As the limp form of his stepbrother sailed past overhead—in a poignant example of action versus consequence—only one thought readily came to mind.

Idiots. I’m surrounded by idiots.

He was currently crouched behind the literal mountain of dirt that'd been upturned by the two titan’s mere passage. As he had been ever since Cedric unveiled his “ingenious plan.” Initially, Jun’s unenviable task had been to distract the giant killer bird so that Cedric could best the big wolf uninterrupted.

How Jun was supposed to have gone about such a task remained a mystery.

Although he felt it’d been not so subtly implied that running headlong into the beast’s cavernous maw would be a good start. Oh, and did he mention these things were big? Huge, even? Each as tall as a six story building with teeth and claws as long as people.

But no. Yeah, of course. By all means, fight the damned things. Really, when the odds were stacked so heavily in your favor, what in the world could possibly go wrong?

Presumably, his dearest brother would’ve wrapped things up with the first beast just in time to clean the second’s clock—just as it was finished dabbing its beak free of bits of him no doubt.

Thankfully things never escalated that far. As was only sensible, Cedric took the two beasts’ separation as a golden opportunity to rush in and start punching things. That it hadn't at all worked out in his favor was a mystery sure to haunt his sleepless nights for many years to come.

Welp! There went all his compunctions to hang around this death trap for a moment longer! Now all he had to do was slip away ever so quietly and wash his hands of this unfortunate debacle entirely.

“Brilliant Lance of Absolution!”

You've gotta be fucking kidding me.

The idiot boy was taking a page out of his brother’s playbook it would seem. Jun wasn't sure what he knew about probability, but if the way the big wolfie easily manhandled his brother was of any indication- Wolf-handled? Wolf-paw-dled? Didn’t matter. The point was, it was incredibly stupid of him and really didn't speak well of his math tutors.

Tears streaming down his cheeks and body trembling uncontrollably, Caspian nevertheless stood atop the earthen rise with arms outstretched and fingers extended—sending condensed beam after condensed beam at the massive wolf.

And, as if to make matters even worse, by some cruel twist of fate one of the errant beams actually landed.

The technique hit the wolf directly on its nose. Snout? Actually eliciting a yip of pained surprise from the gigantic creature. From his vantage point, head just barely peeking over the earthen mound, Jun saw the very instant when the wolf’s murderous gaze turned in their direction.

Jun’s blood went ice cold.

Well, that’s not good.

None too gently, Jun grabbed the back of the boy’s lapel and roughly yanked him behind cover. In the face of certain death, the possible repercussions for his not so friendly tone were the last things on his mind.

Although, at least a little politeness never hurt.

“Robert! Would you please get the hell over here and manage your idiot of a brother before he winds up getting all of us kill-!”

Jun turned sharply, ready to continue his tirade, only to discover brother Robert was nowhere to be found. Wait? No. There he was. That tiny silhouette in the far distance, hightailing it as fast as his stubby legs would carry him. Huh. Well. At least someone had the right idea.

THUD!

Jun nearly lost his footing as the ground violently shook. An ominous gust of pungent, hot air slapping against the back of his neck. He turned around slowly, as if prolonging the reveal might possibly save him, only to come face to face with precisely what he’d feared. A cavernous maw, dripping with wickedly sharp canines.

Craning his head up, and then up, then finally up a little more, he met the crimson irises of the Blackstone Direwolf—utterly inhuman and cruelly intelligent. And so it was that, in that life defining moment, he did the only thing he could think to. He shoved the troublesome runt in front of him, and broke out into a full-on sprint.

“W-what? Hey! You can’t just-!”

You know, now that he really thought about it, parts of Cedric ’s plan did have some merit to it after all. So long as he wasn't the one getting gobbled up as a distraction, he really couldn't find too many faults with its logic. Pawing through his jacket pockets, Jun half ran, half slid down the massive dirt hill. Headed in the only other direction his bladder fervently insisted was precisely the wrong way to go.

On a b-line towards the other enormous man eating spirit beast.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With an unclenching of his gut, he felt his hand brush against the blessed cloth sack. Left pocket.

Because of course it’d been his left pocket. Wasn’t it always?

Tugging it free with a little too much force, he felt the sack immediately slip from his grasp. Forcing him to fumble for it blindly. Thankfully, after a couple stomach churning seconds, and far too many false grabs for his poor heart to take, he finally managed to get ahold of it properly.

He was quick to hold it close to his chest from there, cradling it like a newborn babe. Relief and sheer nervousness making his legs feel like jelly. Even still, since taking off he hadn't slowed down for even an instant. If anything, he only began to pick up the pace as the sounds of violence erupted from behind.

“Fist of the Broken Mountain!”

