The sigil under his boots flashed a cheerful red and the world faded. The teleport unsettled his stomach and left a taut chill in his bones, but it was over in moments. The red glow retreated, resolving into a room similar to the one he'd just left: curved walls with medium-high ceilings, this time with two exits, each narrowing into its own corridor. It was lit by smokeless torches held in iron rings bolted into the smooth stone.

Styak hissed and dug claws into Parry's shoulder. A huge creature emerged into the room, tall enough that its canine ears brushed the ceiling. It was angular, with broad shoulders that anchored gangly limbs. The dog-like frame looked gaunt but strong, its spine bent and its legs spread wide and ended in taloned paws. It was covered everywhere in filthy dun fur. The smell and the growl reached the boy at the same moment, each equally horrifying. Torchlight sparkled in its sharp eyes, off the barbs of bent metal lining its enormous club and from the white of its slavering teeth.

"Gnoll!"

Parry ran. The part of him that wasn't panicking worried another--or something worse--might be down the second corridor, but it didn't matter. He had no chance against something that big, that tough and that vicious.

"Two Hells, we just got here, how is there a monster like that to start?!" The kitten was dug in tightly, claws sunk right to the young man's skin.

"Wolf!" Parry panted, running flat-out, desperate to find a door or a branching hallway. "Wolf wolf wolf dammit, I'm so stupid!"

"It's following, and fast," warned the demon.

The gnoll took less frequent steps but they were much longer. Parry didn't dare look back. The corridor split left and right at a 'Y'-junction, and he impulsively went left. If there were any other monsters or traps ahead, he was going to run right into them.

"Tell me the second we're out of its sight lines!" he barked to the lookout on his shoulder.

"We're barely staying ahead of it," Styak managed.

Parry didn't answer, keeping his breathing regular, finding a junction ahead, this time making a right turn. Another presented itself immediately, and he went left. The smell wasn't getting any worse, at least.

"It doesn't turn corners as nimbly as we do," the demon observed. Parry kept that in mind, raced towards any pools of shadow ahead that might indicate a junction or a turn. There were two more, and again he alternated left and right.

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"Door!"

Two, each facing the other, roughly between torches.

"Take one, we're out of its sight. Pray they aren't locked."

Barely sliding to a stop, Parry reached for the door latch. Nothing felt so sweet as the sensation of it sliding free. He yanked the iron-banded wood-slat door open and plunged in, closing it quietly as he dared behind him, pushing down the latch.

With sharper vision, Styak scanned the room for danger. There was no obvious movement near any of the four walls, the chamber was square and about twice the size of a prison cell. It held a few crates made of the same color wood as the door, a fireplace, unlit, with two bronze andirons dull with patina. There were no furnishings and no obvious exits.

Parry kept his ear against the door, mumbling under his breath a series of prayers and swears, until fear made him swallow even those little sounds. His hard breathing seemed too loud, but he couldn't detect pursuit.

"Did it go down a different turn?" Styak spoke mentally, through the shared space of Parry's memories.

"I think so?" Parry thought back. "I hope so. It'll double back when it figures that out. We haven't much time."

"What in four Hells is going on?"

"I'm an idiot for ignoring critical information from the start. Wolf rank."

"What is this animal nonsense you keep spouting?"

"It's how the Guild rates the strength of its members: mouse, rabbit, eagle, wolf, lion, gryphon, dragon. I assumed I'd left myself wolf rank for the authority or to keep Guild officials and locals off my back. But it was also a message to myself: be wolf rank or better before trying this dungeon."

"For sure, you are no mid-rank adventurer."

"Whatever incarnation left me this clue couldn't know how I'd return or how strong I'd be, or anything about me other than I'm usually a human mage." He stood up straighter, eyed the room. "No exits."

"If it corners us here, we're finished."

Parry clenched his jaw. "Up the chimney, if we can. High, beyond the reach of its club. I can't think of anything else."

"We'll be even more cornered!"

"The gnoll is big, we're small, that's about our only advantage. I'm going to try it."

Abandoning the door, Parry dashed to a crate, lifting the lid, finding it mostly empty but for some frayed old cloth. He quickly stashed most of his gear inside and closed it. Then he crawled into the old hearth and pushed open the flue.

Arms up, he pushed in his head and shoulders. That cost him any light from the room, but there was no going back now. Styak moved to the top of his head as he shimmied up walls slick with creosote and soot.

Wedged high as possible into the chimney, fighting every reflex to cough, Parry held still and listened for the approaching sound of steps and the doom it would bring.