The lift lowers quickly and quietly. There is little preamble to getting into the Valley.

The trees that make their home in the Valley have spread their leaves, blocking the light from the ground. The lift continues down on one of the few places where trees don’t grow.

Our feet crunch the frozen ground, and Peggy pulls on the rope near the pulley system. In the distance, a bell rings and lets them know we’re out of the lift.

I take the lead, checking the trees for marks and the ground for footprints. The Valley floor is harsh. Grass doesn’t grow and most dirt is too toxic to house even bugs. Perpetually sloping downward, I see more than a few prints that slide, indicating someone slipped. There are a few different ones and most of them are headed in the same direction. Straight ahead with a slight curve to the right. Peggy keeps her hands on her hips, ready to grab a knife. I keep my bow in hand, three arrows outside of my quiver waiting to be used. Elena is weaponless, only her bag at her side as she looks around.

“It’s darker than I thought,” she says. Her voice is the only sound aside from our feet and it seems to carry as if the Valley itself is pulling it out.

“Be careful,” Peggy says. “The further in we get, the darker it is.”

Elena’s footsteps falter. “How are we supposed to fighting in the dark?”

“Yvie will help with that.” She doesn’t elaborate and I can feel Elena’s eyes on me. “Torches would only attract flying Valley Beasts. We have enough to deal with it already. Any luck?”

“There are a few tracks here,” I say. “But I know which ones to follow. Mom always leaves a line in her tracks from her bo staff.”

“Okay then. We only go five miles in to map the direction they went and then we turn back.” She grabs my shoulder and turns me around. “We go back, okay?”

“Okay,” I say. “I can’t break my promise to them.” There’s another reason I say okay, but I don’t want to voice it. “Elena, Elder Amata called you a Valley Beast expert. What does that mean?”

She smiles, her nerves seeming to even out as she says, “I’ve spent my entire life studying them. From the normal animals that get transmuted by the Valley’s aura to the Beasts that the Valley itself spawns. I know all of their eating, sleeping, and mating habits. Their different classes and I’m even working on making a taxonomical book about them.”

“Is that why you decided to join us?” I say. The foliage is getting thicker above us and thinner on the ground. Branches climb higher and higher as we descend and the meager light from where the lift dropped us is disappearing. I set myself alight, keeping the glow as dim as possible while still being able to see the tracks.

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“Yes,” she says. “Studying them from a book is one thing, but actually getting to see them, and see them alive, is another. I want to help everyone with whatever I discover here.”

Peggy gives her a look that’s hard to decipher in the darkness. “You aren’t stupid enough to want to bring one back alive, are you?” Her hand twitches toward the closest knife on her belt. Elena doesn’t see it, staring hard at the ground to keep her footing.

“I may be young, but I’m not stupid,” she says, moving to put me in between them. “My mentor only agreed to let me come along if I brought back one alive. I agreed only because I wanted to see what Valley Beast looks like alive.”

“Good,” Peggy says. Her hand starts to relax before she tenses up again. “Something’s coming.”

We still, listening past the sound of our breath and hearts thundering in our ears. Something heavy is on its way. Its charge shakes the trees and makes the ground tremble. Elena reaches into her bag for something and it’s upon us.

It used to be a stag is the first thing I think. Its antlers are enormous. They’re wide enough that it shouldn’t be able to move so easily around the trees, but it seems to have no trouble. Its hooves are huge to match the size of its bulk, shining red and black, but that’s where the similarities to what it used to be end. Legs thick as a pole and twisted as if they were broken around and around itself. Its body is a shuddering amalgamation of stag, tree, and something black and oozing. It opened its mouth. Wider and wider—far wider than any deer could possibly fathom to reveal rows and rows of rotten yellow and black teeth.

The smell is almost enough to make me throw up, but the scream that echoes from its mouth sends me into a frenzy of fight or flight.

Peggy moves first. Two knives find themself buried in its neck and a third follows soon after. She charges, pulling the knife on her thigh out and hurling it into its body.

From behind me, I hear something trailing on the ground, and I have only a moment to look to my left before Elena flicks her wrist. A whip cracks through the air and wraps around the Valley Beast’s neck. Elena pulls it, straining against the Beast as it tries to pull back.

Peggy jumps up, sinking her blade into its back as she uses it to climb up and onto its back. It tries to scream, but another whip cracks and Elena has its head bowing to her.

It’s only then that I start to move.

My arrows flow, hitting its legs and the third hitting the already bleeding wound left by Peggy. I pulled out her knife and it bucks, kicking as it tries to howl in pain, but Elena keeps a tight hold on her whips. A choking, hacking noise comes from its maw instead, grating and grinding. It’s tongue lolls, black and puss filled.

I rush, planting my feet as I swing the blade. It’s a clean cut and its head falls with a sickening squelch. It takes a moment for its body to fall, but Peggy is already off of it.

Elena is rolling up her whips as she walks to the dead Beast. There’s an unsettling look of hunger on her face as she squats down. She digs in her bag again and pulls out a notebook.

“What was that?” Peggy pulls her knives from the Beast, wiping them on her pants. “Why did you freeze?”

“I…When it screamed, what did it sound like to you?”

She stares at me, her brows furrowed in confusion. “The same way it always does.”

I place a hand on my chest. My heart is still beating wildly as I close my eyes. Valley Beasts’ screams sound hollow like they’re in a deep well. It’s unnerving, but part of the way the Valley functions. I’ll never forget my first time hearing, freezing in my tracks like a bucket of ice water was being pour down my spine.

I open my eyes, and Peggy is still staring at me. I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “It sounded human. It…It sounded like Vidia.”