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“I didn’t hear it properly. What was it?”
He paused, choosing his response carefully. “A trick.”
“A trick?”
A sound like a pained howl tore through the quiet stillness of the cave, making every single hair on the nape of my neck stand on end. Colbolt shuddered, and whined, but he did so quietly. The sound faded after a moment, and I remembered it, now. This was exactly what I had heard. It was a cry for help, a plea, long and desperate, like an animal caught in a trap.
It broke my heart to hear it.
Valerian placed his hand on my shoulder and shook his head. “It’s a trick.”
“How do you know?” I asked, “Someone could be in trouble.”
“Whatever it is, that’s what it wants you to think. There are many predators out there who will mimic the sounds of an animal in pain to attract their prey. Didn’t you hear it?”
“Hear what.”
“That scream was two-toned. I caught it.”
“My hearing is better than yours… why didn’t I?”
“Because you’re not trained to listen for it. If it happens again, you’ll hear it.”
“What are we going to do? We can’t just stay in this cave.”
“If we leave, it’ll attack.”
“And if it attacks while we’re in here, we’re cornered. Whatever it is, it knows we’re in here if it’s trying to draw us out… we don’t have a choice.”
“Dammit,” Valerian grunted. “Alright.”
I looked over at Colbolt, who was already starting to stand himself upright. The giant Maukibou had to crouch to keep his antlers from scraping along the ceiling, but he looked like he could handle that just fine. With a snort, he signaled his readiness to move when told.
“I’ll go first,” I said, “Then you follow with Colbolt.”
“You?” he asked.
I dropped to the floor and in a matter of moments took on my wolf form. Valerian hadn’t been able to watch me transform, I doubted if he could see very well, but he still looked stunned. “I’m not going to argue this,” I whispered, “Wait for me.”
Without offering him a chance to reply, I started padding up the tunnel, toward the cave’s entrance. I kept my nose low, my back arched, and I made sure not to make much noise as I moved toward the exit. I heard the scream again just as the forest beyond the cave came into view; I also heard what Valerian had described.
The scream had two tones.
One was high pitched and filled with desperation and despair. That was the one that aroused sympathy, triggering the instinct to lend aid. The second tone was much lower, and deeper, and honestly, it sent a deathly chill racing through me. I didn’t like hearing it. I didn’t want to hear it. Now that I’d heard it, I wished I hadn’t.
There was something alien about it, something deadly, somethinghungry.
I dropped to my stomach as I tried to pinpoint the source of the sound. It had come from the forest, somewhere on the other side of the creek.The creek.I knew it was there, but I couldn’t hear it. When I looked for it, I realized, I also couldn’t see it. I also couldn’t see the moon in the sky, or the stars, or even—really—the trees that were supposed to be up ahead.
Everything was dark.
Too dark.
With one exception.
I saw it standing across the way, a creature that stood out against the stark darkness all around it. A creature easily eight-foot-tall standing upright, with jagged, broken antlers on its head adding about another two feet of height. It stood on the other side of where the creek should’ve been, and it watched me, studied me, dark and featureless, and entirely motionless.
I sucked a hard breath in, swallowed, and when my senses returned, I screamed. “It’s back!”
