Together, Pale and Kayla crept through the blood-red forest, both moving as cautiously and silently as they could. Still, despite their best efforts, crimson leaves crunched underfoot and brush rustled as they moved through it, headed in the direction of the scream they'd both heard.

Pale kept her rifle's stock pulled tightly into her shoulder as she watched, her thumb up and ready to flick the safety off at a moment's notice. Still, as they moved through the treeline, she couldn't help but note just how ill-suited the environment was for them. Not only was the tree coverage and foliage thick enough to mask any potential assailants, but the way the trees and bushes seemed to almost glow crimson disoriented their senses, making it difficult to parse what they were seeing.

Not only that, but the crimson glow also played tricks with her weapon, too. Pale's current rifle had a holographic sight mounted – a small black box, in which a red reticle was projected onto a front lens. The sight was intended to be easy to pick up in most environments, and that was generally true, but in an area like this, where everything was red, it was more of a hindrance than anything.

Pale looked over her shoulder for a moment to make sure Kayla was still following after her. She was, however she seemed very disoriented; she was constantly blinking and rubbing at her eyes, something which didn't go unnoticed by Pale.

"Something wrong?"

Kayla shook her head. "No, it's just… I'm a beastkin. We have slightly more sensitive eyes than humans do."

"Ah, I understand. Think you can keep going?"

"Of course," Kayla said. "But I am going to have a nasty migraine by the time all this is over, I'm sure."

"I don't mean to frighten you, but I suspect we'll both be incredibly lucky if all we have to worry about by the end of this is a bad migraine."

Kayla paused, staring at her in surprise. "...You think it'll be that bad?"

"Just a feeling I have," Pale said, turning her attention forward again. "Remember, we once thought the worst thing we'd encounter at Woodbriar was an overzealous town guard."

Kayla couldn't help but shudder at that. "You're right… I'll be careful."

"Stick close to me," Pale urged. "Forest looks like it'll be easy to get lost in, and I don't want us getting too turned around."

Kayla nodded, and they both continued on their way, pushing through the foliage in search of whoever had screamed.

XXX

After a few more minutes of walking, Pale stopped, holding up a hand as a signal for Kayla to pause behind her. Kayla came to a rest a few feet away, peering around Pale's shoulder as best as she could.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Clearing up ahead," Pale commented, her eyes narrowing. "There's someone out there, and they aren't moving."

Kayla nodded. "Should we move in?"

"Not yet. This seems like an ambush to me."

"Ambush…? What makes you say that?"

Pale sank into a low crouch, and motioned for Kayla to do the same. Once she had, Pale raised a hand and began to point around the clearing.

"There's only one body, but I see two pools of blood out there," Pale told her. "Not only that, but there are scuff marks in the dirt, indicating someone was dragged away by force."

Kayla shuddered at that. "What do you think did it?"

"No idea. It could be another initiate, or it could be something else that lurks in the forest. We don't know for sure. And that's what worries me." Pale shifted a bit, pulling the bolt back on her rifle slightly to make sure there was a round chambered. Once she'd seen the telltale glint of brass sitting neatly in her weapon, she let the bolt go forwards, then took a breath.

"I'll go out and investigate," she told Kayla. "If I run into trouble I can't solve on my own, back me up."

Kayla blinked, then tilted her head, confused. "You don't want me to help you if you don't need it?"

"You need to conserve your mana," Pale urged. "We don't know what we're facing out here, or how long we'll be stuck underground. The last thing we need is for you to completely drain yourself, because then we'll be in big trouble."

Slowly, Kayla nodded. "Okay… I've got it. I'll let you handle it unless it looks like you're about to be overwhelmed."

"Good. And it goes without saying, but if you run into trouble, call for me. I'll come running."

"I know you will; you always have."

Pale gave her a small nod, then turned and stood up, marching out of the underbrush, rifle in her shoulder as she scanned the area. It seemed clear, but there was no way to know for sure. Slowly, she approached the fallen initiate lying a short ways away; from this distance, she could tell that it was a dark-skinned female wearing a black cloak, but past that, it was impossible to tell what had happened to her, as her back was turned to Pale.

Stolen novel; please report.

The most alarming thing, however, was that even from here, Pale could tell that this girl was very clearly dead. If the pool of blood hadn't already given it away, then the fact that she wasn't breathing was evidence enough.

Pale reached the girl's body after a moment, then carefully used one of her boots to turn her over from her side onto her back. The initiate rolled over onto her back, her eyes staring up lifelessly at the ceiling above. From here, it was plain to see what had done her in – her throat had been torn out, the gash in it deep enough that Pale could just barely make out the white of her spine between the shredded flesh and muscles.

Pale's eyes narrowed at that realization. One of her suspicions now ruled out, she motioned for Kayla to follow after her; the gentle rustling of bushes and footfalls against the dirt ground from behind signaled her arrival just a few seconds later.

"Gods…" Kayla muttered as she stared at the dead girl on the ground. "I'm gonna be sick…"

"Hold it in," Pale told her without looking back. "Don't go wasting your calories like that."

"If you say so…" Kayla closed her eyes and took a breath to calm herself, then opened them and looked back to Pale. "So, what happened?"

"If you ask me, this girl wasn't killed by one of us," Pale reported. "It looks more like some kind of predator got to her."

"Do you know what kind?"

