The ravages of time played upon everything around N-ta.

She moved from place to place and settled down for years at a time. Trees provided her wood to build with. As her magic grew stronger, she began to experiment. As time equivalent to the lifetimes of people passed her by, and her flesh did not wrinkle and her hair did not turn white, she realized she didn’t have to rush. Her thoughts could be put into action.

Information had come to her in the past. She remembered vividly the knife the woman in the vision she’d been shown was using. It had been a shiny material silvery like the surface of an undisturbed pond. The word “metal” had come into her brain. With focus, she discovered, she could expend some of the power within her to summon knowledge directly out of magic. Not all of it came in a form she initially understood. In her mind, the image of a solid object appeared, and her mind’s eye zoomed in until the surface became a cloud of jittery light. She had neither context nor words to describe any of what she saw. What she did know, however, was that metal came in many varieties, and it would serve her needs much better than the stone and wood tools she used before.

Waking one morning, she went in search of the rocks that would provide her with material for making what she needed. By expending magical power, she saw in her mind the entire process, and where to look. Three hours later, she had a pile of rock.

In her visions, she saw that large structures were required. Undeterred, she began to focus her magic. With a bit of effort, she found she could peer within the rock itself with her mind’s eye and melt away any except the metal she needed.

By that evening, when she turned in for dinner and rest, she’d made several tools out of this shiny metal.

Life proved to be comfortable. She had a routine she liked. In the mornings she would awake, hunt, tend crops in the afternoon, and turn in for more introspection and a focus on her magics in the evening.

“Neerrrr…”

Her eyes shot open, but she dared not move. She tilted her head to peer out the front entryway of her stone dwelling. She saw nothing, but the growl she’d heard had been distinctly inhuman.

She rolled over onto hands and knees, then got up and peered out the left and right sides of her front entrance.

The dark of pre-dawn hid them well, but her eyes picked up on the faint outline of a large predator hiding against a tree.

A quick roll and she had her hands on the hilt of the knife as she spun out of her dwelling.

“NAARRRR!”

The creature pounced. She dodged to the side and got a good looking at it.

It resembled a big cat, but its fur had purple stripes here and there, and strange tribal markings on its face. Moreover, she felt the faint tinge of magic in its body.

It lunged, and she dodged to the side and drove her knife into the soft side of its neck. It shrieked and crashed into the side of her dwelling, thudding against the heavy stone. Taking advantage, she drove her knife through the top of its head and pulled free. It gave a high shriek and went limp.

A purplish light shot out of its corpse and into her, and she felt a fire rush through her as what it saw poured into her mind’s eye.

This had been an ordinary cat, until it had come across a minor demon, which had possessed it upon being struck by the creature’s claws. Weakened, it became unable to leave the animal, and had used the cat’s body to mutilate a dozen people in a river encampment before their spears drove it away.

“Waahh,” she cried, wiping sweat from her brow. She’d seen and felt everything the demon had before it died.

Her magical power had also increased slightly.

After returning to sleep, she awoke later than usual. No matter, she had plenty of meat to go, and her crops had seen a good rain earlier in the week.

Time continued to progress, and her flesh continued to remain young.

By now, everyone she ever knew had died.

She decided to move on. That season, her crops had been harvested and she dried some meat to take with her, as well as using her magic to restore the tools she’d made.

After six months of walking, she made it to the next group of humans.

Changing shape to blend in once again—these people’s skin had paled even more than the previous tribe—she entered a mountain community where tribesmen and women wore fur on top of their clothes. The winters here lasted even longer than before. Learning their language as a part of blending in proved an irritation. They didn’t know of metal, so she kept that knowledge to herself. Still, she adapted her farming techniques to theirs and became an integral part of their society. There was, however, a major problem.

Their boys and young men kept turning up dead.

“Papa!” a voice screamed.

“Majet!” the local lead hunter cried out, seeing the boy of fourteen stumble into the village square, dripping blood from his fur coat. The man dropped what he was doing and rushed.

The boy collapsed into his arms. “Papa,” Majet cried once again. “It was the creature again.”

“Was it the Yeti?” the strong hunter cried.

“No,” the boy said, coughing up blood. “Although it took the Yeti’s form.”

