Page 10 of Monsterland Mayhem
I’m about to comment on it when that blaring horn suddenly echoes off the surrounding trees, sending a chill down my spine.
I don’t think; I move, nearly jumping into the cave to duck out of sight.
Beast follows, then passes me to dart deeper into the cavern. I follow, but the uneven rocks beneath my thin shoes seem to reawaken the sharp pangs in my feet. Every step has mecringing, the pain growing stronger until I debate kicking off the flats and going barefoot instead.
Beast must notice my slow pace because he bounds back to me, his eyes glowing somewhat eerily in the dark. He glances over me, a snarl in his lip.
Then his attention goes over my shoulder, toward the sound of scuffles behind me.
“I found?—”
The words die as Beast lunges forward and tackles the owner of that male voice to the floor. A sharp crunch echoes around me, then a gurgling sound that has me scurrying away from the skirmish.
Because Beast didn’t make that noise. Hecausedit.
I have no idea what kind of being he just took down—a monster? A human? A fae? The choices were endless.
But he did it with unerring precision, confirming what I’ve always known about him—he’s deadly.
Yet as he returns to me, he simply rubs against my side with that purring rumble again and nudges me forward once more.
I should be mortified by what he just did, especially since the evidence of it lingers around his snout. But all I feel is relief.
He’s keeping me safe.
Beastalwayskeeps me safe.
It’s been this way for two years.
And even though I probably shouldn’t, I… I trust him. He’s been my only friend here. The only one who seems to look out for me as much as I do him.
In a world of chaos, befriend the wolf,I think.His intentions are always clear.
Except right now as he pauses by an unexpected watering hole.
He stares at it like he’s conflicted about whether to swim through it or try to balance on the rocky edge to go around it.
I creep forward and kneel to test the water, curious about its temperature and potential depth.
My fingers graze the top, only the substance doesn’t move like liquid.
It… it feels like glue.
I jerk my hand back, and the darkness comes with me. Yelping, I try to dislodge the sticky glob.
“Oh!” I cry out as the inky texture startscrawlingup my arm. “What is this?!”
I attempt to stand, to jump backward.
And scream as the thick substance yanks me into the obsidian pool.
My face meets the strange liquid, muffling my protests. Panic surges through my limbs, my arms instantly trying to right myself, to bring my head back up for air.
But I only seem to be going down.
Sinking.
Drowning.