Pale shook her head. "No idea. It doesn't seem to have been a pack hunter; there would be more torn-up clods of dirt scattered around here if it had been a pack of animals rather than a lone hunter. From what I can tell, this was a single decisive strike done as a surprise attack. If I had to guess, whatever did this took this girl out first, then took out her companion and dragged them away, likely to eat them."

Kayla shuddered again at that. "Gods… that's horrible."

Pale said nothing, instead kneeling down and patting the body down. Behind her, she heard Kayla give a small gasp.

"What are you doing?!"

"Checking to see if she has anything good on her," Pale said, again without looking back. "And before you complain – yes, I know it's disrespecting the dead, but this is a survival situation. And moreover, I suspect that we'll get a chance to avenge her before long."

That made Kayla freeze. "...You think whatever killed her is still out there?"

"I do," Pale said with a nod. She patted the girl down once final time, letting out a grunt of displeasure when she didn't find anything good on her, least of all a tome like she'd wanted. With that done, she stood up and dusted herself off, then turned towards Kayla once more. "Think about it – that thing, whatever it was, left her body here for a reason. My guess is that it heard either her or her companion scream before they died and knew someone might come looking for them." Pale looked around, scanning the treeline as best she could. "Whatever this thing is, it's smart."

"So it's smart and strong…" Kayla muttered. "Beautiful…"

"Don't sound so discouraged," Pale told her.

"Why not?"

"Because if my suspicions are correct, then it's probably watching us right now."

Kayla's hair stood on end. She stiffened, and opened her mouth to say something, only for Pale to shake her head."

"Don't freak out," she warned. "We don't want to spook it."

"What are you talking about?! That sounds like exactly what we want! Maybe if we do that, it'll leave us alone!"

"I wouldn't count on that," Pale said. "If anything, now that it's got us in our sights, it'll probably start stalking us. This is our chance to lure it out and kill it before it becomes a problem… and, to a lesser degree, avenge this girl and her missing friend, as well as keep this animal from killing any other initiates."

Kayla paused as she considered that face. After a moment, she gave a slow nod.

"...I suppose you're right," she conceded. "But why do we have to be the ones to kill it?"

"Would you really trust any of the other initiates to handle themselves well against something with an actual body count?" Pale asked bluntly. After a moment, she shook her head. "I got a good look at most of them, and I can say that they're almost all out-of-touch children of nobles or otherwise inexperienced mages all-around. Frankly, I'd pick you in a fight over any of them a hundred times out of a hundred, because at least I know you can handle yourself well. But that's beside the point; the truth is, it has to be us, because anyone else would almost certainly just get themselves killed if they tried to do what we're about to do."

"And… what are we about to do?" Kayla asked tentatively.

"Simple," Pale said as she rose to her feet. "We're going to lure it out and kill it."

XXX

Kayla wiped sweat from her brow as she ran through the forest, her breath coming out ragged. She looked over her shoulder every now and again, checking to make sure there was nothing behind her.

And a short ways away, perched atop a tall tree, Pale watched the whole thing unfold.

She stared at Kayla through the flip-to-side magnifier mounted behind her holographic sight, taking great care not to even come close to centering the reticle anywhere near her. The entire time, her finger hovered over her rifle's trigger, waiting for the unseen threat to reveal itself.

It hadn't exactly been the most in-depth plan she'd ever thought of, but then again, the right predator needed the right bait, and a panicked young woman taking off through the forest by herself seemed like it'd be way too good of an opportunity for it to pass up.

And so, the two of them had split up under the guise of searching for the dead girl's missing companion. Pale had climbed a tall tree, while Kayla had wandered around for a bit, then come back to the clearing, only to find her gone, which had thrown her into a panic.

Or at least, that was the basic idea.

"Pale!" Kayla called out. "Pale, where are you?!"

"She's a good actor, at least…" Pale muttered, adjusting her rifle's stock to sit a bit more comfortably in her shoulder. "Now, where are you…?"

She continued to track Kayla through her rifle's optic pair, watching for any telltale underbrush movement nearby, only to find nothing. Her brow furrowed at the sight of it.

This didn't make any sense to her. A standard predator would have been after Kayla from the moment she'd started running and shouting, but this one, whatever it was, seemed far more restrained than she'd expected.

Pale was about to look around once more when she heard something – the leaves of a nearby tree rustling. Her eyes widened, and she rolled to the side, falling off the branch she'd been perched on just in time for an incoming claw the size of a machete blade to pass by right where her head had been a split-second ago.

Pale fell, crashing through branch after branch, each one helping slow her descent a bit more. By the time she hit the ground back-first, her fall had gone from a lethal descent to one that merely drove the wind out of her and bruised her ribs. She didn't dwell on how lucky she was, however – rather, she instead rolled to the side once more, again just in time to avoid another claw that impacted right where she'd been a moment ago.

And for the first time, she got a good look at what had been hunting them the entire time.

It was large, about the size of a grizzly bear, with a body rippling with muscle. It walked on four legs, each of them tipped with those same wicked-looking claws. It had a head that reminded Pale of a large cat's, but with the mouth of a lamprey attached to it, complete with the lining of spiral teeth.

All told, it was more like some kind of amalgamation of three different familiar-looking animals than anything.

Pale didn't get much chance to dwell on it, however, before the Amalgamation crouched down and leaped at her once more.