The journey was slow, the terrain was rough, the wagons were overloaded with villagers, and the horses struggled. According to Jen, we were still two days away from Boltron, and it would be at least a day before we’d have some form of safety from the galvonson. However, that really depended on where creature’s nest was located.

  After roughly an hour of traveling along the rocky path, we heard a screech on the horizon. I couldn’t help but feel on edge. I couldn’t see the bird, but the tension was thick.

  “Jen, what are the chances of this one being the same one we saw in the forest?” I asked, curious if that monstrous bird was what we’d be facing.

  “Pretty high, I would say. It would actually make some sense. It likely was in the forest to get branches for its nest and angered the ents. However, if that’s our foe, you need to be very careful, okay?” Jen said, looking seriously at me. I nodded, not really having anything to add.

  Another screech cut through the air. It sounded closer, but I still couldn’t see the bird. A moment later, I noticed the wagons were coming to a stop. On the right-hand side, we had a sheer rock face leading up the mountain. I watched as a stone wall rose from the left and arched over to meet with the rock on the right, essentially creating a stone tunnel. A moment later, Hari and Milo came racing up the caravan.

  “It’s coming from behind, Jen! Liane! To arms!” Hari called.

  As Hari and Milo arrived at the back of the column, they dismounted. Liane had vanished, and Jen had her bow nocked and ready for combat.

  “Trev, the front is sealed. Do not let anyone run out of this tunnel, or they will die. Do your best,” Milo said as he shrunk the opening of the rear tunnel to just large enough for Jen and her horse to fit through.

  There was an eerie silence. Then an incredible boom rang out, and the ground shook.

  Looking up, I saw a cut in the stone itself before Milo sealed it again. Moments later, a screech rang out that hurt my ears. I couldn’t believe how loud the creature was.

  “Milo, bring it down if you can!” I heard Hari yell, before watching Milo cast a spell I had never seen before. It was like two giant swords of air crashed down from the sky.

  The galvonson clearly sensed it, as I saw it dodge the blades, keeping aloft above the main road. It was massive, its body easily larger than the wagon.

  I heard some crying from behind me as I watched the fight unfold outside the tunnel. Clearly, the kids feared this creature, and who could blame them?

  A second later, an arrow glowing green shot forth, hitting the bird directly in the wing. It moved far too fast for it to dodge. As the enraged bird focused on Jen, Milo took the opportunity, and a spike of stone shot out from the ground.

  It was aimed directly at the body, but the bird juked aside to avoid it. It clipped its wing, and the bird let out an incredibly loud screech. Then it flapped its wings in the team’s direction, and with a thunderous boom, the ground erupted in a cloud of dust.

  By this stage, Cee, Troy, and the five villagers who stayed on foot had come to the rear end of the tunnel.

  “They asked that you not go out there. They said if you do, you will almost certainly die,” I yelled over the sounds of intense battle to the group, trying my best to hide the fear and tremble in my own voice.

  Another boom, followed by a screech of pain. The dust had not cleared yet, so I could not see what had happened. Then there was a thud as something heavy hit the ground—hard.

  “It’s down! Hari! Liane!” I heard Milo yell out, barely audible over the creature’s shrieks—a rending cry like metal on metal.

  The dust cleared, and I saw the galvonson on the ground, and still fighting—lashing out at Hari with massive talons. Its wings looked damaged—feathers were ripped out, and it was bleeding heavily.

  A moment later, it beat its wings again, rearing up. It looked like it was trying to take off, and the force from its wings shoved Hari back. He barely keeping his footing, but Milo didn’t fare so well. He raised a stone wall in front of him, but it was immediately shattered by the creature’s attack, and Milo got thrown several body lengths backwards, landing hard.

  “We have to help!” one of the villagers yelled.

  “We can’t—it would be suicide,” Cee said, his sword in hand, already in a combat stance.

  “I can’t just stand here and wait,” the man said, then ran out, a small short sword in hand, heading towards the bird. With Hari blown back, recovering from the strike, and Milo still on the ground, the bird locked on him.

