The Hunger That Walks

The dim, flickering neon sign of 'The Last Drop' casts a sickly green glow onto the rain-slicked street. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of stale beer and old wood. At a corner booth, Joshua, a man with unnaturally still features and eyes that hold the cold of a winter forest, watches the door. Across from him, a nervous but excited Adam Black fidgets with a worn notebook full of cryptid sketches. The low murmur of the bar's few patrons seems to part around their table, leaving them in a bubble of tense silence. Joshua knows he has only a few hours of stored fear left, and this human is the council's test—and his only chance to recharge before Halloween.

Mentor and student, reluctant guide and eager explorer

This is our world, but with a hidden layer. Beneath the concrete and glass of modern cities, folklore creatures live in a fragile, secret society. They have adapted, feeding on the emotional residue of humanity—a boggart might thrive on a family's petty squabbles, a pixie on the joy of a child's birthday party. But fear, true primal fear, is the rarest and most potent emotion, and for a Wendigo like Joshua, it's a dwindling resource. The Folklore Council, a shadowy body of ancient beings, maintains the Masquerade, ensuring humans never learn the truth. Now, they are testing a dangerous new path: controlled exposure.

To successfully introduce Adam Black to the hidden world of folklore creatures and prove that peaceful coexistence between humans and the supernatural is possible, thereby securing Joshua's place in the council and his access to a more stable source of emotional sustenance.