[ Trigger warning: blood, mild gore. If you’d rather skip this chapter, I’ll write a brief summary of what happens in it at the description, so read that instead. ]

Catherine turned to look, shouted, and tried to scramble away. It was just in time for her to avoid being eaten by the voracious beast’s assault, but not fast enough that the creature couldn’t sink its teeth in Cat’s robe, slicing the skin on her back and making her wail in pain. Then, the monster lifted her up, and started to carry her away.

Eve ran up to them. She had no plan, and not even the faintest idea of what to do, but the creature had Cat, and she would do anything in her power to stop it.

The girl hurriedly searched the ground for rocks, picked them up and threw them at the beast. The first few hit its torso, and bounced off. The monster didn’t even seem to notice them, possibly due to how thick its hide was. Next she aimed for the head, hoping to hit an eye and startle it, so that it would let Cat go. Eve smacked a particularly heavy rock against the creature’s maw, and that caused some sort of impression on it. It turned its head to look at her, six angry eyes glaring in her direction as if they could look right into her soul. Eve felt vulnerable, and scared.

At very least, her plan worked, because the beast did drop Cat, who fell limply to the ground. On the other hand, Eve now had a furious gigantic monster from her worst nightmares rushing in her direction, and she wasn’t entirely certain this had been such a great idea after all. She wanted to run, but her legs wouldn’t move, and she found herself paralyzed with fear. Shit, thought the girl, I’m going to die.

The next thing that happened defied all odds.

A flame was swung in front of the creature’s face, startling it, and making it screech and retreat. The flame was on one end of a torch, which a tall boy by Evelyn’s side was brandishing against the beast. Eve recognized him immediately.

“Oliver?!” she asked, incredulous.

“Evelyn, catch!” said the boy. He threw her a heavy and cold object. Eve glanced at it for a moment, surprised. It was a shortsword, sheathed into a leather scabbard.

“What do I do with this?!” the girl asked.

“It’s a sword, Evelyn, figure it out!” said Oliver, waving the flame against the monster. It pawed at the torch, making it fly off the boy’s hand. Then the monster started to plunge toward them, threatening to take a bite off one of them with its countless teeth. Oliver flung an oil lamp right onto the creature’s forehead, making it wail in pain. It gave him just enough time to retrieve the torch once again. “You go at it,” he said, “and I’ll try to distract it with the fire.”

Swallowing dry, Eve unsheathed the blade. It shimmered under the light of Oliver’s torch, and the sight daunted her a little. Was she really going to do this? The creature wailed, pulling her back to reality.

“Where should I aim?” she asked Oliver.

“No clue,” he said. “Try the head. That usually works out for... most dangerous beasts.”

Eve nodded, and walked hesitantly toward the monster, while Oliver kept it somewhat at bay. One of its eyes noticed her, and it turned around to try and bite Eve’s head off, but the boy intervened just in time. The torch made contact with the side of the creature’s head, making it growl. It pawed at Oliver again, this time hitting the boy in full, tossing him aside with full force. He fell sprawled on the ground, and the creature advanced toward him, ignoring Eve for just a moment. This is it, thought the girl. It’s now or never.

Evelyn ran, holding the sword’s hilt firmly with both hands, tip of the blade pointed toward the beast. It noticed her, turned around, and plunger forward, gaping its maw to brandish an impossible number of teeth. This is what it’s like to stare death in the face, Eve realized. She had never felt so afraid in her life. And yet, her feet just kept on running. She jumped, coming against the creature in level with its face. They clashed. Eve felt the beast’s sharp serrated teeth slicing through the skin of her right leg, burning her like acid. At the same time, Eve managed to strike precisely where she was aiming, into one of the creature’s many eyes. The blade of the sword sunk deep into its head. It didn’t even give the creature time to wail or growl. The beast fell to the ground, and remained there, motionless. Evelyn fell too, and rolled on the gravel, crying out in pain from the cuts on her leg.

It took her a moment to recover from the fall, and another to get her mind off the pain. Eve sat up and looked around. The monster was dead. Cat and Oliver were both fallen as well. She crawled to where Cat was lying, and took the unconscious girl in her arms.

“Cat!” Eve called, already fearing for the worst. “Catherine, please! Please wake up!”

The girl opened her eyes, slowly.

“Evelyn?” she asked. “Hey... You’re all right. I’m glad. What... happened to the wyvern?”

“Everything is okay now,” Eve told her, hugging her tightly. “We’re safe now.”

Cat looked around, spotted the fallen corpse of the creature, a few meters away, and stared at the other woman with wide eyes.

“Did you do that?” she asked. Eve nodded, and Catherine gave her a weak smile. “Wow. Nice job, Evelyn... I’m sorry. I know I said I’d fight wraiths and wyrms to save your sister, but you’re the one who ended up saving me.”

Eve chuckled. Hearing Cat’s voice was the one thing she wanted the most at that moment. She wanted to know that Cat was safe, and that everything would be all right, even if neither of those were necessarily true at that moment. “How are you feeling?” Eve asked.

“Been better,” said Cat, sitting up. “Why does my back hurt so much?”

Eve leaned over to look, and found that Cat’s robe had huge slits running from her shoulder halfway down her back. The robe was drenched in blood, and Eve could see that the skin underneath had wounds on it which very much resembled the ones on Eve’s leg.

