The Book of Lost Things

In the morning, David parts ways with the dwarves and sets out on the road alone. Even though the dwarves warned him not to stray from the path, David sees an apple tree not far off the road and is so hungry that he leaves the path and climbs the tree to begin eating apples. Moments later, a creature appears with the body of a deer and the head of a young girl. As David watches, a huntress on horseback shoots the deer-girl with an arrow, then severs the deer-girl’s head from her body. The huntress spots David up in the tree and captures him, binding his wrists and ankles and placing him across her horse’s back alongside the body and severed head of the deer-girl.

The huntress takes David to her stone house filled with mounted hunting trophies of both animals and humans. David also sees two large tables stained with blood, sharp knives, and jars filled with body parts. As David lies on the floor, the huntress mounts the deer-girl’s head on a piece of wood, preserving her skin with a waxy substance. She reveals that she grew tired of hunting animals because of their lack of intelligence, and hunting humans was too easy since their bodies are weak, so she now creates her own prey by combining the cleverness of humans with the physical agility of animals.