"HEEEENRYYY!"
Thalia's scream tore through the clearing.
She was already running.
Boots striking bone and dirt as she sprinted straight into the fog where Henry had vanished.
The mist swallowed her instantly.
Cold.
Thick.
Blinding.
Within three steps the battlefield behind her disappeared.
Only white.
Endless white.
"Henry!" she shouted again, voice sharp with panic. "Henry, answer me!"
No response.
The fog rolled slowly around her legs, her waist, her shoulders. It swallowed sound and distance alike.
She turned left.
Nothing.
Turned right.
Nothing but drifting pale mist.
"Henry!"
Her voice came back hollow.
Like the fog itself was absorbing it.
Thalia stopped moving.
Her chest rose and fell hard.
She closed her eyes.
For a moment she stood completely still.
Listening.
Feeling.
Trying to sense something.....anything.
The wind.
Footsteps.
Breath.
Magic.
But there was nothing.
No presence.
No movement.
Just cold mist brushing against her skin.
Her eyes snapped open.
"…Damn it."
Back at the edge of the fog, Frauner shifted.
He tried to push himself up again.
His arm trembled violently as he planted his hand against the ground.
He lifted halfway;
Pain exploded across his back.
Frauner sucked in a sharp breath.
His strength failed again.
Leah was instantly beside him.
"Easy," she said quickly, sliding one arm under his shoulder.
"Don't force it."
Frauner clenched his teeth.
"We can't just sit here."
"I know."
Leah tightened her grip and helped haul him to his feet.
He stood unsteadily, leaning partially against her for support.
His face had gone pale.
But his eyes were sharp.
Both of them looked toward the fog.
Mauris had already stepped forward.
Slow.
Cautious.
Cold air brushed his face as he moved deeper, eyes scanning every direction.
Left.
Right.
Behind.
Nothing.
He advanced another few steps.
Then stopped.
The fog stretched endlessly around him, quiet and empty.
Mauris narrowed his eyes, listening.
Waiting for movement.
For breath.
For danger.
But the forest gave him nothing.
Somewhere deeper inside the mist, Thalia's voice cut through again.
"Henry!"
Mauris turned toward the sound and moved in that direction, boots silent against the ground.
The fog swallowed his shape as well.
Behind them, Leah held Frauner upright as both stared into the shifting white wall.
The battlefield that had roared with steel and bone moments ago was gone.
Now there was only silence.
And the fog.
"Something...!"
Mauris' voice cut sharply through the fog.
"Something here!"
He spun halfway around, his free hand sweeping through the thick mist as if trying to grab hold of whatever moved behind him.
"I felt....."
His hand sliced through empty air.
"Something's...."
The fog shifted.
Mauris' arm moved again, searching.
"Here! Something's here!"
Then his voice stopped.
Abruptly.
Like a thread cut.
"Mauris?" Thalia called from deeper in the fog.
No answer.
Her heart dropped.
"Mauris!"
She broke into a run.
Her bow was gone, broken in the battle, but her fingers moved automatically to the arrow case on her shoulder. She pulled one free and gripped it like a dagger as she sprinted toward the last place she heard him.
"Mauris! Say something!"
Silence.
Only the mist rolling past her shoulders.
She pushed through the fog;
And stopped dead.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Something floated in the air ahead of her.
A creature.
Its long body hovered several feet above the ground, bent forward like a hunting animal suspended in mid-leap.
Two long legs hung beneath it, each ending in three hooked claws.
Its torso was wrapped in dense black fur, thick and wild.
The fur continued up its long neck and across its face, hiding most of its features except the shape of a long, narrow snout filled with rows of sharp teeth.
Two curved horns rose from its head.
Its eyes burned a violent red.
Sparks of crimson light flickered inside them.
One arm stretched forward, palm open, three claws extended. The elbow bent sharply at an unnatural sixty-degree angle.
The other arm hung loosely at its side.
And before it;
Mauris floated in the air.
His body hung limp, several feet above the ground.
His sword had fallen somewhere in the fog.
His head tilted back.
His pupils rolled upward.
The whites of his eyes showing.
From his mouth;
From his nose;
From the pores of his skin;
Thin streams of black smoke leaked out.
The creature's mouth opened.
And it inhaled.
The black smoke flowed directly into its throat like drawn breath.
Feeding it.
Draining Mauris.
Thalia froze.
Her mind refused the sight for half a heartbeat.
Then instinct snapped back.
She hurled the arrow.
The shaft flew straight for the creature's chest.
But the creature moved its free hand.
A simple snap of its claws.
CRACK.
A violent shockwave burst outward in a perfect circle in all directing around the creature.
The arrow shattered into splinters mid-air.
The wave struck Thalia an instant later.
"......!"
The force slammed into her chest like a hammer.
She was thrown backward through the fog and crashed onto the ground hard, breath exploding from her lungs.
The mist around them tore apart from the blast.
For a moment the clearing opened.
And Leah saw it.
Frauner saw it.
Mauris;
Floating in the air.
His body limp.
His eyes white.
Black smoke pouring from him into the mouth of the horned creature.
Leah's face went pale.
Frauner stared in shock.
Neither of them spoke.
Because the thing floating above Mauris slowly turned its burning red eyes toward them.
The black smoke pouring from Mauris' body began to thin.
At first it came in thick streams.
Then thinner strands.
Then wisps.
Each breath the creature took dragged the darkness deeper into its throat.
Mauris' body trembled in the air.
His fingers twitched once.
Then went still.
The last thread of black smoke slipped from his lips and vanished into the creature's open mouth.
Silence followed.
Mauris' pupils rolled fully upward.
The whites of his eyes swallowed everything.
For a moment his body simply hung there in the air.
Empty.
Weightless.
Then whatever force held him released.
His body dropped.
THUD.
Mauris struck the ground hard, his shoulder hitting first before the rest of him collapsed into the damp bones and dirt.
He did not move.
Not even a breath.
Not even a twitch.
Above him, the creature slowly lowered its head.
Its red eyes dimmed slightly as it swallowed.
The muscles along its long neck shifted.
As if savoring the last taste.
Then it descended.
Slowly.
Its clawed feet touched the ground with a soft, deliberate step.
One.
Then the other.
The creature stood upright now among the drifting mist.
Tall.
Looming.
Black fur hung in thick tangled strands across its body, stirring faintly in the cold air.
Its long horns curved forward like the crown of some ancient predator.
Its mouth opened slightly.
Rows of thin, needle-like teeth glistened wetly.
A faint curl of black vapor escaped between them.
Its red eyes flicked downward.
Toward Mauris' motionless body.
Then slowly…
They lifted.
Turning toward the others standing beyond the torn mist.
Toward Leah.
Toward Frauner.
Toward Thalia struggling on the ground.
The fog rolled around its legs like obedient shadows.
A monstrous, guttural sound erupted from its throat.
"RRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHH...!"