Willow's Arc

Chapter 3 of 12

Willow found the tracks an hour past the ritual shack. Fresh claw marks cut through the mud in long gouges, each one deeper than her hand could reach. A trail of glittering scales scattered beside them, catching the morning light. She followed the trail west, expecting it to lead deeper into the swamp where the beast was supposed to be hiding. Instead, the marks curved back toward Serpent Village. The scales grew thicker near a weathered post topped with a bleached skull. Beyond it, the claw marks cut straight through the center of the village, past darkened huts and cold fire pits. Willow's chest tightened. The beast had been here. Not hiding in the deep marsh like the elders claimed, but walking through the village itself. She crouched beside a teal scale half-buried in the mud and picked it up. It felt warm in her palm. The trail ended at the cypress shrine where the elders held their councils. Fresh gouges marked the doorway. Willow stood and stared at the entrance. The beast had come here, to the place where the elders gave their orders. She thought of the lizard watching her from his porch, the spy who knew where the cult gathered. Maybe he wasn't the only one who knew things he shouldn't. Willow walked to the shrine's entrance and pushed the door open. Inside, the chamber stood empty except for a single pedestal in the center. On top of it sat a large diamond-shaped crystal, glowing with teal and azure light. Scales identical to the ones outside littered the floor around it. Willow stepped closer. The gem pulsed with each breath she took, as if it recognized her presence. She reached for it, then stopped. The elders had sent her to capture the beast, but they had never mentioned this. They had never said the beast came to the shrine, or that something like this existed here. She pulled her hand back and looked at the scales on the floor. The beast had been here, had touched this gem, and then left. It hadn't destroyed anything. It had simply visited and gone. Willow turned and walked out of the shrine. She wouldn't tell the elders about the gem. Not yet. She needed to know what they were hiding first, and why the beast they feared had walked freely through their most sacred place without harming a single thing. The trail continued past the shrine toward the water's edge. Willow followed it to a wrecked boat half-buried in the mud, its hull splintered and boards twisted at strange angles. Fresh claw marks gouged the wood in long tears. She circled the wreck and found more scales caught in the broken planks. Behind the boat, the trail ended at the water. No more tracks. No more scales. The beast had gone into the deep marsh after all, but not from where the elders said it lived. It had come through the village first, visited the shrine, and then returned to the water. Willow knelt and pressed her palm against one of the claw marks. The beast wasn't hiding from the cult. It knew exactly where they gathered, and it had chosen to walk past them without attacking. She stood and looked back toward the shrine. The elders had lied about where the beast was. They had sent her into the deep marsh when the creature had been in the village the whole time. Willow picked up her sack and started back toward her hut. She wouldn't hunt in the marsh today. She would watch the shrine instead, and wait to see if the beast came back.