After ten minutes of walking, she found it. A giant animal, not quite as big as Fearghus and his brothers in their dragon form but ten times bigger than her. It was on its side, crying out.

She started to walk away. The thing had black eyes; big horns on its head, elbows, and knees; enormous claws; and spikes running down its tail. The flesh of something once human still caught on several of the tips. It also had extremely large fangs that didn’t fit completely in its mouth. This was not something she wanted to get too close to if it suddenly decided to get up or attack her. It was a demon animal of some kind and she still intended to get out of this hell alive.

But it kept screaming and something inside her couldn’t walk away. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she simply couldn’t do it.

So Annwyl turned around and went back. She moved in close and reached her hand out to pet its belly. The fur was hard, a few individual hairs sticking into her hand like splinters. But she ignored that and kept petting.

“Shhh,” she said. “It’s okay.” She studied the claws, looking for something that could be causing the animal pain, but they looked clean. Nothing between the pads either. She then checked its belly, chest, and groin. Still nothing.

“Come on, big boy. You’re fine. Nothing to cry about.”

Annwyl heard footsteps behind her and she turned to see a group of armed demons.

“Move!” one of them ordered. “It’s ours. We feast tonight.”

“He’s not even fighting. Fuck off.”

“Move or we’ll take you down with it.”

“Find something else to eat, demon.”

“It’ll eat you, human.”

Annwyl shrugged. “Probably.”

“Just move.”

“I can’t. I heard his pitiful cries and I . . . I just can’t.” She petted his stomach again. “He may be dying anyway. I can’t find any wounds. He’s clearly in distress. Maybe he’s just old. Why would you want to kill and eat something that’s old?”

The lead demon shook his head and the entire group began to back up. “It’s not old. It’s a baby.” He pointed behind Annwyl. “And you should run.”

Which was what the rest of them did. They ran.

But Annwyl couldn’t bring herself to move. Even as the ground shook beneath her feet and what she could only guess was the mother of the crying animal leaned her head around him and focused on Annwyl.

Annwyl stepped back, her gaze moving up to see the back of the mother as it towered over her offspring.