Well, ‘moved’ felt like a strange word to use to describe what it did. Its body went fuzzy, like how the trees sometimes looked just after dawn before the fog had lifted and the sun was only just beginning to pierce the forest’s shroud. In the time it took to blink, the beast covered the distance from one side of the clearing to the other.

Shim, with nothing left to cling to, fell back to the ground, knees buckling to prevent his legs from breaking. He rolled once and then came back to his feet, chest heaving and golden eyes wide. “What?” he said, as though unable to ask anything more detailed than that single word to summarize his confusion at what the monster had just achieved. And yet, it explained so much. How the beast had managed to sneak up on them without being spotted or heard. How it could get its bulk up into the tree to surprise them. How it had caught and killed a fleet-footed buck in the first place.

It was the manifestation of its Narcissi-given Ability, plain and simple.

Slowly, the six-limbed bear turned in their direction, eyes flicking back and forth between them. A low growl simmered from its lips. “What do we do?” Soraya asked, hoping the senior Guardian to whom she’d been partnered would have a hearty dose of wisdom to dispense from his wellspring of experiences upon which he could draw.

“Run?”

“Are you serious?”

He shrugged, as if to say Make of it what you will.

The bear had dropped to all sixes—was that the right term?—and was now pawing at the ground as though a bull readying itself to charge. Which reminded Soraya of an important truth for those fortunate enough to commune with Narcissi’s blood: Once an Ability—like Soraya’s mind-mining, as she liked to call it—was used, it couldn’t be used again immediately after. A brief period of rest would be needed first before it was available. Which meant the monstrous bear would have to pursue them the old-fashioned way. With its six legs, it would still be fast as void, but half a chance of escaping was better than no chance at all.

“Let’s go with your plan,” she said, and then they both turned and ran.

They skidded to a stop almost immediately, the monster blocking their path once more. “That’s…impossible,” Soraya whispered. It had just used that power, so how could it draw upon the same Ability again so soon? The beast roared again, flecks of blood spraying out from its maw. “When can you use your strength again?” she asked. Without having agreed on it, they were both instinctively backing away from their foe, which dropped back onto all six paws to prowl toward them. If it moved at full speed again…

“Not soon enough,” Shim said. “And I was no match for it anyway. It felt like wrestling a boulder.”