388 days until the Arkon Shield falls

Of course, I stood no chance of catching the soldiers.

I could only follow in their wake and hope that when I got to wherever they were going, disaster hadn’t overtaken either the spearmen or the loggers. Reaching the Outpost’s eastern trench line, I found it unguarded and crossed over without fuss.

I knew I should have informed the commander of my plans and asked for an escort—or at the very least notified someone of where I was heading. But then again, I didn’t feel like explaining myself or risk further talk of Mum.

Moving at the fastest pace my crippled foot allowed, I followed in the spearmen’s footsteps. Their tracks were easy to read. They cut east through the grass plains on a direct path to the smudge on the horizon that was the forest.

Ten minutes out of the camp, I belatedly thought to take stock of my equipment. I had no provisions, and except for the knife sheathed at my belt, I was unarmed. Fool that I was, I had not thought to retrieve my club and shield before setting off. But it was too late to turn back now. After an hour’s lonely trek, which was thankfully uneventful, I reached the edge of the forest.

I paused to consider its wooded depths before venturing within. Oak, redwood, ash, and pine trees arched high overhead, casting long shadows across the leaf-scattered forest floor. At ground level, the foliage was sparse, with only the odd bush to hamper passage.

I couldn’t help but wonder at the familiarity of the vegetation. Had the trees existed in Overworld before the gates to Earth had opened? Or had they somehow been transplanted here during the creation of the Human Dominion? I shook my head. There was still much of Overworld that remained a mystery to me.

I bent down and inspected the ground. Deep score marks had been dug in the soft soil beneath. It was likely from the logs Soren and his men had dragged back to the settlement. The trail led farther east into the forest.

At least finding the loggers will be easy.

But studying the looming giants, I suddenly wondered how safe the woods were. Within the trees, my visibility would be much reduced, and since I was alone I would be easy prey. I chuckled. You should have thought of that earlier, Jamie.

Shrugging off my doubts, I advanced into the forest. The trail continued eastwards for only another hundred yards before turning south. Keeping my ears strained and my head swivelling from side to side, I followed the tracks.

Around me, the forest was eerily silent. Not even bird calls disturbed the silence. Is the forest always this quiet? I wondered. Or was it a sign of a lurking predator?

I tightened my grip on my blade. Even though my knife skills were non-existent, I felt safer while holding the weapon. I kept my magic prepared too, and was ready to unleash flare on a moment’s notice. The forest had me on edge.

Ten minutes later, I passed the first hacked-off tree. Then another. But still the forest remained silent around me, with neither the sound of chopping nor the cries of battle disturbing the air.

I frowned. Where is everyone?

I hurried my pace. I had to be nearing the logging camp. Any moment now—

I fell face-first to the ground as a heavy weight descended onto my back. I had a moment to feel a hot, slavering breath before pain whitened my world.

Iron jaws clamped down on my neck, and a second later fangs ripped out a chunk of my flesh. I tried to roll over, but my attacker had me pinned down.

The pain was brutal. I screamed soundlessly, loamy earth filling my mouth and muffling my cry.

I struggled to think. To breathe. To act.

My arms were trapped beneath me, which made both flare and my knife useless. Frantically, I tried to free one of my hands. It was no use. They were wedged tight.

My attacker bit down again.

I arched my head up in pain, the tendons of my neck straining. Aargh, that hurts. Tears streamed down my face. Death loomed closer. I was going to die here unless I did something.

I don’t need my hands to flare.

On the brink of calling on invincible, the thought floated into my mind like an epiphany. Of course. Changing tack abruptly, I cast flare.

White-hot dragonfire, thirsting for blood, roared out of my back and through the open wound of my mauled neck.

My attacker’s growl transformed into a surprised yelp, and a second later the crushing weight on my back disappeared.

I stopped casting flare and rolled over, frantic to see again and find my foe. The motion caused new agony to scorch my back. I gritted my teeth against the pain. My armour was the cause, I realised. The leather had melted, and now its burnt sinews bit through my skin.

My throbbing neck was little better. Though the flames had cauterised the wound, my neck felt fragile and vulnerable. But I didn’t have time to tend to myself just yet.

I had to find my attacker.

Remaining in my prone position, I let my eyes rove over the surroundings and jump from tree to tree.

Nothing.

No branches rustled. No leaves stirred. No blurred motion caught my attention. Where had my foe gone? And how had it disappeared so—

Between one blink and the next, I was under attack again.

Weight pressed down on me and a dark shape blotted out the sun. I had a split second to recognize slitted eyes, a snarling muzzle, and fangs—lots of fangs—before the beast’s gaping maw snapped downwards.

But this time I was ready.

Before my foe clamped its jaws around my head, I cast flare into its belly.

The creature—wolf?—whined. My dragonfire-wreathed hands flew up to grasp the beast and hold it prisoner while I poured flames into its torso.

But in an eyeblink my foe disappeared.

Some form of teleportation?

My head swivelled back and forth as I tried to keep watch on all approaches at once. Images of my attacker flicked through my mind. It was definitely lupine. And my fire had hurt it. How bad, I couldn’t tell yet, but flare had left scorch marks along its sides. I smelt singed fur, so I had to have—

My headlong thoughts paused.

So I have at least two attackers.

Even worse, I realised, that if the beasts really could teleport, then scanning the surroundings would make no difference. I would not see the next attack before it arrived. A tremor of fear rippled through me.

Abruptly, I dropped the spellform of flare and, summoning life magic, cast lay hands. I knew it was a risk, but so was leaving my wounds unattended.

Soothing waves of healing rippled through my back and neck. But I had no time to enjoy the relief from pain. Two four-footed figures—almost as if summoned by the spell’s luminous blue glow—blinked into existence two yards away on either side of me.

