Are you evil like us?

Warm was the night, soft was the breeze. Rekut was jolly happy to have escaped the city with a bag full of jewels. Truth to be told, most were not of the kind you'd sell in any reputable market. Firstly, of course, because they had been acquired in long nights of very disreputable work and, secondly, because they were mostly fakes with a second rate pearl hidden here and there. Nothing that bothered our jolly thief as his skills included a tongue sweet enough to convince a destitute old farmer of the dangers of wealth. But it was his swift feet who had saved him to a last trip to the pillory. Just two days before our story, the magistrates, after bearing his many previous wrongdoings, had warned him the month before that "next time, you get the drop."

And by the drop, they meant a good old-fashioned hanging; a less expensive alternative to the traditional punishment tossing the hardened thieves down into a pit cell; never to come out again, alive or dead.

So after narrowly escaping from a fashionable home where he had not been an invited guest, Rekut made for a quick sneak to his den, picked up his treasure and zoomed out of the city of Brispuk. Unaware of it, he'd run out of a horrible fate to meet much worse.

You see, Rekut was born a city rat who knew the ins and outs of every shop, home and institution of Brispuk. No street held a secret for him, and neither the sewers or the underground passages. But he cared nothing of the world outside, beyond that it had other cities and some large place between those, known by the boring name of Outdoors.

With any bit of luck our thief would have only experienced a showering rain and some horrible night of no sleep, had he stuck to the road. But, concerned as he had to be, that the guards would sent a party after him, he abandoned the track for a little cross-country trek. If a rabbit could do it, it would be easy for him, right?

In fact, by the time he arrived to some certain dead forest, he could not believe his luck. All that dry fuel waiting for him to have a warm fire. That would give some nice rest tonight, and, tomorrow, hopefully before midday, he'd be entering the gates of Uis or such other city where he would return to his usual business.

But, as he began to gather firewood from the forest, one of the putrid branches grabbed his left ankle.

"Are you?, are you? are you?" A voice coming from the underground asked. "Are you evil like us?"

Rekut struggled and freed himself from the sudden clasp, but not two steps later two wooden branches surged out of the earth and fell him down.

"Are you?, are you?, are you?, are you evil like us?"

Rekut didn't waste a thought to reply, but darted back from the ground again. Knees and elbows reddened by blood. It didn't matter. Fifteen years before, the kid that he was, had run with a broken elbow from some evil city guards. This was nothing new, just run, run, run!

Plump! Again he tripped and fell. Again he tried to stand, but his right foot refused to move. Something had scratched his tight and poison was already flowing through his veins. Auch! His other leg hanged limp and finally his arms. And so he lay, faced down, completely helpless.

"Are you?, are you?, are you?, are you evil like us?"

On every dead tree two holes opened. And these holes blinked and became eyes, and then, so very slowly, fat and gaunt, short and tall, one creature emerged from the bark of every tree. Thin branches were their many arms, thick roots their legs, toadstools their hair, bark their skin, sharp stones their teeth, and red hot embers their eyes. They dressed in spider webs, teeming with crawling spiders and cocooned victims, which, unnaturally, growled and shivered, struggling in vain to break their silken prisons. Oh, were these a dreadful sight as the slumbering creatures chanted as they approached the bewildered Rekut.

"Are you?, are you?, are you?, are you evil like us?"

Rekut didn't know what to do. His was a much simpler thief life, one where magic was a rumor and goblins creatures of the past. But these were not goblins like he had heard many a mother tell to her pampered children. However, paralyzed as he was, it wasn't like he had any choice but his trusted sweet tongue. If it had saved his skin many times as cute little kid with a slight problem with stealing, well, it'd still work now, even with these creatures who didn't know him.

"Greetings, your lordships, excuse my invasion. I was not aware this turf was yours..." ---the denblins, the tree-goblins as they are known in some books, slowed down their pace giving Rekut some much needed boost of confidence--- "I was only intending to reach the city, though I might be a little disoriented. However, now that I am among your lordships, I am very much obliged to assist you inasmuch as I am able. Indeed, I am sure we will find a common understanding of mutual interest."

By the time Rekut had ended his speech, the denblins were at an arms length, all around him, still repeating their chant:

"Are you?, are you?, are you?, are you evil like us?"

"My Lordships, I beg to..." A denblin who looked somehow female, wide as an old oak, took Rekut with one arm and raised him from the ground.

"Answer, we ask. Answer, we ask. Answer, we ask. Answer or you shall hear the breaking of your arms."

And the whole choir of denblins repeated her words: "Answer, we ask. Answer, we ask. Answer, we ask. Answer or you shall die. Are you?, are you?, are you?, are you evil like us?"

Rekut's mind went into high gear. What should he answer? Were these spirits of justice set to punish his troubles with the law? Could they read lies; perhaps if he just hid enough of his soul...

"Oh, I do not wish your Lordships to compare this, your humble serf, to your mightiness, but I might confess I am not the most law-abiding of citizens. But deep down inside I'm good, it's just I could be a bit evil too, but in moderation, really.
I assure you, I never snitched a friend unless the guards had me cornered real bad.
Not too much of any good or bad thing in my heart, you see."

One of the deblins scratched one of its toadstool, which grew wings and flew away "He's, is he? is he evil like me?
Let us take him, us take him, to the place of peace."

The words didn't sound too terrible, hadn't been proclaimed so solemnly.

"To the place of peace, to the place of peace."

Was this good? A place of peace as in library? Or was place of peace as cemetery? Rekut reacted by trying his tongue again but this time the denblins were not concerned with his words, returning to their first chant, while dragging him over a putrid bedding of rotten leaves for two horrid hours.

