Down on the forest floor, Dynamis and her silent red-haired guard stood near a large, blooming flower that a helpful fairy was coaxing open with delicate magic.
The petals unfurled like a living gateway, revealing a swirling portal of soft green and gold light that shimmered with the certainty of safe passage out of Fairylynch.
Dynamis had just lifted one powerful leg to step through when the assisting fairy suddenly let out a piercing scream and shot upward into the canopy, her wings beating in blind terror.
Something had appeared.It materialized without warning: grotesque, amorphous, and grey as wet clay left too long in the rain.
Its flesh constantly shifted and bubbled across its body like living mud, rippling and reforming in nauseating waves.
It possessed no real eyes, only smooth, sunken pits where eyes should have been.
