It momentarily distracted the beast, however, which was exactly what Ludo had intended. So then, naturally, he did the last thing the animal probably expected him to do. He slid, feet facing forward, directly between its front legs. His momentum carried him all the way through the tunnel of dirt and fur.

He emerged, coming to a stop but scrambling back quickly, focused on the brute that now turned, its gleaming eyes filled with nothing short of rage. It stomped toward him, shedding blood behind it. Strutted right up to him, until its snout was a few inches shy of his own. Released a blood- and spittle-flying roar that chilled him to the bone.

It was at that moment that whatever tendrils of skin had been holding its abdomen together snapped, releasing a deluge of blood and ichor from the wound Ludo had cut open while sliding beneath its belly.

It should’ve been over then, but even eviscerated with half its innards spilled onto the ground, this creature didn’t seem to know when it had been defeated. As it fell, it offered a final snap of its mighty jaws in his direction, clamping onto his leg, skewering him in a dozen places.

He screamed, the pain like nothing he’d ever felt. Blobs of darkness immediately started pushing in on the edges of his vision. They swarmed him, the slash of starlit sky above him growing darker by the second.

And then it was gone, the world fading away to the nothing it deserved to be.

“…he killed a mantioc on his own,” a voice said, stirring Ludo from sleep. Though his mind felt fuzzy, he managed to keep his wits about him. If nothing else, his unfortunate meeting of Dahlia and Mister Rose had taught him to mistrust strangers.

Where am I? he wondered. In bits and pieces at first, and then in large clumps, he remembered his battle with the deadly predator. It’s dead, he thought. But my leg…they’re going to see my leg—that it’s already healed.

Calmly, quietly, he slid one arm to the upper portion of his leg. Felt the thick bandaging that had been wrapped around it. They wouldn’t have bandaged him if he’d already been healed when they found him. Which meant they’d found him right away, almost like they’d been watching him fight. Watching without helping, like spectators packing a bloodsport arena.

“And yet it was just a mantioc, and a juvenile male at that,” another voice said, deeper and gruffer. “Had it been a full-grown female, we’d still be scraping pieces of him off the rocks.”

“Or if it was a karver, there wouldn’t be any pieces to pick up,” a third voice cut in.