Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #12 March 2015 | Page 55

Spirits

Leshy

Vodyanoy
There is literally no safe place around if you aren’t
cautious. Let’s take a look at bodies of water. Keep
away from the reeds and the small forest lakes covered in something green.
The green is not what
you think it is. It’s Vodyanoy’s hair. If you get
stuck in it, there’s no way
back. If you manage to
get on his good side, he
can help you by sending
fish into your nets. But,
it’s unlikely for you to
get on the ill-humoured
Vodyanoy’s good side,
so outsmarting him is a
better option.. Surprisingly, he keeps his part
of the deal well. Until it’s
springtime. That flood is
his fault every time.

So our forests are these terrible, scary places, so don’t
even try to go in there… one day every year, you
will not come out of it alive! Leshy, the forest spirit,
is actually rather amicable and helps travelers find
their way out. He is
solitary, but there is
always one Leshy in
every forest. When
he decides it’s his
time to go to rest, he
steals a human child
and brings the boy
up as his successor.
But that’s because
even Leshy gets
lonely. The wild
rampage one day a
year is unexplained,
but I suppose everybody needs to
unwind every once
in a while.

Bannik
Do you think the bathhouse is a nice cozy place
where you can relax and
clean yourself? Wrong.
It’s the place where you
wash off all your sins
and bad thoughts along
with that grime. A good
host would never build a
house where there once
was a bath-house. And out of all that filth comes Bannik. If you anger him, you aren’t coming out of there
alive, or at least you’ll require a lot of medical help.
And after humans have used the bath-house for several
rounds, they better keep away from it for some time,
because Bannik loves to throw parties for other nasty
sp