The mist growled. Suddenly, I became aware of how close the mist had encroached on the campsite, kept at bay only by the heat of the fire. It hugged the boundary of the campsite in a dense curtain that could have hidden countless enemies.

I crouched, my belly just barely off the ground as I crept to Raina’s side. With a single paw, I tapped her arm.

“Raina!” I hissed. She did not stir. I tapped her again, this time more forcefully. “Raina! Wake up!”

She rolled over, muttering under her breath. “No thanks…I have all the cake I need…”

The mist growled again, and I heard the rustling of leaves as something large raced by. I fluffed my tail and fur.

Whatever was out there was much larger than me. I was adept at taking on big enemies, but if Raina was still asleep, that presented a risk. I couldn’t protect her while also battling our foes. That was especially true if a whole swarm of enemies lurked in the mists, which I considered likely.

I put a paw on her shoulder. She just rolled back on her back. Stupid humans and their stupid heavy sleeping…this called for drastic measures.

Left with no other options, I shifted my paws for a jump. It would not be quiet, but better loud and alive than silent and dead. I launched myself, landing squarely on Raina’s chest before hopping away.

“Aaaaayyyooohmalzywhatgives!?” she exclaimed. I immediately put a paw on her mouth.

“Shhhhhh!” I ordered. The mists growled again. Raina’s eyes went wide, and she nodded. As quietly as she could…which was not nearly as quiet as I’d have hoped…she extricated herself from her bedroll and rushed to Terrowin’s side.

He did not require much to wake. In fact, as soon as she laid a hand on his shoulder, he moved in a flash of motion. They tumbled to the side as Raina was suddenly pinned down with a dagger to her throat.

She winced, trying not to make a sound as she trembled in terror. Terrowin’s mind caught up with his reflexes. He released her.

“Sorry, old habits,” he muttered.

“Doesn’t matter right now! We’re in danger!” Raina whispered.

Only one more remained. I took a tiny pebble from the side of the fire and lifted it with Telekinesis. I sent it gently towards Cithrael, aiming for his shoulder. To my surprise, he caught it and looked down.

“Hard to sleep through your racket,” he said softly. “Raina’s right. There’s something in the woods.”

“Where’s Aelisra?” asked Raina.

I rubbed against her legs, making my form one with hers to any monsters that might try to attack. I suddenly found myself being lifted off the ground. My witch held me close. I hoped she wasn’t trying to use me as a shield. That wouldn’t go well for either of us.

“She must have already been taken,” answered Terrowin.

“We need to rescue her!”

Cithrael shook his head. “We can’t, not yet.”

“What do you mean! She’d do the same for any one of us!”

“I know that.” The elf took a deep breath. “But we can’t help anyone if we are victims, ourselves. We must find out what stalks us first. Put out the fire. It only gives away our position.”

Raina did as instructed, letting the cold of her mana suppress the fire. The light died, leaving my companions in darkness. I blinked my eyes a few times to let them adjust back to the darkness and peered into the gloom.

The mists inched back into the campsite until we were completely swallowed by it. The growling continued. Twigs snapped and leaves rustled.

“Terrowin?” Raina whispered. “Cithrael? Are you near?”

“I’m here,” came Terrowin’s response. It was oddly muffled, though, like he’d moved far off in the mist, yet I hadn’t heard his footsteps at all. Something wasn’t right here.

A vicious bark, followed by the rustling of leaves heralded the first attack. It came from Raina’s left.

“Raina! Shield!” I ordered. She acted without question, summoning the hard, shimmering surface of her mana shield to her skin before even seeing the creature that launched itself at her from the darkness.

For the briefest moment, I thought Raina had been hit by some sort of flying tree log, but as the snarling and snapping jaws came into focus, I realized it was much worse than that. The creature was the size of a pony and shaped vaguely like a wolf. However, instead of flesh and fur, it was made of wood and moss. An eerie blue flame danced in its eyes as it swiped at Raina with long claws.

