Felix Brightwood's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The thing between Felix and the beast rose from the dark. It had too many legs and no face Felix could name. It moved fast, hugging the cave wall, sliding between him and the kind creature he came to meet. If he stood still, it would reach him first. "Don't run," Gareth said behind him. The old hunter had drawn a knife, but he wasn't lunging. He held his ground, eyes fixed on the crawling shape. "Run and it chases. That's what it wants." Felix's legs shook. Every part of him screamed to bolt back through the falls. Gareth's hand closed hard on his shoulder. "Scared?" Gareth said. "Good. Scared keeps you slow. Slow keeps you thinking." He nodded at the cat weaving around Felix's ankles. "Look at your cat, boy." Loki wasn't hissing. The orange cat sat calm, and his glowing lines pulsed brighter, throwing blue and green light across the stone. The crawling thing paused. Its legs twitched toward the light like it hurt. Felix understood. He grabbed a fistful of the star-speckled plants ringing the cave mouth. They shimmered the same way Loki did. He tore a bundle loose and held it out. "It hates the shine," Felix said. "The falls kept it in the dark. That's why it slept until we came." "Maybe," Gareth said. "Test it. Don't bet your life on maybe." Felix threw the glowing plant. It landed between him and the creature. The thing reared back, legs scrabbling, and skittered away from the light. Felix's heart pounded. He grabbed more, pressing the leaves against Loki's fur. The cat flared brighter still, and the whole cave lit up cold and blue. The creature shrieked. It threw itself at the deepest crack in the floor, folding its legs, squeezing down into the black. In seconds it was gone. The scrabbling faded below them. Behind Felix, the great beast let out a slow breath. "It has always been down there," it rumbled. "Under me. I never knew what woke it." "We did," Felix said. "We're sorry." Gareth wiped his knife and stared at the crack in the floor. He didn't sheath the blade. "It didn't die. It hid." He looked at Felix, then at the glowing cat, and something worked behind his tired eyes. "That plant. That light. Your cat." He said each word slow. "It ran from all three." Felix knelt and hugged Loki. The beast smiled down at him, safe again, ready to talk. Felix had faced the thing and won a first small victory. But the creature hadn't left the den. It had gone deeper, into tunnels no one had mapped, tunnels that ran under all of Oozebloom. And now it knew Felix's face, and it knew the light that hurt it. Gareth said the words plain. "You didn't beat it, boy. You taught it to hide from us."