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I hit the ground hard and rolled like a log for several feet. By the time I righted myself, the snarls had turned to ear-piercing howls. Standing, I snatched my backpack from where it’d landed in the snow and dug inside.

Glancing over, I saw Austin tuck and roll away from a swipe of the thing’s elongated arms. Its nails appeared as sharp and lengthy as its teeth. It made eye contact with me again as Austin readied himself for another attack. I swear it smiled then, the light in its eyes taunting me. I froze when I heard a scratchy masculine voice in my head.

It’s always more fun when someone watches.

Then it leaned down on all fours and sprung at me.

I reached in my bag blindly, digging for anything that might help while a chunk of ice the size of a basketball hit the monster’s legs. It howled again as it fell sideways, skidding a few feet before turning on Austin, who held another large piece of ice in his hands.

“Damn it, Rosi! Run!” Austin yelled, lobbing his weapon at the beast before prying another from the ground.

“I’m not leaving you,” I said and pulled out a handful of what felt like pebbles from my pack.

A glance told me they were small crystals that Cora must’ve left in my bag as protection. Obviously, they didn’t work. I scanned the collection of clear orange, and spotted, black stones. I dug again and found something bigger to yank loose.

This stone was pure black, so deep that it was hard to make out the ridges in the natural texture. Not tumbled was good, that left plenty of sharp points along the top. Maybe I could use it as a weapon.

I ran toward the creature, who’d re-focused on Austin. With each clump he pulled from the ground, the creature got closer.

I wasn’t going to make it.

It made eye contact with me again just before it lunged, toppling Austin to the ground. It raised a claw, and I screamed as it swiped at him.

Throwing up an arm to protect himself, Austin tried to deflect its strike. But crimson spurted out through his parka. Austin cried out from the pain. The beast grabbed his injured arm, squeezing until the sound of snapping bones carried above the wind. The whole time its saffron eyes held mine, I saw pure pleasure in them.

Austin’s head fell back, lolling to the side. He’d fainted from the pain. But the monster didn’t care. It wanted my reaction, eyes locked on me as it opened massive jaws and lifted his bloody arm.

I ran toward them, clutching my weapon and screaming an angry war cry as its long, serpentine tongue swept Austin’s blood from his arm, making a show of swallowing.

So good. Almost as good as a young one. I realized it was talking in my head and fought the urge to vomit.

But playing with me had allowed me enough time to reach them. The monster’s smile melted into a look of anger as I launched my fist, which I was pretty sure was full of obsidian.

The howl that burst from its mouth brought me to my knees at Austin’s side. I had barely grazed the thing, but its gilded stare was focused on the stone protruding from my fist. My heart beat faster as I considered the possibility that whatever horrible beast attacked us didn’t like the type of crystal Cora had given me.

Cora, I love you. I held the stone out in front of me like it could fire lasers at the cryptid, and it might as well have because the closer I moved, the farther away it scurried and the more it hissed.

“I have more,” I threatened. “Get back in your hole.”

I will taste you, girl. It glared at me then ran on all fours back toward the rocks. The air around it shimmered, and the vision of the monster itself disappeared from view, confirming my suspicions about a camouflage ability. Still clutching the stone, I collapsed on my ass beside Austin .

One look brought back all of my nightmares. His arm, shoulder to fingers, was bathed in blood, skin turning blue and bones sticking out in places. He was a mangled mess, and the parka and thermal that had protected him was nothing more than shredded bits of cloth blowing in the breeze.

Scrambling into action, I lugged over my backpack. I didn’t have much to make a splint out of, but I attempted to wrap Austin’s mangled arm to his side with a bandage then pulled out the two hover disks I’d pried from the hellipod. I managed to get Austin on, so his head and shoulders rested on one and his pelvis balanced on the other.

“Hang in there,” I said, wrapping one of the thermal blankets we’d used the night before around his wounded side.

Thankfully, the boards worked, and when I activated them, they lifted him above the ground. I steered him awkwardly in the direction of the resort, which still felt too far away, but I was determined. Once I got the hang of moving both boards at once with him on them, things moved faster.

The sun had begun to set by the time we reached the hill closest to the building. But Austin was so pale, and I was exhausted to the point of trembling with each step. So close and yet so far away. I wasn’t giving up. I couldn’t.

I paused to down another hydropod, though the contents were mostly frozen, and then forced us forward. The icy air had begun to seep inside my thermals, and I knew it had to be worse for Austin. My vision blurred as I shook beyond control.

At first I thought the barking was the beast coming back for us, but then I saw actual dogs cresting the hill, Yuka in the lead and almost blending in with the white background.

“Toklo?” I asked, my voice quivering as hard as the rest of me.

He pulled up beside me, taking in the sight of us, mouth hanging open. I knew Austin was in rough shape, but I had no idea how I looked.

“Need a ride?” he asked, already steering the disks onto the sled. “Yuka spotted you and wouldn’t stop barking until I looked. How’d you get out there?”

I couldn’t answer, and he didn’t push me, probably well aware that hypothermia might be setting in. He threw some blankets over me as I settled down beside Austin on the sled. And as he turned the sled around, whisking us back to the safety and warmth of the resort, I could have sworn I heard a snarling sound coming from the bottom of the hill.