She screamed as she was knocked to the ground. It leapt on her, tearing and ripping at her shield with enough force to rip a tree in half. Her shield took the damage, and I felt her pour more of our mana into the spell in a desperate effort to protect herself.

“Raina!” Terrowin shouted through the mist. “Raina, where are you!?” I heard his footsteps, but he was moving away. What was he doing!? Was he seriously so bad at directions that he couldn’t tell where Raina’s screams had come from?!

Worthless hench-human! Why do I even bother keeping these idiots around?! They can’t even help protect my summoner. Must I do everything myself?

I called upon my magic. They were made of wood, so it figured that they might be vulnerable to my newest spell. Mana poured from me as I focused the aspects of energy and environment to form the spell. A tiny fire sprang to life and streaked towards the monster. It slammed into the side of its head causing it to…do nothing.

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The spell hadn’t even turned the moss to a smoldering heap. The bark was barely scorched!

However, the spell had gotten the monster’s attention. It growled and turned its terrible head to look at me with an unfeeling coldness in its blue flame eyes. Stepping off Raina, it began to stalk towards me. Step by step, it came closer.

Inspecting hostile creature: Level 12 Corrupted Barkhound

A wolf that has been corrupted by the magic of the forest. It answers to only one master.

Oh, no…

Oh, NO…

LEVEL 12?! Are you kidding me?! What on earth did a level 12 monster want from us?

All my bravado left me. This wasn’t a dungeon. There was no Forced Fairness in play to make sure that we could actually win the challenges placed before us. These things were out for blood and determined to make it ours.

“Raina! Run!” I shouted. She scrambled to her feet and looked around, torn for some reason. “What are you standing there for!? Run for your life!”

“I won’t leave you, Malzy!”

Oh goodie, another worthless hench-human. Did she realize that if she died, unspeakable things would happen to me? Obviously not! I didn’t know what would happen to the Soulbond if one of us died but, given how bad it had been when we were simply separated, I was not willing to risk it.

I faced down the wolf before me, puffing out my fur and tail to seem bigger. It wasn’t impressed. I called upon my magic one more time, throwing a bit of fire at the monster. Once again, it wasn’t impressed.

It lunged forward, the wood of its muscles creaking as it snapped at me with hungry jaws. I scrambled back, pinning my ears at the thing and hissing with all anger and hatred I could muster. It was unphased.

Time to switch tactics. If Fire I wasn’t enough, then it was time to pull out my bigger spells. The flames from the firepit were out, but the coals might still be warm. If I could just get it close enough to light the kindling on the barkhound’s back…

Telekinesis flared to life just as it swiped with a vicious paw. I ducked under the attack, sprinting by it at full speed. The firepit was that way. I could make it!

The dark form of the campfire loomed through the mist as I summoned Fire I again. Several of the branches burst back into flames just in time to illuminate the jaws snapping at my tail. I grabbed a small stick in my teeth and waved it at the barkhound, trying to draw its attention away from the real attack. It growled but stayed away from the fire.

What? Afraid of a little fire?

I yowled my challenge to the barkhound. I was not some tiny kitten to be eaten in one bite! I was a ten-pound bundle of muscle, magic, and pure, unadulterated rage! Come at me, you coward!

It soon came to realize that the tiny flame in my jaws was not all that threatening. It stepped forward, growling deep in its throat. As soon as it stepped next to the firepit, however, I acted. The mana formed Telekinesis III and leapt to my command, pushing the heavy coals and flaming branches into the hound.

It howled and screamed as the flames finally caught on its back. I raced forward, summoning Heat II to stoke the flames even hotter, just as the fire sprites had done. It thrashed as the crackling of fire filled the clearing.

It thrashed, trying desperately to put out the flames, but my heat kept them burning, even as it rolled through the dirt. Eventually, it stopped moving.

Congratulations. Level 12 Corrupted Barkhound defeated. Experience gained.

Level up to level 8.

One aptitude point available.

