The thin beam of Granny Liadan’s flashlight illuminated the abandoned tracks leading deep into the mineshaft. At first, I was slightly worried Cormac was going to lose his nerve, and I would have to go rescue Granny Liadan by myself. He was braver (or dumber) than I gave him credit for as he started skipping along the tracks. His cheery prance only momentarily stopped when we heard a woman scream behind us in the trees. It seemed like the troll was right about there being a new occupant of the mines.

“Let’s keep going,” I urged Cormac on. “We must be in the right place if it followed us all the way here.”

It was unsettling plunging into the depth of darkness while knowing a monster was stalking us at the same time. I suspected it would only attack us once we were close to where it was keeping Granny Liadan. Complicit prey, like flies in a flytrap. On the other hand, Cormac didn’t look phased. “Have you ever dealt with a wendigo before?”

Cormac spoke gibberish again while pointing wildly. There was little doubt that he was trying to recount an amazing story involving a monster, but I couldn’t understand his words or gestures.

“… I see.” I finally said once it seemed like he had reached the conclusion of his epic tale. He gave a little snort of triumph before we reached a fork in the road. “Which way do you think Granny is?”

Without hesitation, Cormac did his finger spinning trick again. This time he landed pointing back at the exit. In a fit of rage, he grabbed and began shaking his hand before slowly becoming distracted. Eventually, all he could do was point in the direction of the exit while not moving.

I didn’t need to turn around to see the wendigo’s outline reflected in Cormac’s big eyes. As trained by Dad, I turned and shot one of the silver bullets at its direction. Wendigos were fast. I wasn’t surprised to see it had evaded my shot and disappeared towards the right turn. “Shall we go left?”

Cormac nodded aggressively before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the left turn of the tunnel. All his bravery seemed to have momentarily vanished in an instant, but luckily for us, all of the family’s training was kicking into gear for me.

Deeper in the mines, a foul stench began to permeate the air. I had to clutch my nose to block it out, but it didn’t seem to bother Cormac at all. His nose may be longer, but it must be less sensitive. Seeing me struggle with the smell, Cormac began taking deep, hyperbolic breaths as if the air couldn’t be cleaner. He kept doing it until I snapped. “Cut that out! It stinks here.” Cormac held his own nose for a second to mirror me before bursting out laughing. “Seriously!”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

A shrill shriek from behind us caused Cormac’s laughter to stop. It was still hunting us and seemed to be not far behind us. On the plus side, it wasn’t using Granny Liadan’s voice anymore. “Let’s keep going,” I said, as I pulled along Cormac, who was temporarily frozen by the scream.

At the end of the tunnel, we came across an opening. On the left were two human victims, hung upside down and bleeding from fresh wounds. On the other side was the remains of Officer Gary with parts of his skin and muscle missing… At least we know where he went now. Opposite us was an elevator leading deeper into the mines.

“It’ll have taken Granny to the deepest parts.” I took a few steps forward before noticing Cormac wasn’t following. His gaze was fixed on Officer Gary. Did he recognise him? Was he disturbed by the body? He should be used to them since he was a goblin. I felt the mischievous side of me bubble up and take over. It had been a long time since I indulged in it. “You know… victims of a wendigo take months to die. They eat things in pieces. A bit of skin here, a bit of muscle there; until you either die from infection or hypothermia from your lack of skin.”

I expected Cormac to panic, scream, froth at the mouth, or something like that. Instead, he made me scream. “What- No! No! No! No! Don’t eat Officer Gary!”

Cormac managed to weave past me with dinner clearly on his mind. Even if I did catch him, I was just going to get bitten again. An eye for an eye. Reaching inside my backpack, I pulled out a can of peaches. I threw a fastball that would have made Shohei Ohtani proud.

My fastball managed to hit Cormac in the face, sending him flying to the ground. For a moment, I felt bad until the pain in my cheek reminded me that he had done the same earlier today. “We need to keep our focus, Cormac.” Grabbing the tie-dye collar of the dress covered in peach juice, I began to drag him to the elevator. “If Granny saw you trying to eat Officer Gary’s body, she would have a heart attack. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

The lack of acknowledgement shook me. There wasn’t a grumble, groan, or gibberish spewing from his mouth. There was nothing. Did I accidentally kill Cormac?

Looking down at him, I finally saw that his hand was slightly raised, and he was pointing in the direction of Officer Gary. “I already told you! You can’t eat him!” Cormac shook his head slowly. He wasn’t pointing at Officer Gary? He was pointing at the tunnel where we had come from.

Finally sensing the danger, I dropped the goblin’s dress. But I was too late to shoot any warning shots as the speed of a wendigo was much faster than me. I could hear Cormac’s cries as my head hit the floor from being assaulted by the wendigo before there was nothing. Only darkness.