I had no idea why the beasts had chosen not to materialise on top of me again, but I was grateful. It gave me the time I needed to prepare. Dropping the weaves of lay hands, I readied flare’s spellform.

The beasts leapt. I flared.

Twin howls of agony tore through the forest as dragonfire met hounds. Mid-leap, the pair disappeared, vanishing from the flames’ depth. My heart pounded. Despite my success in fending off the attack, I knew I was in trouble.

Neither of the two beasts had borne any burns. Either they could heal themselves… or I had four attackers.

I’m being stalked by a pack of teleporters, I thought.

I swallowed my fear. If I was going to survive the encounter, I had to change the dynamic. Sitting up, I searched for somewhere I could hold the pack at bay, but in every direction the terrain was the same: an endless march of trees.

I drew my knife. I knew it was silly —why did I need the knife when I had flare?—but I kept it in hand anyway. Scooting backwards, I braced my back against the nearest trunk and held myself ready.

The beasts kept me waiting.

I scanned the area. There was no sign of the pack, but I didn’t doubt they were nearby. To relieve the tension coiling tighter and tighter within me, I opened my magesight. Perhaps where my physical sight failed, my magical one would succeed.

My magesight was stubbornly empty. Disappointed, I made to close it, but paused when a shadow flickered past my view.

Slowly, I rotated my head. I hadn’t been mistaken. My foes were visible in my magesight. As pools of darkness, the creatures circled menacingly around me. They lurked behind the trees and just out of physical sight.

Clever beasts.

The pack’s constant motion kept me from determining their number, but just knowing where my foes lurked helped immensely, and I felt some of my fear subside.

Given the space to think, I considered the circumstances that had brought me here. Where were the loggers? Where were Tara, Michael, and the rest of the spearmen?

They couldn’t be far away, could they?

I wondered if I should abandon my position and go in search of the Outpost company. But on the move, I suspected I would be more vulnerable. And perhaps that was what the beasts waited for: for me to expose myself.

“Help!” I shouted. “Is anyone there?” If I was stuck waiting here, I decided there was no harm in trying to attract attention to my position. Maybe someone would hear me. My voice echoed startlingly loud through the forest silence, but there was no answering cry.

A hound blinked before me, perhaps spurred by my cry and hoping to take advantage of my distraction. But I had been expecting the move.

“Damn it,” I snarled as the creature escaped my flames unscathed.

Another materialised to my left. I flared, and missed again as it blinked away.

A third repeated the manoeuvre on the right. Predictably, I failed to hit it.

I ground my teeth in frustration. “Goddamn dogs,” I swore. The pack was testing me. The pit of my stomach dropped as another, more unpleasant thought, occurred.

Or they are draining my mana? Just how cunning are these beasts?

A fourth blinked in. I waited. The hound tilted its head quizzically at me, its wintery grey eyes boring into me. Then it blinked away.

A second later, a shape hurtled down from the tree above. I flung up my right arm and cast flare.

With a yelp, the hound blinked out just before its weight could touch down on me. This time I recognised the beast. The scorch marks on its muzzle marked it as my first attacker.

So there appear to only be the four, I thought, hope rising at the possibility. I was not as overmatched as I feared.

The pack went back to circling. But not for long.

A beast blinked into being on my right and barrelled towards me. I cast flare, but this time the creature only ducked its head and, with a low growl, kept coming.

Another beast materialised on the left. With my other hand, I cast flare directly into it. It, too, was undaunted. The pack was changing its tactics again.

Just as the first two clamped their jaws onto my flaring hands, the third beast dropped down from the trees and the fourth appeared at my feet.

They were trying to overwhelm me, and this time flare was not scaring them off. The fourth hound dove for my throat.

Reacting faster than thought, I activated invincible.

The hound bounced off. A bloodthirsty grin spread across my face. The tables had turned. I flared harder, pouring flames out of my hands.

Now I’ve got you, doggies. All four beasts were trapped in the blazing inferno. Flames boiled off me and licked at the pack clinging to me. Fur was singed, skin melted, and paws charred.

Then the hound on my left blinked away. It was followed a moment later by the one my chest. Dread curled within me.

They were retreating again.

I flung myself sideways and grappled the hound chewing on my right arm. Wrapping my arms around it, I held on for dear life.

The beast at my feet disappeared.

But the one I clung onto, whether because of the pain from the dragonfire spewing into it, or because I had wrapped myself around its torso, stayed put. Pouring all my fear and rage into the beast, I flared until it collapsed into a smoking heap.

Then I lurched to my feet and ran.

✽✽✽

I didn’t get far.

My crippled foot, not to mention the pack’s ability to teleport, made escape impossible. I wasn’t trying to outrun them though—not exactly. I was hoping instead to find the loggers’ trail. I had lost sight of it during the initial attack. If I found it, I could cautiously withdraw their way.

But whether the direction I searched in was the wrong one, or I simply failed to see the path, the clock on invincible ran down without me finding the loggers’ tracks.

With my chest heaving and hands on my knees, I drew to a halt to consider my options. Fleeing without the protection of invincible was risky. The hounds could strike at any time.

On the heels of that thought, three pools of darkness slipped into my magesight.

They were back.

Can the beasts sense my spells? I wondered. The timing of their return was just too coincidental otherwise. Damn, if these dogs aren’t smarter than the murluks.

Continuing the search for the loggers’ trail was no longer an option. Forced to admit defeat, I planted my back against another tree. At least, I had bettered my odds of survival. But even with one of their number dead already, the pack showed no sign of abandoning their hunt.

With a weary sigh, I settled myself to keep watch and prepare for the next attack.