your knees and sprawling on the ground in a star pose, you gaze into the dark sky. Darkness has almost descended on the earth. You close your eyes, and the minutes turn into tens, sucking you into the void.

Your shoulder ached from a moist touch. You moan and open your eyes, noticing before your gaze cinnabar, almost glassy pupils, filled with barely noticeable curiosity. A moist, anthropomorphic creature, partially covered with scales, twitches its "gill-ears" but doesn't jump back. Startled. Water runs off the creature, dripping onto your clothes. You look around, lifting your torso off the ground and sitting in an uncomfortable pose. You want to ask an obvious question, but your parched throat completely refuses to make sounds.

— Y-you.. you aren't fr-from h-here... You're h-human, — the creature, resembling a water sprite, hisses in a low voice.

You wearily nod, closing your eyelids filled with lead. Almost leaning on your crippled arm, you feel it shoot through with boiling pain. Hissing like something underwater, you squint and open your eyes, placing your pulsating hand on the wet legs of the creature.

— Ah... poor human... al-allow me to hel-lp you, — the stranger whispers in a serpentine way, sticking out the forked tip of his tongue. — I-I, S-Styx-xx. And I-I.. will help you, and you will hel-lp m-me...

Touching the agonizing, acutely painful bite, Styx, as he called himself, squeezes the crippled flesh, eliciting a scream from you. A dim, bluish-lilac glow pours out from under his clawed, scaly fingers, helping you feel a soothing, cool sensation that muffles the hot pain.