A figure, hooded by a shimmering robe appeared at the entrance to a large room. The entrance was at the end of a long tunnel, lit by small globes of soft light. As they stepped through, a tendril of light reached out, and connected. It pulsed once before disappearing, and a voice sounded 'Welcome Keeper'. As they stepped out into the room, more lights flickered on, revealing the massive scale of the room. It was filled to the brim with tightly packed shelves. From modern books, folders and some kind of disk to aged scrolls and stacked crystals, every shelf was packed. Slowly, the shelves around her began to ominously creak and sway.

Almost 6 hours later, Felix was starting to drag. "Can't we at least take a break?" she called forward to Cutter. He had just paused, looking back her way, when a deep roar sounded to the north. Fortunately, it still sounded relatively distant, but Felix's face whitened and her pace picked up immediately. As they walked, Cutter passed around chunks of meat and slices of mushroom. The mushroom was tough to chew cold and they took gulps of water to help get it down. Feeling a little buoyed, the group marched further and further south.

Occasionally they would hear that same deep roar in the distance. Cutter continued to urge them onward, though his demeanour was steady and calm. After another two hours, Felix was once more lagging. Cutter slowed to walk alongside her, reaching out and pulling her pack from her back. She barely protested, and was visibly relieved at the weight disappearing from her shoulders. Mico watched, the sight bringing back memories of his flight to the forest, almost 7 years ago. Cutter encouraged her to take a few more sips of water, and another slice of mushroom to chew at, before continuing on. He somehow managed to strap the second pack to his front. Though it was smaller than his own, he still looked ridiculous. Like a toddler, upper body too large for their small feet. He still set a brutal pace.

Finally, just as the light was fading to twilight, the Thy'gath mountain range came into view on the horizon. After almost 11 hours of walking Cutter finally paused. It had been some time since they had heard a roar, and both Felix and Mico were drooping. He set the packs down "It may have lost our trail. Take out your furs and rest for a few hours." Mico dropped his pack heavily, straining to stay on his feet. "I'll put out the warding circle." Cutter nodded, and pulled it out of his pack. As soon as Mico had that done, he flopped to the ground with his furs. Probably the heaviest things they carried, they were nonetheless worthwhile. The temperature could drop rapidly, even during the short few hours of twilight. Lying straight on the ground with no covering would certainly not be restful, and could well be dangerous.

Mico felt like he had barely closed his eyes when he started awake. This was becoming a pattern, and not one he was fond of. Cutter was seated nearby. He glanced at Mico, amber eyes glowing like a predator in the night. The Brightstar was still just behind the horizon and Felix lay fast asleep next to Mico. "Do you need to sleep?" Cutter shook his head before replying, "You can bring in the circle. We'll give her a little longer, but it's back on our trail." As if summoned, another roar sounded in the north. "Do you know what it is that's following us?" Mico asked. Cutter didn't look at him, "It could be a few things, the range of species that adapted is higher than you might think. Most likely a Leonid of some kind." Mico looked confused. "It's hard to describe without a reference. Do you know what a cat is?" Mico just shook his head. "Hmmm. Think large. Four legs with a muscled body. Short furred, big teeth and big claws. There's a lot of variations on that though, out here in the wastes." Another roar sounded, slightly closer, and Felix's eyes shot open. "Good timing," said Cutter. Let's get going. As Felix shook off her sleepiness and packed her fur away Mico got close to Cutter, lowering his voice. "What happens if it catches us?" Cutter didn't bother lowering his voice. "I can deal with it if necessary. Though it will be... costly. If at all possible, I'd very much prefer not to take a fight." Seeing that Felix was ready, he turned and headed south. Mico followed, muttering "Costly? What could it possibly cost to fight off a beast? Aside from injuries I guess, but it didn't seem like that's what he meant."

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Felix only managed to keep up with her pack for a few hours before Cutter once more took it from her. A few more hours after that and Cutter handed the second pack to Mico. He strapped it on, waving off Felix's protestations and the kept marching. Without Mico or Felix noticing, the roars from the north had ceased, and Cutter had drifted behind them. When it finally came, the moment was rather anticlimactic. Mico glanced back at the faint sound of Cutter clicking his tongue, shocked to see a huge beast sprinting at them. As Cutter had described, it had four legs, huge trunks of muscle that were powering it at an incredible pace. The paws were wide and furred. Despite it's size, there wasn't much noise as it sprinted. From there, it grew a little difficult to make out. Around it's head swirled something that looked almost like hair, but it was made mostly of swirling light. Despite it's speed, it wasn't blown back by the wind. Instead swirling around it's huge head, creating a disorienting effect that made it hard to look directly at it. It's upper body though, was not what Mico had imagined from Cutter's brief description. Much of it's upper body, instead of furred, was covered in a leathery skin. It's mouth was open and it's bared teeth were large relative to Mico, though they were perhaps small relative to the beast itself. Most strange was a single, wickedly pointed horn at the forefront of it's forehead. It had this lowered as it charged straight at Cutter. All of this flashed through Mico's mind as he watched, stunned that Cutter wasn't moving.

At the very last moment, seconds before impact, Mico saw Cutter's arm rise up, palm facing out. A single word dropped from his mouth. Mico could barely hear the word, with Cutter facing away from him, but it made his ears buzz and his mind refused to recall it. For barely a second, a gleaming pane of light sprung up between Cutter and the beast. It's momentum at this point was incredible, and it contacted the thin square of light, horn first. Despite Mico's expectations, the light didn't even shudder. Instead, the beast crumpled against it, all of it's deadly momentum forced backwards into it's own body. The horn was shattered and it's neck completely snapped before the barrier blinked back out of existence. The last of it's momentum pushed the now dead body forwards and it slid gracelessly to a stop, right at Cutter's feet.

Mico had spent much of his life constantly pushed by Cutter to observe; to watch closely, to think carefully about everything he saw, and to order it all neatly in his mind so that he could recall it at will. If not for that, he likely would not have been watching as Cutter's hair was ruffled slightly by the wind of the beast's death slide. He would not have noticed, as it settled into stillness again, that it was distinctly greyer than it had been only a moment ago. Mico blinked, wondering if it was just his imagination. Cutter turned to look at him and he squinted through the dust in the air, thinking 'Are the lines on his face deeper?' Replaying the moment in his mind, he was quite sure that he had just watched Cutter aging before his very eyes. Cutter called out, "We may as well stop now. This kind of beast does not hunt with other's." Having already stopped to watch, Mico was confused for a second before he turned around and noticed that Felix was still plodding towards the mountains. "Felix! What are you doing?" Seeing that she still wasn't responding he dropped both packs and struggled into a jog after her, "Felix! Please don't make me run." She finally heard him and looked back, eyes widening as she took in the massive beast at Cutter's feet. Felix jogged up to her as she stared, mouth opening and closing. Seeing the anger building on her face he cut her off, "Don't. Trust me when I say we'd have been better off if it had not caught up to us." Her eyes flicked between Cutter and Mico. His face stayed level and she sighed, face scrunching. "Fine, fine. Can we at least rest now?"

Cutter stirred. "I'd like to stay and harvest the body but this big one was most likely keeping other predators off our trail. With it gone, we should get a bit of distance from the giant lure that is it's corpse. We can set a gentler pace." Mico sighed at that, looking at the packs he'd just dropped, before walking back to pick them up. As Mico and Cutter passed her, Felix offered to carry her pack again but Mico waved her off. At a significantly steadier pace, they made their way along the foot of the mountain range and back into The Gloom. As they walked Mico's hand didn't leave his pocket, the chunk of crystal getting steadily brighter.