Shade reveled in the darkness, moving silently and unseen—a perfect advantage when hunting agile prey. Tonight’s quarry was larger than what he usually chased, much bigger than the tastier morsels Katherine sometimes offered him. Shade’s senses told him the creature was blind, making it an easy target. He launched himself forward, claws and fangs bared, digging into the vulnerable flesh between thick plates of armor. The thrill of the hunt pulsed through him as he tried to bring down his prize. Through their bond, Shade sensed Katherine’s emotions echoing—her anxiety mingling with his excitement. He’d felt this connection before, and though it was familiar, he knew she would call him if she needed him. Then, everything changed in an instant.

  At first, the darkness wrapped Shade like a comforting cloak, hiding his every movement and breath. Muscles taut, he pressed against his unsuspecting prey, claws buried deep, the coppery scent of blood sharp in his nose. The creature bucked and thrashed, but Shade’s spectral body blurred with each frantic motion, making him difficult to catch. The hunt dominated his senses, fueled by Katherine’s distant worry. Suddenly, the prey’s movements turned purposeful; with a guttural roar, it rolled to the side and flung Shade off like a ragdoll. Pain lanced through him as jagged limbs raked his flank, burning where fur was torn away. Shade landed hard, paws sliding on slick ground. A tail whipped around, striking his chest and knocking the breath from his lungs. In a heartbeat, Shade realized he was no longer the hunter—the armored creature glinted with menace, every motion radiating lethal intent. Panic, sharp and unfamiliar, surged through him as he scrambled to his feet, the thrill of pursuit now edged with primal fear.

  A guttural roar thundered through the air, a voice Shade recognized instantly—a commanding shout he’d come to know well this past week. Relief swept over him; this time, Katherine’s anger wasn’t meant for him.

  Katherine appeared in Shade’s blurred vision, her presence unmistakable even in his haze of pain. He tried to stand, but his forelegs refused to obey. As she knelt beside him, Katherine’s words cut through the chaos: “Be a good boy, Shade. Stay down. I’ll handle this.” Even as she spoke, Shade felt her aura wrap around him like a protective blanket, a gentle shield against pain and fear, while she turned her attention to the beast he’d been hunting.

  ...

  Katherine spotted Shade first, and her stomach dropped at the sight. Blood matted his flank where a jagged gash split his fur. His chest looked oddly flattened, and he seemed barely conscious—his movements were sluggish, almost mechanical. As Shade struggled to rise, Katherine heard the sickening grind of broken bones in his forelegs. “Be a good boy, Shade,” she said—her voice gentle but firm, urging him not to make his injuries worse.

  Her gaze shifted to the creature he’d tangled with: an enormous lizard, its body encased in thick armor plates beneath scaled skin. Katherine gripped the kitchen knife, frustration gnawing at her. “Great, this is going to be hard,” she muttered. “A hammer would be better for this.”

  The beast writhed, agitated by Shade’s attack. Katherine noticed the lack of eyes on its head—Shade must have assumed it was blind. But the tail was the real danger: heavy, ending in a mace-like bulb that promised serious harm if she let her guard down.

  Her adrenaline surged as she sprang onto the reptile’s back, stabbing desperately, trying to find some vulnerable spot beneath its armored hide. Pain radiated through her hand—she couldn’t tell if it was her own blood or the creature’s pooling beneath her palm. Her heart hammered against her ribs, fear and worry for Shade sharpening every sense. The beast bucked wildly, thrashing like a rodeo bull from old videos she’d watched, its tail lashing out and slamming into her with bone-jarring force. A foul, acidic stench filled the air, making her eyes water and sending panic clawing at her throat. Still, she pressed on, determined not to let Shade down. With a surge of desperate energy, Katherine plunged her hand into the creature’s neck, searching for anything vital to end the fight.

  She found something that felt bone, segmented like a spine. She gave a hard yank. The segment she pulled on didn’t budge, did cause reptilian howl. Katherine drove the tip of the blade into one of the joints using the flat of the blade to pry at the vertebrae. The tip of the blade snapped causing Katherine to slice off her thumb making her loose her grip. She fell on her back and lost all the wind in her lungs. Shade cried out forcing himself to move to protect Katherine even in the dark she knew his breathing was labored. Shade didn’t listen to his body or Katherine screams as she told him to stop making his injuries worse as he made one last attempt to bring down his food.

  Using what was possibly the last of his strength he leapt. He never made as his prey’s tail struck him in the chest. He let out a yelp as his body was slammed against a tree, he fell to the ground motionless as if the life he once held had aready left him.

  Katherine’s scream filled the surrounding woods as if she has become a banshee. The quest window that blocked her view of Shade told her that he might not last.

  Quest: Survival of the Fittest

  The condition of yourself and your familiar is on the edge of cause your soul irreversible damage. Complete your familiar’s hunt and get him to aid to before he passes. Happy hunting!

  Objective:

  Kill One Unknown Monster (0/1)

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  Heal Familiar [Shade] (0/1)

  Don’t Die (0/2)

  Reading that her blood ran cold as ice. The burning sensation of the acid from Shade’s meal stopped hurting. All sounds stopped; all she heard was the frantic war drum beat of her own heart. She was in the process of getting up when Shade had been brutal thrown into a tree to succumb to gravity. Katherine felt a shell around herself breaking into a million pieces. Her reasoning started to slip. She tried to calm herself down to see a plausible way to get both her and Shade to safety. Unfortunately, Shade’s limp body was on the otherside of the creature he decided to hunt and very agitated.

