Still, the howl had been far-off, and turning around wasn’t necessarily the better choice, since he couldn’t be sure which direction it had come from. He kept walking, though his thoughts were decidedly not on the whimsies of women anymore. The howl came again, and this time, it sounded closer. Jaren froze on the trail, listening. Somewhere above him, an owl hooted and took off from its perch, likely in search of prey of its own. He glanced around at his surroundings and recognized the split tree off to his left, the circle of toadstools to his right. He realized with a sinking sensation that he’d done it again.

He’d taken the trail to Endla.

Another howl, this time much closer than the last. Jaren spun around, attempting to tell which direction it was coming from, until he was dizzy and even more lost than before. He laughed, a little hysterically, and wondered if he truly was going mad, if the magic of Endla had indeed ensnared him like a siren’s song. How else could he explain why his feet kept finding this same trail? How else could he defend the decision to go walking, alone, in the middle of the night?

The next sound Jaren heard wasn’t a howl, and it was much, much closer. It was the low, rumbling snarl of a predator. He turned slowly, eyes frantically searching the darkness, until he saw the two glowing eyes staring back. And they were far too large to belong to anything other than a massive, hungry wolf.

He bolted. Instinctively, he knew this creature wasn’t going to back down no matter how big Jaren made himself, no matter how much yelling and flapping and stick flailing he did. This animal was clearly the alpha of this forest, probably the entire mountain, and one measly, defenseless human was not going to scare it away.

By some miracle, Jaren didn’t stumble as he sprinted down the trail. His feet, at least, seemed to know the way. He could hear the wolf behind him, not snarling now, just breathing as it ran, and something told him that the beast wasn’t actually trying to catch him, because surely it was faster on its four legs and with its keen night vision than he could be. Was it trying to tire him? Or was it driving him exactly where it wanted him to go: into the waiting jaws of the rest of its pack?