"Excuse me, ma'am," Seth said and stepped forward. The bow swung in his direction. "We are here to do bulletins that were posted in Rosia. We found your goats by accident and thought it best to collect them. We mean no harm and do apologize."

I have to say, Seth is pretty good at de-escalation. The woman relaxed the bow and lowered it, but kept the arrow nocked. I bet she could draw and release it in an instant.

"All right, I'm listening. What bulletins could you have in this area? My farm is the only one around here and I didn't ask for nothing."

Seth pulled his copies out of a pocket. "This one, specifically. We are looking for magic beasts to become familiars." He offered her the paper.

The woman glanced at it and shook her head. "Can't read." She stared hard at Seth. "You mages? You thinking my goats are magic?" She sounded skeptical.

"No, ma'am. Just lost."

She relaxed a bit more. "They was set loose on purpose. I've been half the day collecting them," the woman said.

"Why would you do that?" Duvessa asked.

"Why would I collect my goats?" the woman asked, incredulous.

"No, why would you release them?" Duvessa clarified.

"I didn't." She gave Duvessa a side eye and spoke to Seth. "A couple of city scum come by and decided they could just help themselves to what was mine. I objected and run them off, but not before they killed my dog, broke the fence, and scattered the goats. I think they stole some. My old nanny goat came back with about half the herd, but my daughter and I are still looking for the rest. Was on my way home, now. I'll have to pick up in the mornin'."

"I'm sorry that happened to you, and we can probably help. Duvessa, you said there were a couple more around?" Seth asked.

"Just one more after this one," Duvessa said. "Hmm, that way. About a ten minute walk."

Booth made some grumbly noises. I didn't think he was trying to purr though. When Seth and Owen discussed directions with Duvessa, Booth whispered to Blaise, "Why are we wasting time doing favors?"

"Because maybe I can repay that favor, boy?" the woman said as she turned to Booth. I was impressed. The old bat had some sharp hearing.

"I'm not interested in normal goats," Booth said.

"But you are interested in magic beasts. And I know where you can find some," the amazingly dignified and knowledgeable old lady said.

If she could save us from wandering the mountain all night, she'd be my new favorite-ish person. Somewhere after Owen, but before Blaise. That list was subject to moment by moment changes, and was usually topped by whoever had the most interesting food.

What can I say. My heart and my stomach are the same organ.

I watched the kids pick their way through the trees with the woman before I followed at the rear. We hadn't stopped for dinner yet. We should do that soon.

Oh, maybe this lady will feed us too? Maybe goat soup?

I eyed the animals in front of me. I had never noticed how evil looking a goat's eyes were. They were freaky and demonic. That got me to wondering what kind of magic power would a goat have. Cliff climbing? Shooting horns? Sticky hooves?

And the all important questions, would I want it, and could I take it? I could be down with walking up walls.

We obtained the third wayward goat and followed the old woman, who'd yet to give us a name, back to her farm. When Booth complained again, Owen told him it was the direction they were going anyway, since this track– we were following a track? I couldn't see it – went right by her house.

The woman's farm was a small place, a tiny house and a barn twice the size. Three dogs went bananas as we approached.

In short order we got the goats away, dinner out and eaten–to my dismay, no, the woman did not share goat soup with us– and Owen got one of the fence posts upright again and roped off. The fence wasn't fixed, but it should get the woman through the morning long enough for her to fix it properly in the daylight. The woman's daughter hadn't been back at all, and three goats were still missing.

And now both Seth and Duvessa were casting. Duvessa accumulating a small flock of shadow birds, and Seth with his eyes closed, waiting.

"You said you know where there are some magic beasts?" Blaise asked the woman.

"I do. There's a cave not too far from here. It was a Below entrance some twenty years ago and got sealed up right away. There's always some critters in the area, so we stay clear. Guards come by every few months to clear them out and check the seal. Been a bit since they been by, so you should find something there."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Owen perked up. "You know where the cave is? I knew it was here somewhere, but not exactly where."

Old entrances get sealed up? Beasts hang out in those areas? Maybe beasts like Chicky-Chicky? I hope we ain't biting off more than the kids can chew.

"I'm not getting a firm answer," Seth said. He still had his eyes closed and his head cocked, listening. "There's nothing close anyway."

"It's a fools errand, running off in the dark," the woman said, tut tutting. "Bit a fool myself. I'll keep looking for my daughter, you can head to the cave. It be that a way, about a half mile and you'll see a dry stream bed. Follow it upstream until you get to three boulders, and go left. It gets real rocky, and the wide entrance is there. If you want to find the small entrance, climb those rocks, and there's a shaft down. Watch yourselves. That fall will break legs and you probably won't be seeing it in the dark."

"Thank you, ma'am," Seth said.

"Right. If you see my daughter Iva, or any more of my goats, I'd appreciate you sending them home."

This time Blaise took the lead. She hung one of the lanterns from her hiking stick and slung it over her shoulder. I have to admit, it lit the way much better up there.

I hopped back up on Seth's shoulder for the hike.

