Page 17 of Insidious Monsters
We were almost at the treeline. I picked up the pace, aware of the emptiness around me.
“It’s weird how we haven’t seen any eldritch here at all. I mean, surely there are some day ones in this area.”
I have been thinking the same thing. It’s odd to see no activity at all.
We entered the shadow of the forest, and I checked my timer. I had half an hour before I needed to turn back.
I’d barely been walking for two minutes before I heard panting.
Something’s coming,Telarion warned.
I ducked behind a tree, pressing my back to the trunk as the panting evolved into the sound of footfalls…no, not feet, paws. Shit.
“Hold!” a male voice ordered. “You smell something? What is it?”
A series of yips and whines.
“Really?” A soft thud followed. “I know you’re out there. My hounds can smell you. You have two choices. You can continue hiding and I’ll set my hounds to attack, or you can step out into the open and we can talk. I’ll give you until the count of three. One…”
Shit, shit, shit. There was a person here. A person who was speaking in English. This was first contact. This was what the Order was trying to establish.
“Two…”
I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the tree.
* * *
Monsters surrounded me.Five wolfen creatures the size of rhinos with barbed tails and hungry snarls.
I froze as my heart attempted to escape from my chest.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
My gaze whipped over the beast’s head to the man standing by an equine creature. Except he was no man. His skin was pale blue and his eyes were indigo, the whites so bright they were eerie. His dark hair was pulled into a ponytail and tied with what looked like vines.
His eyes narrowed. “You understood my command.”
Speak. August, say something.
“It was quite clear.”
His gaze raked over my face as if he was memorizing it, then he smiled, showcasing even white teeth that any dentist would be proud of. “What are you doing so far from a rift, rift walker.”
“You know about us?”
He glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the flatlands. “We know of your kind. We know of the rifts.”
“But you’ve not attempted to make contact.”
He shrugged. “We have no interest in making contact, but it seems like your people enjoy traipsing across our lands.”
This was first contact. I was making history by speaking to a native of this realm. Focus. Keep calm. “We don’t have a choice. We’re protecting our world from the monsters—”
The wolven creature closest to me growled menacingly.
“Hilani, hush,” the man said.
Then he fixed a stern look my way. “I’d be careful how you describe the inhabitants of Cnaathreth. They are no more monsters than you.”