“Sleep,” N-ta cried, placing a hand over the boy’s face. This was a trick she learned. She could read people’s memories, although it usually came as a burst of random sights and sounds. He closed his eyes and tried to breathe through the pain.

Her sight cut out.

He was dead.

“Ahnta,” the hunter said, turning to her. “What do you think it is?” The sorrow in his eyes could burn through a forest.

She saw the look in his eyes. They both knew she’d come from afar, and he was counting on it to help them. “It’s a ghoul,” she told him. “Where I came from, the legends were spoken. Sometimes, when a person drank of demonic blood, they grew ghoulish. He can change shape and is full of a ruthless hunger.” She didn’t tell him that she had once almost turned into one.

“So,” he asked, “what do we do?”

“We have to kill it,” she told him.

“Gorav,” he said, walking away. “Get our weapons ready. We have a monster to kill.”

“Ethas,” the meat cutter asked, “do you think we can do it?”

“Ahnta’s leading the party,” Ethas told his fellow villager. He paused, then put to words the unspoken truth. “We both know she’s our best shot at winning the battle anyway.”

As the sun went down, the villagers gathered their torches, spears, and blades, and she led them towards the scent she picked up. None of the men made comment about her preternatural ability to pick up a scent they couldn’t. Enough of their sons had died that they overlooked her magic.

As the cave drew closer, and they trekked up the mountainside, the smell became apparent to all. “In here,” she said, slowing to a creep and placing a hand on her weapon. They crept into the dimly lit opening.

She put a finger over her mouth to silence them and motioned them forward. She scanned the entrance and saw nothing. In the darkness of the deep caverns, she saw the outline of the beast. Sure enough, the skinny outline of the ghoul she could see.

The moment her eyes locked with its form, it spun its face around to see her.

The terrible black sunken eyes stared at her, the tall narrow head spinning to face her. Its mouth opened impossibly long, and a nasty, shrill screech escaped.

Several of the men broke formation and turned to run.

“NO!”

By the time she shouted, it was too late.

The fleeing men got pounced upon. The creature, as tall as she would’ve been in her natural form, but much skinnier, lifted their bodies with impossible strength and tore them in half. It took enormous bites with its gaping maw. She drove her blade into its neck at the earliest opportunity. Three men had already died. The creature moved with speed unimaginable.

The creature kicked her back. It grasped at the hole in its neck, which sealed up immediately.

She felt its long, spindly hands clasp around her shoulders and thrust.

“Eeaahh!”

She hit the wall of the cave with the impact of a falling boulder, driving the wind out of her. Only the magic in her body prevented her bones from shattering. She pushed it back and drove her forehead into its.

The creature stumbled back, and two spears skewered it through the abdomen and chest.

“Aarr…”

It let out a cry more of annoyance than pain as it stood head and shoulders above everyone, looking around at its attackers. Then it drew its arms out in a wide arc, tossing grown men like pebbles. It pulled a spear from its body.

Her eyes widened and she jerked out of the way as the spear splintered against the wall. She kicked at the side of the ghoul’s knee and it cracked and bent the wrong way. A spear thrown by one of her tribesmen skewered it through the neck. She drove a fist into its head and knocked it to the ground.

It let out a shout and shape shifted into an even taller, white furred monster resembling an ape.

It slashed at men with its claws and a few of them got cut before they could dodge.

Ethas swung his blade and sliced open the creature’s arm. It growled and batted him aside.

“Ough!” He let out a grunt as the wind was driven out of him.

This isn’t going well, N-ta thought.

She made a decision.

Pouring magical power into her limbs, she felt fire inside her body. Her muscles went taught.

“Erraaaaahhhh!”

The Yeti-shaped Ghoul let out a piercing shout as it charged her. Marred by a dozen cuts and holes of various states of healing from blade and spear injuries, it made a beeline for her.

“Raaaahh!”

Her piercing scream echoed as she drew back and drove her fist into its huge chest. Its ribs caved in, and it flew backward. The men stared in disbelief, as the creature had to weigh as much as a boulder. As it came up, she lifted a hand and Ethas’ blade shot through the air and into her hand. With a firm grip, she charged forward, spun, and, sharpening the blade with magic, sliced its head clean off.

Later, they celebrated in the village square. A majestic feast was held, and she enjoyed it. Since she’d shown them her magic, and the cat was out of the proverbial bag, she healed the men who had not died in battle as a gesture of good faith. Still, she saw firsthand that her fears had been at least partially correct.