A half mile was a lot further than I thought when bumping around in the dark on a mountainside. Once following the stream bed we found the three boulders easy enough. Then Blaise stopped abruptly and planted the pole with the lantern.

The light shone on the body of a goat.

"Oh no!" Duvessa cried and turned away. Selendrith didn't say anything, but stood next to her, also not looking at the goat.

Booth and Owen examined the body while Blaise kept watch.

"Do you think it was the people that attacked that woman's farm?" Seth asked.

"No. There are too many cuts. A person wouldn't slice it up like that," Owen said.

"I dunno man," Booth said. "Those are crazy deep cuts. And look, one of its horns was sliced clean off. Ain't no claws I know of that can do that."

I really didn't want to look at the goat, but I did anyway. This was just part of the violence of this world. It was just as gory as I feared.

Booth was right. The poor creature had been sliced deeply. And most claws weren't sharp enough for those types of cuts. Mine were. But mine were not long enough to do that, and even my mama's claws were not long enough for some of these wounds. I would have thought maybe a sword did it, but the wounds also twisted, as if the blade was hooked or curved, like a sickle or scythe.

The scariest thing here was how neatly things were severed. Legs and horn sliced off, the cuts smoother than any saw. There was no jaggedness to the injuries, like the goat never had a chance to even try to dodge and was just sliced clean through. Flesh, bone, horn, and all.

Whatever did this was fucking dangerous.

I looked around at the teenagers. These children were going to try to catch this thing. Sizzling souffles, Blaise was already pulling out a catchpole.

I headed to the nearest tree and climbed it. I'm fucking noping the fuck out.

"You wanted to put the lanterns out before, Owen," Blaise said. "Should I put it out now?"

'No!' I was shaking my head frantically. No one was looking at me though. What the fuck, girl. You are trying to catch something that can decapitate you in one shot. So the most logical thing to do, is to do it in the fucking dark? We don't even know what the fuck this thing is!

"No, we'll keep 'em lit," Owen said. "This could be a bit more dangerous than we thought."

You fucking think?

Booth was pulling out a catchpole now too. "Seth, do you think your amulet can heal something that's been severed?"

Right. Magic. Crazy fucking magic land.

Seth shook his head. "I don't think it can restore lost limbs, even if you had the limb to reattach. I think it would prevent someone from bleeding out, and give us time to get them back to the city, but it heals pretty slow, and I don't see it fixing damage like this."

"I'm not so sure this is a good idea," Selendrith said.

Thank fuzzy little kumquats, someone has sense.

Seth nodded in agreement with Selendrith and I felt relieved. I knew the kid was smart. "If this was a human, then we are dealing with the people who attacked the farm. If this was an animal, then this is definitely some type of magic beast. This is a pretty strong cutting power. My Wind Blades are not this strong." Seth stared at the dead goat for a few moments and then started casting. It was his locating spell by the look of it.

"I can't tell exactly what did this, but I think it's an animal, and I think it's right outside the cave entrance," Seth said after a minute. "We need to be careful, but I think we can do this."

I take it back. The kid had the brains of a turnip.

"It doesn't seem to be that big. I think we can catch it. Here's how I think this is going to go, and what I think we need to do…"

I listened to Seth's plan. It wasn't bad. He was making some assumptions I wasn't keen on, but it did sound like it would work.

Fine then. We'd try it. Or more likely, I'd watch them try it, and then try to rescue them when it all went to shit.

Duvessa began by recalling all her summons in the nearby area. She needed the volume to summon something bigger. I didn't know if she intended it to be bait or not, since she summoned a goat.

The kids scrambled over rocks and boulders, following Duvessa's shadow goat towards the cave. The trees had thinned out and there was a broad clearing in front of the cave. I noticed that some of the clearing was due to trees having been knocked down. That didn't give me the warm fuzzies. I wanted to climb a tree to get away from whatever chaos was going to occur, but now that didn't look viable. Shit. I leapt up to the tops of the boulders above the cave entrance. Hopefully, I was out of sight here.

The shadow goat pranced around the clearing while the kids and I waited. As I scanned the dimly lit clearing, I noticed another animal corpse. This one was smaller than the goat, and long and slinky. It looked like a dead weasel.

Suffering succotash. I wanted to know what that thing was. I thought about going to go down there to check it out. Nope. I'll wait. I'm a cat, I can be patient. Yup. Patient. I've waited longer, I'm sure. I couldn't remember it, but I'm sure I did it.

I gazed out at the clearing and tried to pick out any more animals, alive or dead. There was another one. Looked like another weasel.

Seth spotted the first one. I watched him inch out into the clearing, his head on a swivel as he tried to watch every direction at once. Without thinking, my back paws shifted their balance and position, wiggling my ass as I readied a pounce. I could rocket out there in an instant.

The wind kicked up suddenly, surprising me. Seth hadn't cast before, but he was now. What the hell did he see?

Then I spotted it. Roiling downhill off to my right was a dust devil. Riding the dust devil was a weasel with long silver claws, hooked like sickles. The thing twisted and spun in the miniature tornado and flung out blades of cutting wind that shone silver in the darkness.