What a foolish path she led us on. As we slowly froze beneath the full moon, this girl circled the area twice, clearly too dim to lead. I would have protested, nearly did even, but I knew it would prove fruitless. She would ignore my complaints once more, offering no more than a blank look in my direction.

Still, where she went, Golem went.

And where Golem went, I went.

Luckily, the breeze calmed in the night sky, and I stayed close enough to Golem that the trek seemed more manageable. Additionally, we still had the moon to give us light.

Well, we did anyway before something slowly blocked its view overhead. This was no cloud, no natural object known to me, as it moved in a way as if it were coordinated.

“Little girl. We have--”

“I know,” she snapped under her breath. “Don’t look. Just keep following me.”

We ascended the mountain farther, fighting to not acknowledge our pursuers. Every step I fought to keep my legs in pace, to quell my skittering eyes, ease my drumming heart.

Eventually, it crept into our view so much, we could no longer feign ignorance.

At this moment, my nerves began to rumble beneath my skin. My body was warning me of impending danger prior; now it screamed at me to escape.

And I may have run. I may have left the girl there, scrambling to escape on adrenaline and a desperate need for survival alone, had the elegant movement of the girl’s hand not stolen my attention.

She clutched her fist a few times before removing her glove. Her bare skin, a luminous white amongst a fading light, simply reached out to Golem. She ran her fingers along Golem’s arm, looked it in the eyes, and smiled.

The air around them grew still, as if they posed for a portrait of a great artisan. The connection I witnessed, the discussion of love and survival, strength and bravery, between their eyes seemed esoteric. That was all it took, the sign I needed to know to get as far from this area as possible. The Heartstone would be mine, but not at the expense of my own life.

Golem halted in its tracks, its arm outstretched towards its companion as if pleading for another touch, to feel her flesh upon its stone one more time.

But the darkness grew, and time was no longer a luxury.

The little girl’s smile broke as she held her golem’s eyes. An eerie stillness engulfed the scene as her face settled into an expression of growing fortitude. As if in response to the girl’s command, the forest grew silent.

She clenched her fists once more before mouthing a single command to her coordinate: “Go.”

I thanked the four gods of the mountain for my life still being my own. When Golem raised its arm, I feared my life was no longer mine to possess. The power, the strength, the might within that fist came crashing to the ground with a force that would halt any god. Every god.

All gods.

The eruption of light that succeeded the strike could have rivaled the very definition of beauty itself. Though too luminous for any human eye to stand, even behind clinched lids, I could see, feel more of, the might of the strike.

The heat from the engulfing flames around us warmed me and thawed my frozen body, though somehow never burning.

The darkness no longer crept, quickly retreating as if the predators realized they may, in fact, not be predators any longer.

And as Golem turned toward the pursuers, their location now prominent amongst the enflamed trees of the forest below, the fact, the irrefutable fact, became clear to all in attendance to Golem’s display of might: they were now the prey.

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“Who are you?” The girl called over the roaring flames. The crackles and pops of the embers echoed throughout the forest. Golem’s attack had brought forth our enemies, but subsequently evaporated all of the snow in the surrounding area.

A perfect circle clear of bothersome obstacles. Fit for a battlefield of titans.

Two men stepped from the forest, their chaha’oh not far behind. Their pristine dark cloaks, merged with the shadows cast by the roaring flames, were only noticeable by displaying the same emblem that was scarred into their cheeks: the eyes of the leopard.

The Odaka.

Damn false legends.

Wicked smiles broke their lips as they pulled back their hoods.

“A rather cognizant girl, you are,” one slithered.

“Perhaps we should have struck sooner,” the other added.

“The result would still be the same,” she stated. Was that...emotion? I could not decide if it were more anger or confidence, but whatever it was, the flames swirling around Golem’s hands mirrored the intensity of the emotion.

“I would not be so--”

The Odaka’s cocky words were quickly broken by the release of a ball of fire from Golem’s hands. However, this one did not strike the enemies before us, but the one creeping behind.

The flanking foe stopped in his tracks, the ball of fire landing at his feet, and dropped his knife onto the ground below. The sound of the metal striking the rocks as it fell down to the landing below resonated through the land.

It only stopped when the knife lost its momentum at the girl’s feet.

The little girl shot her eyes to the approaching third golem above, then back to her flaming friend below.

A weird feeling it is, to pity the giants outnumbering Golem only three to one.

Golem, in a swift movement, one expected from a smaller, more agile creature, grabbed a nearby boulder and threw it at the enemy above before leaping towards the foes below. The boulder glanced off of the golem above’s shoulder, breaking its balance enough for it to retreat a few steps. That was all the time Golem needed.

The strikes of darkness from below broke upon the luminous inferno around Golem’s body. Golem landed on the more confident golem as the other jumped away. The pinned golem attempted to wrestle from Golem’s grasp, though the explosion from within Golem halted any subsequent resistance.

The little girl smiled an eerie smile; one that sent shivers down my back. Luckily the knife was no longer at her feet.

The girl spun, her arms out as if a dancer frolicking in the first snow of winter.

Golem mirrored her dance, its arms swinging just above the Odaka’s heads, grabbing the largest of the remaining trees from the forest. The tree instantly erupted into flames, only to be quickly broken against the body of an attacking chaha’oh.

Two of the three foes lay at Golem’s feet, smoke and the smell of flames radiating from them. Golem turned its attention to the foe above, who now had regained its balance. The chaha’oh readied into a striking position, its eyes and arms emitting sparks of darkness, and leapt.

Golem crouched into position to rocket into the aggressor. The force would be immense, and the humans surrounding braced themselves for an impact that never came.

Instead, Golem merely stumbled, its left leg failing to leave the ground as the smoldering golems at its feet held tight, preventing it from avoiding the assault of darkness.

The strike knocked Golem to the ground below, the smash of stony bodies on a mountainous floor echoing off of the walls around them.

When the dust settled, Golem had been pinned, and the little girl no longer smiled.

“The Heartstone!” called the robed man above them.

The Odaka below drew their own knives and broke into a sprint to the struggling ko’ golem.

No! They know Golem still contains a Heartstone. That makes Golem vulnerable, able to be killed. I could not let Golem be killed. I would not.

I leapt, my legs responding to a command I had yet to even think to give myself. My knees, my body ached as I landed on the ground below, but I would not stop.

I watched Golem be able to release one arm, swatting away one of the robbed men into a tree nearby. The man must have died instantly, as one of the smoldering foes holding Golem from beneath went limp. Golem attempted to swing at the other assailant but missed as the pinning chaha’oh caught Golem’s arm before it made contact.

The robed man quickly climbed Golem’s squirming torso, struggling to keep his balance as he approached the surging Heartstone. He stood before it, its shine glimmering in his soulless eyes. A snap of his fingers and his golem, no longer smoking, released Golem’s leg just long enough to land a quick strike onto Golem’s chest. A few rocks cracked and fractured, and Golem flailed even more, an animal pinned and desperate to survive.

The knife rose, the fear of the little girl’s face reflecting in the polished steel, and struck, finding home in the target’s chest.