The world slammed into Mira before she could even scream.
Wind tore past her ears. Colors she'd never seen twisted across the sky—black, red, molten gold—blending and colliding like the world was being shaken apart.
Then—BOOM.
Her body hit the ground so hard she felt the shock in her teeth.
Voices crashed over her before she could even breathe—growls, howls, orders barked in voices too deep, too wild to be human. Sparks crackled somewhere close, like claws scraping against live wires.
"Hold the line!""Shield the rift!""The Cinderback herd is in frenzy—MOVE!"
Mira pushed herself up, coughing, trembling.
Then she saw them.
Beasts. No—beastmen. Creatures from myths and fever dreams, locked in a brutal battle. Wolf warriors streaked with silver light. Tiger-striped fighters with blades for tails. Hawkfolk soaring overhead, their wings humming with lightning. Stag men whose glowing antlers bent the air around them.
None of this belonged on Earth.
None of this made sense.
A roar rolled through the battlefield, deep enough to shake her ribs. A boar—huge, monstrous—charged through the chaos, its tusks sparking scarlet lightning, its eyes wild.
It was running straight at her.
Mira opened her mouth to scream, but a massive wolfman leapt over her, landing with enough force to crack the earth. His claws met the boar's lightning in an explosion of sparks.
"THE HEART-BEARER HAS ARRIVED!" he bellowed.
Heart-Bearer?No thanks. Absolutely not. She did not want whatever that title came with.
A pantherkin slid next to her, tail lashing anxiously. "Don't move, human!"
Human.
That one word hit the battlefield like a spell.
Everything stilled.
Even the beasts fighting paused long enough to stare—at her.
"She's human…""A real one?""The prophecy was true?""Her scent—it's warm.""It calms the beast."
Mira blinked. Scent? Warm? Calming?She was pretty sure she smelled like fear and dirt.
Another ground-shaking crash.
From the left, a rhino-like creature barreled toward them, flames running along its hide.
"Protect her!" a hawkman screeched from above.
The tribes moved instantly—forming a ring around her, claws out, wings spread, shields raised. It was instinctive, protective, terrifying.
The wolfman who'd saved her earlier dropped to one knee. His golden eyes glowed softly, not with violence now—but reverence.
"Human girl," he said, voice low and sincere. "Your kind vanished ages ago. But our elders foretold your return. A human heart would fall from the sky and soothe the Frenzy."
"I can't soothe anything!" she shouted. "I can't even keep a houseplant alive!"
Before anyone could answer, the boar tore through the line again, howling.
It lunged.
Mira squeezed her eyes shut—
And something inside her chest… shifted. Broke open. A warm pressure pulsed outward, like her heart had suddenly grown too big for her body and exploded into the air.
BOOM. BOOM.
Everything stopped.
The boar's charge faltered.The storm faded to a hum.Even the lightning softened.
Beastmen fell to their knees, stunned.
"What is this feeling—?""Her aura… it's pure.""My instincts aren't raging anymore.""She's guiding our beasts."
The wolfman stared at her like she was a sunrise he'd been waiting lifetimes to see.
"Your humanity," he murmured, almost afraid to touch the moment, "is a power beyond anything we know."
Mira's hands shook. "I don't—I don't know how I did that."
"You don't need to understand it yet." He placed a clawed hand over his heart. "Just know this—every tribe will protect you with their lives. You are the only one who can quiet the madness."
The Frenzy? Madness? What—
The ground trembled.
A second rift ripped the sky open—deep red and swirling like a bleeding wound. Wind sucked upward violently, pulling leaves and debris into the air.
Warriors dug their claws into the dirt.The air crackled.Something stepped forward inside the rift.
A massive silhouette.Humanoid.Horned.Watching her.
Panic spread like wildfire.
"He's sensed her!""The Rift Lord is coming!""Get her out—NOW!"
Before she could protest, the wolfman lifted her in his arms as if she weighed nothing.
"Human, hold on!"
"WAIT—WHAT AM I HOLDING ON TO!?" she shrieked as he sprinted through the burning forest.
The panther, the hawkfolk, the stags—all of them ran behind him, forming a living shield as lightning crashed and trees split apart.
"Why—why are you all doing this!?" Mira yelled.
Their answer thundered through the forest, united and fierce:
"BECAUSE YOU ARE OUR FATE!"
And as the rift's lightning swallowed the battlefield behind them, Mira realized something terrifying and undeniable:
This world didn't just want her here.
It depended on her.