He moved forward once more, this time more quietly than before. After a few more strokes of Morg’s head and a scratch under his chin, she followed.

If Soraya had been squeamish, her lunch would’ve vacated her stomach the moment she stepped into the clearing. As it was, she was less concerned with how much blood and godsblood there was, or the numerous body parts that had been torn apart, and more concerned with why the poor deer had been left in such a state.

Still, she felt strange inside gazing upon the carnage, seeing what had once been a living, breathing, innocent creature reduced to a splatter of its parts. She felt almost numb, like she couldn’t feel anything. She leaned into the feeling, focusing on the mystery at hand.

“Bears don’t eat like this,” she said, squatting to inspect what appeared to be a foreleg that had been ripped off and slung a full ten feet clear of the animal’s torso. “It wouldn’t leave this much meat behind, right?”

“A bear wouldn’t be able to catch and kill a full-grown buck,” Shim said. “Not unless it was already wounded or suffering from disease. It’s hard to tell, but I don’t think there are any signs of illness.” As if to test his theory, he sniffed the main carcass before dabbing his finger into some blood and then tasting it on his tongue.

Soraya wrinkled her nose. The thought of tasting blood, or any other part of something that had once been a living creature, disgusted her. “How do you know it’s a buck?” Soraya asked, moving closer and scanning the carnage for any signs of the creature’s head.

Shim said nothing, simply tilting his head back and looking skywards. Soraya followed his gaze to find the buck’s massive pair of antlers tangled in the branches. They were still attached to its majestic head, which sagged the thin branches to the point of bending. Her heart hammered in her chest. The sheer strength and violence that would’ve been required to tear it from the beast’s muscled neck and launch it that high…

Something else drew her attention. Where its eyes should’ve been, were dark pits. “Why?” she said aloud. “Why the eyes?”

“Godsblood is stored in two primary places in the body. Where?”

Soraya thought this was oversimplifying things a bit, but she answered anyway. “The heart and the eyes.”

“It used its claws to tear the deer’s chest open here and here,” Shim said, drawing her attention back to the mangled carcass. Sure enough, long tracks were carved in what was left of the animal’s hide.

“The strength required to snap the bones…,” Soraya murmured. “Did it use its teeth?”

Shim reached inside and plucked out an incisor as long as his finger, sticky with blood. “Most likely. Looks like it found what it was after.”

Soraya leaned closer, peering into the chest cavity. The empty chest cavity. “So it was only after the eyes and the heart?”