Oh. So he was alive then after all. Jun really wasn't sure how to feel about that.

On the one hand it would certainly complicate things. Especially should they all survive this. He was sure his part in this utter catastrophe would balloon outward to encompass all of the blame just as soon as they left the forest’s eves. On the other hand, it did allow him a great deal more breathing room.

It took five more agonizing seconds to reach the foot of the gigantic spirit beast, at which point he fully appreciated the sheer magnitude of the thing. If anything, it was larger than the wolf had been, if less intimidating in its current state. Jun shook himself. He needed to stay focused on the task at hand—the reason why he'd hoofed it all the way there.

He wasn't stupid, he knew that even if he'd done the “smart” thing and bolted at the first signs of trouble, if the wolfie was intent on catching him, it would. The disparity between them was almost laughable. Which led him back to a logistical exercise.

After all, what do you do when a financial conglomerate capitalizes on a corner of the market to the point of total monopoly—slowly choking the economic lifesblood from consumers one ruthless price-gouge at a time?

Simple.

You introduce a different coagulation of funds whose only goal is to undercut the other guy at every opportunity. And, as the two of them go at it like fiends—as costs go down and quality goes up—who really wins in the end?

He does, hopefully.

Because while everyone else is too busy fighting their own battles, no one notices him sneaking out the back with a comically large sack of coin. Or, well, that was the plan anyway.

At last, he rounded the last few steps and reached the massive head of the spirit beast. The second it caught sight of him its entire body lurched—making him shriek, if in the totally manly sort of way—as if it were making to rise and failing utterly. Jun leapt back instinctively.

Alright.

So, it hadn’t kicked the bucket just yet. That meant everything was going more or less to plan. That was a good thing. Wasn’t it? He slowly circled the bird at what he hoped, very badly, was a safe enough distance.

The birds eye tracked his progress steadily. When he reached its front, the sudden lurch and deafening clack of its snapping beak told him that it most certainly had not been far enough away. Thankfully, Jun’s nerves were wired so tightly by then, they were fit to snap at even the slightest provocation.

Meaning he'd been able to jerk his head out of the way just in the nick of time. The sudden displacement of air enough to tug at his clothes and lash at his hair violently. Jun took several stumbling steps back and swore. He was trying to help this dumb bird, and this was the thanks he got?

Collecting himself, Jun once more thought over the implications of what he was considering. He held the sack to his chest protectively, as if it were a newborn child. An irrational denial overcame him then, and for a long moment he contemplated going back on this whole sacrificial endeavor.

After all, who was to say he couldn’t outrun the big bad wolf?

He was in relatively decent shape for his age. Well, by mundane standards if nothing else. And really, wasn’t that all that mattered at the end of the day?

Surely there was another way to get through all of this unscathed, not to mention with all of his interests intact. There had to be. There just had to be. Jun racked his brain for some miracle cure or inspired solution for this untenable position, only to come away empty handed and bereft of excuses. The sounds of fierce battle reached his ears from nowhere near far enough away.

Jun relaxed his death grip on the sack reluctantly. He’d just have to suck it up and be realistic. He’d already come this far, hadn’t he? It wasn’t as if it were worth his life or anything of the sort.

He wouldn’t sacrifice his future for the sake of something so trivial. So transient. Even he wasn’t that obsessed. He was better than that. He was stronger than that. Or at least he figured that if he kept on telling himself as much, sooner or later he’d actually believe it.

Feeling like he was tearing away a chunk of his own heart in the process, he nevertheless acquiesced to whatever cruel god had orchestrated this whole entire mess—giving himself over to the will of the fates with a soul weary sigh.

Without any more hesitation, Jun reached into the bag, and took out a sandwich.

Then a few kebabs, a couple colonial pears, and his drink. Only the best for his midday meal. He took a generous bite of the sandwich to sooth his anxiety.

On an employee’s recommendation, he’d actually visited a different sandwich shop this morning. He’d been told they use only the freshest bread, baked in the wee hours of the morning, just before dawn, and you could definitely tell the difference. He made a mental note to send a man to look into them.

They were a hole in the wall joint with exclusively local clientele, though the turnout he’d seen was still rather impressive despite all that. What could they do with the right kind of capital he wondered idly.

The crack of breaking bones and a scream so high pitched he hardly recognized the voice as Cedric’s broke him free from his ruminations. Jun shook his head vigorously. Now was not the time to be getting distracted. He had a regrettable task to perform, after all. And besides, his dearest siblings were in the direst of straights!

If he didn’t hurry, they could be halfway down that big wolf’s throat before he knew it! And that would be...?

Well actually, when he put it like that, there really wasn’t all that much urgency.

Huh.