Original subtitles

They come to me, you know.

Every year. One or two. With swords on their sides and gold in their pockets.

They want to know about the Black Thicket.

They want to know what took their brother. Their father. Their lover.

People say you're the only one who ever came back.

I did not come back all the way.

Sixty years ago.

I was seventeen. Squire to Kael the Hunter.

They called him the Witch Eater.

Said he'd killed every devil between here and the sea.

He hadn't. There was one he hadn't met.

We came upon the village seeking work and were brought before its Lord.

Harrow was his name, half his face looked more bark than flesh.

He claimed the frost had done it.

We knew better.

Still we took his gold.

Twelve men. In a month?

They went into the Thicket and did not come out.

What do your people say of it?

One came back... three days later.

He could not speak. His eyes had turned white.

Before he died... he carved a single word into the church door.

Morrganth...

I've killed things with fancier names.

We rode through the forest...

toward the Black Thicket.

I had heard the tales.

They said no bird sang beneath its boughs...

that no beast would make its home there.

I thought they were only stories.

I was a boy... And boys believe in stories.

I don't anymore.

Stay close, boy! The forest grows darker from here. Keep your eyes sharp. Understand?

Yes, sir!

It was quiet... So quiet you could hear your own heart.

I thought... that was the worst part. The quiet.

I was wrong. The quiet... was the warning.

God in Heaven!

Easy Boy!

Morrganth... Morrganth... Morrganth... Morrganth...

Where is it?

Everywhere! It is the forest. It is the trees. It is me.

Soon It will be you!

Mercy. Learn it!

He called it mercy...

Now... when I think of that man... he was the fortunate one.

Perhaps that poor soul was God’s final warning to us.

If so... we were too proud to heed it.

We turned not for home.

We pressed deeper into that cursed wood... ignorant of what awaited us.

And there it stood before us... at last.

Not the beast we had come hoping to slay...but something far beyond our reckoning.

I had seen Kael stand before witches... devils...

things that would make good men flee.

I had never seen Kael afraid. Not once. Until that day.

Then it looked upon me...with that eye.

And after that nothing.

I remember only the light... everywhere. And a feeling as though I had finally come home.

Don't look at the eye. Cover your face.

Run, boy. Save yourself. Run...

I watched that thing take him... piece by piece...

until there was nothing left of the man who had raised me.

He died... so that I might run.

And God forgive me...I ran.

I ran... and ran... with what little strength remained in me.

Through the clearing... through the Thicket... and into the forest beyond.

The memory of him tore at me with every step.

It broke something in me... that never mended.

But I did not stop.

I ran until that cursed wood was far behind me... And only then... did I fall.

My Lord, the young one made it out of the woods.

Let him in.

Yes, my lord.

It took him, we must kill it.

It cannot be killed.

Too many have learned that this winter.

It will spare us now...for a time.

You knew. You knew all along and still sent us there to die.

You are too young to understand, boy.

The thing you saw in the woods is no mere monster.

It's an ancient god, boy, older than mankind itself.

A god cannot be slain, it can only be bargained with.

See that the boy wants for nothing. Give him food, warmth… and a place beneath this roof.

Yes, my lord.

He has lost enough this day.

I hated him then.

Thought no decent man could do what he did.

Sixty years taught me otherwise.

Sometimes every choice is wicked. You simply choose the one that leaves someone alive.

You found your way out once.

Help me find my way in.

My brother is still there.

He's not lost. He's part of it. And if you go in there, you'll be part of it too.

I can fend for myself.

I’ve a sword at my side… and steel enough to slay the beast.”

They come to me. Every year.

I tell them not to go. They go anyway.

Perhaps a man’s arrogance knows no bounds...

until he meets something that does.