I once quarreled with a man who insisted no substantial differences separate spriggans and leshens. The knave riled me greatly, for he had seen nearly nothing of life, yet spoke with the haughtiness of a witcher or other such professional for whom monsters are his stock and trade. One evening at the inn, his blather soured my beer such that I decided to prove to him a spriggan resembles a leshen only in the most superficial ways.
I thus took him deep into a wild wood and together we walked for upwards of two hours. I recalled having spied a spriggan there a year earlier and had heard the beasts are not fond of changing their place of dwelling. During my previous encounter, I had taken great fright at once and run off as fast as my legs would carry me. Later, I found out that, if undisturbed, a spriggan will rarely attack a human. Unfortunately, during my second encounter I learned the hard way that noise disturbs them. Greatly. When my acquaintance began engaging in loud mockery and cruel ribbing, chortling in raucous laughter all the while, a monster suddenly sprouted out of the ground before our very feet.
I could take no satisfaction in being proved correct, for the spriggan knocked my unfortunate fool of a colleague to the ground in one powerful blow and then trod him till his innards squirted out of every possible opening. I tried to escape, but it was as if my legs had planted roots in the ground. Meanwhile, the spriggan brought silence to the wood, shot me a stare and then sauntered off, as if nothing had happened.
That was, I pray, my last encounter with a spriggan and the last time I shall have to explain to anyone why those monsters are different from leshens.
Value: 10 crowns Weight: 0.5