Snow lay thick in the high mountains, pressed flat beneath towering trees that watched without sound. Three scouts moved carefully through the white, their horses stepping slow, nostrils flaring in the cold.
They followed the tracks until they did not. The leader raised a hand, and they stopped. One of the scouts slid down from his horse and crouched, brushing snow aside with a gloved hand. He leaned closer, frowning.
"Well?" one of the others asked.
The man did not look up. "The track ends here."
"Ends?" the second scout said. "How does a thing simply stop walking?"
No one answered. The snow ahead lay smooth and untouched.
The leader exhaled, scanning the trees. "We'll make camp nearby. No sense pushing blind—"
Something burst from the woods.
White and massive, it crashed through branches and snow alike, moving faster than anything that size should. It fell upon the man on the ground before he could rise. There was a scream—short, wet—and then nothing that sounded human.
The horses shrieked. Two reared and bolted, throwing their riders hard before vanishing into the trees. The third, riderless, fled just as fast.
Steel rang as the leader drew his sword. He barely had time to set his feet before the thing turned on him. Snow sprayed. Bone snapped. The last scout ran.
He ran until his lungs burned and the cold cut like knives. He did not look back. Roots caught his foot, and he fell hard. Pain tore through his leg, sharp and final. He screamed once, then bit it back.
Dragging himself through the snow, he pressed against the base of a tree, breath ragged, hands shaking. He clamped a palm over his mouth as sounds drifted through the woods.
Not the beast. A different sound.
A soft clinking. Like charms knocking together. Beads shifting with each step.
Heavy breathing followed. Slow. Measured. Footsteps pressed into the snow, deliberate and close. The scout held still. The thing walked past him.
It was tall and lean, its skin pale, marked with dark lines that coiled across its body like inked snakes. It wore no shirt. Around its waist hung worn brown battle skirts. Beads and charms circled its neck and wrists, whispering with every movement. Its hair was long and black, falling loose down its back.
It stopped. Sniffed. The creature turned.
Dark eyes met his. A long, thin face stared down at him.
It looked human, but it was not human.