"Are you?, are you?, are you?, are you evil like us?"

And when the night came, so a lagoon came to be there was a well, and around it, ten thousand and twelve creatures of light: an owl, a wolf, a sparrow, a mouse, a rabbit, a fox, a mole, a lizard, a fly, a female deer, a weasel, a zombie dodo, and a cloud of midges.

"No, we aren't evil as you", the creatures of light proclaimed.

"Here is one, he is such, who is evil as us." And with that accusation the denblins froze where they stood, turning back into trees.

Then, the cloud of midges flew quietly to the paralyzed Rekut, landed on his face, covering every bit of the skin and gave him, each one, a small bite, even as they told him about the story of the forest.

"One hundred generations of sparrows ago, a werewolf family, refugees, children and their mothers of savory blood came to our home. And they were true to the ways of our forest. But these evil, evil men came after them, and hunted them, and nailed them to our trees, and committed gross crimes, and burned our homes, and fooled the air, until the curse fell on them and all that would ever live like."

The enblins then spoke: "Those were the first of us. Our foulness poisoned the trees and our curse came to be."

"Now the question is," said the deer "are you evil like them? Ten-thousand-midges return and tell us what you have found in his blood."

"No, I am not evil like them," Rekut replied, "you shall find out, true, a wee sin of the funny kind here and there, some small lifting to feed me when I was little. Nothing that cannot be understood."

Then one of the midges, came flying to the lagoon and dropped the bit she had collected from Rekut's blood. The water was tainted in red and displayed an image of a younger Rekut happily walking out of prison while a disgruntled woman, barely and adult, was pushed inside by the guard.

"Oh yes, that's me, coming out of Brispuk Prison. But that's good, going out of prison I mean, isn't it? It means I served my sentence and reformed!"

"That woman was innocent." Claimed the owl.

"Oh, yes, she might have been, that time."

"And your friend."

"But you cannot blame a man for association."

"And your love." The owl sounded as solemn as angry.

"At some point she might have believed she was but really, not that I particularly cared for her at any particular time."

"That is true," said the mouse, "for you accused her of stealing the silver jar you had stolen."

"Oh, come on... you don't really think that I... wait? How do you know about the silver jar? It's not on the waters."

"Magic, ob-vious-ly." The mouse was as annoyed as entertained.

"Magic? But this is not fair?! How am I supposed to defend myself? This is against the Conventions and High Laws of the Republic."

"This is not your Republic of Brispuk, nor any of your human kingdoms or Empires. Are you evil, then ---evil like them?"

"No, not in the least. That was survival... you see just like the owl, he hunts... mice... doesn't he?"

"Would have you starved had you not incriminate your love?"

"First, she wasn't my love, really, just a girl I could do things with, and second, do you know of Brispuk Prison's food?"

One of the denblins raised his wooden arms. "I know. I lived there once when I could call myself human. Hi Rekut."

"See, Celestial creatures? Look at that! I didn't... want to become that. I had to survive! Had to! Besides, High Lord Mouse, when you were very afraid of that bad owl there, wouldn't you have done anything, anything? It's one thing I did. A mistake, yes! An error... an error of judgment but it doesn't make me evil... it was just fear and... please... it was just one thing."

The mouse said nothing. The dear called for another midge, and it displayed another crime, and another and another one. Rekut stealing from a begging boy with a broken leg, "he could have worked with his hands", setting a house on fire "they would have caught me, I was desperate", throwing a puppy on an old rich lady "just a distraction", guiding a foreign merchant right into a trap, "anybody who was as stupid as to trust me deserved that", and the list went on and on, until not even Rekut could stand his own excuses.

"OK, maybe, I'm not truly good, but there's a deal..."

"Enough!", the mouse squeaked. "He's evil, evil like them!"

"You are evil, you are evil, you are evil, evil like us."The denblins chanted again.

"But wait, your Lordships, I do beg you, I... you haven't heard me yet, I am not like like those... I..."

The denblins gathered around Rekut and dragged him to the darkest heart of the dead forest, where eternally rotting oaks were dressed by a foul fog, thick as tar.

"No please, forgive me... mercy!"

"You are evil, you are evil, you are evil, evil like us. So you'll be like us!"

"No please, noble creatures, forgive me, I'll change, I promise, I'll change."

"And change you will." Thus spoke the celestial creatures, and then, they disappeared together with the lagoon and anything possesing a good soul.

Rekut protested, begged for his life, and even tried to chant magic, despite this being his first experience with it. But with legs and arms hanging limp from his body there was literally nothing he could do, but repeat his promise of change to the denblins.

"This is your soul". Said the largest of the denblins, pointing to a rotting, twisted trunk of a silver birch that, as a zombie, refused to die.

"What are you going to do? Hang me? You can't hang a disabled man. I'm an orphan. I'll change, please, leave me, they aren't watching, I'll give you gold, I can find you wizards, they will turn you back into..."

"You are evil, you are evil, you are evil, evil like us."

"Nail him!"

"No!"

Rekut shouted though his hands and feet didn't feel the nails as they pierced his flesh, but blood did come out of them. The thief cried only out of fear. "Please don't, trust me. I know I cannot be trusted, but trust me, I'll change, I'll change."

"And change you will". This time it was the denblins who chanted that as they abandoned Rekut to his doom.

The man nailed to the tree hanged to his last and only hope "I'll change, I'll change." He repeated that for hours, then days, as if the words could save him. But his skin turned to bark, "I'll change, I'll change," his hair fell replaced by a sprinkle of toadstools, "I'll change, I'll change," his back joined the dead tree and soon his lasts words faded into the cold forest winds.