Felix Brightwood wanted to make friends with the beast that scared all of Oozebloom. No one else did. They locked their doors when the tavern talk turned to the rogue creature in the hills. Felix just grinned and packed a bag. The problem was simple. He had only heard rumors. He didn't know where the beast lived. He could walk for a week and find nothing but wet boots. "You'll get lost," his mother said. She stood on the porch of their small cottage, arms crossed, a smudge of flour on her cheek. "So I'm coming with you. Someone has to keep you fed." Felix hugged her. Then his bright orange cat wove between his ankles, tail high, strange glowing lines flickering across its fur. "Loki's coming too," Felix said. "He always knows where things are." But a cat and a cheerful mother weren't enough. Felix needed someone who had actually seen the beast. In the whole town, only one person had. They climbed the hill to the fancy manor at the edge of Oozebloom. Gareth Thornwood answered the door before Felix knocked twice. He was old and broad, with a gray beast, scars on his arms, and a belt strung with old fangs. He looked Felix up and down like prey. "Beast hunters don't help beast lovers, boy." "I don't want to hunt it," Felix said. "I want to be its friend." Gareth barked a laugh. Then he saw the cat's glowing marks and stopped. "That thing. Where'd you get it?" "He found me," Felix said. Gareth stared a long moment. His hard face softened, just a little. "I tracked that beast for twenty years. Never landed a blow. Never wanted to, near the end." He rubbed his beard. "I know its den. North, past the split rock, behind the old falls. But nobody walks in and walks out." "Then walk in with us," Felix said. "So we don't get lost." Gareth looked at the boy, the mother, the alien cat. Something old and tired lifted off him. He grabbed a coat from a hook. "Fine. One last trip to that den. But when it eats you, I said so first." They walked two days. Loki led, glowing brighter as they neared the falls. Behind the water sat a dark cave mouth, ringed with strange star-speckled plants that shimmered like the cat's fur. Felix stepped inside. A deep voice rumbled from the shadows. "Company. Finally." Felix froze. The beast was huge, but its eyes were kind, and it was smiling. "Do you know," it said, leaning close, "how long it's been since anyone said hello?" Felix grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. "Hi. I'm Felix." The rumor was solved. The den was found. And the beast, it turned out, only ever wanted to talk. But talk led to a new problem. As the creature spoke, its huge tail knocked loose a stone. Deep in the cave, something else stirred, and it was not friendly.

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."