Eventually, Galen and Brin and Danto eased around a curve in the tunnel, and daylight carved a brilliant slice in the darkness ahead. As soon as they could see where they were planting their feet, Galen doused the torch.

“I hear running water,” Brin said over her shoulder.

The falls, after all? But that couldn’t be right.

After declining for so long, the tunnel floor now rose steeply. Galen leaned into the incline and trudged upward. Moments later, he followed Brin out of darkness and onto a rocky slope. Air that smelled like trees and rain embraced him. He squinted against the sun’s brilliance but welcomed its warmth. Danto jostled Galen’s shoulder as he followed the other two into the light.

With its source somewhere beneath the stone promontory on which they stood, a rush of water spilled down a rocky hillside sloping away from them. Whitewater frothed around boulders and water-slicked patches of eroded-smooth rock. To the north and south, mossy stone gradually gave way to trees and then deeper forest. The water itself, fast-running but only wide enough to be a stream and not a river, rumbled around a curve and out of sight.

The view was so gorgeous and well-rendered and just plain cool that Galen just stood there and stared at it.

“We’re stranded.” Danto motioned to the edges of the ledge they’d stepped out onto. No unbroken path presented itself which connected the ledge overhanging the water to either bank of the rushing stream.

Less blinded by the sun now, Galen picked out patches of bare rock and larger stones that might be navigated to the banks to either side. But as Danto spoke, the black bodies of a dozen or more crows flurried into the sky from an outcropping further along in the stream, with an expanse of rushing water between where he stood and the rocky surface the crows flew up from. As they launched into the sky, the crows cawed boisterously, unafraid to announce their annoyance at being disturbed.

As the storm of black wings cleared the outcropping, they revealed a scattering of bodies. Puddles of oily red, blood mixed with water, shimmered on the pocked gray surface.

Galen bumped the back of his hand against Brin’s shoulder to get her attention. When her head turned, he pointed.

Even from a distance, Galen could tell the clothing was not rough kilts of woven reeds but the finer clothing worn by people from this side of the Mindet River. Long metal hunting spears glittered, scattered like discarded kindling sticks among the fallen. One of the dead, half submerged in the water, bobbed a moment longer in a macabre tug of war. Then the whitewater snatched the body off the rock and flung it downstream. The corpse fetched up against another rock further down, slamming repeatedly into the boulder before the water shoved it past and carried it entirely away.

“Lord Gastusad’s party.” Danto spoke in a hushed tone. “But what in the name of Keres is that?”

Keres is a goddess of natural death and decay and rebirth, well known but infrequently worshipped in the Mindet Valley.

Galen noted the irony of a Voshellian novice uttering a curse in the name of a death goddess and just as quickly decided it was fitting. The deaths here weren’t the natural deaths the Keres definition mentioned.

But they are definitely dead.

Galen hadn’t quite recognized what he was looking at yet, but now he fully saw the other body on the outcropping with the dead hunters. It rose like a boulder itself from the rock, bear-like in shape but with gray and mottled earth tones and scales like flaking shale. From its feet protruded long claws.

One set of those claws held a man impaled on it, even as the dead man’s spear bristled from the creature’s torn, bloodied throat. The monster’s fanged mouth contained a mass of gore that had been a living person not so long ago. Bile rose in Galen’s throat.

“What is it?” Danto’s whisper held awe.

Galen scoured his mind for any creature he’d ever heard of that matched this one’s description and came up with no idea. It looked like equal parts bear, armadillo, and dinosaur, and yet not really like any of those things.

You have not seen or heard of a creature of this description.

Well, no shit. But the thought came not with true sarcasm but with a grin he had to quickly hide. Not knowing only added to the cool factor, just like it did anytime he’d encountered a new bestiary entry in any game.

Galen shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Whatever it is, it’s falling apart.” This time, Brin pointed. Galen looked away from the mangled hunter in the thing’s mouth and claws.

The rock-colored creature’s back end had fallen partly into the water, like the man they’d just watched carried away by the current. But the whitewater didn’t tug at the creature’s body. Instead, the body simply fell apart under the water’s pressure, as if it were truly made of earth and stone and the water was eroding it.

Aside from the strangeness of that and aside from the combination of anger and disappointment over the loss of the hunting party, a sudden realization and sense of relief washed through Galen.

They’re beyond our help. We’ve followed orders.

There was nothing left to do but turn around and report back.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

No low level TPK today.

Galen turned the realization in his mind, trying to formulate the best way to state it out loud to Brin and Danto without sounding like a coward.

Like Macond.

Behind them, something screeched, a drawn-out gravelly rasp like a crow’s but deeper. Louder.

Galen’s heart leaped. His pulse screamed into his ears, half-deafening him.

And here’s the trap.

He flung himself around.

Wings of dark gray, spike-shaped feathers filled Galen’s vision. Over a long, pointed black beak, yellow eyes glinted. As the beast dropped from the sky, black talons extended toward Galen.

[Unknown Creature uses Dive Attack on you. Miss!]

While Galen tried to process what the thing might be, it closed on him. Galen dropped his shoulders and ducked his head. His feet slipped. He lurched low and to one side.

The water. Don’t fall into the water.

A downdraft buffeted Galen. It stank of mold and dank places, there but then gone. Galen twisted, trying to see where the bird had gone.

The by-now familiar sensation of time thickening and stretching out fell across Galen. Dice whispered all around him. A familiar mix of anticipation and nervousness bubbled in his stomach.

Roll initiative, baby.

“…down, Galen! Stay down!” Somewhere just out of Galen’s sight, Brin was shouting.

