Lori held the almanac in her hands as she kept it open for the hunter that she'd had Riz bring to the discussion after dinner. A new binding of lightwisps directly over the table shone down on the pages, since the man had said it was hard to see from where he was leaning over Shanalorre.

"That looks like the beast I saw, your Bindership," he said after studying the illustration. "I wondered what the things on its back were, but they might have been spines."

Colors and rainbows. "I see…" Lori said, having to restrain what she had initially wanted to say. "Spread the description among the others who will start looking for it tomorrow, and find me a place where I can trap it. The sooner we deal with this thing, the sooner things can go back to normal."

"I'll tell them, your Bindership," the hunter said.

"Great Binder…" what was his name—Lori checked her rock—Kolinh said hesitantly, "does the almanac have anything else to say about the beast?"

"The typhon beast," Lori corrected. "That's apparently what people have decided to call it. As to what it says…"

She outlined every terrifying detail about that had stuck with her. The knife-size teeth, the way it was four times heavier than a koncallos, how it apparently attacked primarily with its jaws, how other beasts avoided it, how they needed several wizards at a time to take one down…

"We'll have to forget any plans to deal with this using the militia," Lori said. "The information has forced me to conclude it wouldn't be viable."

"I concur, Great Binder," Kolinh said, while Riz nodded emphatically. "In fact, I would humbly request that you reconsider the plan to try and trap this beast—"

"Typhon beast," Lori corrected.

Kolinh paused for a moment, confused, before realizing what she as talking about. For a brief moment, she missed Rian so, so much. She hadn't realized just how quickly he managed to recover from her corrections. "Er, yes. I request you reconsider the plan to trap this typhon beast, Great Binder. While the lack of local hunting near River's Fork will make resupplying their stores difficult, we can adapt."

Shanalorre nodded as well. "According to our recorded food consumption rates that Lord Rian was tracking, the total of edible meat harvested from the seels you caught today should last for 88 days at our current rate of consumption, even if we are directly supporting River's Fork. We can comfortably take our time with the situation and wait for Lord Rian to return with other wizards."

Lori blinked. 88 days…? "Can you please explain the disparity between my efforts and our hunters?"

"Of course, Great Binder," Shanalorre said. "The demesne's hunting parties do normally not have the time or resources to harvest all the edible meat on the flesh of the beasts that they hunt because of the beasts' size and how the scent of their blood tends to draw other predatory beasts. The only times they have been able to do so is when the beasts in question are near enough to the borders of the demesne that their corpse can be moved within its borders before cleaning the carcass commences."

"Additionally, while every part of a seel can be butchered and harvested, it is not often that the seels caught are the size of the ones you seeled out of the river today. According to records and interviews I conducted today, even when the children were displaced from being the ones who did the seeling in the weeks before winter set in, they were not able to land seels of those sizes. The only other times the demesne has caught seels that big were when you yourself caught the seels."

…

Huh. She supposed she might have gotten a little overenthusiastic when seeling earlier.

Lori shook her head to reform her thoughts. Cancelling the attempt to trap and kill the typhon beast was an extremely tempting suggestion. She wouldn't have to put herself in danger, she wouldn't have to go outside of her demesne and work in the hot sun, she wouldn't have to run around trying to set up a binding near where an extremely large and dangerous beast roamed…

And the reason they needed to kill it was because it interfered with the hunting, right? If hunting wasn't a factor…

Lori frowned, and turned towards the hunter, who hadn't left yet. "Is a beast that has relocated the way this typhon beast has likely to settle down or relocate again?"

"I'm not familiar with this beast's specific habits, your Bindership," the hunter said, "but if other beasts avoid it as you say, then either it is not the sort to settle at a particular range for long, or it claims a territory and simply ranges far beyond it. It's the only way it would be able to feed itself. I don't know enough to say for sure, unless your book has it written down somewhere?"

Lori shook her head. That information hadn't been included in her almanac, at least in this edition. Either the research was still being compiled, it was research considered too dangerous to do at the moment, or the researcher had been eaten and their notes hadn't been recovered. All seemed very likely outcomes. "It doesn't say. However, from what you're saying, it's either a permanent problem, or a problem that will last several weeks, perhaps months, and will repeat unexpectedly as different typhon beasts include either of my demesne near their ranges."

The hunter grimaced, but nodded.

"Either is unacceptable. Such unexpected disruptions to our hunting will make properly supplying my demesnes difficult." While procrastinating was tempting, and an option in this instance, waiting wouldn't actually solve the problem. "Even if we could continue to survive if I did all the seeling, I have other things to do." Granted, she didn't really have anything at the moment, but once Rian returned with new people who would case new problems…

Surprisingly, the four opposite her all nodded with some degree of agreement.

