People fear many things. The dark. Insects. Animals. The depths of the ocean. Death, hunger, sickness. But in this age, the thing people feared most could be summed up in a single word: Creatures.
Day 3
The morning started with rain.
Not light rain --- heavy, determined, the kind that had no intention of stopping. The fire went out inside half an hour. Rowan tried to get it going again, tried a spell, nothing happened. The wood was soaked through, moisture had worked its way into everything.
"Leave it." Dean looked at where the fire had been. "Wasted effort."
"It's cold, though."
"Yes."
Rowan left it.
The morning passed on hardtack. There wasn't much to talk about --- everyone stayed in their own corner, doing their own thing. Mira checked her wrist, rewrapped it, looked over her trap materials. She hadn't finished yesterday, she'd finish today. Eren cleaned his weapons. Iron rusted in the rain, and at minimum it needed wiping down.
Dean was asleep. Or he was doing a good impression of it. Hard to tell the difference.
The rain let up a little after noon. It didn't stop.
Mira went to finish the northern trap. Her wrist was still swollen, but it was enough to tie a rope, she said, and nobody argued. Rowan went with her --- on his own, without saying anything, just walking beside her.
Eren and Dean stayed behind.
Neither of them spoke for a while. Rain tapped against leaves, uneven and unbroken.
"Where do you think they came from last night?" Eren said.
Dean waited a moment. "The castle."
"Do we need to go there?"
"Eventually." Dean wasn't looking at him. "Not yet."
"Why not yet?"
"Because we're not ready."
Eren wanted to say something. He let it go. Dean was probably right.
The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. When Rowan and Mira came back the trap was up, and Mira was holding her wrist but her face showed nothing --- no pain, no complaint. Rowan came in behind her, still wearing that scattered expression, but his eyes were a little different. More careful. More pulled inward.
They didn't run into any other teams that day. Before noon, sounds had drifted up from the south --- metal on metal --- but it was far off and there was no way to know what it was.
Eren filed it away.
While they were getting dinner together, Dean opened a ration tin, looked inside, and closed it again.
"Two more days like this and we're going to have a food problem."
"How much did you bring?" Rowan asked.
"Nine days' worth. I calculated it."
"Nine days is more than enough, we're only here a week."
"Seven days is a week. Nine days is more than seven. You can work it out."
Rowan worked it out. "Oh."
Mira opened her tin, ate, closed it. "There are things in the forest you can eat. I know a few of them."
"Are you sure?" Eren said.
"No." Flat, honest. "Probably, though."
Dean looked at her. A long look. "You'll show us tomorrow morning."
Mira dipped her head.
The fire burned low. Outside was completely dark. The sound of the forest had changed from the daytime --- deeper, more pulled back, like everything was drawing itself inward.
Eren listened.
Nothing there. Normal.
But the unease didn't go away.
The first watch was Eren's.
He sat down, pulled his knees up, looked at the forest. The fire was behind him, darkness ahead. His eyes adjusted, slowly. The outlines of trees came through first, then the branches, then the gaps between them.
It stayed quiet.
He woke Dean for the second watch. Dean opened his eyes and stood up in one motion, no delay. Eren took his spot and lay down.
He slept. Not deep, not restful, but he slept.
Rowan's ward crystal lit up on the third watch.
Night 3
There was no sound at first.
The crystal was red but the forest was silent --- no rustling, no snapping, nothing. Just quiet. And this quiet had a weight to it, not an absence.
Eren got up. Rowan was already on his feet, staring at the crystal, and his face was different.
"This isn't like the others." His voice was low. "It's really not."
"What do you mean, not like the others?"
"I don't know. But it isn't."
Dean and Mira got up. Nobody said anything. They just picked up their weapons.
Then the ground moved.
Faintly. Coming up through the soles of their feet, through the dirt --- uneven, rhythmic. Not once. Every few seconds.
Something heavy. Walking.
It was coming from the west.
The castle side.
Something moved between the trees. They couldn't see it at first --- the dark was thick, shadow stacked on shadow. Then a branch snapped. One sound, but huge, like half a tree had come down.
Mira raised her bow.
It came out.
Eren's mind didn't put it together right away. That wasn't how it worked --- he saw pieces first, then assembled them. It was big, very big, its shoulders level with the tree trunks. Short, thick legs, a massive body, skin deep blue and rough with a wet kind of shine to it. Barely a head at all --- but there was a mouth, spreading across the whole upper half of its body, teeth in rows, the lower jaw dropping far enough to scrape the ground. Its eyes were small and yellow, but the look in them was sharp and tracking.
Coming out of the trees, it knocked one over with its shoulder. It wasn't on purpose. It hadn't even noticed.
Rowan whispered from behind: "What is that?"
Nobody answered.
The creature stopped. The yellow eyes found the fire. Found them.
Dean drew his sword.
The creature jumped.
Fast for its size --- when it left the ground Eren's eyes didn't catch it, just a shadow, and then the earth shook when it landed. The fire went out. Darkness came down hard.
