If you ever see a totally normal looking man peddling pancakes, run.

Just run.

- Advice given by Weylon Ursk to his travelling companions shortly after the forming of the four.

In the end I decided to resume my search for the deer. I probably should’ve decided to warn the town, but with the blue dragonlike creature being where it was, I wasn’t confident I could sneak around it and get back to Veliki in time. Some people would lose their houses, but no one would lose their lives.

The monster was new, but there were other dangers that were always gracing Veliki. Retired Chosen Ones were good at repelling things like that. I’d never seen one up close before

As soon as I started walking I realised my breath still wasn’t back to normal and had to lean against a tree for a minute as I cursed everything that came to mind. The monster, Avien, the Shepards, even Casien. Then I finally got back to moving.

The birds and the bees weren’t back yet, so I made as little noise as possible. It quickly became apparent that I was somehow less able to travel silently than that huge godsdamned creature heading towards my hometown. Those huge claws hadn’t made any sound coming down on the forest floor, and I couldn’t remember seeing any tracks. On the other hand, every time I didn’t spend a second checking where my next foot was going to fall, I made something snap or crack.

Frustration started building up at the fact that some big fat thing was better at being quiet than I was. That made it harder to be quiet. When you added in how I was now completely and utterly lost, and I soon stopped caring.

“Fuck Mary. I was fine where I was. You didn’t have to be such a bitch. Fuck!” I was still walking silently, or doing my best to, but enough things had built up that I needed to vent. The cursing got worse whenever I made a twig snap or something. “Stupid dad. Why aren’t you doing something to help me out of this mess? Why can’t you just say fucking no? It would be so fucking simple. Why did you have to say those godsdamned words Ga-”

Something was watching me.

I let myself finish one more step before looking around. There was an exposed root that I used to let myself pivot without being noisy. The first thing I noticed was that the birds still weren’t singing. They had a pretty good sense as to where the monster was, meaning that it was close. The second thing I noticed were the two sparking blue eyes that were looking at me from the shadows.

It was getting closer. The blue head came into the light as the jaw opened ever so slightly and something sparked between the many knifelike teeth lining its mouth.

How did it get so close? I wondered briefly before realising that I must have led it right to me with my cursing. I cursed my cursing tendencies as the jaw opened further and it lit up from within. A foul stench assaulted my nose and I knew whatever it was about to do wasn’t something I was going to be able to walk off. It had been so long since I was last wounded, I wasn’t sure how well I’d take whatever this monster was about to do to me.

One of its many feet came down with a crash, the monster no longer caring about being quiet now that the game was up. The impact jostled me and I started running. I got around one tree before it started chasing me, and the earth started quaking as the humongous creature started throwing its weight around.

I swerved back towards the trunk to break line of sight, and got a single moment of security in that before the monster just charged through the trunk. All I heard was the sound of breaking wood and shrieked as the trunk of the tree landed off to the side. If I had been one metre to the left I would have been flattened.

It didn’t slow down at all. If I just kept running it would catch me. A glance over my shoulder told me it was gaining on me, so I broke away to my right and made a break for another obstacle to put between it and me. This next trunk was on a slope, so I slid around and scrambled back to hide between the roots.

Like it did before, the monster just charged through the tree instead of going around. I shrunk into the gap as the wood bent down from behind me, reducing the space I had to move in. Though I was doing my best to hide right now so I wasn’t exactly moving much. The charge of the monster nearly uprooted the tree, and I realised I might have made a big mistake as my body was carried up and forward.

But then the trunk bent and cracked, and eventually broke away as the monster lunged forwards in its effort to chase me down. Thankfully it struck hard enough that the trunk was carried with the monster as it leaped over me, so I somehow came away unharmed, barring the shower of splinters that rained down on me.

The thundering of the monster kept going for several seconds, until it stopped suddenly. Meaning it realised I’d successfully tricked it. But then the thundering started all over again, and the quakes were getting stronger by the instant. I forced myself to stay still and shifted how I was holding the knife. The fact that I was moving while forcing myself to be still didn’t register as the long blue form of the monster moved past, displaying much more speed than it did when the chase had just started.

It had been playing with me. Now that it didn’t know where I was, it was taking things more seriously. It was moving away now, but the chances of it staying away weren’t something I was willing to bet on. True to my fears, it stopped going away, but kept moving, only now it wasn’t coming back. It was going around.

My hiding spot wasn’t that hidden. The only reason it missed me was because I wasn’t in direct line of sight. If it happened to wander around in front of me, I would be in plain sight. This wasn’t somewhere I could stay.

