Selena glanced from me to Astrid and back to me again, obviously enjoying our moment of suspense. “I saw a Putrefied Cobra.”

“What? Are you sure?” said Astrid, leaning forward excitedly. “Where?”

“Not far from here, on the edge of the woods at the bottom of the hill. The road runs along the edge of the wood, and I was taking it slow because there’s sometimes deer on the road at that stretch. I was driving along when I saw something in the road. At first I thought it was a deer, but when I got closer and my headlights lit it up I saw that it was all the wrong shape. It was about the height of a man, and it had a big, flattened head, like a giant cobra. But it had something in its mouth, something heavy that flopped and struggled as the creature dragged it along. When I got closer, I realized what it was carrying; it was a person.”

“What did you do?” Astrid asked in horror.

“What could I do? I stopped the car and grabbed my gun, but when I jumped out the creature saw me and fled, dragging its victim away with it. It slid under the fence and went into the trees, but I didn’t follow it. Whoever the poor bastard was, he would have been beyond saving. It was one thing to face the creature down when I was standing next to the bright lights of the car, but I wasn’t going to risk chasing into the woods after it on my own.”

Astrid nodded, looking grim. “That was the right thing to do,” she said.

I had watched this exchange in silence, but now I spoke. “Would either of you mind telling me just what a Putrefied Cobra actually is? It’s not something I’ve heard of before.”

“It’s a dangerous snake evolution,” said Astrid. “They are rare, and they only happen in quite specific circumstances. You start with a regular cobra—there are a few native to this part of America—and then you need to cultivate it up a few levels.”

“So this creature must have been under someone else’s control?”

Astrid shook her head. “Not exactly. What happens is that when a cultivator expends mana in a direct way, he can upgrade a creature and exert some influence over it. But if the cultivator dies and the creature gets into the wild, it will continue to cultivate in a rudimentary way on its own. Removed from the guiding influence of the cultivator, it reverts to its own animal pathway. With some creatures—felines, bears, and some birds—the results are pretty benign, and you get creatures like the Frostbreath Cougar—magical beasts that can be dangerous but are not actually evil.”

“So what’s the difference with this snake?”