She grabbed a stick and poked the little guy that travelled with the Dragonslayer.

‘What?’ he groaned.

‘He beat it.’

Garvin shot up. ‘What do you mean?’

She wondered if the boy was a bit slow. Maybe something more obvious would work on him, she thought.

LaFleche came closer and grabbed lifted him up in a quick movement. She stretched her arm all the way up and stared at him. ‘Where did he go?’ she asked again.

‘I don’t know!’ The boy just looked around, as if he expected the Dragonslayer to hide behind a tree.

She dropped him and turned around. When she noticed trails.

‘There are trails here. Lets go!’ she yelled as she charged in the foliage, already forgotten the boy. The Dragonslayer clearly went trough here, she thought. She could still smell his faint odour like she could yesterday on the way to the Knight Club.

But the road was going back! She stopped and leaned against a tree. Then it hit her. She ran back to the camp as fast as she could.

The boy had barely moved since she stormed away.

‘It is a trap, of course! A false trail! And what are you doing?’ the boy was putting his prints everywhere.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘The tracks! You will mess them up!’ she yelled as sniffed the air again.

LaFleche needed but little time once she saw through the Dragonslayer's scheme. She quickly found the right tracks and followed them promptly. She had yelled at Garvin to stay, but the boy had run off. He’d be fine though, she told himself. Besides, she had no time for the tantrums of children. Sometimes she forgot how old she was when compared to them. Like most, she barely aged at all, but her mind was cluttered with memories of the past. That was the hardest part of her life. To live with this overabundance of memories. Wallow a little bit too long on the bad ones, and you might never recover. Every mistake stayed with her for the rest of her life. No wonder why the Dragonslayer had given up on his old life. The responsibility was like a sword hanging above them, ready to strike at a moments notice.

She wondered if he knew more about the missing family. If he had realised something. It was clear that he had gone south, but not where they had agreed to go the night before.

She cursed at the wind. ‘How could I be so foolish! He grew up around these swamps, the advantage was his all along!’

Darting trough the forest like a doe, the trees flashed by as she accelerated even more. She was a master at tracking animals or men. And the Dragonslayer was more like an elephant charging trough reeds. The only thing was that he had a headstart.

‘Damned liar,’ she muttered as she slowed down for a moment to catch her breath. She looked up and slumped forward. He whole body felt sweaty. Then she smelled something. She sniffed the air as wolves would and looked around. It clearly smelled like some kind of monster. She found its manure at the base of a large tree. Just by seeing it she knew it was a shadowbeast. Long ago the evil necromancer Sorl’aman had created them to wreak havoc in the lands of his enemies. Somehow they managed to continue to live in the dark places long after he was defeated.

This shadowbeast was dangerous to face alone, if you could find it in the first place.

There must be a cave nearby, she thought. Or some shady lair where it could sleep trough the night. The Dragonslayer would know.

She searched for tracks knowing very well shadowbeasts barely left any. But everything could help. It was utterly important she found the family first. With a stick, she gently moved the dead leaves around. And at last, near a puddle of mud she found what she was looking for. A fresh track leading her west. She stared at the tracks that the Dragonslayer left her, those went south. She smirked, she would win! What if the monster would get the best of her? For a moment, as her heart started racing again, she thought it trough. Get the Dragonslayer or go in alone? Alone would do.

She grabbed her bow. As long as she had it, there was no way she could loose a confrontation. Her aim was legendary, perhaps more than the bow.

LaFleche decided to follow the monster tracks.

The sun was just starting its descend, when she could smell the faint murky vapours of the waters. Insects flew over the dark waters and frogs croaked as she caught her breath. LaFleche had almost ran the entire way. In one of her pockets she found some plants. That was why being friends to witches was so beneficial. They had access to plants like these. Widowbranch looked most like a root. It smelled like earth as was as slippery as a worm. But she could eat one and have energy for the whole day.

She chewed it for quite some time and then gulped the bitter plant.

She scoured the desolate landscape. It seemed the worst to grow up here, a child could easily drown in the cold waters. She almost felt compassionate for the Dragonslayer. She shook her head. Come on, girl, there is no room for these thoughts right now.

It was smart for those beasts to hide in the marshes, where their smell would be easily covered by rotting reeds. But she knew they were quite large and hated sunlight. So there must be a cave somewhere. Then she caught a faint scent. She sniffed the air, until she was assured it was the beast. Then she sneaked forwards, into the marshes.

Carefully she places her leather boots on the muddy soil. She had to avoid many puddles, though some were ponds, others lakes. She lost a lot of time just avoiding them. The tracks were dangerous even for someone as agile as her. The soggy mud pulled at her boots, but she knew how to place her feet. By a larger lake, she had lost the scent of the beast.

It must be nearby, she thought. But there was nothing to see, not a single hill or cave. Only flatness as far as she could see. That when she smelled something gassy. She turned her head to the right. Air was escaping in a larger pond, like something moved in the dark waters. The water burbled and gurgled, but it was too dark to see through.

A frog croaked behind her. The sound startled her and her foot slipped and briefly touched the water.

She felt too visible here, she wanted to hide.

An enormous splash of water gushed over her, soaking her instantly. She slipped and fell on her back, her bow imprinting its contours on her back. LaFleche groaned.

From the dark water rose a monster. It moved on four pointy legs. They looked like giant spider legs. Only pale as the moon and filled with green veins. It had four arms as well, even longer than the legs. The body of the monster was small in comparison and strangely human-like. She could a stomach, see ribs and above that a hairy head. Two black eyes stared at her as the beast opened its mouth, though it was more of a beak with countless sharp teeth. She smelled rotting flesh, crushed insects and dust.

The beast screamed, it was so high pitched that she instinctively covered her ears. The beast sped up to her and smashed its sharp arm trough her. Or so it would if she did not turn away at the last second. Her face ended up in the cold water. She hear nothing but the oozing water in her ears. Come on! she thought as she pushed herself up.

The sounds became clearer again. The mud made it hard to see anything. LaFleche tried to crawl away, her leg started to burn. The monster had pierced it and its hard bones ripped and sew trough her flesh. Blood gushed, and mixed with the dark waters. The beast screamed again. She screamed in agony.

It took her all her willpower to crawl away instead of covering her ears. Then she felt another limb piercing trough her shoulder like an arrow. The beast pulled her up all the way to its face, seven foot from the ground. Her right arm was limp, just like her leg. She hung there like fish before being swallowed by a crane. The shadowbeast opened its mouth and showed its rows of teeth. The ones that would devour her in an instant. Her knife dangled on her right hip. Maybe she could reach for it.