The wolf stood at the edge of the clearing, its massive body silhouetted against the moon, its yellow eyes fixed on Sophia.
It was twenty-three feet long from nose to tail, and its shoulders stood nearly eight feet tall, a mountain of muscle and fur and death.
Blood still dripped from its jaws, the blood of the Coalan, the creature it had killed moments before. Its fur was matted with gore, and its breath steamed in the cold air like chimney smoke.
Sophia was five feet and five inches tall.
She weighed less than one of the wolf's legs.
Her hands, raised in a defensive stance, looked like twigs compared to the beast's claws. The wolf could have swallowed her whole without stopping to chew.
But she did not retreat.
