It’s a short jog to the house and the door opens before we’re even on the front step. The house is dark and quiet, but there’s movement just beyond the threshold.

We get to the door and a hand shoots out. The same one from earlier. It grabbed Peggy by the wrist and pulls her in before another appears and reaches for me. I recoil, my arm swinging out to block Elena from moving. I grip an arrow, ready to stab.

Then the hand becomes an arm attached to a shoulder and face I recognize. I relax, almost dropping my arrow. I step into his arms and melt. “Dad!” His arms are tight with restraint as he tries not to squeeze the air out of me. He pulls me into the house and Elena closes the door behind us.

He pulls away and I stare. He doesn’t look any different. His beard is a little shaggier and his hair a little frizzier, but he’s the same. Some part of me expected him to have changed. To be different from being in the Valley for too long.

He looks me over, tears pooling in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says. His brow is knit, and I’m reminded by how much Peggy takes after him. “I wish this hadn’t happened to you.”

“I chose this,” I say. “We wouldn’t have slept right if we hadn’t come after you.”

“I would have insisted had the Elders’ made a different decision,” Peggy says. Mom has her hand on Peggy’s shoulder, unwilling to stop touching her. She keeps squeezing as if checking that she’s real. “I don’t think Yvie should have come, but that’s her choice to live with.”

“Who’s this?” Mom asks. She cuts in like she can feel an argument starting. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“Elena Eld.” She bows her head in greeting. “I’m a Valley Beast researcher who was added to the trip for insight.” She fidgets for a moment then says, “I’m not sure that I’ve been much use, to be honest.”

“You have,” I say. “Actually, she made an important discovery on our way here.”

“I see,” Dad says. “Then let’s gather everyone before we start. It’ll be best that everyone hears this.”

“Everyone?”

“Upstairs,” Mom says. “It’s easier up there.” We walk through the house and it’s just as baffling as the outside. A table and chairs made of wood, but countertops made of perfectly smooth stone. Better than any of our craftsman could make. Metal boxes tall and small in the kitchen and soft looking chairs in the living room. The upholstery is flawless.

The stairs are steep and I hold onto the rail for balance. The upstairs is odd, but more familiar than anything else. A large, open area with chairs, pillows, and blankets with several rooms further down the hallway.

Fifteen people were waiting for us. Some I recognize and some I don’t. There are a lot less people there than I hoped. Everyone is, in some way, hurt. Arms are wrapped makeshift spints. Oozing cuts and scrapes are hasitily patched. Their eyes are brusied underneath, but their gazes are bright and vigilant.

“Everyone,” Mom says. “Our recon party.” They were a mix of disinterest, fear, and resignment as they greeted us. “We also have some news regarding our predicament.”

This got their attention and the looked warily in our direction.

Elena cleared her throat. “First I’d like to know if your story matches ours. We were about five miles in when we were put into a Kuroo spell. When we managed to break it, we found ourselves here.” There were murmurs of agreement. “Okay, that’s good. Sort of. I managed to look at one of the Kuroo that got us, and its blood was mixed with human blood. I don’t know how many of you know this, but that means it was under the control of a wizard. Our adversary isn’t just Beast, it’s also human.”

Louder murmuring broke out, but it quickly quieted. Quick glances to the window follow as if waiting for something, but nothing comes. Someone I don’t recognize raises their hand and Elena’s eyes widen.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Emilia?” she says. “I-I…” She clears her throat with a cough. “Yes?”

“It’s dark in the Valley. How were you able to discern that?”

“Yvanna is a priest of Nkam. She glows.”

Emilia looked at me, her head cocked to the side. She’s wearing priests’ robes, but they’re torn and smeared with dirt and blood. They’re dark blue and from the gentle glow of her freckles, I know she’s a priest of Bir, the goddess of the stars. “Never seen you before.

“I don’t attend the gatherings for priests. Tends to be a get a bit stuffy for me there.”

“Right. Well keep the glow to a minimum. Light doesn’t reach here, and we don’t want to get its attention.”

There are no trees in the village. The hard stone of the ground leaves no room for greenery and the gardens in front of the houses only have saplings. I realize the thing I hadn’t noticed before. It’s not night yet. We’d been in the Valley for a few hours at most and the sun should be high, but it’s nowhere. The sky gives off only marginal light, letting us see more than the forest, but it’s undeniably night out.