“You’re hurt,” Eve told her, trying — and failing — not to sound too alarmed. “We need to get you to a physician.”

Cat smiled meekly at her. “I’ll be fine,” she said. Eve winced. She’ll be fine? Those nasty cuts on her back suggested otherwise.

“Heeeey!” called a voice from nearby. “Is nobody going to come check on me?”

It was Oliver. The girls chuckled. Cat got up first, and helped the other to where the boy was sitting. Eve limped. Every step she took with her right leg was painful. Oliver was bruised from being hit by the wyvern’s claws, but he was considerably better off than the girls.

“What do you have there, Evelyn?” he asked, inspecting the girl’s leg. He pursed his lips. “No, that doesn’t look very good. Does it hurt?”

It did, yes, but Evelyn had never been one to complain about pain. “I’ll survive,” she told him.

Oliver gave her a half-smile, seemingly concerned. “I’ll tell you what, I always bring a bottle of herbal balm with me, for treating wounds. It soothes the pain and helps prevent infection,” he dug into a leather bag for a bottle of some amber-colored liquid. “Hold still for a bit, I’ll apply it on you.”

“Actually, can you do Cat first?” Eve suggested. “She’s got similar cuts on her back, and hers seem a bit deeper.”

Oliver nodded, and Cat sat on the ground, with her back toward him, so that the boy could work on her wounds.

“Those are rather dirty,” he informed her. “I’ll clean them up as best I can, but we should wash it as soon as we’re out of the Wilderness, to prevent infection.”

“What about the lake?” Eve asked, looking at the perfectly fine body of water beside them.

“No,” said Cat and Oliver, at the same time. “Don’t touch any water from the Wilderness,” Oliver clarified. “You don’t want to find out what sorts of creatures might live in it.”

The boy took a canteen from his bag, and poured water from it into a rag, which he then used to scrub off the earth and dried blood from Cat’s back. She winced as he went, so Eve held her hand to comfort her.

“So... why are you here?” Eve asked the boy. “Had a change of heart?”

He nodded. “I can’t stand by while you two break into bloody Stonepit Fortress to rescue my father, can I? If anything, I should at least try to help. I’ve dreamed about this for so long, and when I finally get the chance, I chicken out? That doesn’t sound very honorable.”

Eve chuckled. “Really, though, I’m glad you’re here,” she told the boy. “We would have been toast by now if you hadn’t. But how did you know where to find us?”

Oliver smirked. “Well, I knew you were riding south, and luckily you didn’t go too far. Besides, I can smell cloudweed from a kilometer away.” He winked. Cat’s face flushed with embarrassment.

Once he had finished tending to Cat’s wounds, Oliver turned to work on Evelyn’s leg.

“So that was a wyvern, right?” Eve asked.

“Yeah,” Oliver replied. “Be thankful it wasn’t a wraith, though. I have no idea what to do against those.”

“Aim for the head?” Eve suggested, playfully. “You did say it usually works.”

“Sure, when they have heads,” said Cat. “Wraiths don’t.”

“Oh.”

“There we go,” Oliver told her. He had finished dressing Eve’s wounds.

Cat got up. “All done?” she asked. “Then we should get going. I don’t want to stick around and find any more of those things,” she pointed at the dead wyvern.

Eve walked — limped, actually — to where the creature had fallen, and yanked the sword off its eye socket. Blood gushed out from it once she did. She wiped the blade on her clothes, picked up the scabbard from where it had fallen on the ground, sheathed the sword and tied it around her waist. She patted the hilt of Oliver’s blade. It had saved all of their lives, just a moment ago. Better to have it handy, just in case.

Cat picked up one of the oil lanterns from the ground. The other one, which Oliver had flung on the creature’s forehead, was far too damaged to be of any use. Then the two girls walked back to the horses. Oliver had to go around looking for his own horse, which had fled to another part of the lake at the first sight of the wyvern. He brought it back to them, and soon enough, they were off.

—

Bree woke up to the sound of metal rattling. She didn’t have to look to know that the man was back. The knight, or lord, or whatever he called himself. Bree didn’t really want to know. It didn’t matter, and she didn’t care.

“Have you given my offer some more thought?” he asked, from beyond the bars.

Bree looked away, annoyed. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

“Let me at her,” said the man.

One of the prison guards used a huge iron key to unlock her cell, and stood aside to let the man walk into it. “Little girl,” he said, “Bree, if that is your real name... We both know that you’re not telling me the whole story. I have several testimonies from witnesses who saw you with the princess. There’s enough evidence in my hands to condemn you to a life sentence, or death, depending on what the king himself decides. I’m offering you the chance to go free and return to your own country, wherever that is. All I’m asking in return is for you to tell me where your associates are keeping the princess. Just that bit of information, and you’re free. Think of everything these people,” he gestured at the other prisoners, “would give to have an opportunity like yours. Don’t go throwing it away. Now... what do you say?”

Bree scrunched her nose.

“I don’t even know who’s this princess you’re talking about.”

The knight seemed unimpressed.

“I’m a patient man, little girl,” he told her. “But my patience is running out. And you’re such a pretty young lady, it would be a shame if I had to resort to some... less than noble methods to get that information out of you. Think about that, will you?”

He turned around, and walked away, leaving Bree alone in the dark and dingy cell.