Winter arrives with freshly fallen snow in the early morning hours as the Meibon tribe makes preparations for the possible attack. The peoples of Little Rock Island have the numbers and the technological advantage with crossbows and high-powered composite bows. Even though Koronos is mighty and powerful, he’s still susceptible to an arrow or a crossbow bolt in the heart as any man. He is fast enough to dodge and block such weapons on a small scale, but if it’s one hundred men firing arrows, he can’t avoid them all, nor can he block them for the Meibon. In an open field, the Meibon will be slaughtered and inside the village walls they will also be slaughtered with flaming arrows from above; the outcome doesn’t look good for the Meibon. Shelove agreed to assist if and when they are attacked, it’s not going to be enough; even though they could kill a lot of the humans in the fight, but not before the humans could kill many Meibon.

Koronos is a warrior and will fight no matter what, but this isn’t looking like a battle they will win, not in any capacity that will feel like a victory. So, he figures he has one chance to turn the tide of the likely outcome. He says to Shelove, “I must do this alone; you would only agitate an already volatile situation.”

Shelove reluctantly agrees to stay behind, and she conveys to him, “If you are killed, I will lose a friend and likely be stuck here on this island for the rest of my life. So, it would be preferable if you return.”

On the freshly fallen snow he silently moves through the dark forest of the early morning hours; the snow makes his steps all the quieter and even more stealthy. With his spear in hand and sword slung over his back, he has no intention of using either, but holding the spear in his grip offers some familiar comfort as he works his way to the lowlands of the island to the territory of the Lord of the Forest.

Smaller weaker animals can more easily be influenced and controlled; however, he’s learned that great and mighty beasts can resist his powers. Shelove can resist his powers, the Kraken of the Deep could not only resist his powers, but it could also hurt his mind when he reached out to it. The Lord of the Forest is somewhere in between the two, and it’s more likely to attack him and try to eat him than to have a conversation.

Several hours pass with no sign of his quarry, then he finds its tracks in the snow; it’s hard to miss because it’s so big. It might still be in the vicinity, so he reaches out with the Bond, slowly and gently, so as not to alarm it. His hand outstretched with his eyes closed to allow for better concentration.

“You again, why do you keep bothering me, man-thing?” The great beast queries.

Cautiously, he replies, “I am Koronos. I’m here to warn you that men are coming to kill the Meibon.”

With a clearly irritated response, it responds with, “that’s the domain of the bears, but if they wander into my domain, they are my food if I so choose, so why should I care? You’re food as well, if I so choose but I’ve never had my food talk to me before. That’s the only reason I haven’t eaten yet.”

“After they kill the Meibon, they are going to kill all the bears, then you and all of your kind after, this is what humans do,” snapping back, perhaps a little too quickly and with a little too much attitude.

A moment of silence passes, but then it responds, “Hmm, I see. Perhaps I’ll kill them all, but I don’t need your help to do it, maybe I’ll just eat you now. You’re big for a man-thing but still just a snack for me, but a snack is better than nothing, Koronos.”

“You’re mighty but you still can’t kill them all, not if as many come as I think; no, you will need my help, they will kill you if you try to fight them alone,” this time he responds with more calm.

The beast is now clearly agitated, and conveys, “you tiny, insignificant man-thing, what help could you possibly provide? I could run you down and kill you easily, you can’t even help yourself, let alone something as magnificent as I, and I believe I’ve heard enough of your nonsense; but if you can survive until nightfall, I’ll consider accepting your meager, laughable aid." Then the door to its mind slams shut, severing the Bond, only silence remains.

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Ever so slowly, it was closing on him as they conversed, it managed to close the gap that would have allowed Koronos to outpace it. From out of the shadows, it emerges. With no pretense of moving silent now and charging at him with the sound of roaring thunder, in this close-range, it clearly has the speed advantage.

All the Kazarian can do is out-maneuver it by leaping behind a smaller giant tree, putting it between them. He circles around the tree, keeping it between him and the toothy maw of the Lord of the Forest. Now it's a battle of the most determined; if he tries to run, it will close on him. All he can do is keep the tree between them, hoping it will grow tired of it and leave. For a few minutes this persists, then it stops, giving him a window to try to run, Koronos knows it’s a ploy to give him a false sense of security, a false sense of hope. However, what it doesn’t know is just how fast he really is.

Koronos breaks away from the tree in a full sprint, granting enough distance to throw his sword at it while holding his spear in his offhand, he doesn’t want to kill it, just let it know he can hurt it. The mighty Sword of the First whirls through the air, spinning towards its target, but the beast wheels about and with a huge force, hits the spinning sword with its tail, driving it hilt-deep into a tree.

He tries to use his powers to recall the sword, but it’s buried too deep into the tree. Given more time and concentration, he might be able to retrieve it, however, time is not on his side because the great beast charges him. So, he does what anyone would do, run a full sprint with all his power and strength as the beast matches his pace. He deftly jumps over a huge log weighing at least sixty to seventy stone, and the beast knocks it aside like you or I might kick a small stick in the pathway.

After a few moments, he clears out of the forest only to be standing at the edge of a cliff with jagged rocks of the rugged shoreline below. Jutting out of the very edge of the cliff is a stunted, twisted tree but it’s not big enough or high enough to climb to get out of the reach of the beast that chases him. It crosses his mind that this could be it, this might be how he dies.

The beast knows this land and it stops so it can corral its quarry with its large body into the jutting cliff area, leaving no place to run or hide.

Maybe he can try to slip past it by doing some fancy maneuvering? No, judging by how fast it can whip its tail, it would likely hit him and break every bone in his body or near enough. He looks down at the spear in his hands, closes his eyes to focus, to make ready to meet his end. But with one last act of defiance as the beast opens its toothy mouth to bite down on him, or more accurately, bite him in half, he reaches back with his spear in hand and hurls it with all his power and strength into its open maw.

With a tremendous force, the spear buries in the back of the creature's mouth, stopping it cold. It pulls his head back and bites down on the wooden shaft that’s sticking out of its mouth, the spear is buried deep. It tries to use its powerful tongue to pull the spear free, but it doesn’t have the manual dexterity to remove it, instead merely breaks off more of the wooden shaft.

Koronos feels the door of the Bond open again. The beast conveys, “okay, you win, but only if you pull this out of my mouth, I can’t get it out.”

“You won’t bite my arm off when I reach in?” Unsure if he can trust this creature or not.

It becomes annoyed and conveys, “why would I do that? I’d still have this stuck in my mouth and I don’t think I can get anyone else to pull it free.”

It lowers its head and opens its mouth as blood trickles out on the freshly fallen snow, staining a patch of it red. Koronos looks down at the red stained snow, then into the open maw of the beast. Despite the cold wintry air, partly from the running but not only from running, sweat beads on his brow as he slowly reaches into the jagged maw. Its teeth are as long as a man’s forearm and he learns that they are indeed sharp when he scrapes against one with his arm; and he nervously and slowly reaches in further until his hand grasps the broken bloody shaft of the spear.

“This will hurt, so don’t bite down.” Koronos is asking more so than in a commanding tone.

The beast conveys back, “just get on with it.”

With one hard pull while gripping the slippery, blood-covered spear shaft, he pulls the spear free. Then the beast rises up, regal-like and haughty, similar to how royalty might look down upon their peasants from a palace balcony.