"However, my little seeling detour has given us some margin for error, if I understand it correctly. So while we will be continuing the plan to trap and kill the typhon beast, unless circumstances change it need not be done immediately. I want the hunters to scout for the typhon beast's likely range as planned, but this time over the long term. Learn its habits, its behaviors, study it as safely as you can. Find out what you'd need to hunt if as if it were a smaller beast. Then you will report to myself and Rian, and we will find a way to deal with it and any other typhon beasts we might encounter in the future. We might not be killing it this week, but I certainly intend to kill it within the month."

The hunter frowned, looking thoughtful. "One of us would have to devote all our time to tracking it, your Bindership. No interruptions to hunt elsewhere, since that would cause us to lose sight of it."

"You can sort it out amongst yourselves," Lori said. "This is your area of expertise. Just tell Erzebed if it can be done or not, and what you need to do it properly, and she'll pass it on to me."

"But only until Rian gets back," Riz said.

Lori nodded. "But only until Rian returns."

The hunter gave a small smile. "Understood, your Bindership."

She waved a hand dismissively. "You are dismissed. Discuss this with your fellows and report to Kolinh as to the arrangements. Kolinh, deal with this until Rian gets back."

"Of course, Great Binder," he said.

Lori nodded. "Good. While we will be sending some of our older cold food to River's Fork, we will continue with the efforts to sustain the demesne with local resources. As such, seeling operations will continue as planned."

Kolinh and Shanalorre nodded, while Riz merely waited for more orders.

"If I may, Great Binder?" Kolinh began, and continued at Lori's nod, "with your permission, I will release some of our smoke and cured meat to the hunters. It will allow whoever will be tracking the b—" He hesitated. "—the typhon beast to carry the least weight while still having provisions."

Lori considered that, but had to admit she didn't really know much about such provisions. "If you think it best, then do so. We should have time before we need to provision the Coldhold again, in any case."

Kolinh nodded. "Beyond that, the meat we will be delivering tomorrow has been prepared, and young Karina's parents have given her leave to accompany us to River's Fork for the foreseeable future…"

The days passed. Lori made beads to restore their supplies as the hunting around demesne was temporarily put on hold for a few days until the walkways of the cold room were no longer occupied by meat.

One of the hunters—Lori didn't know who—had taken a supply of smoked and cured meat as he began to scout around beyond the borders of River's Fork Demesne. It was three days before Lori received word the hunter was still alive and was cautiously tracking the typhon beast. He reported that while it was hard to see because of the unfamiliar spines and the layer of Iridescence growing on the beast, the beast seemed to be physically irritable, confirming his initial report that the beast had burn injuries.

"He says its seems like the Iridescence is growing into the burns, which are aggravating them and causing the typhon beast pain," Riz reported. The hunter had apparently flagged down the day's boat on its way back to her demesne and had passed what he'd learned to the other hunter who'd been on the boat. "He also has a rough idea of where the beast likes to drink along the riverbank, but he needs a few more days to be sure."

"Is that safe?" Lori asked skeptically.

"No, but he probably knows what he's doing," Riz said. "He's been leaving markers along the river bank inside the demesne to let us know he's still alive, and they've arranged a signal for them to wait for him if he needs to resupply or to come back home."

"If I may, Great Binder?" Shanalorre said, and Lori turned her attention towards the subordinate Dungeon Binder. "I've been able to partially perceive the hunter in question through my core. At least, I assume it's him. I can only be sure if I concentrate on trying to perceive someone entering my demesne at the correct time of day. He has been sleeping inside the demesne at night, so he should have no worries about being overly exposed to the Iridescence. So far, I have not been able to discern any injuries beyond the minor irritation that daily exposure to the colors would cause."

Lori nodded, accepting the explanation. "Heal them if you think it's needed," she said.

The reports continued, and enough meat had been transferred to River's Fork—or smoked and cured—that it was safe to resume hunting for beast meat. By some unspoken agreement, no one went after the seels near them during that time, perhaps to give the fursh time to relax from the sudden loss of so many adults. A week passed.

Lori had been in the middle of testing the river water—the caustic taste was supposedly done, but she had to be sure before she converted the water hub shed back to normal operation, as well as possibly recover the bound tool components in the distiller in River's Fork—when Riz said, "Uh, Great Binder? The Lady Binder is here. She says she has news."

She looked up from the glass bowl she'd filled with river after from a ladle. The binding to slowly turn the water into vapor was already finished, waiting to be activated. Carefully, she picked up the bowl and set it to one side so it couldn't be accidentally kicked or roll into the river, where it would be nearly impossible to get back. "What is the matter?" she said, turning towards the other Dungeon Binder.

"Several people just entered River's Fork from downriver," Shanalorre said.

Lori considered that, and nodded. "Erzebed, get the boat ready," she ordered. "And an escort."

"Yes, Great Binder!"

She picked up the bowl and dumped out the water. This could be done later. Right now, she had to see if her lord was back.

But after she properly stored her glassware back in her room.