A sprinkle of ice fell on them from above.

Sora and Broomstick jumped. But in the same second, they had knives and throwing stars in hand.

Silence.

Was it the ghost faces? Or the snow monster? Or another threat they didn’t know about?

“Get some of your bombs out,” Sora whispered to Broomstick. He palmed a few of the smaller ones from his bag.

They waited.

No more ice falling.

No monstrous footsteps.

Nothing.

Sora exhaled.

And then they heard it. A steady pounding—no, a beating from the tunnels above them, growing louder as it approached.

“What in Luna’s name is that?” A chill as cold as the ice caves themselves ran up Sora’s back.

“It sounds like a monster,” Broomstick said, eyes wide with fear. “I say we run.”

They sprinted down the tunnel. The noise behind them grew.

“It’s gaining on us,” Sora said, putting on more speed. She took a corner too quickly and slammed into a wall of ice. Broomstick crashed into her, and they tumbled to the icy ground.

“Dead end,” she said, scrambling to her feet. They had to backtrack.

She ran the way they’d come. There had been a fork in the tunnels not too far up—

As soon as they reached the intersection, over fifty owls with pale, white faces met them. The owls shrieked in unison, wielding talons like blades on their feet.

Oh stars, it wasn’t a single enemy. Ghost faces, plural.

The synchronized beating of their wings echoed through Naimo Ice Caves like the rhythm of a death march.

Holy heavens, what have I signed up for?

“Show me where to go!” Sora shouted.

“What? I don’t know!” Broomstick said.

But she wasn’t talking to him. She was yelling at the ryuu magic around her. Sora focused her thoughts on an icy lake, hoping that would be enough for the ryuu particles to go on.

The owls shrieked again and dove. Several reached Sora, stabbing with their razor-sharp beaks and slicing with their claws.

Broomstick swung his sword, and they swooped off.

The emerald dust coalesced into a glittering path down the ice tunnel to Sora’s right.

“This way!” She made the sharp turn and began to run. Broomstick was on her heels, but so were the owls.

“We need to get rid of them,” he said as he tried to keep up. Because Broomstick couldn’t see the green trail the ryuu particles were showing her, he was a fraction of a second behind on each sudden turn as they sprinted deeper into the tunnels. Sora tried to shout the turns to him ahead of time, but sometimes the path zagged so suddenly, she hardly had enough notice to adjust herself. The small lag helped the owls stay on their trail.

“I don’t want to hurt them,” Sora yelled over their shrieks, which had reached a bloodcurdling pitch.