Aptitude points available: 2

Allocating 2 Aptitude Points to Environmental

If anything was going to help us survive this, it would be either Fire or Telekinesis. Luckily, increasing environmental helped both.

I raced back to Raina. She just stared at the smoldering pile of wood that was the barkhound.

“Raina! Come on!” I insisted. I swear, if she was going to be stubborn and try to catch up with our green-haired betrayer, I was going to make certain she got no sleep for a week.

“It…it was level 12…” she murmured as Amsiii provided her with the notice of its death, as well.

“Yeah! And wolves travel in packs! We need to go!”

She shook her head, breaking free from the trance of shock that threatened to claim her after our near-death encounter. Finally listening to me, she stumbled back a few paces before turning and running into the darkness. I remained at her side, sprinting through the underbrush.

The growling of more of the monsters was close behind. They were hunting us. The fog was getting thicker. I couldn’t see…

A croaking sound echoed through the trees from above. Raina jerked her head to listen to it before turning to follow it.

“Malzy! This way!” Raina shouted.

“Are you nuts! They’ll cut us off!” But she was already running ahead.

I turned, running after her as fast as I could. The mist grew thicker. I could barely see my paws stretching before me as I sprinted to catch up to Raina. For that matter, I couldn’t see Raina, either. I just hoped that she was still ahead of me.

The croaking call drifted through the trees once more. If Raina was following it, at least I was going in the right direction, too.

A barkhound howled to my left. Then another answered to my right. They were coordinating the hunt and would catch us soon enough. My legs burned with adrenaline…and fear.

What could have possibly compelled her to chase strange sounds from a dark, mist-filled forest? It didn’t make any sense! The barkhounds were already trying to kill us. Who’s to say this mysterious croaking sound had our best interests at heart?

“Malzy!” my ears swiveled to find Raina in the darkness. I moved towards the sound. “Malzy! Over here!”

“I’m coming!”

“You’re going the wrong way!”

I stopped. I was certain her voice was coming from in front of me. I swiveled my ears, trying to pick up other traces of her. Panic threatened to overtake me as the only sounds I could gather were from the wolves threatening to tear us apart.

“Malzy, turn around and walk forward,” Raina instructed. Her voice was still coming from in front of me.

Suddenly it hit me. Terrowin hadn’t abandoned us…he must have thought Raina’s screams were coming from a different direction. The mist was confusing us. But…then how had the croaking sound reached us? I really hoped we hadn’t just been following a phantom call in the night…the last thing we needed was more confusing elements in this already terrible night.

There was only one way to find out. I needed to reach Raina. Trusting in her instructions, I turned and walked away from where I’d heard her voice. A moment later, the ground gave way beneath my paws, and I tumbled into Raina’s arms.

“I’ve got you; I’ve got you,” she murmured, stroking my ears. “We can hide here.”

I looked around. We were in a small alcove in the hillside, carved under the roots of a great tree. It was a great place to hide from view, and, with the damp of the mist, our scents would be hard to follow.

I curled into Raina’s arms as we waited, barely daring to breathe. Scrambling paws echoed all around us as the barkhounds caught up. They sniffed and whined as they lost our trail.

Raina squeezed me tight. It was uncomfortable, but I didn’t dare speak to tell her so. All we could do was wait and pray.

The hounds sniffed. Dirt fell on my head as a great paw rattled the earth above our hiding spot. It huffed as it searched for our scent. It reached the edge of the alcove. Raina and I both held our breath in terror. The roar of our heartbeats was so loud, I wished desperately to quiet them.

Then the hound backed off, barking at its companions. I allowed myself to breathe again. My heartbeat began to steady, and Raina released her death grip around my body.

Then a chill ran down my spine. A whoosh of air in the forest beyond heralded something new…something very, very bad.

My ears pricked outward as a whisper, like the rustling of leaves, reached us. However, unlike leaves, this sound formed itself into a woman’s words.

“Where are yoooou?” it said, sending a creeping shiver up my spine. “Where are yooooooou?”