Immediately I turned Shiva’s head north, where the sound of the scream came from, and nudged her into a run. What was a child doing out here? Especially alone?

“Find her,” I said to Shiva. At least, I thought it was a girl.

I didn’t know if Shiva understood that command – she wasn’t a canine type – but she kept her ear erect as if listening for another sound.

Another scream rang out, closer this time and somewhere ahead and to the left. I turned Shiva in that direction and we raced through the trees, over bushes and under low hanging branches. I was getting used to Shiva and I could anticipate her moves, our actions becoming more and more coordinated as we went.

“H-Help!” This time I could clearly hear the words. “Help me!”

I wanted to answer back, somehow soothe her, but I didn’t know the situation enough to give away my location.

Suddenly, Shiva put on the breaks. She stopped so fast, I was flattened against her neck and almost slipped off. Luckily Shiva was smart enough to shift under me to prevent me from falling.

“What are you doing?” I gasped and tapped Shiva’s sides. “Go!”

But she didn’t move. Instead, she snorted and tossed her head in agitation.

I immediately understood. There was a strong monster ahead. Something strong enough to scare Shiva. Since she was imprinted on me, her first instinct was to keep me safe. Of course she wouldn’t take me somewhere she knew was dangerous.

But the girl…

Ahead, there was the sound of something heavy falling, like a boulder rolling down a mountain, and the girl screamed again. I was close enough now to hear her terrified sobbing.

I wanted to be Hunter. Not just to prove that I could kill monsters. I wanted to protect the people around me. Protect everyone that needed help. Even though I wasn’t strong like an A Hunter, I still needed to help.

I jumped off Shiva’s back. My boots sank slightly into the mud and I stumbled. When did the ground get so wet? Shiva moved so easily, I didn’t even notice it until now. But even her hooves were almost an inch deep in mud.

Shiva looked at me with bright, expectant eyes.

I patted her nose and then ran towards the sound of the crying. The closer I got, the deeper the mud was. I was definitely in a monster’s territory, but which one? Without a Guide, I couldn’t check. The mud was thick enough that it affected the trees. The once straight up and down pines and aspens now leaned to the side at odd angles, their leaves tangling together and blocking out the sunlight. Some even leaned against each other, creating wooden arches. The air was thick and damp. Moss and cattails took the place of normal mountainous shrubbery.

It wasn’t just the air that felt heavy, my Hunter sense could feel the presence of a strong monster. Just, where was it?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement and a glint of bright white. In a flash, my bow was in my hand and an arrow was nocked. Carefully, so I didn’t slip on the thick mud, I walked forward. Try as I might, each step I took was accompanied by a ‘slop’ sound. Any strong monster would be able to hear me a mile away, but I kept going.

I stepped around a tree … and gasped.

Ahead of me was a sink pit, full of mud. In the middle of the huge pit were three trees leaning on each other, forming a little nest-like structure. Huddled on the little platform was a five year old little girl in a dirty white dress. Her little face was caked in mud and I couldn’t tell if her hair was dark too, or if it was more mud. She crouched down, sobbing into her knees.

I couldn’t see any obvious signs of danger. Which meant it was even more dangerous.

“Hey,” I breathed.

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The girl gasped and looked up with big brown eyes. She gaped at me, tears leaking down her dirty cheeks. “M-Monster,” she whimpered. “Mud m-monster.”

Mud monster? My mind raced, thinking of all the mud monsters I could remember from the monster list. Was she talking about a Mud Mephit? I thought those lived in caves. A Mudmaw? No, those were mostly on the West Coast and South America. What was a ‘mud monster’ around here?

The only thing that was certain was – mud monsters hid in mud.

I didn’t have time to wrack my brain any longer. I couldn’t see or feel the monster right now. I needed to just grab the girl and get out of here.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

She sniffled. “M-Mr. W-Wils-son is g-gone.”

So someone already died. Were they just a normal human or a Hunter? It looked like I needed to work faster.