But I was less happy with my chances of survival if I moved. I was shit at being quiet, just as I was shit at staying still. The only reason I hadn’t made a break for it was because I’d tried that already, it had failed, and I was fucking terrified.

This was the kind of thing Chosen Ones had to deal with? No wonder there were so many stories about them. Tremors were vibrating up my legs from it just stomping around. I held no doubt in my mind that twenty men as well trained as my father would be wiped out if they met this thing on a level field.

The thundering stopped for a moment, then I flinched as the sound of lightning striking for five seconds lit up the forest in blue. It came from somewhere off to the right, and cast stark shadows into the forest. It was all I could do not to let out a frightened sound. Then something exploded, and the ground that was just blue lit up red.

The monster started roaring for the first time, and someone shouted back at it. The sounds of fighting started echoing through the trees. I was about to leave my hiding spot when something red and on fire was thrown into the trunk that had been removed from the stump I was hiding by. It was thrown hard enough that the tree rolled back, then the monster followed, its body straight like an arrow as it followed the thrown object with its maw wide open.

The trunk was reduced to splinters and I realised this wasn’t safe for me. I scrambled out of the roods and nearly tripped over myself as I tried to move anywhere that was away. But I wasn’t looking in the direction I was moving and couldn’t tell what was behind me. I scrambled into something that had a little give. It was alive.

Not thinking, I swung back with my knife and it bounced off of armour. Not because it was good armour, even though it was, instead it was because I was swinging the knife hilt first.

A lightly gauntleted hand gripped my wrist and pulled me over to the stump, and the owner told me. “Stay here.”

The man had dirty red hair, in that it was almost naturally brown, as well as how there was dirt caked in. His eyes were a dull green, and they darted to the badge on my breast briefly, but that was barely noticeable thanks to his skin. He had pale skin, which was strange in Kreg’uune. Not so much in Veliki, but it was his pure white freckles that gave me pause.

They didn’t really look like freckles. It was more like his skin had flaked off and the white parts were what was underneath.

He was clearly Chosen, which is why I didn’t kick up a fuss in response to being told what to do. If anything, I was grateful to have direction and slunk behind the stump where I stayed. The Chosen drew his sword and started muttering as he walked towards the monster.

There was another roar, and there was another five seconds of lightning and blue light. It was followed by a lot of wood contorting, several sword strokes, a howl of pain, someone falling on the ground, and then an explosion.

“You shouldn’ta used fire!” The Chosen yelled as the monster thundered away.

“Sorry!” Rumbled a voice that could only have come from the Hells.

More wood contorted and the thundering stopped. Another roar sounded and lightning struck again. This time the crackling energy blew past my hiding spot, blackening a tree and a half before being cut off early with a pained howl.

There was quiet as the fighters caught their breath. “You can come out now.”

I cautiously staggered out and took in the sight before me.

The blue dragonlike creature had been wrapped up in plants that hadn’t been there five minutes ago. Its long snakeline body had been bent back on itself in a way that was almost painful to look at. Nearby was another grove of plants that were smoking. The ground was wet with blood from the monster, which was carved open wide enough that someone could have fit in there.

There were two people picking themselves up nearby, though it was only the second one that was picking themselves up. Now that the excitement was over, at least for now, I could get a good look at both of them.

The Chosen wore a cloak of brown and greens that afforded him camouflage against the forest. It didn’t look magical, like I’d come to expect from the retired adventurers in Veliki, which struck me as odd. He had a longbow strung around his back, making something in me pang with envy.

His sword, which he was cleaning the blood off of, was a one bladed longsword that curved to the tip, and failed to catch the light completely. It might have been the blood, but it almost looked brown. Apart from his skin and sword, he looked just like a grizzled veteran. Not that different from my dad

The other guy was… shrinking? He was still red even though he wasn’t on fire any more thanks to the fact that he was utterly drenched in the blood of the monster. His polished armour seemed to be sliding sideways to make way for normal clothing, which was appearing out of the same nowhere his armour was disappearing into. His horns were retracting from their previous majestic forms to a much more recognisable curl.

“Casien?” I said out loud.

The younger boy looked up and saw me. “Hey Amber.” Then he coughed out blood.

The Chosen looked between us. “Good, you know each other.” He pointed at a tree. “Help the boy, then patch up the girl.”

A glowing green form slipped out of the tree and strode up to the Chosen. As it moved it became more clear, until it was a mostly naked woman with leaves covering her privates that draped herself around the Chosen’s shoulder. I stared as he brushed it off.

“I’m not playing with any of you.” He told her harshly, then gestured at Casien once more.