[Unknown Creature uses Dive Attack on you. Miss!]

Galen’s lurch turned into a fall. He slammed face first onto the wet rock and hunched his shoulders.

That ill-scented wind whistled past Galen once again. His back shuddered.

From his prone position, Galen pushed against the combat round paralysis and was able to lift his head a fraction. Feet in worn leather boots danced around him, Brin’s and Danto’s. He tipped himself a little further, up onto one elbow.

Danto and Brin’s faces looked toward the sky. The spears in their hands jabbed toward the air over Galen’s body, but that air was empty. No damage messages appeared, so Galen assumed they’d both missed.

Brin drew back her spear as if preparing for a next attack. She back-pedaled. Behind her, Galen glimpsed a hard rocky edge and then nothing but the sound of the rushing stream.

“Water!” Galen croaked. “Don’t fall!”

Brin’s heel came down half over open air. Her arms pinwheeled. Danto started to turn toward her, but in slow motion.

Brin grabbed at Danto. Danto jerked toward her, doubled over, and then fell back.

Brin stumbled another step backward. Her body twisted, and as her feet slid away into nothing, she grabbed at the rock.

The paralysis holding Galen released. The buttons showing his available turn actions lit at the bottom of his vision.

Hands and knees, Galen pushed himself up from the wet rock. Danto was shouting something, but his words were panicked and garbled.

Bird.

Galen glanced back toward the tunnel entrance. The massive gray winged creature arced over the tree-covered hillside, tilting to one side as it turned.

Coming back.

But Brin.

Still on hands and knees, Galen crawled toward where Brin had gone over the edge. He glimpsed the top of her head, golden sunlight glinting on dark hair. One of her arms hooked around a bump of raised rock, but her grip was slipping.

Throwing himself flat on his stomach, Galen grabbed at Brin’s arm with both his hands.

[You rolled a 16 for Strength.]

Galen’s hands closed tightly around Brin’s forearm. He jammed his toes against the rocky ground and found a crevice that seemed like it would prevent him from sliding closer to the edge himself. With nothing left he could do, Galen ended his turn.

An earthy-scented breeze stirred Galen’s hair.

[Unknown Creature uses Dive Attack on you. Hit!]

A thin line burned across Galen’s shoulder.

[You take 2 damage.]

Danto was still shouting.

“Asshole! Get away! Asshole!”

Galen couldn’t see what was going on above and behind him. But the bird shrieked, a higher-pitched sound this time.

“Ha! I told you! Get away, you bitch!”

Flat on his stomach he had no leverage, but Galen held on with both hands to Brin’s arm. Beneath his fingers, her muscles tensed. Her other hand slapped onto the rock and found purchase. Her face rose into view, teeth gritted and eyes looking over Galen’s head.

With a grunt, Brin hauled herself onto the ledge. Water darkened her leggings from the knees down and dripped onto the rock.

As Brin dragged her full body weight onto the ledge, Galen’s turn kicked in again. He let go of Brin and snatched up the spear he’d dropped beside him. Rolling onto his back, he lifted the spear’s point defensively over his head.

The bird creature hung near-motionless in a tight turn. Not far from Galen and Brin, Danto stood with his feet planted and spear raised. Something thick and dark brown dripped from the pointed tip, as if Danto had used his spear to stir mud. The bird’s yellow eyes and wickedly pointed black beak turned toward Danto. The clawed talons twitched as they extended.

Galen got his knees under him, but he already knew he wouldn’t have enough movement to get close enough to do anything. He jammed the butt of his spear against the ground and levered himself up from the ground. Then he held a melee attack with his spear and completed his turn.

The bird dived toward Danto.

Brin must have been holding an action, too, because with a strangled cry of fury, she launched herself off the rock she’d clambered onto and at the oncoming beast. Galen had just enough time to realize that the hands she reached toward the bird held no spear.

She lost it when she fell.

As the bird reached the bottom of its dive, Brin leaped toward its back.

Tackling it. While I stand here like an idiot.

A wave of mingled admiration and shame flowed through Galen.

The bird’s wings beat. Galen again caught that scent like grass and tilled soil. The air around the beast seemed slightly darker, as if a gray-green smoke clung to its form.

Magic?

The bird rolled to the side. Brin’s arms closed around empty air, and one massive wing slammed into her shoulder. She stumbled aside.

But the bird shuddered and spun off course, too. As it recovered, its wingtips brushed the ground just within Galen’s range. Barely on his feet, Galen lanced out desperately with his spear.

[You used Melee Attack on Unknown Creature. 16 hits!]

[You deal 6 damage to Unknown Creature.]

The point dragged through spiked feathers and came away coated in the same muddy substance as Danto’s. Again, the bird screamed. Its beak snapped around toward Galen. It wheeled away and up, the wind of its wings stirring Galen’s and Danto’s hair. Brin lifted one arm in front of her eyes, twisting to follow the beast’s course.

The bird cleared the tunnel’s entrance and rose higher, skimming the treetops of the hillside above. This time, though, it didn’t stop when its movement ran out, frozen in midair as it arced around. The air around Galen thinned, and the bird’s wings beat, and it grew smaller in the distance. Eventually, it dropped down into the trees and out of sight altogether.

“Thought we’d be easy prey. Not so easy, huh, bitch!” Danto brandished his spear as he shouted. Then he laughed. The grin he aimed at first Galen and then Brin was that of a delighted boy who’d just won a game.

Galen planted his palms on his knees and leaned forward. His lungs burned and his head buzzed from too much blood pounding against his temples.

He smiled, too, though. He couldn’t help it. They had won, after all. More or less.

This time. But what comes next?