Kira stumbled breathless through the night-forest, echoes chasing. Freedom felt fragile. Where were they? What now?
Behind; Sapphire, Kealor, Nirro, Lucian – caged brutishly. Traffickers gloated.
"Didn't expect the plan to go well," the leader grinned. "More goods, extra money. Sell you … unless…"
Lucian's eyes narrowed – shuttered calculation. Nirro's face said nothing; Kealor seethed visibly. Sapphire's jaw clenched – fury leashed.
"Tasty bait," the man laughed. "Girl escaped. Find her… harder now."
The campfire danced in the shadows. Kira… where? Safe?
Traffickers debated prices, uses – cold commerce. The boys watched helpless-tied.
Lucian's voice low-cut: "We'll…" Others glanced – didn't finish.
Night deepened threats. Captors drank, laughed coarsely. Some dozed; others watched coldly.
Nirro's hands flexed minimal-cuffs; Kealor schemed tiny-nods. Sapphire's stare promised reckoning. Lucian… waited.
__________
Kira fled through the forest abutting the mountain – an eerie realm where ancient trees twisted like sentinels and mist curled like grey spirits. She'd run back toward the campfire site by dawn hoping against hope Sapphire, Kealor, Nirro, Lucian remained… but they were gone. The hollow ache settled.
Days blurred. Rain lashed cold; Kira sheltered a hollowed tree-trunk, soaked to marrow. Hunger gnawed – she ate forest mushrooms desperate, some wrong-choice bitter and poisonous. Yet she survived.
Then, like a nightmare solidified, a beast encounter came suddenly: a monstrosity five feet larger than a horse, its bulk resembling a granite boulder grown grotesquely alive. Its maw gaped, revealing teeth sprawled like jagged tombstones, saliva drooling in viscous strings from the blackened gums. Mangled claws terminated four limbs – two flanking its brutish torso, two erupting from its hunched back – the weight borne unevenly by gnarled hands ending in yellowed talons. Twin eyes, one stacked above the other like ghastly lanterns, glowed sulfurous yellow, their stalks twisting to fix Kira with malignant hunger.
Kira dodged by sheer instinct, feeling the beast's malice slice the air mere inches from her throat. She stumbled backward, horror-stricken as the creature lunged again with jarring speed, swinging claws that shredded space itself. Her body crashed heavily into a tree, bark biting deep into her spine; crimson scratches bloomed like morbid flowers across her skin. Before she could draw breath, air was punched from her lungs – the beast knocked her senseless, darkness flickering at vision's edge.
She roused to chaos: the monster attacked anew, its talons whipping air into splinters as Kira flung herself sideways by dying reflex. The force of its blow cleaved the tree, spraying wood shards like maddened insects; some tore gashes into her face, blinding her left eye with sudden pain. She tumbled, crashing to dirt stopped by a twisted root-ball, as the beast struggled to wrench its claws from the tree's splintered corpse.
With cold panic, Kira crawled into the hollow darkness under tangled roots. The beast went silent – a tomb-like stillness that suffocated. She crept closer, peering with her one good eye… and the monster appeared, its ghastly vertical gaze boring into hers like drills into rotten wood. A scream ripped from her throat as it began destroying the tree, claws rending timber frenziedly, seeking her.
Kira clawed opposite dirt, desperation digging a grave-like hole. She squeezed out, forcing her mauled body to crawl free. The beast halted, perching atop the ravaged tree like a colossal carrion-thing, watching its prey slip escape's thin thread. Each time it saw Kira inch farther, it lashed – claws gashing her again, opening red mouths in her flesh.
With each gash, something dark coiled tighter around her heart like black ivy strangling light. Fear bled away… and evil whispers seeped into the hollow: small lightless voices murmuring… The word "kill" echoed down mind-corridors like a rusted gate swinging open onto shadows. Pain mounted in tidal waves; darkness rose like ice-cold water closing over her head.
Kira blanked – consumed.
Time flowed and soon Kira stirred awake, jolted upright in fright. Before her lay the beast, dead and pierced with multiple holes; both eyes were hollowed out, a deep gash splitting its massive skull. Blurred violence lingered like a stain – her hands were caked with blood and soil, though Kira didn't recall clearly how they'd gotten there. A shudder crawled up her spine like cold fingers. Before she could grapple with understanding, her stomach growled raw hunger. Skills taught by Nirro surfaced instinctively: she carefully made fire, grabbed chunks of the beast's already-falling flesh, and roasted the meat though it wasn't fully cooked – tough-smelling, dark-edged. She ate it, driven by primal need. Smoke curled upward into the heavy air…
The smoke caught the attention of armed men, patrolling the uneasy woods. The night before, they'd heard a harrowing wail – thunderous enough to pierce their night watch – and informed their leader. At dawn, scouting the disturbed area as instructed, they caught sight of the smoke and arrived at the grisly location ready to fight if they met the beast. But they stood bewildered at what they saw. Trees broken, roots torn all around. "A beast fight," one said. "I don't think so," the other replied, "not many beasts are allowed to survive when close to this area, especially one this big." They scouted further into the destructive chaos.
They halted, shocked, staring at the fallen monster mangled beyond recognition. "It definitely had a fight – explains the cries we heard, and why it's dead," one said. "True," the other countered, "but I don't see any second beast's footprints. And beasts don't like fire. Nor does it explain the smoke we saw." One man grew restless to report back; the other kept surveying.
While the restless one walked, looking for a place to sit on a damaged tree near the beast, he spotted something and squatted down. "Thane, come look at this," he called. "What is it?" Thane asked, his tone impatient. "Just come over," the man insisted. Thane finally walked over. "Look," the man said, pointing at marks under the destroyed tree. "Hand marks. They look human." "So we know the beast was chasing something or someone," Thane said slowly. "But what killed it?" He questioned himself, then decided to circle behind the tree. There, he noticed a small pool of blood, and small footprints emerged from it, leading deep into the forest. "Chet, let's go," Thane said before disappearing into the dark trees. Chet followed warily.