Hearthway Hollow

E'Zei the Forest Spirit

Male Monster x Female Reader

"Here's your order, ma'am."

I take the bag from off the counter, a little miffed at being called ma'am, but it really doesn't matter. I just want to get home, get into my pajamas, and plant myself at the TV for the entirety of the weekend.

As I walk outside and I am struck with the vivid recollection of how this town used to look back when I was little. Even then it was small and mostly trees. Hearthway Hollow was also that cute, picturesque sort of place. Even with everything that it was, it was normal and cozy. All the people knew each other. Now, it had grown so much in just the twenty years I had lived here.

Having moved here at three with my dad the Hearthway forest was what I called my first home. The tall trees were the giants in my fairy tales, and the damp banks of moss and bugs were my kingdoms. I would steal my father's spellbooks and take them to my hiding places, reading them as I tended to my secret strawberry patch. I don't know why I kept a strawberry patch a secret, I was a kid and just wanted some magic and mystery to my tiny life.

It was during one of these stolen moments I accidentally caused a bit of mayhem. My father's books weren't meant for the novice, let alone a precocious kindergarten with a penchant for strawberry plants. I didn't know what powers I held, let alone what powers could be, and I had yet learned to respect any of them. It was this that led me to summon a creature that still stalks about the Hearthway Forest and is quite possibly the reason so many wild wolves are appearing these days.

Once I get home with my takeout, I set it down and instantly strip off my clothes. I go to my bedroom where I quickly tug on the oversized hoodie I always wore and a pair of fuzzy socks. I then hear a tapping on my window, and I scowl at the glass, seeing only my reflection there.

The tapping continues, going off the tune of 'Shave and a Haircut.' I roll my eyes and walk out of my room, going out the sliding glass door. Sure enough, I see the great big, black figure stooped over my window.

"What do you want, E'zei?" I ask, shoving my hands into the pockets of the hoodie.

E'zei rises, standing a head above the roof of the house. His eyes widen ever so slightly from under the hanging vines and moss on his head. They're all black, looking almost like hollow sockets. He's silent and still, much like the forest around him. He then stretches out his long arm. His hand in clutching something and as the many joints of his fingers uncurl he shows to me the little terrified bunny in his palm.

"I had to smack one of those awful wolves," E'zei says.

I reach out, taking the rabbit and stroking it's head. It starts to settle and curls into my chest. The little thing is bleeding a bit, but it's mainly just scared. This isn't the first time E'zei had brought me an animal intended to be part of the Hearthway Hollow ritual. He has saved many a deer, elk, boar, and too many rabbits to count, and all because he can't stand the wolves and their ways.

E'zei was the creature I summoned. He's ancient and powerful, a formal primal deity who had been forgotten but still strikes fear even in the powers that be. I fed him my strawberries, and he grew a fondness for me. He watched over me as a child and brought my father the injured animals he would save from the wolves.

I take the bunny inside, placing it in the small pen my father had made back when E'zei first started bringing us animals. I then go back outside and look up at E'zei. "Have you got nothing better to do than smack the wolves?"

E'zei chuckles. "Many things," he growls. "But I prefer to torment them."

I frown, I know E'zei is a creature that could do so much harm to the world. He's not a good spirit by any means. Yet he chooses to devote his time and energy to making sure the wolves of Hearthway Hollow are inconvenienced and even scared. He's supposed to be a power with no master, but here he is, never straying too far from the house.