Herbalists' Cache painted thus he slipped from the canvas

Questions, and more questions. This could not be the will of the nether then; it never drove him towards such talkative subjects. Perhaps something else was guiding him this time? Or maybe this was the darkness, but taking a new - and strange - approach. The body behind him belonged to a vagrant. They had approached him with hope, having detected the scent of the coast upon his own body (faded though it had become), and had been tracking him. Tetsubo was not about to lead this creature back to the depths and his lord Skellige.

The stranger had eventually caught up to him as he trailed his way back towards the coast, and thus made itself a target. Tetsubo was enamored by the thought of defending his lord, for that was his purpose. The pair met. Tetsubo had doubled back and caught the stranger sleeping in the wood, and had intended to speak to them — to question them — but found that they were not alone. The stranger was bundled around a pair of tiny bodies. One small and sickly child, the other strong and hale despite the weather. Tetsubo was reminded of his mission: to bring the children back.

But the stranger woke, and with their intense instinct to defend and protect, took up arms against the warrior. The fight had been quick and simple to Tetsubo; he was skilled, and the caretaker was not. He was healthy from days living upon the coast, and the stranger was desperate. Of course, desperation bred its own strengths — but nothing could surpass Tetsubo when his mind was set.

Thus they had ended their quarrel here, among the trees. The stranger's body a lump of steaming flesh, and his head some meters past. During the entire event Tetsubo had not thought to look for the children. But the boy's question jostled his memory, and his gaze slipped from his juvenile silhouette to the crux between some trees behind him. He broke the stare with the boy to observe the shadows there, to test them with his paw and glean some understanding with those shining, dead eyes of his — but the children were gone. 

The beast snorted, pawed the earth for a moment, and then turned to face the boy — becoming the nether for a minute, where his eyes were the only pinpricks of light. For the children, he muttered ominously. They were not here. He would track them, then, and return to Skellige with praise.