Relu felt something hot land on their face waking them up. Groggily removing it they saw a piece of burning canvas. Then they saw the smoke choking the air as the tent around them burned down.

  Eyes widening, they stood up. A million thoughts rushing in their head, trying to pick one. Then they looked at Karu and kicked him awake.

  Screaming, “Wake up!” He got up with a snarl. But Relu pointed at the room around them, “Put out.”

  Karu’s eyes widened, rushing to his feet to follow the orders. As Relu woke everybody else.

  The fire quickly put out as Karu stabbed into the flaming tent canvas with a spear of black ice. Letting out a pulse of cold energy. Snuffing out the flames, turning the whirling and waving canvas into a statue.

  The group climbed out of the tent's remains and into the desolate cold tundra forest. Covered in thin clothes. The only ones unaffected by the cold being Karu

  “The Blazing storms happened!” I’ama yelled.

  Mei flinched, looking and said half whispering, “Sorry, I thought I put out the fire before going to sleep, but it must’ve-”

  “You Thought! We could’ve died in there!” The short red-headed girl screamed.

  Mei shrunk.

  “Hey watch-” Xukali started saying

  But Relu quickly interjected, “Blaming won’t get us anywhere. Plus we don’t know for sure if our campfire did this.”

  “Oh, what a spark just happened to light in this weather and-” I’ama’s face dropped, her eyes widening, “Behind you!”

  Relu turned around, seeing the beast that attacked them yesterday, pounce on them. Everybody around them but Karu running.

  Then the Beast bit onto their neck, pinning them to the ground. Clawing at them vigorously trying to tear through their flesh but it barely left a mark. Relu summoned their Spirit Avatar, a pair of knuckle dusters. The Avatar wasn’t physical enough to act as a weapon but it was a good focus for energy.

  Relu poured Endless One mana into the Avatar, a mixture of Force, Cohesion, and Life mana. Punching right into its ribs, feeling them breaking then sowing back together the wrong way. The bones now jutting randomly inside it, but only slightly. The shock making the beast hesitate for a second

  Allowing Karu enough time to charge at the thing, but it must’ve seen it. Because it slunk away. Wearing a cloak of light and shadow that blended in with the surroundings. leaving only a slight distortion of light in its wake. And in its place an opaque illusion on top of Relu.

  The Illusion shattering like liquid glass on contact with Karu’s spear. Karu tripping over them when they met no resistance. But rolling back onto his feet in one motion.

  The Beast still in sight, but only the flicker of it diving into the darkness of the trees. Footprints crunching in the snow, Karu charged after it. But Relu noticed the footprints somehow looked wrong, and something was nagging at the back of their head.

  Then it hit them, they grabbed Karu by the back of the shirt.

  “What are you doing!” he demanded

  “It didn’t leave footprints behind last time,” Relu Kicked at one of the prints and it shattered like the previous illusion.

  He cursed under his breath.

  “We should get to the others in case it goes after them.”

  They made their way back to the now-frozen tent as fast as they could while watching for the Beast. Finding the sister holding knives up, their backs to the frozen tent. A midnight fog starting to form around their feet.

  “How’re you alive?” I’ama questioned Relu

  “My path makes me tough. Anyway, where did Mei and that blond girl go?”

  “Uh, somewhere over there,” she pointed at a pair of footprints in the snow barely visible in the moonlight. The mist not being helpful.

  “Thank you, we should all gather. The sacred beast is hunting us.”

  “It’s a Sacred Beast?”

  Relu nodded.

  I’ama cursed under her breath.

  Without a word, they started towards the footsteps. Thick mist obscuring their path, and Relu looked at the curling tendrils of mist. Feeling a suspicion in the back of their head like before with the fake footprint. So they extended their senses out to feel the mist. Recognizing the power as the Sacred Beasts.

  Relu looked up trying to find the closest person but the mist had risen faster than they thought. Blocking all vision. So they just reached out in the direction of the person that was closest to them

  “Ah! What was that for? You’re hurting my arm.”

  Relu lessened their grip, “The mist, the Sacred Beast is trying to separate us with it.”

  “What mist?”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Relu furrowed their brow, then let their senses out again towards Ma’u feeling a sharp twinge of pain this time. Feeling a harmony like when two musicians played the same note, “Yes! Ok, so you share the same innate mana type as whatever this mist is made of.”

  “How does that do anything?”

  “Well uh. Think of it as your home, like a fish in water while the rest of us are flopping on land in here.”

  “Oh,” Ma’u said with a slight smile.

  “Quick, we have to all get back together. And watch out for the Sacred Beast.”

  “Yes.”

  They slowly made their way to everybody with Ma’u’s eyes. Relu expecting an attack any moment. Waiting for it… and waiting, and waiting.

  but it just didn’t happen. Then they were all together again. The mist around them dissipating

  And Karu said, “That was too easy,” his eyes like a hawk, darting around the place for any sign of danger, “It just wasted mana on the mist and did nothing?”

  “I was thinking the same unless it wasn’t trying to keep us four separated?”

  “But what would it do?”

  “Mei and Xukali!” Relu’s eyes widened.

  OOO

  Kek chased its prey across the frosted forest. Wishing he’d been able to quickly kill that human girl with good eyes. But the tough one had gotten to her first. So he abandoned them, taking easier prey. Letting the fog delay the strong ones

  Or so he thought. But the human boy somehow kept ahead of him even while carrying the blond one had been able to nip at. But that was a short-term problem, he knew this mountain like the back of his paw.

  And soon they’d be at a frozen-over river that lost its water in the winter. Leaving a layer of ice over a ravine that would leave them confined and injured.

  Then Kek heard rapid footsteps behind him and a yell that was too familiar. He activated a cloak on his fur, obscuring the light around him like a fish underwater.

