Erickson’s family focused on raising cattle on their farm. As such, a fence encompassed the majority of their land. There wasn’t space between that fence and the first line of trees in the forest. Only about a meter and a half or two meters. A thin, worn stretch of hard pressed dirt filled in the gap between the two. It was just wide enough for a small cart and horse to pass in order to fix the fence when the cows broke boards and posts.

I knew that the beast’s tracks had been seen somewhere near here. Both Father and Andrew had known about them so I kept my eyes on the ground. Looking for anything that resembled a giant creature. So far the only thing that really stuck out on the trail were the deep ruts of cart wheels, horse hooves, and human foot prints from hundreds of treks down the path. It hadn’t been that long since the creature’s tracks had been found. They couldn’t have disappeared already! They had to be around somewhere.

Around the time the bend in the fence came into view and I started to feel frustration and disappointment start to edge in, that was when I found them.

Father had told me that the tracks were twice the size of a bear’s. I’d never seen a bear before though. They didn’t frequent the Edirk Forest. However, I got the distinct feeling that Father either meant a very big bear or no one in town truly understood what kind of comparison they were drawing. The prints vaguely resembled the bear shape that I’d seen in some of my school books; however, they were too large to be a bear. Far too large.

My foot easily fit within the tracks of whatever this beast was. And then some. One foot and both my hands to be exact. I bent over and tried it myself just to be sure. The length of the claws on the front limb measured more than two of my own longest fingers.

“Sealdír’s bones,” I swore under my breath as I looked up from my hunched position. The next print, from what I thought was the opposite foot, lay nearly at the other end of the path, just shy of the first grouping of trees. I nearly tripped over a rock as I rushed to find the next set of prints. They lay nearly four meters away! Stamped into the ground, at the bottom of a tree.

I’d seen enough animal tracks to know what a stride was. The distance they covered between one step and the next. Pigs had relatively short strides because they had short, stubby, little legs. Couldn’t cover much ground with those. Horses, while clearly larger animals, couldn’t even begin to compare.

I made my way to the next footprint, skirting around the edges of it as though it might somehow summon the beast that had made it. My eyes nearly immediately traced that same invisible line into the forest, looking for the next print. I couldn’t see it. The forest brush quickly became too thick and tall.

Maybe I could see it better if I went in.

I braced my hand up against a tree, fingers curling into the bark.

Father explicitly warned me to stay out of the forest.

He explicitly warned me not to do a lot of things. Don’t go to the inner circle without being invited. Don’t go to parties at the mayoral manse. Lena, don’t speak out of turn at school. Lena, don’t share your ridiculous ideas with others at the market. You can’t make a fool of yourself. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Stop trying to ignore your fate.

All of those things he explicitly warned me against. All of those things I did anyways.

So why not one more? Why not go into the forest? Yes Father was only trying to do what he thought best for me, but I think at this point in my life I can figure that out for myself. No one was there to stop me.

I squared my shoulders and pushed into the first line of trees.

They grew sparsely at first. A person could easily walk between the trees and see through the gaps. However, after the first ten to fifteen meters, the gaps became smaller and tighter. Roots rose up into the space between on the ground, creating perilous tripping hazards. Even further beyond it became impossible to figure out where one clump of trees ended and the next began. The smell of greenery, water, and soil was rich here. Richer than most of a farm’s fields. Birds sang and small animals darted from branch to branch above my head.

I followed the tracks as best I could with them being pressed under the thick ferns and mass of ivy. They seemed to quickly disappear into the foliage and I struggled to find them. I bit my lip. It hadn’t been that long since the beast’s footprints had been seen and I didn’t think that they would weather away as quickly as the ones on the open trail. “Tracks don’t just disappear that quickly… right?” I mumbled to myself as I backtracked for what felt like the thirtieth time since I’d started out.

I leaned up against a tree and looked around. What would a ranger like Aust do?

Think like a ranger. Think like a ranger.

The distance between the footprints! I’d measured it! So long as the beast was traveling at the same general speed, it’s stride would most likely stay the same. Perhaps not the most accurate of ways to track but it was a start. I made a mental note to ask Aust about the easiest way to track an animal through dense forest when I caught up to him as I made my way back to the place I’d last found a clear track.

