“We left the lord’s royal feast well-fed,

But I made a wager that was over my head.

Preparing for the hunt was like preparing for war,

Except I knew not what I was in for.”

Rathorn was given a room to stay in during hunt, due to his limp, but this didn’t stop him from voicing his displeasure at the situation as soon as Lycaon had led them to where they would be staying for the night.

“What were you thinking?!” he shouted, his tail twitching furiously. “You could have left this place! Now we’re all going to die here!”

“First of all, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Garassk said, polishing a dagger. “And second, he intended to kill Arra and you. The lord of this land has failed in his obligations, and the peasants are being punished for it. How is this any different from what we did back in Tarthas?”

“I’ll remember to carve all of that on your headstone,” Rathorn snorted. “Assuming I get out of this alive.”

“Oh relax. You get the easy part. You get to stay in this cushy castle. I’m the one that has to go out and hunt.”

“And you think I’ll be safer here? Your trust in our host is almost adorable.”

“Oh, I don’t trust him at all. But I know you. You’re not going to just stay in this room.”

Rathorn clearly wanted to say more, but drew out a long sigh instead.

“I’ll try to bring you back a piece of whatever I catch,” Garassk said. “A hunt without good food is a hunt wasted. What kind of weapons do you think I’ll need?”

“It’s impossible to say without knowing exactly what’s out there,” Rathorn said. “But I’d recommend a spear, a bow, and arrows above all else.”

“Very well. I’ll bring my sword, tail-mace, and shield too, just in case.”

“There’s something he’s not telling us,” Rathorn muttered. “There’s a catch to this hunt. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about this that’s a lot more dangerous than he lets on. Be careful.”

“Oh, I will,” Garassk said. “I want to get out of this place as much as you do, believe me.”

The conversation might have continued had the varanians not heard footsteps approaching. They immediately went to the ground, trying to pass themselves off as sleeping. Garassk used his dagger as a mirror to see who was coming. The sound got louder and louder before fading away, but the scene in his dagger never changed. He turned around as the footsteps faded, but didn’t see anything pass by. Not even a hint of a shadow.

What was that? Garassk thought. As much as he wanted to investigate further, he was too tired and nervous to get up and check. He struggled to think of an answer, but a heaviness weighed down his mind as well as his body. He drifted off to sleep before he even realized it.

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The sleep that followed was not a peaceful one. Memories of battles fought, friends killed, other horrors plagued his dreaming mind. He drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the night, never getting a moment’s peace. He eventually noticed that he was walking through a swamp, but didn’t realize right away that he was home.

“Arise!” a booming voice rang out, waking him. Garassk raised his head and stared into his dagger. He saw Arra, and no one else. It was a moment before he remembered that he was a guest in Lord Zaroth’s castle. When he turned, Zaroth stood in the doorway, holding a pile of weapons and armor. Arra was behind him. Rathorn was still snoring.

“I will turn you and the girl loose in my forest,” he said. “Get as far away as you can. The hunt begins when the moon is visible. Understood?”

Garassk nodded and donned his armor and weapons. Zaroth motioned for them to follow him, and led them towards his barracks. Garassk took notice of the castle walls as they walked.

Shadows still clouded over most of the rooms, but he could just make out tapestries that depicted hunts in a grisly forest. Shades of red bled through the darkness too. It didn’t make for a very inviting scene, yet Garassk couldn’t shake the feeling that he was heading into something worse. The feeling only let up when they reached the barracks. Their own weapons were arrayed alongside weapons from Zaroth’s personal armory.

“Take whatever additional weapons you feel you need,” Zaroth said. “Choose wisely. Many others have hunted here before you.”

Garassk grabbed the weapons Rathorn suggested. Arra grabbed more arrows.

“Now then, this way,” Zaroth said. The three of them continued through the halls of the castle.

When they finally reached the courtyard, a rusty door swung open. A vast forest greeted them on the other side. Grisly skeletal trees decorated the grounds. As Garassk stepped out, he felt a chill, in part from the air, but also from the feeling that some unseen threat was hiding somewhere out there, and he was heading right for it.

“The clouds are parting,” Zaroth said, handing them some water and light food to keep them going. “Remember: Do not fall behind. There are beasts out there that won’t wait as long as I will.”

They both took off running, cold wind whipping against their skin as they moved. Garassk tasted the scent of other creatures in the forest, humans, as far as he could tell, but he didn’t dare to contact any of them. Something wasn’t right about their scent. Some of them could be seen as they passed, but they only stared at him and Arra with dead eyes. They didn’t blink, or even move as he passed them. The forest itself didn’t seem to be much more than a maze of dead trees, making it difficult to tell how far they had gone.

“How much farther do you think we can go?” Arra finally asked.

“I don’t know, but I hope it’s far enough,” Garassk answered. “This place makes me uneasy.”

“What do you think we can catch? What’s the worst animal in here?”

“All I can find are humans. I don’t know what other animals are here, or what Zaroth is expecting of us.”

“Do you think he’s lying to us? That there’s nothing here to hunt?”

“Do I think he’s lying? Well… yes and no. There’s definitely something he’s not telling us. But is there nothing here to hunt? That, I’m not so sure about.”

They eventually reached a brick wall. Garassk turned back to see the castle towers barely poking out above the dead trees.

“End of the road,” he said. The cloudy sky began to dissipate, and a full moon was seeping through. Howls rang out in the distance. A screeching bat soared above them.

“The hunt begins,” Arra said, an ominous tone in her voice.