“Wait,” Peggy says. “What is ‘it’. What don’t we want to get the attention of?”

It’s quiet for a moment before Dad says, “We don’t know what it is. It’s a Valley Beast, but not one we’ve ever seen. It’s not…” He trails off, struggling to find the words. “It’s not a bear but it has claws like one. It’s not a wolf but it has a snout like one. It’s… It’s not a lot of things.”

“What do we know about it?” Elena asks. She’s looking at Emilia, but she shrugs, turning her head. “Nothing?”

“Like he said,” Emilia says. “It’s not a lot of things. Anyone who got close enough died or refused to speak on it. Our numbers are being whittled down just by being here. No one’s interested in making that number go down quicker.”

“But there has to be something,” Elena says. “Anything!”

“Yea,” someone else says. Their legs are pulled to their chest as they stare out the window. Their voice is quiet, raspy, and barely above a whisper. I can’t see their face, but I can see a red, angry scar with haphazard stictches on their neck that disappears into their shirt. “It can’t see very well and relies on hearing. We learned that early on.”

“Yeah.” It’s someone I recognize, but I can’t place their name. “Alajos died because he started to cry. We weren’t able to calm him down in time and my legs aren’t what they used to be.”

I know Alajos. Knew him, I guess. He was a skilled, but nervous Hunter. He never went on hunts with less than four other people. He was also one of the first parties to disappear. So that makes this…

“Tenley?” I ask. I’m hesistant, looking at the figure I once considered a friend. She’s leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Her hair is long and ratty, falling into her face. Her once tanned skin is now pale and stretched across bone that looks far too fragile. Her eyes are hard, squinting out the window, watching. “I…I thought you were dead.”

“It’d be better if I was,” she says with a sigh. She manages a small smile as she looks at me and says. “It’s good to see you, though. Truly, even if I wish this wasn’t how we were meeting again.”

I frown. “There has to be a way out of here. We’re Hunters and Trackers. There’s got to be a better way than starving to death or getting killed.”

They’re quiet, more resigned to their fate than I am. Dad puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s not that simple. The Beast is on a completely different level. It’s not something we can handle with the people we have here. Of everyone that got lost down here, we’re the only ones left. We stay out of its way and eat whatever food we can find in the houses. Just…Just let it be, Yvie.”

“No.” Peggy is squaring her shoulders, shrugging Mom’s hand off in the process. “There has to be a way. We’re not just going to sit here and wallow. We’re going to get out.”

“They’ve tried all they could,” Mom says. “There’s no point in doing something so fruitless.”

“Maybe, but we have Elena now. She’s a Valley Beast scholar and knows them all from memory. Even if it is new, she should be able to tell us something about it. Right?”

“Right, yes.” She’s bouncing again, her nervous energy come off in waves, but her face is one of determination. “If I have some time to see it in action, watch how it moves, explores its surroundings—things like that. I can figure out a way for us to take it down or work around it.”

“Good luck with that,” Emilia mutters. “It doesn’t come out unless provoked and no one knows where it stays when it’s not hunting us.”

“Then we provoke it,” I say. There’s a hush that falls over the room, one full of fear and stomach churning terror. “No one and nothing can take me and Peggy when we work together. We can draw it out, avoid it when we can and fight it if we have to. Elena can keep her distance and take notes on what she figures out. It can work.”

They’re silent and Mom and Dad are doing that thing where they talk with their eyes. No matter how long I watch them do it, I can never seem to decipher it well enough.

“Alright,” Mom says after a minute. “We trust you, but we’ve seen this Beast before. Use every bit of caution you have when facing it and please,” her voice cracks and she doesn’t try to hide to her anxiety, “please come back to us.”

She knows we can’t promise that, but we nod anyway.

Elena squats to talk quietly to Emilia and I try to ignore the way Mom and Dad look at us. Their eyes roam over our faces, eyes squinting and brows furrowing in concentration.

Dad kisses my forehead and Mom squeezes me into a hug that lasts longer than someone expecting us back.

We check our weapons and head to the door.