Yellow, flickering eyes, were all he could see at the end of the dark hallway.  Candle light danced along the bare stone walls, and made the length seem all the more daunting.  He could see only the looming mass the eyes no doubly belonged to. 

“Hello? I’m sorry to just come in like this but the storm got so bad I thought-”

“Thought I would welcome you into the safety of my castle?” the voice that answered was nothing close to human.  It was deeper than any ever heard in a choir, and a growl akin to that of deadly wolf.  The man struggled to force words from his throat as the creature at the end of the hall began to shift slowly into the light.

“I really didn’t meant to intrude,” the man held up his hands and smiled. “But I will leave, with out another word.”

“Really? Not even a single word? Not even an apology for your rudeness?” the creature held a sense of arrogance in its snide retort.

“I am sorry, I have done no harm, so I will go.”

The creature laughed and the man felt a horrid chill down his spine. “But your filthy wet clothes have dripped all over the carpet, how can you let me believe your sincerity in the least.”

The man’s hands began to tremble. As the creature took its first step into the dancing light.  A long dog like haunch covered in ripped silk and dark, thick fur. Long black claws protruded from heavy hands, and it’s arms bulged with thick muscles easily the size of the man’s chest.  The creature’s spine was curved forward under the weight of its terrifying head.  White fangs, and the face of an animal the man had never seen; the nose of feline, the jaw of a wild boar and the main of a black lion.  But it’s eyes, were the most striking, illuminated by the dim candles they glowered, yellow like the finest amber, and stared into the trembling soul of the man.

He fell to the floor as the creature towered over him, he kicked his feet frivolously to try and gain more distance.  “P-please I will do anything, please just let me leave. I am a father of three, with a daughter to be married, please don’t kill me.”

The creature snarled its face to bare its sharp teeth, “I will spare your wretched life but,” the creature leaned forward so the man felt its hot breath billow against his face. “You will bring me your daughter as payment for all the trouble you cause me. Now go, and bring her by sunrise two days time.”

“Please, she is-

“GO!” the creature roared and snapped its massive jaw shut.  The man scrambled to his feet and ran from the manner, never even looking back until he reached the edge of his village several miles away.