Counting my steps from one print to the next helped. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. And nearly seven. Poke around. Move some ferns with a stick. Get closer to the ground. Find the track. Repeat the process.

I got fairly far. Until the path suddenly had a tree growing out of the middle of it and I couldn’t continue on in that line. “Shite…” I mumbled under my breath.

Back to the last print I’d found and try another line. At least nearly running into the tree only happened once. I tried to pay better attention to them and where they were at after that. There were other times that I had to backtrack too simply because I got to the place the next track was supposed to be and it just wasn’t there.

The beast, it seemed, had wound it’s way through the trees in the same way that a river meandered across the land. Like an underaged student who’d had too much hard ale to drink at Pamela Morris’s not so well kept secret barn dances.

I walked deeper into the forest with my eyes trained on the ground. Every so often there were a few wayward rabbit tracks mixed with some deer tracks, though none that looked to be as large as Dílis. Not that I truly looked very hard for anything that could be Dílis or Aust. However, I did hope that I was at least catching up to them. I also found some kind of track that I thought might belong to a wild hog. They were giant, cloven hoofed things that cut deep into the ground. That matched up with what I saw some hunters bring to town from time to time and were incredibly similar to the pigs Father and I raised.

The wild hog tracks grew a little more prevalent as I walked. Didn’t know how old they were but just like I’d done with the beast, I started to pick up on which way they were headed. Consequently, the same way the beast seemed to be moving. Maybe the hog had been the beast’s meal? Something with claws that big definitely hunted. I was sure of it.

I looked up for all of two seconds into a small clearing among the trees. In that handful of seconds, my foot hit something covered in half rotted leaves and darkened pine needles. “Oh shite!” I yelped as I hit the ground hard.

My voice reverberated off the trees back at me. Taunting as I rolled over on to my back and grit my teeth through the pain. I sat up and, for the first time in awhile, actually took note of my surroundings. Somehow, I’d managed to find a small clearing in the forest. The ring of dense trees suddenly stopped in a neat little circle. Sunlight filtered through the branches to create a dappled pattern on the ground. Lush bright green ferns grew on top of nutrient rich decaying leaves. I rubbed my aching foot, and threw my hand out to the side. The offending tree root sat innocuously at my side under a fern frond looking innocent to the throbbing pain in my foot. That wasn’t the only thing I saw though. “Holy hells!”

Hidden under the greenery and nearly blended in with the dark brown of the dead leaves and splashed up against the tree roots was a dark stain. It looked a lot like the ones found around the butcher’s block at his shop. Dried blood. And a lot of it too. I could tell that much even though the soil around the tree was darker and wetter. That had to be from a fatal wound. It was impossible for a creature to survive that much blood loss. What really caught my eye were the long and jagged marks marring the dirt and bark around the blood. Something razor sharp had cleaved straight trough the roots at the base of the tree.

Yes, definitely a fatal wound then.

I climbed and looked around. No signs of any sort of animal carcass. However, what I did see were the same large slash marks on the tree trunks that were also near the ground. They were high, high up off the ground. I reached up and was only just able to touch the gashes with my fingertips. I stretched my fingers over them.

Whatever had left them had broken through the bark entirely and into the grain of wood. It had splintered into small slivers. Four of them with enough space between that I had to spread my fingers out to their widest, almost painful, possible point in order to touch all of them at once.

All things considered I hadn’t done half bad. Excitement pulled through me. No. I hadn’t done that bad at all. I’d found the trail, followed it, and found definite signs of the beast’s presence. That was more than what most people would’ve expected from me. More than what Father would’ve expected. A smile crept on to my face as I glanced around at the other trees.

My smile almost immediately fell.

On the other tree, across the clearing, the marks were even higher up. I couldn’t even jump that high! “What is this thing?” I whispered, brushing the deep marks.

Snap!

A branch broke behind me and my heart shot into my throat. I nearly lost my balance as I turned about, hand flying out behind me to brace against the tree.

Standing a handful of meters away from me was Aust. His arms were crossed over his chest as he stared me down with narrowed eyes.

“What, pray tell, are you doing here?”