the evil spirit of the forest

There is nothing more dangerous in the world than fear. Fear breeds hate and pain. Fear poisons souls. Fear is the companion of death. Sometimes, the mighty gods, creatures of nature, succumbed to fear and lost themselves. Like tar, fear stained their souls, and their once healthy, strong bodies smoldered. So the guardian gods became demons, doomed to eternal wanderings. Demons who do not feel the heat of the sun or the cold of winter. All such creatures feel is hunger. All they need is the energy that fear generates, it is it that keeps the tattered soul in their distorted, half-rotted bodies. One of these demons is Bher. A large animal with a shaggy black skin, in which twigs and leaves are stuck, with a large horned skull, with a muzzle frozen in an eternal grin. Bher loves to hunt in dark forests. He walks slowly, stepping noiselessly with his hooves. Only dream catchers and rook skull pendants that adorn his horns clink in the wind. The demon hunts for lost travelers, sniffs, greedily swallows air, poisoned by the fear of a lost person. The beast deliberately scares the traveler - it crunches with twigs under the hooves, touches large tree branches with its horns, scares the birds - thereby forcing the traveler to go further and further into the thicket. Go and be afraid. And if you panic, Bher will not lag behind, and will circle nearby, preventing the traveler from getting out of the thicket. A person cannot see a demon, but he can feel his presence, smell his skin - the smell of rotten grass, hear the ringing of jewelry and the clatter of bones. Or maybe the presence of an invisible beast only seems to be? Or maybe the mind, clouded with fear, paints nightmarish images? Salvation is hidden in this thought. If a person catches himself on this thought and ceases to be afraid, the demon will leave, he will look from afar with empty eye sockets at the escaped victim. And the traveler, having got rid of the terrible pursuer, will be able to find his way home.