“She used…magic,” some said.

“Hit the creature with a blow no one could do,” someone pointed out to someone else.

Ethas sat next to N-ta. “You avenged my son,” he stated. “I don’t care how you did it. I’m grateful.”

She bowed her head. “Too many of the young have died,” she commented. “I couldn’t hide it any longer.”

“Why didn’t you save my husband?”

She stood up and turned around.

Vota stood, fists clenched, tears streaming.

“Go on,” N-ta invited, not backing down. She wouldn’t attack the woman, but neither would she stand back and be passive.

“You had these things you could do,” the wife and mother said. “And you hid them? Why?”

“Where would you go if the village turned against you?” N-ta asked, flipping the point of view.

The woman tilted her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

“Think about it,” N-ta insisted. “I’ve had to leave tribes on more than one occasion.” She gave it time to sink in. “I’m lucky. I have gifts no one else has.” She leaned in a bit. “What if it was you? Where would you go?”

This seemed to shut the woman up for a moment. That evening, no one had the courage to challenge her.

In the morning, however, she saw that the mood had changed. She tended to the crops in the morning after taking a quick bite, and the normally talkative farmers stayed mostly silent. If she spoke to them, they answered her, but otherwise offered nothing. When she finished weeding and removing bugs from the crops, she went hunting. After the sun had moved barely at all, she dragged a kill in each hand back to the village.

She brought it to the women near the fires. Together they began cleaning the kills while they waited for the men to bring back more. “Ahnta,” a woman with gray in her dark red hair said, side-glancing at the taller young woman.

“Hmm?” replied N-ta.

“Thank you for killing the creature,” the woman said.

“You’re welcome, Bokol,” N-ta replied.

“You said you had to leave other tribes before,” Bokol asked.

N-ta glanced at her, then saw her look across at another woman. She turned her head and saw the young woman turn away quickly. “Did you have a question?” N-ta asked.

“We both did,” Bokol clarified. She gestured. “Out with it, Natom!”

Natom coughed, gathering her nerves. “How long,” she asked, pausing. “How long have you been alive?”

N-ta weighed her options. Finally, she came to a realization. This would come out either way. Consigning herself to the consequences, she gathered her thoughts. “Who’s the oldest person you’ve known of?”

Both women pondered this. Finally, Bokol said, “Harat the elder lived to see sixty winters.”

At least five of his lifetimes,” N-ta stated.

Both women stopped their cutting and stared open-mouthed at her. “How did you come to be like this?” Natom asked.

“I was hunting with my tribe,” N-ta explained, “and I came across a wounded goblin. It died from its wounds, and I tasted its blood. For some reason, it didn’t kill me like it killed my brother who tried the same thing.”

Nothing got said for several seconds. After the sounds of meat being cut from the kill became awkward, Bokol said, “So, you’re stronger than a bear and have senses keen like a dog. Anything else?”

“There’s the magic she did,” Natom added.

“I don’t know,” N-ta pointed out. “I only know what I’ve shown.”

“What was that thing you killed?” Bokol asked.

“A ghoul,” N-ta said. “They can change shape to increase their ability to kill and they are incredibly agile.”

“Are there more?” Natom inquired.

“I guarantee it,” N-ta thought out loud. “I kill them whenever I find them.”

The men brought them four more kills, and they took their knives and began cleaning them. N-ta separated the pelt and the skin from the animal and began cutting the meat free, expertly avoiding the intestines and setting the meat aside. All in all, the ghoul’s arrival had spelled bad news for her. She imagined soon she’d have to leave this place behind. The stable periods in her life provided her with calm and peace of mind.

The problem was, after spending lifetimes alone, she craved the presence of people. Even those who found her to be a frightening thing to be run off gave her a sense of belonging. Unfortunately, being ageless had its problems. The tendency to fear her and ascribe evil intent annoyed her. From their limited point of view, it made sense. If, before she’d become like this, one of her tribesmen had revealed impossible things he could do, she’d probably feel the same way.

When the evening came around, she sat down for dinner after helping prepare the fires. The bread, vegetables and meat got served on stone plates to each person. She ate and noticed all the eyes would glance at her on occasion.