  “Fuck it,” Katherine whispered, getting to her feet before raging like a wild animal using her hands to rip and tare the monster’s scored and bleeding flesh. Shade may have provoked the beast; the beast had also provoked Katherine. She had been waiting patiently for that ’wish a mother fucker would’ moment. Unfortunately, at Shade’s expense this was the catalyst.

  The monster roared and thrashed at Katherine’s assault even trying to throw her off again when climbed on it back again. This time she used her whole-body to thrust the segment of bone out of the creature’s neck using her legs to pry open the wound as her arms and hands pulled on the piece of bone. It worked with a few primal sounding grunts as the piece came out with a few pops, but the creature didn’t die as she expected.

  To her annoyance the single piece of vertebrae started to grow back. “Fuck,” Katherine swore knowing Shade like didn’t have much time.

  Her rage fueled her ferocity in attacking the beast who had hurt her familiar. She gabbed at rubbery calcified sinew hoping they were tendons or if luck shine down on her the spinal cord. Katheirne movements were keeping her body warm in the night air. Steam rolled off Katherine as her bloodlust filled her mind. Her hands started to glow as did the arrival of the smell of cooking meat making her salivate.

  The first strand broke then another, the heat Katherine was pouring out of herself became inhuman. Then, Katherine got off as quickly as she got on, but not of her will, by the force of the monster’s bulbous spiked tail as it hit her right side.

  Pian flooded Katherine taking her out of her blinding rage. Katherine could feel her injuries: A broken arm, gored lung, a bruised if not broken ribs. She sat limp as she coughed and spluttered blood covering the bottom portion of her mouth as her lung tried to evacuate the blood that kept filling it.

  Believing it was her final moments again. Katherine said her final words before passing out from shock. “Shade, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you,” Katherine murmured in a sorrowful tone that Shade’s unconscious form couldn’t hear nor could Katherine herself hear her words as darkness took her.

  ...

  Lira had been studying in her ritual room—not practicing witchcraft this time but honing her swordsmanship. She moved with careful precision, using her own shadow as an imaginary opponent. Finishing her practice, Lira wiped sweat from her brow and prepared to leave the room, hoping a little rest would ease her tired muscles.

  On her way to the main house, Lira passed the pyreling stable. The pyrelings were usually just mountable shapes of living flame, their glow a familiar presence in the night. Tonight, though, blinding brightness poured out from the building—so intense it made her squint and shield her eyes. Confused, she paused, a knot of unease tightening in her stomach.

  That was when she felt it: the faint but insistent tug of her protective charm, the one she had crafted to monitor Katherine’s well-being from afar. The charm’s sudden weight sent a jolt of anxiety through her, icy and immediate. Something was wrong—deeply wrong.

  Panic rising, Lira broke into a run, her boots pounding the path as she headed toward the worker’s dorms. She knew Roland would likely be drunk—if not already asleep—but she needed his help. Her mind raced with possibilities, each more dire than the last. She reached the door and banged on it with urgency, her voice cracking as she shouted, “ROLAND!”

  Instead, it was Roland’s daughter, Abbie, who answered—sleepy and confused. Lira barely paused, pushing her way inside, heart hammering in her chest. “Where’s your father?” she demanded.

  “He just went to bed a few minutes ago, young mistress,” Abbie stammered, taken aback by Lira’s frantic manner.

  Trying to steady herself, Lira scanned the kitchen as she hurried toward the living quarters. The sight of an empty space in the butcher’s block—a missing large knife—sent a chill through her. Oh no. A sinking dread filled her as she muttered, “No, no, no, Katherine, don’t do what I think you did,” and rushed faster to Roland’s room, every sense on high alert.

  Lira turned to Abbie all pretense of politeness, at least what was left of it was now off the table. Time was not going to be her friend tonight. “Go get your father, NOW!” Lira ordered.

  Abbie skittered off to go get him. It wasn’t long before she heard flesh slapping flesh as Lira quickly did a spell to find where Katherine ran off too.

  Roland came into the kitchen as Lira’s spell was homing in on where Katherine would be.

  In the bowl of water Lira made to see Katherine, her heart sank. Katherine was bloody and unmoving. Lira tried to adjust the image to see want she and possible Roland would be getting into. “Oh, gods," Lira gasped, her hand covering her mouth.

  The image panned to show an agitated but injured Lesser Forest Drake. The picture made worse by Shade’s condition. He looked worse than Katherine and was probably already dead by the way the extent of his injuries looked without being there.

  “Prep, the pyrelings we need two,” Lira quick, demanded before turning to explain her reason. “Shade encountered a lesser forest drake, probably when he was given time to hunt. Katherine went after him.”

  Roland ran off before the explanation had ended Only hearing the basic of what Lira wanted.

  Lira turned to Abbie. “Go to the main house and get the healers they're going to earn their pay tonight,” she ordered before following Roland.

  At the stable Roland had somewhat listened to her orders. As Lira approached, he handed her a set of gloves. “If all you said was true, we don’t have time for me to get saddles,” he explained quickly.

  “Then, why did you grab a third?” Lira asked as she tried to get on the closest mount.

  “I didn’t,” Roland countered. “It’s volunteering. It won’t go back in the stable.”

  The third mount in question was the same blue pyreling that had tried to form a pact with Katherine on their first meeting. The fact that it was glowing brighter than the others, now probably the reason for the access of the brighter light. As soon as Roland was his mount. The smaller and brighter pyreling took off before the others could so.

  “What is with that one?” Roland remarked about the strange pyreling as it took off towards the direction of where had seen Katherine was.