Aust didn’t move. He didn’t even blink. Behind him I saw Dílis poke his head through the foliage. He blinked and tilted his head. Wow. He acted so intelligently. It was a bit unnerving. “Well… I’m waiting. What are you doing here?”

“Um…” I floundered, “I, uh… I wanted to help you look for the beast.”

“Help me look for the beast?” Aust repeated, drawing my attention back to him.

I nodded enthusiastically.

Aust stared at me rather blankly. Then, he let out a deep groan and pressed his hand to his forehead. “If my memory hasn’t failed me then I’m fairly certain that I told you this was a dangerous task.”

“You did say that but I thought maybe… well maybe I could be of some more assistance to you. I noticed that you started at the place I told you about. That’s something isn’t it?”

“You weren’t the only one who mentioned tracks around the Erickson farmstead.” Aust told me bluntly.

“Oh…”

It was like someone had kicked all the air out of my lungs. I looked at the ground. Here I’d thought that I actually done a good job. That I’d actually found something meaningful.

“How did you even find your way here?”

Without thinking about it, I thrust my finger out and pointed at the direction of the beast’s tracks. I couldn’t bring myself to look up at him either. “I followed the tracks.”

“You followed the creature’s tracks through thick forest and dense undergrowth?” He sounded—

Surprised?

My head snapped up. Aust’s mouth hung open a little bit as followed the direction of my pointing. He closed it again so quickly that if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that it his shock had only been my imagination. “That is…” Aust paused like he was trying to find the words, “That is quite the feat.”

“I felt pretty good about it myself,” I shrugged. I squared my shoulders and stood a little taller as some of my pride came back to me.

Aust nodded at me. “You deserve a fair bit of credit undoubtedly. How in the gods’ realm did you get this far?” he said the last part more to himself than to me.

However, I still answered, unable to keep a bright smile off my face.

“Well,” I said as I tossed my braid over my shoulder, “I just thought like a ranger and here I am.”

Aust crossed the clearing to stand at the last really clear spot of tracks. I quickly followed him. “This trail is more than a day old and the conditions are less than optimal!”

“I figured as much. But I found enough of a path to know which way the beast headed in general at the very least. And I was right! Look at these slash marks! And the blood on the ground. Something died here, maybe a wild boar that the beast was hunting…” I pointed to each thing in turn.

Aust followed my hand. I found it hard to read the tight expression on his face. For a very brief moment, he almost looked like he wanted to nod at me, since his head tilted in that way, but then he covered his mouth with his hand. When he removed it, his lips were pressed together in a tight line. “More observant than that Erickson person I spoke with earlier I see,” he pointed out simply.

“Not bad for someone you didn’t think would have limited experience?” I hedged. I folded my hands behind my back and rocked back on my heels.

His lips turned slightly upwards in the barest hint of a smile. “Indeed little one.”

I pumped my fist in the air at my hip, hopping a little bit too.

Aust’s eyebrow shot up. “You shouldn’t have come here. You do understand that don’t you?”

And just like that all my excitement sapped out of me. I fell still, staring at Aust with a fixed gaze. “And why not?” I challenged, folding my arms over my chest.

Aust sighed and said, “Let me ask you a few things then. You saw the creature’s tracks. How big do you think it is?”

He stepped up to the tree where the slash marks lay. Though they were high up, Aust didn’t have to stand on his tiptoes to brush his fingers over them like I did. Then again he was clearly taller than me at 180 centimeters. However, the slash marks on the other tree were still way over his head.

“Um—” I shrugged, “Very?”

“To give you some perspective, it’s larger than anything I’ve ever come across before. Much larger if I’m being completely clandestine.”

Aust stepped away from the tree and came to stand in front of me. The way he stared unblinkingly at me made me shift nervously. Father looked at me that way sometimes. When he thought I’d done something unbelievably stupid. I pressed my lips together to keep myself from saying anything that would irritate him. “Now tell me Lena, with the evidence around you. The size and shape of the tracks. The depth of the cuts on the trees. The blood spilled on the ground… What does that tell you?”

“That it has big claws to go along with it’s massive size.” I suggested.

“And?” Aust prompted. Apparently not the right answer in his mind then.

“That it’s probably carnivorous?”

“And?”

I paused, completely lost. I had zero idea what Aust was trying to get at. Finally, I just shook my head.

Aust shook his head and dropped down to run his hand over the dried blood on the ground. “You miss the very obvious. That this creature is dangerous.”

I blew out a breath and relaxed. Even laughed a little. “I thought that was a given.”

Aust’s head snapped up. My laugh died in my throat when I saw his glare. “I think you fail to understand just how dangerous.” He told me. “Did you notice the wild boar tracks?”

“Yes…”

“Did you know that wild boars aren’t exactly known for their charming personalities?”

“Father and I raise pigs. They aren’t exactly friendly either.”

“The wild ones are even more so. They’ve killed kings and knights in the past. Maimed for life even more. Judging by the size of this boar’s tracks, it was not a small creature and if you look at this separate trail of blood here, you’ll know that it didn’t die without a fight.”

Without realizing it, I’d drifted closer to where Aust was kneeling. He didn’t seem to mind terribly that I was standing so close to him so I got down on my knees too. The patch of blood he’d drawn my attention to was much smaller than the one at the base of the tree. Not only was there blood but just a few centimeters away from it were the boar’s large hoof prints. However, they were different from the ones I’d seen beforehand. It looked as though something had dragged the animal across the ground, making it’s prints appear enlongated and uneven. That is until they abruptly ended. Not far from those tracks was a tuft of silver fur. Aust picked it up and held in front of his face. I scooted closer to see it too.

“That’s from the beast,” I murmured.

Aust leaned away from me. “It is. Now tell me what you would’ve done if you’d come across it? A beast that you openly acknowledge as dangerous.”

“I…I hadn’t thought about that.”

“I’d thought as much. As well intentioned as you are Lena Rivers, you do not hold the skills necessary to contend with such a creature.”

I pressed my lips into a tight thin line and stared at the ground. He wasn’t wrong. Didn’t mean that I had to agree with him though. Aust rose and whistled for Dílis. “Can you find your way home?” he asked me.

“That is an excellent question…” I grumbled to myself. The trees looked the same to me and after all the backtracking and circles I’d walked in, just about everything looked the same.