The edge of the sinkhole was a sheer cliff as tall as I was and the muddy surface below was smooth. I bet I’d sink right in if I stepped on it. Ten stone pillars, like stepping stones in a playground, rose up from the sink pit and spanned the distance between me and the little tree nest the girl huddled in. She must have used the stones to cross. I could have used them too … only the tops of them were covered in shiny mud. I’d slide off, guaranteed. If I was a higher rank, it wouldn’t be such a problem – some A ranked Hunters could even jump farther than this – but that wasn’t an option for me.

What to do? The mud monster could be hiding anywhere, and I needed to get her out as soon as possible. Or even just get to her. I touched the pocket at my hip where Uncle’s shield stone was. I could use that and call Uncle Maveric. Even though I never planned on using the stone, this situation was completely different. Her life was in danger. But I couldn’t hide the girl inside the shield with me if I couldn’t reach her.

I bit my lips and looked around. There were only trees and rocks as far as I could see. We were, after all, in a forest. But, I thought as I looked at the thin pine tree next to me, I could make it work. The tree was about ten inches wide most of the way up and looked just long enough to reach the island in the middle of the mud pit. But most importantly, it was directly in front of the stone pillars. I was just lucky that the tree didn’t have many large branches on it.

I drew my hanger sword and walked over the tree. I could almost hear Uncle Maveric howling in despair in the back of my mind as I used a piece of weaponry art to chop a tree down. Even I couldn’t help but wrinkle my nose at my offensive actions. The grip of the hanger was nothing like an axe’s – it was a one handed weapon – and I'd never actually cut a tree down before, but I overcame the awkwardness of the movement with enthusiasm. The thin blade cut into the bark like butter as I hacked away wedged chunks with each swing.

My arms felt like jelly by the time the tree started to lean. Silently panting, I slipped behind it and calculated, and pushed the tree as hard as I could. At first the tree didn’t move, but then it slowly, slowly, started to lean. Suddenly, it let out a crack-crack-crack and picked up speed and crashed down. I hung onto the end, trying to force it to fall across the pillars like a bridge. Several branches broke off when it collided with the stone pillars and fell to the mud below.

The girl screamed into her hands when the tip of the tree smacked into the trunk a foot from her head. But she reached out and grabbed the tree, as if trying to anchor it on her side with her tiny, shaking hands.

My mouth cocked up on the side. “Good girl,” I whispered. When we got out of here, I needed to give this brave child a huge ice cream sundae. Two scoops and all the hot fudge she could ask for.

The tree wobbled a bit, before it settled still, just like I hoped. Finally, I had my bridge. Hopefully, it would last long enough for me to get to the other side.

I took a second to listen hard, with my eyes on the sinkhole. It’s not like the tree fell quietly, but I still couldn’t hear or see a mud monster. Or any kind of monster. The only thing I could hear was the little girl’s whimpering sobs.

The little girl tried to climb onto the tree, but she was too covered. Her hands immediately slipped off the bark and she almost fell face first into the mud pit below. She clung to the trunk, and bit her lips to try to muffle a scream. Tears rained down her cheeks.

“Stay there,” I stage-whispered. “I’ll come to you. Hang on.”

I climbed onto my tree bridge. Thankfully, it was strong enough to handle my weight. Unfortunately, I had the same problem as the little girl. My boots were so coated in mud that they kept slipping off the tree trunk. Quickly, I leaned over and pulled them off. The rough tree bark was almost painfully spiky and the tree sap clung to my left big toe, but I didn’t have the time to worry about it. Even if I stepped on a sharp pine needle, I had to get across the bridge as fast as I could before the circular trunk rolled off the rocky support pillars.

I balanced on the tree over the edge of the pit. The little girl stared at me with huge, dark hopeful eyes. I acted calm-ish, but I didn’t feel it. I knew I was doing something dangerous. Even though I wanted to protect her, my hands were trembling almost as hard as hers were and my stomach was twisted in nauseous knots.

I couldn’t resist glancing down at the smooth surface of the mud. It wasn’t until I was at this angle that I realized that it wasn’t completely smooth. In the shadow of the fourth pillar was a wrinkle in the mud. It was shaped like a man’s hand. And just to the right of it was a bump … that looked like the back of a man’s head. The hair was coated and twisted in mud, the face buried face-down.

I had a feeling that I just found Mr. Wilson.