“Looks like something with a bloody sharp pair of teeth,” said Dante, peering down at Maho’s injured leg.

Luc followed his gaze, nearly retching at what he saw. Maho’s leg was twisted in the middle of the shin, and a jagged bone stuck out of his skin. The flesh near the break was lacerated and torn, mangled by whatever had latched on. A small pool of blood was forming on the ground underneath the wound.

“You’re lucky,” said Dante, examining Maho’s leg. “The break was clean. If we set the leg and stop the bleeding, you’ll be able to keep the leg.”

“What madness are you speaking?” said Matthias, snapping out of his temporary stupor. “This fiend has been hounding us for the last year! You think we’re going to let the guy who’s been whipping the skin off our backs live?”

The other two slaves gave small grunts of assent.

“Maybe you’re on their side,” said Matthias, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve never seen you whipped, after all.”

“Your accusations are baseless,” said Dante. “If you followed the Way, you would avoid the beatings as well.”

“The Way?” said Matthias, snorting with laughter. “Is that your religion?”

“Yes,” said Dante without hesitation. “Now help me hold this man while I treat his wound.”

“Good luck with that,” said Matthias, turning away and folding his arms.

Dante looked down at Luc. He opened his mouth, ready to say that this was not the duty of the heir of Tosa, but something in Dante’s eyes stopped him. Thinking to their current situation, from shoving Matthias in the back to falling into the pit, the whole thing was kind of his fault. Luc was arrogant and haughty, but he was not ignorant. Father always told me that a proper Lord must always take responsibility for his actions.

Setting his jaw and keeping his eyes off the injured leg, Luc shuffled over to Maho and pressed down on the injured man’s forehead with both of his hands.

“…what are you doing?” asked Dante.

“I’m holding him down like you said!” said Luc, scowling. “Can’t you be a little appreciative?”

“That is not the Way,” said Dante. “You must hold his shoulders back so he does not thrash around. I need his body to be still while I set the leg.”

“Ah,” said Luc. He switched his grip to Maho’s left shoulder.

“Baz, Thim,” said Dante, words directed at the two slaves. “The boy cannot do it himself. Go help him.”

Baz and Thim didn’t respond, fidgeting uncomfortably under Dante’s eyes.

“We need him to get out of here,” said Dante. “If our torches burn out, we won’t have any light left. Maho can provide us with light from his gems.”

The two slaves finally looked up, harrowed faces staring at Dante’s in the dim blue light of Maho’s crystals. Still, they did not move. Underneath Luc’s hands, Maho was trembling, clearly struggling to suppress any sounds of agony.

“Both of your sentences are almost up, correct?” said Dante. “If we get out of this situation, you will be able to go home. As free men. But you must understand, we have to get out of this place first. And to do that, we need Maho.”

Finally, the slave on the left moved stepped forward and pressed down on Maho’s other shoulder.

“Thank you, Baz,” said Dante. “The Way will lead you home.”

Baz managed to give Dante a shaky half-smile.

“Maho,” said Dante, voice calm as ever. “You must try not to move while I set your leg. Biting down on something will help.”

Maho squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, taking a part of his tunic in his mouth.

“Hold him steady,” said Dante, taking Maho’s leg in his hands.

Luc couldn’t bear to watch. Turning away, all he heard a grunt from Dante. Then Maho screamed, voice muffled by the tunic between his teeth. He bucked against Luc’s hands, trying to do anything to assuage the pain. By some miracle, Luc managed to hold him down, keeping Maho from doing anything that would harm himself more. After a couple of moments, the screams halted and Maho went limp. Sparing a glance down, he saw that Maho had fallen unconscious.

“Boy, give me part of your robe,” said Dante.

“What?” said Luc.

The look in Dante’s eyes shut him up.

This is for the sake of getting home, thought Luc, comforting himself while he maimed his favorite robes. Once I get home, I’ll be able to buy as many robes as I want.

Luc watched as Dante took the ripped cloth from his hands and began wrapping it around Maho’s leg. He had placed the wooden torch he had fallen with against the side of the leg as a splint. Even to Luc’s inexperienced eyes, it was clear that Dante knew what he was doing.

Around them, the light of blue gemstones was dimming. Even though Maho had fainted, it seemed that the gemstones still retained some magic.

“Everyone stay close,” said Dante, holding up his index finger. “As I’ve shown you before, my Bloodline allows me to create very small fires.”

That explains how they lit the torches, thought Luc. As the light from the gemstones faded to black, a tiny flame, only as large as the flame on a candle wick, flickered to life on Dante’s index finger. With the size of the light, all they could see was a circle several feet in radius around Dante.

“Can’t you make that flame any bigger?” asked Matthias. “It might as well be pitch black.”

“My apologies,” said Dante. “My Bloodline is not very powerful. This is the most I can muster.”

“Then how do you explain that giant explosion that saved us when we were falling?” said Matthias. “It definitely couldn’t have been you, Dante. Baz and Thim are homesick loons. And that kid is as useless as arms on a fish. That means - ”

A low growl, almost sounding like a rumble of thunder, sounded in the darkness. Something screeched in the distance, sounding like two rocks scraping together.

“It must have been that monster in the pit,” said Dante, glancing around. “We need to make sure that - ”

A giant creature, as long two horses put together, tore Thim’s upper body clean off his legs. From the brief glimpse that Luc saw, the monster looked like a giant wolf. However, its limbs were much longer in proportion than a normal wolf’s. The middle of its back was humped, giving it a very distorted appearance. Its snout was short, and its gaping mouth was filled with jagged teeth the same size as daggers.

Thim’s legs stood for a moment, spurting blood and wavering. Then they collapsed to the ground.

This time, Luc couldn’t hold it in. He turned to the side and vomited, retching and gagging. An arm wrapped around his midsection and dragged him away from the darkness, making his vomit splatter all over his feet. Gagging at the smell, Luc vomited once more.

“Stay together!” shouted Dante. “That is a warg! They hunt for stragglers – if we stay together, it will not attack!”

Luc’s shoulders heaved and he stood up straight, trying to calm his stomach. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to rid himself of what he had just seen. When he felt like he could control his insides again, he opened his eyes and looked around.

Thankfully, they had moved away from where Thim had been ripped in two. Dante carried Maho on his back, and they were all huddled together underneath the flame on Dante’s finger. The darkness wrapped them in a cold embrace.

“So we’re safe like this?” said Matthias, glancing around the cavern frantically.

“Only for a while,” said Dante, voice once again monotone and level. “As soon as it figures out we cannot fight even though we outnumber it, it will come to hunt us.”

“Great,” said Matthias. “We’re all dead then.”

There was a brief pause while Dante thought. Then he spoke.

“Not if we kill it first.”