Layla Stone crouched at the edge of the grove and lifted her small lantern. Four days lost, maybe more. The thing that had shadowed her stood somewhere in the dark ahead. She had decided to stop running. She had decided to try to know it. She raised the lantern higher. Its weak light caught a shimmering trail on the moss, a pale ribbon winding toward a huge hollow tree. Something waited inside the split trunk. She could see only a shape, tall and still. "I'm not going to hurt you," Layla said. Her voice shook. She hated how small it sounded. She took one step onto the glowing trail. The lantern swung forward. Light slid across the hollow and finally caught the creature whole — a slender deer, violet and silver, with antlers like winter branches. Its eyes were bright white, and they were looking straight at her. Layla stopped breathing. The deer did not run. It did not charge. It lowered its head once, slowly, as if it had been waiting for her to finally see it. She lowered the lantern and stepped across the shining boundary.