Renni Ashfire's Arc

Chapter 3 of 12

Renni had taken three steps from the camp when the sound stopped her. A dry click behind her, like a stone tapped on a stone. She turned. The stacked bones beside the minotaur's skull were moving. They shifted one at a time. A rib slid. A small skull rolled. The pile breathed. Renni drew her blade and backed against the cave wall. The beast had not left this kill. It had been here the whole time, folded inside its own trophy. A shape rose from the bones. Long, low, wrong. It wore the minotaur's blue-shimmer horns lashed to its own skull with strips of hide. Six smaller piles around the clearing trembled as it stood, each one a different beast it had buried under itself. Above, a rope strung between two trunks swung gently, hung with old skulls she had not seen in the dark. Renni did not run. Running was how the others had died. She set her boots and waited for it to close the distance. It came fast. She ducked the horns and drove her blade up into the soft place under its jaw. The thing screamed and threw her against the stone. Her ribs cracked. Her blade stayed in. It staggered back, blood black in the dim light, and crashed into the stacked skulls. Bones scattered. From the brush behind her, a small white shape bolted past — a young satyr, half-grown, eyes wide — and vanished into the trees. The beast did not chase it. It looked at Renni. Then it turned and dragged itself into a stone-mouthed den she had not seen, sealed itself behind a slab, and went quiet. Renni stood alone in the clearing, one hand pressed to her side. Her blade was gone. The beast was wounded, named, and walled in. She knew now where it slept. She also knew she could not finish it tonight.