Ethas sat across from her. “Tell me,” he said, “do you think there are more of those things we fought?”

“I’m planning an expedition soon,” she told him. “I’m going to start making weapons for it.”

She spent the evenings focusing on her magic. The ghoul she’d killed had given off a specific magical feeling that she picked up on. When she focused on that feeling, she found she could “sense” others like it. Based on her grasp of the surrounding area, she guessed the nearest one would be two days’ walk away. Beyond that, they were faint enough that they would be a long journey to reach. The fact that there weren’t all that many of them gave her a sense of relief. The battles might be intense, but she wouldn’t have too many of them.

In the night, she stayed up late and carved spear tips and arrowheads for arrows. The leaves in this area didn’t provide the best fibers for stringing a bow, but she could make do with her magic. With her pile expanded, she retired for the night.

The next day, she approached the most respected warrior of the village.

“Nodir,” she asked, “Teach me how to fight.”

The men turned away from their spear practice to look at her. A nervous laugh came up. “Ahnta,” the graying warrior, still proudly muscled despite his years, implored, “we both know you can win.”

“All my life,” she explained, “I’ve been relying on overpowering an enemy. We all know I have…gifts. If I’m fighting an equal enemy, I’m in trouble.” She steeled herself in confidence. “We both know an enemy must exist capable of hurting me.”

He shrugged. “Very well.” He beckoned her to come within striking distance. She stood an arm reach away and adopted the stance he dropped into. “Hit me.”

She sprung forward at a human level and threw her right fist forward. He stepped to the side and watched the arm sail past him. He clasped a left hand on her right wrist, and the other on her shoulder, and he twisted. The momentum pulled her over him, and he rotated mid-twist to bring her crashing down, staring up, as he pulled back and threw a punch, stopping just short of her throat. “Wow,” she uttered.

“If your enemy is stronger than you or just as strong,” he advised, “use that against them.”

She stood up and assumed an attack position. She swung and he swiveled his torso aside the blow, pushed her elbow forward, then drove her to the ground with a straight arm blow to the chest. “What was that?” she asked.

“Speed is often the key to victory,” he advised.

After pulling herself off the ground, she adjusted her position. “What about if your enemy takes hold of you?”

“Let’s try,” he said. He motioned and she wrapped her hands around his throat. As she pushed forward, driving him back, he hopped, and drove his feet forward, impacting her abdomen and throwing her back. He landed on his upper back and kipped up to a stand.

“That’s…” She coughed as she spoke, shaking the landing off. “That’s impressive.”

“Grab me from behind,” he said, “and wrap your arms around me.”

She draped both arms around his waist. He mimicked a struggling captive. Before she knew what hit her, he kicked at her knee, causing her to bend over. He dropped to a crouch, grabbed her by the back of the head and under her leg, and flipped her overhead onto her back. “Your enemy must be in an advantageous position to defeat you. Don’t give him that chance.”

They spent the next few hours practicing combat. Nodir had trained young men in the art of combat, and they almost always took slowly to his lessons. Before the sun had peaked overhead, she was resisting his throws and strikes and parrying. Even with her gifts, he marveled at the speed of her learning. She was at an intermediate level by the time the afternoon came, and the men and women came back from the fields and forest for the evening dinner.

“Ahnta,” one of the young men said, gathering his meat and vegetables from the cooking pots, “will we be safe?”

“I will try to keep you safe,” she said, referring to everyone. She turned to the boy. “But I hope you don’t go seeking danger.”

As she ate, the upcoming battle weighed heavy on her mind. She hoped she’d be able to defeat the ghoul without sustaining casualties, but that was out of her control. If her idea as to where they came from—people who survived drinking goblin blood but in their disturbed state stopped eating—that meant some of them would have magic equal to her. Her only hope, she knew, was the possibility that they were too crazy to focus.

When the morning of the journey came, she exited her dwelling and grabbed her things. In the village square, she saw five middle-aged men and five young men.

“Nodir,” she said, “if you come with me, who will guard the town?”

The aging warrior grinned. “Ethas,” he said. “The man might not seem like it, but he’s one hell of a warrior.”

She nodded, then took a breath and let it out. “Okay,” she began. “We are up against a ghoul. The one we fought last time, we got lucky. I doubt this one will be so simple.” She waited for questions. No one spoke. “We are up against an enemy that can change shape. It may be strong as me or stronger. It may know we’re coming all the way from here, or we may have surprise. We simply don’t know.”