"SPLIT UP!" Dean shouted.
Eren ran right. Rowan went left. Mira was already gone, somewhere in the dark.
A sound came from the creature's mouth --- low, deep, not a roar, something that vibrated, the kind that you felt in your chest.
Eren stopped. He couldn't see anything.
Need light.
He reached into his pack, found the matchbook, struck one. A small flame, barely enough, but for a few seconds he could see --- the creature had turned toward Dean and was moving, Dean was stepping back, controlled, no panic in it, but the distance was closing.
"Rowan!" Eren shouted. "Light! Set something on fire!"
"Set what on fire?"
"Anything!"
Rowan raised his staff. Moisture gathered at the tip, but this time it wasn't moisture --- he pushed the energy a different way, drove the tip into the ground, said a word under his breath.
The end of the staff caught. Small, wavering, but it caught.
It was enough.
They could see the creature.
Dean peeled left without looking back. The creature's mouth closed and opened again, and this time something else came --- the inside of its mouth lit up blue. Deep, dense, pulsing blue. That was magic energy.
"GET CLEAR!" Dean ran.
The blue energy burst. It wasn't fire, wasn't ice --- it hit like a wave, the kind that throws whatever it touches backward. It caught two trees and snapped them in half, the trunks crashing down.
Rowan dove sideways, rolled, got up. "It's strong."
"We can see that." Eren pulled his sword.
Where was Mira? He couldn't find her. Lost in the trees, in the dark.
An arrow came.
It buried itself just beside the creature's right eye. Didn't go deep --- the skin was too thick, the arrowhead hadn't made it through --- but it had scored the edge of the eye socket. The creature turned. Mira was between the trees, bow already drawn again.
"The eyes!" Mira called out. "Weak point is the eyes!"
Dean turned and ran the numbers.
The creature was too big. To reach the eyes with a sword, Dean would have to go in through that mouth. Not happening. But Eren had a pistol.
"Eren."
"I see it."
The pistol came up. But the creature wasn't holding still, its head was moving, the eyes were a fast-shifting target. If the shot went wide, there might not be another opening close enough.
Wait. Hold. There'll be a moment when it stops.
Rowan understood.
"Cataracta!"
The water column hit the creature square in the face. Not big enough to knock it down, but it pinned the head for one second.
Eren fired.
One shot. Left eye.
The creature shuddered. First time.
It didn't go down --- but it staggered, stepped back, one step, two. The sound it made changed. That deep vibration dropped out of it, replaced by something else, clipped and furious.
"It's working." Mira came running in, bow up.
"One arrow won't make it through." Dean moved forward. "But it breaks the focus."
There was no plan. But everyone knew what to do.
Mira shot toward its face, near the eye, the creature turned. Dean came off its left flank in that same moment and drove into the leg --- couldn't cut clean, the skin was too hard --- but the creature lurched. Rowan sent another water strike into its head, held it, slowed it down. Eren fired again, aiming for the right eye this time. The shot went wide.
The creature turned. Straight at Eren.
It charged.
Eren spun to run. Didn't make it --- not a claw, just the side of the creature's body catching him as it went past. A small hit, for the creature. Not for Eren. He went three meters through the air, hit a tree, dropped.
The breath was gone from him.
He couldn't get up. One second, two, his legs weren't responding.
Get up.
He got up.
The creature was coming back toward him. Mira's arrow came in directly above the eye, this time it went a little deeper --- the creature stopped, swung its head around.
Dean went in.
Underneath the jaw, at the soft point where the two halves of the mouth met. The sword went in. Not all the way, but it went in. The creature shook its head and Dean flew, tucked before hitting the trees, rolled, came up.
The creature was trembling.
Long, slow shudders. The yellow eyes moved from Eren to Mira to Dean. To Rowan.
Then it took a step.
Backward.
Then another.
It pulled back into the trees. The dark swallowed it in a few steps.
Silence.
All four of them were breathing. Rowan was leaning on his staff, his hands shaking. Mira hadn't lowered her bow, still ready. Dean looked at his sword, cleaned it, slid it home.
Eren pressed a hand to his ribs. It hurt. Not broken, probably. More like getting hit by a wall.
"Is it gone?" Rowan asked.
"It pulled back." Dean looked into the forest. "It didn't leave."
"Does that matter right now?"
"Yes."
Mira lowered her bow. She pulled the arrow from her shoulder and put it away. "My wrist held."
Nobody said anything. But everyone had heard it.
Rowan sat down, all the way to the ground, his staff falling into his lap. "I've never seen anything like that."
"Neither have I." Eren let go of his ribs. "What is it doing on this island?"
Dean didn't answer. He was looking into the forest, toward where the castle was, for a long time.
"The island is its." He said it finally. "We're the guests."
Silence settled back in. Heavier this time, more settled.
Rowan lifted his staff and tried the fire again. It caught. Small and unsteady, but it caught.
None of them tried to sleep.
All four of them sat there and waited for morning.