Ghost of Madrigal Thornwhisper's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The storehouse floor gave way with a sound like splitting bone. Madrigal watched the oak boards buckle and drop into the dark below. Dust rose in a thick cloud. The clans scrambled back from the new pit. Below, the bronze door lay shattered against broken stone. Something moved in the shadows of the temple chamber. Madrigal counted three breaths before she heard the claws scrape against rock. The seal was broken. The creature was loose. It came up fast. A clawed limb hooked the broken floor and hauled a body through. Wood snapped. Stone cracked. The storehouse split down the middle, walls leaning away like a hand pulled in two. Madrigal drifted upward through the ruin and saw it clearly for one breath — gray hide, long jaw, eyes that held no thought she could name. Then it was past her, crashing through the trees beyond. She heard a heartwood tree groan and fall. The trunk struck the ground hard enough to shake the dust from her form. Madrigal followed the broken trail. The fallen log lay across the path, bark gouged with claw marks deeper than her hand. Beyond it, branches snapped further into the forest — toward the deeper woods, toward the oldest oak. The clans gathered behind her at the ruined storehouse, faces pale. She turned to them. "It is loose," she said. "And it is running into the trees." The seal had failed. Now there was a new hunt, and she knew exactly where it was headed. She pushed ahead through the broken brush. The prints came clear in a patch of soft earth — two huge feet, each claw sunk deep, dirt thrown back in heavy clumps. Madrigal knelt beside them. The stride was long. The weight was great. It moved faster than any of the clans could run. She counted the paces and did the math she always did. One day, maybe less, before it reached the oldest oak. Behind her, the elf with the staff caught up, breath ragged. The sprite and the gnome followed. Madrigal stood and pointed down the trail of crushed ferns. "We chase it now," she said, "or we lose the heart of the forest by morning." The clans nodded. The hunt began.