One young man tapped his spear against the ground. “I have a question,” he spoke. “Why are we doing this? It isn’t coming to us, is it?”

“Rakut!” Nodir chastised.

“No,” N-ta said, “he has a point. I will answer.” She gazed into his eyes, full of uncertainty and fear. “If there is an enemy this powerful, he will likely wander in search of more food as beasts learn to avoid the area around his dwelling.”

She swept her gaze around each of them. “Pay attention,” Nodir advised to them.

“We’re taking precautions,” she said. “We don’t want that thing around.”

The men seemed to accept this. They gathered their pouches, tools, and weapons, and began the multiple day march.

On the first day, they took a pathway down the mountain range and through a valley. By the time the sun began to go down, they hunted and had a decent meal. As the men ate, she focused and saw that the creature hadn’t moved from its location. It ventured out of whatever dwelling it had, traveled a circular path of about an hour’s walk, then returned to its dwelling. What she did notice, however, was the fact that it moved more today than the days past. The day before it walked more than the day previous.

It's growing restless, she realized.

Animals had predictable reactions. Beasts either ran or tried to attack. It was humans that provided exciting combat, and if it was anything like a human, it craved excitement. The most amazing hunting wouldn’t compare to such a creature.

“Is everything alright?” Nodir asked.

She nodded. “So far,” she said. “Tomorrow, we’ll make our way up the eastern path.”

“You’re trying to sneak up on it?” Nodir asked. He couldn’t imagine any other reason for trying to climb up a path difficult enough that only experienced climbers would try it.

“It’s the best way,” she stated. “Otherwise, we’re walking right towards it.”

They slept in shifts. She gave them the longest time sleeping, using magic to reinvigorate her mind. They buried the carcass just like she told them, so no beasts bothered them. None of the wolves came by. In the morning light, they woke, drank their water, and were off.

When they came to the enormous rock wall, she pressed her hands against the wall, and felt within. “Do you know the path up?” one warrior asked.

“I do,” she told them. “Place your hands exactly where I do.”

With their pouches tied around their waists, they watched as she ascended. She made it to the top in record time, as they expected. Much to her surprise, each warrior, regardless of age, did exactly as she instructed. They placed their hands and feet on rocks she knew would hold their weight. Nodir trained them well. At the top, she had them regroup before moving on. Only idiots, she knew, wandered off from the group.

The enemy remained within his area. They trekked until they found a potential campsite.

“We must be close,” Nodir pointed out.

“We are,” she agreed. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

“Is something different?” His voice cracked, although he tried to hide it. She looked and saw the fear in his eyes.

“He senses me,” she revealed.

One of the younger men swallowed hard, then gathered his nerves and asked, “how can you tell?”

She looked into his eyes. “Because I can hear him growling in my head.”

“How close?”

She held up a hand to stifle conversation. With a bit of focus, she could determine his exact position. “When we start walking tomorrow,” she said, “make sure you’re on absolute alert. You cannot afford to be lax.”

Starting the next morning, they awoke, buried all evidence of their camping, and moved at a glacial pace. Each step seemed to take ages. Following her advice, they wrapped their feet twice and stepped where the foliage would not crunch or snap underfoot. With spears held up and senses focused, they all felt a sense of foreboding as blood smears could be seen on trees and rocks. N-ta could feel their fear as she stepped.

“Graaahhh!”

One of the older men turned at just the right moment. The Ghoul, his long, gangly limbs stretching out for the length of a man’s height, grabbing the warrior’s shoulders like picking up a child, hoisted the warrior and slammed him hard against a three. The man let out a harsh, “Ough” as the wind was driven out of him. His spear, however, had been up just high enough to catch the creature through the shoulder.

Nodir leapt and drove his spear into the upper back of the creature, forcing it to howl in pain and drop the warrior. It turned, drove a backhand into the veteran fighter and sent him sailing across the field. Two loud pops echoed as the monster’s healing snapped the spears off. It turned to the group encircling it. Its mouth opened wide to let out a roar of anger and before a young man could let his spear fly, the monster burst forward with speed no man could hope to equal.