  Then a black spear of the human flew past him, nearly nicking his ear. He altered course, going for a more direct path to the ravine.

  Then he made it to the clearing that looked just like any other, Kek checked behind him. All three of them were chasing after him. The blond girl especially with vengeance in her eyes as she held a dagger in her non-injured arm.

  Then he activated his oldest technique, Shadow Step. Allowing him to step so lightly that he would walk on pine needles and they wouldn’t even bend. So innate to his being that it was half-activated all the time.

  Allowing him to take his first steps onto the ice without it giving away his plants. The fast one on the ice first just behind him. Noticing the cracks forming under him. He tried to warn the others but the ground was already caving in.

  Kek made a jump to the other side but someone grabbed his tail. Pulling him down into the ravine with the human. He used Shadow Step to jump a second time in the middle of the air but the human's weight was too much. And he followed the boy down.

  He and the human boy spinning mid-air as glittering ice shards and snow fell with them into the black void below. Kek trying to find a way to land on his feet but the fast human was whipping around wildly.

  He went to swipe at the human's head but the side of Kek’s head cracked into the stone wall. The world split apart like shattered glass, spinning around in a kaleidoscope. Vision covered in a fuzz and noise. Then he felt his body thump onto ground, the human boy falling onto him and bouncing off.

  Kek stood up, wobbling around. The discomfort in his ribs since the tough human punched him now screaming. But he persisted, trying to get to the child that had dared to attack him. Slowly making his way towards him.

  OOO

  Mei looked up into the sky, surrounded by shards of ice and snow. His head spinning around, despite it he stood up. Fighting through the nausea.

  And just a few feet away he saw the Sacred beast shambling towards him like a drunkard or a newborn taking their first steps. The Beast now that it was still looked like a mixture between a tiger and a cougar. With pitch-black fur that when light caught it would shimmer with purple stripes.

  A gash in its head showing bone and leaking blood. Flowing into its eyes, forcing it closed. But it still bared down on him, the beast’s shoulders eye-level with Mei even on all fours.

  He walked backwards trying to get away but a wall blocked him. He looked around through his blurry vision. But he was boxed in on all sides by stone.

  There was only one thing he could think of. He pulled out the pill I’ani had given him and popped it under his tongue. Not breaking eye contact with Beast as he tried to somehow circulate the energy through his body.

  He tried to force it. Putting all his will into it, but he just couldn’t. He never could. The Beast was getting closer, its snarling maw wide open. The situation reminding him of days past with his father. His brain running a million miles per hour, trying to find something to help

  There was a day. After the first coming age ceremony, he wasn’t able to summon his Spirit Avatar. It hurt. That’s all he would allow himself to remember

  He tried to forget those days. Bury them deep, but they always came back. He just wanted to hide. But he couldn’t shrink small enough. To run. But his legs never moved fast enough. Call for help. But his voice was so quiet. So he would just take it like a man as his father said. But sometimes he couldn’t stop a scream. So all he could do was try to protect his head.

  He was supposed to be strong. He was supposed to be useful. He was supposed to be an adult, a man, powerful. So what was he?

  “Useless,” One voice said

  You survived

  “What could you ever do.”

  You’re standing

  “You might as well die.”

  You have strength

  The world around Mei spun even faster and twisted in on itself. But this time it made sense, he could see paths and colors like they were more solid, more real. An energy blazing in his stomach. Feeling like all his life was forced to use his non-dominant hand, and then he was finally able to switch over. Everything naturally falling into place.

  The Sacred beast stumbled towards him in a straight line, quick and efficient. But a wrong one. Mei ran to the side where its eye was blinded by blood but quickly switched directions when its head turned. It’s good eye wide open, Mei picking up a rock and hitting it directly on the pupil. Popping it open in an explosion of blood and mucus.

  Mei ran faster than he ever thought he could toward it. Kicking in one of its front legs with a crunch. The beast squealing more like a pig than a cat as it toppled down.

  It wildly flailed out, Mei stepped back from it, but he was too slow. It’s good claw caught him, dragging him in. Its other eye shut from the blood forced open. It clawed at the back of Mei’s chest, tearing up flesh and gore.

  Mei screamed in pain and bit into the beast's neck, hot blood gushing into his mouth, and fur getting in between his teeth as they pierced through its pelt. Mei feeling a strange energy gush into his mouth and inject into the wound.

  The Beast let out a mule. But doubled down on its assault, Mei seeing the wound he left smoking and pulsing like it was infected, the energy coursing through the beast's body. Its attack weakening and weakening. But that wouldn’t kill it before it killed him.

  The beast tried to bite Mei but he moved his head to the side. Mei’s hand scrambling around for something, anything. Finding a large jagged rock. And without hesitation smashing it into the creature's skull. The Beast faltering with each hit but refusing to go down

  The stone crashing into its skull over and over again. Mei’s grip weakening, arms burning. But he would not stop while the beast was trying to claw through his chest. Both of them slowing down gradually. But it was like Mei was possessed. The cracking sound of the stone turning into gushing, he raised the stone above his head again but it fell out of his grip as he swung.

  Mei collapsing on top of the things, a burning soreness all through his body. Not remembering when he got out from under it. The beasts smashed in head a pile of splintered bones and ground meat.

  Mei’s mouth tasted like a corpse from the blood and hair. He tried to stand up but his legs gave out from under him and he fell back down onto the cooling corpse of the Beast.

  Well, the bodies warmer than the ground. He thought as he looked out to the snowflakes gliding down to the shattered ice shards lying on the earth. Glittering in the light of the seven moons as Mei’s vision turned to black. The last thing he remembered being the musty smell of Beast’s fur, the acrid iron rust of blood, and the stinging snow.