The light was beginning to fade when Ai stepped out from between the trees. As soon as he saw her, Jack stood and wordlessly helped her to put down the horse without hurting herself.

Rolling her stiff shoulders she sighed.

“Well done. That’s one thing ticked off our list.” Jack ran one hand over the horses warm flank.

“Aren’t you going to wash? You can’t walk around like that.” The goblin hobbled over, then ran one finger down her outer leg. When it came back dusty with dried mud, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Ai took two steps then fell on her ass next to the somewhat waning warmth of the fire.

“You see a bath anywhere around here, you let me know.”

Drawing in a deep breath she shut her eyes and let the light of the fire dance on the back of her eyelids.

“Here you go.” The goblin held out the white mushroom to Jack expectantly.

Jack cocked one eyebrow. “You have skinner arms than me. You’ll have to push it down the horses throat come first light.”

“Isn’t there a better way to do it?”

“Can you think of one?”

“…”

Ai opened her eyes and grabbed her bed roll from the pile to her left. She unrolled it, shook it and lay it down on the ground. She wished there were some straw or ferns close by, they would have provided some padding against the ground.

Instead she was stuck as she was in a forest which seemed to have a suspicious lack of twigs and leaves laying around. There was a huge lack of variety in the plant life. Ai wondered if, when they finally got out of the forest, she would begin to see meadows and wild flowers.

“Are you going to sleep?” The goblin asked.

“We’re getting up early tomorrow, and I’m knackered.”

“What about food?” The goblin clutched his empty stomach.

“In the morning. We don’t have enough to eat whenever we get hungry.”

The goblin groaned.

“I’m getting sticks for the fire.” The goblin announced before skulking off.

Ai peeled off her outer clothing, shaking off the worst of the mud before rolling them up into a makeshift pillow. Pulling the bed roll around her, she shivered.

***

In the morning, they ate the bread and cheese that Celine had given them. Jack eventually managed to get the goblin to force feed the still sleeping horse. Ai smothered the fire and got re-dressed as they did and inwardly remarked on the fact she was far less self-conscious than when she first woke in the forest all that time ago.

They would need to travel quickly. There wouldn’t be much time before the paralysis set in and the horse was beginning to stir. It was massively overdosed and needed to be alive when they used it as bait.

Gathering their travelling gear she balanced it on the lowest branch she could find. They would need to travel light for the next part.

As the muscle of the group, Jack carried the horse all the way to the cave by himself, refusing when Ai offered to help. The horse was awake, immobile and terrified. Its eyes rolled white and its breathing was rapid. Ai comforted it from time to time, running her hands down its neck and mane.

When they arrived, the cave was as quiet and as smelly as it had been before. Ai hoped the Queen Bean was actually inside. If it wasn’t then they had just put a lot of effort forth for nothing.

“Give it to me.” Ai held her arms out.

Jack looked like he might argue again, but when he saw the look in her eyes he bowed down, clumsily giving the horse to her. Holding the horse to her chest as one might a baby, Ai crept towards the entrance of the cave. The hardest part wasn’t the significant weight of the horse, but trying to see past it to the ground to make sure she wasn’t stepping on any bones.

The closer she got, the faster her heart beat. By the time she actually reached the entrance, she must have thought of every possibility of what could go wrong.

The cave was huge, and Ai remembered that this creature was supposed to be about three times her height. Her hair standing on end, she lay the horse down. When a bone snapped, she flinched.

Eyes down she practically sprinted back to Jack and the goblin, narrowly missing stepping on more bones.

“Did you see it?” The goblin whispered.

Ai shook her head, watching the entrance to the cave intently. The horses profile seemed small compared to the dark mouth of the cave. It gave a whinny, legs twitching. The noise was loud in the quiet of the clearing.

Inside the cave, rocks crunched as something shifted. Ai pulled out her short sword and Jack wrapped his hands around his hand axes. The goblin shifted away from them, double checking that it was securely hidden.

All of them waited in anticipation to see what manner of creature would appear.

The first thing they saw was the Queens head.

Black, scaled and big enough to swallow the horse in one bite. There were holes in her jaw where bone poked through and Ai thought she was injured before realising it was just what she looked like.

The Queens eyes were small and silvery, like hard metal. She bent down, nosing at the horse. Ai could hear her inhale from all the way across the clearing.

The horse was silent. Perhaps, Ai thought, it had a heart attack. Ai hoped that was true.

The Queen opened her mouth and picked up the horse. Tilting her head back, the horse slid down her throat and out of view. Just like that, the horse was gone.

If Ai wasn’t careful, that could be her.

Ai concentrated on keeping her breathing steady, even as her hands trembled. The queen was huge. Much bigger than Ai had imagined. Ai swallowed. Hard.

Slowly the Queens head slid back into the darkness.

She hadn’t seen or smelt them. She had taken the bait.

They might actually do this.

Jack opened his mouth to speak but Ai shook her head sharply; she wasn’t going to take any chances that they would screw this up.

Ai held up two fingers. They would wait two hours before going into the cave and killing their quarry.