N-ta bounded forward, throwing her arm out and firing a ball of flame at the ghoul. The blast hit him square in his lanky chest and knocked him into the air. Its reach being so long, it grasped a man’s head and pulled, snapping the neck and launching the body upward.

“Rogun!”

“No! Stay put, you fool!”

N-ta’s warning came a moment too late. The young man dashed after his fallen brother, only to be sprung upon by the Ghoul the moment it landed. Its huge maw wrapped completely around the man’s neck and bit, causing a blood-curdling screech of agony followed by a crunching sound.

N-ta threw herself into the fray to avoid any further casualties. She knocked the creature free with the side of her spear and battered it with an uppercut that threw it skyward. On the way down, it caught her spear through its chest, which pinned it to a rock wall. She jumped and landed on the creature, battering it with chest blows and face punches.

“Graaawhhh!”

It let out an inhuman scream and brought a leg up, kicking her off it. Her body slammed into a tree, burying a branch deep in her side as she screamed and landed.

“Ahnta!”

“I’m fine!” she shouted, pointing.

It was too late, the creature was up, freed from her spear, and burst through the group, knocking them aside like loose sticks. With a grunt, she ripped the jagged branch out of her side and jammed it into the chest of the monster as it prepared to snack on a person. It clawed at her and slashed her abdomen open as she kicked at its face. Her wounds healed quickly and a satisfying crunch of its face bones proved to be temporary. It slapped her in the side, throwing her with impossible strength into a boulder.

Three spears caught it through the neck as it rounded on a group of warriors scrambling for position. Nodir and two others bore weight on its back, forcing it to kneel. It let out spurting gasps as it forced itself up, throwing the adult warriors off their feet. Within seconds, it had grasped the spears and yanked them free, the gaping holes in its neck closing.

A warrior smashed a large stone into its knee, breaking the leg. It came down and the same stone bashed the creature’s head in. “I did it!” the warrior shouted.

“Again!” N-ta shouted.

The warrior turned back to the creature and raised the stone for a second hit.

A huge hand, thrust like a spear, tore through his chest.

The group let out a cry of agony as the monster pulled to its feet, its shattered skull mending and knee popping back into place.

N-ta shot glances to Nodir and two others, pointing with her eyes.

The older warrior came at the creature with a rush. When it swung at him, he dropped to a roll, the claws slashing air above him. Rhutan came up from behind and jammed his knife under the armpit, slashing outward. Another spear came up and stabbed into the wound, spearing clear out the other side of the chest. Nodir came up and stabbed in the other side.

“Now!” Nodir shouted.

N-ta shot to her feet and began whispering.

“GRRRAAAAAHHHHH!”

The Ghoul let out a fierce roar as he shook. The warriors struggled to hold it steady.

“What are you waiting on?”

Red sigils painted themselves in light on her spear, and she let it fly.

Wood changed to dark metal as it left her hand. It sailed clear and straight.

It speared the creature through the center of its forehead. The warriors let go and dropped as the momentum carried the creature on, spearing into a rock wall.

“BURN!”

N-ta’s shout came a moment before a black flame engulfed the monster from the spear point outward. It let out a horrific cry as its flesh blackened and turned to ash. The stone spear tips fell as their wooden shafts vanished in the flames. The Ghoul gave one final agonized cry and was no more.

The warriors stared in amazement as they watched the creature die.

“Is it gone?” Nodir asked.

N-ta nodded. “It is dead,” she confirmed.

Three days later, they had returned to the village. Funeral rites were held, the dead buried in ceremony, and the ritual or remembrance meant they feasted and drank to the lives of warriors fallen.

“Eventually,” the elder said, “we would have spread out as our village grew in size. We would have encountered this monster without defense.” He gestured. “Thanks to Ahnta, who was not born here but is one of us, we can sleep more easily.”

They sang songs of victory in battle as cups were filled with drink. Meat got served on stone plates fresh from the fire and the mood was lively.

N-ta turned in to sleep as the fires began to die down and the crowd retired for the evening.

In a dwelling nearby, one of the warriors held a stub of a branch in his hand. He’d carried it all the way from the battle.

He touched the bloody tip to his tongue, and had to stifle a cry of pain as pricking sensations traveled down his body.

He looked to his arms and smiled.

The scabbed blood on his arms began to fall off, revealing healed skin beneath.