The green woman pouted, not looking at all offended by the way the man dismissed her. She strode over to Casien and, with one final glance at the Chosen, bent down and hugged Casien. The red skinned boy didn’t seem to know how to react, and was trying to get away from the woman, but she held on tight and giggled as I stared.

I would’ve kept staring, trying to figure out just what was going on, but the Chosen stepped in between me and them and I raised my eyes to his strange face.

“What is your business out here?” He asked.

“I-” Why was I out here again? To kill a deer. But this wasn’t the right forest.

The man sighed and crouched so we were at the same height. “It’s not safe out here. Not for people like you and him.” He gestured back at Casien with a flick of his head.

Fire flushed through my veins. “Because I’m not really Chosen?”

“Tha’ boy is Chosen, and all that got him was a place in the belly of the beast.”

My fire suddenly ceased as the danger of that whole situation once again impressed itself on me. “You mean Casien got eaten?”

“Swallowed is the correct term. But yes.”

I looked past the man and looked at Casien again. He looked caught between relaxing and struggling. The woman seemed to be enjoying the whole thing immensely. As strange as the scene was to watch, Casien was looking much better now.

“The boy said your name is Amber?” The man checked. I absently nodded. “You can call me Torment, former knight of a foriegn land, I suppose. I’m a ranger in these parts. I have a camp nearby. We’ll have something to eat there, then I’ll take you two back to town.”

“No!” I reflexively shouted.

“No?”

“I’m not going back there. Not today. I don’t care if another of those things comes, I’m finishing what I started today.”

The man raised his eyebrows. “Another Beithir? These monstrosities are extremely territorial. There won’t be another one of these for at least fifty kilometers. There won’t be any dragons nearby, either. Beithirs and dragons are blood enemies, the only time both are in the same area is during a territory dispute.”

“That’s not what I meant. I was hunting an animal earlier. I already put an arrow in it, and I’m going to find it and kill it.”

Torment hummed. “Are you going to kill it with tha’?”

I looked at the knife he gestured at. I hadn’t used it to cut anything, but it had been nicked at some point. A small part of the tip of the knife had been snapped off. My fingers were actually starting to hurt I was holding on to it so tightly.

“Yeah.” I told him. “I put an arrow in its flank. I just need to find the trail. Damn deer can’t have gone too far from where it was wounded.”

“You lost the trail on a wounded deer?”

“That wasn’t my godsdamned fault!”

“Calm down.” Torment told me, because telling people to calm down always worked. “A wounded deer. You’re certain?”

I frowned, somewhat taken aback. That was what he was focusing on? “Yes. Have you never seen a deer before?”

“Not in Veliki.” He said ominously, then glanced over his shoulder and gestured. “Oi! He’s fine, fix up the girl now!”

The green woman that was thoroughly enjoying her treatment of Casien released the half devil and pouted at Torment as she strutted over to me. Instead of giving me a hug like she did Casien, the woman sneered as she spat in her hand and rubbed it over my face before I could react. My face itched with healing and her hand came back stained with blood that hadn’t been there before. I had been bleeding and hadn’t even realised it. Then the green woman turned and smiled prettily at the ranger.

“You can go.” Torment sighed and the woman’s form froze, then shattered in an instant. The remaining energy flowing back into an amorphous shape that flew back into the tree it came from. “I’m sorry for tha’ spell, nature doesn’t like to behave. Follow me.”

He strode off a short distance, then paused to make sure Casien and me were following. I was hesitating while he was still in the process of picking himself up. Casien was the one that started moving first.

“Good job on dodging that thing like you did.” He said, admiration clear in his voice. “I’ve never seen anyone move like that.”

Did he think I had done well? Wait- “You were watching me!?”

Casien coughed and didn’t look at me.

Indignation reared and I tried to hit Casien with the butt of my knife. He caught my hand easily and blinked in surprise.

“I wasn’t exactly being too subtle.” He said. ”I thought you knew and just didn’t care. You spend so much time out here and you were moving with uh… confidence. I was curious what kind of monster a deer is as well.”

I tried to rip my arm out of his grip, but he was holding on too tight. “Let me go!” I tugged again and nearly stabbed myself when Casien let my arm go. “Don’t fucking follow me again.” I shoved my finger in his face to get the point across, then stormed off in the direction that Torment was waiting.

Casien was looking at his hand and was opening and closing it like he couldn’t believe it was real. He picked up a fairly thick piece of wood and crushed it with just his grip. When he looked up to find me and the ranger all but tapping our feet in impatience, he looked immensely concerned.

But he got moving, and we left the corpse of the Beithir behind.