  “Wait!” I yelled out, but it was too late. Hari tried his best to intercept, but as soon as the man made it in range, it wasn’t even close. He didn’t even get to land his blow before he was cut down by the bird’s claws.

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  “Fuck!” Cee cursed. “I said it would be suicide.”

  The rest of the villagers seemed to take the message to heart after that and backed away. Even Troy had left to return to the wagon, leaving Cee and me at the opening to the tunnel.

  Milo was on his feet, his robe stained with blood from the last strike. Hari was back in melee with the creature, while Jen shot her arrows. They had all found purchase, not that the giant bird seemed to notice.

  A moment later, the creature reared—and Liane appeared, hanging off its back with her daggers stabbed into its neck. She held on, barely keeping herself from being thrown off. Another pained screech came from the creature as it tried to flap its wings, kicking up clouds of dust and dirt.

  “Don’t let it get away!” Hari yelled, pushing forward with his own sword, but it deflected off the bird’s claws.

  I saw another blade of wind come down from the sky, and it looked like it pierced right through its wing before fading away.

  The creature shook itself violently, throwing Liane off. It caught her with its wing, smashing her against the sheer rock face. As the bird turned to follow Liane and finish the job, an arrow struck it directly in the eye, and the creature went berserk.

  It started shooting out whatever attack it had with its wings. Blast after blast was sent forth, crashing into the rock face. Milo and Hari rapidly set up whatever defenses they could.

  Jen rushed towards Liane before dust overtook the scene.

  Boom-boom-boom, the creature continued to fire off blasts from its wings.

  Finally, I heard another thud, then a warbling cry. As the dust cleared from a breeze, which I had to assume was Milo’s doing, I saw it. The creature was impaled on the ground through its neck by a giant rock spike. What shocked me was that it still was not enough to kill the creature. It struggled under the stone to free itself, the ground stained red as blood soaked into the dirt.

  Jen carried Liane away in a princess carry, rushing toward us at the stone entryway. Putting her down just inside, she took out a red potion and thrust it into my hand.

  “Trev! Make her drink that. We need to finish this,” Jen yelled as she nocked her bow with another arrow and ran back out.

  Bending down, I opened Liane’s mouth and poured what I had to assume was a health potion into it. When I looked up again, I saw Jen standing on top of the rock spike that was piercing through the bird, charging up what looked to be a massive arrow. She fired it, and the arrow hit the galvonson directly in the back of the head, stopping it cold.

  With that, it appeared that the bird was dead. Before I could even breathe a sigh of relief, Hari appeared at the entrance, anger written all over his face.

  “Trevor, what happened? I told you not to let anyone out here!” he cried, staring hard at me.

  “I... I’m sorry. I tried to stop him!” I said, not sure what I could have done short of tackling him. I was saved by Cee, however.

  “He was told it would be suicide to go out, but he chose to run out anyway. Nothing the boy could have done,” he said, still holding his sword in hand.

  Hari let out a long sigh. “It’s okay, you’re right. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry for yelling,” he said, looking down at Liane, who was just coming to after being knocked unconscious.

  “We need to move before the other one shows up. Cee, could you help get Liane into a wagon? Trev, long shot, but I don’t suppose you can store the corpse?” Hari asked.

  “I can try,” I said, not really sure if a creature that large would even work.

  I left the entryway to the stone tunnel, and it was so much worse out here. I could see the large gouges in the road and the rock wall from where the creature had been lashing out.

  As I got closer to the galvonson, I truly saw how large this creature was. Its beak was larger than my head.

  Once I got into range to store it, I was surprised to see that it actually worked.

  Would you like to store 1x [Uncommon] Adult Galvonson for 5 mana? Yes/No

  In an instant, the bird vanished, followed by several arrows and two daggers clanking to the ground.

  “That’s a handy way to get some arrows back,” Jen said, looking tired as she picked up Liane’s daggers. Another screech was heard, and somehow it sounded louder than the last.

  It was followed immediately by a blast. The shockwave threw me back, my back hitting the rock hard, causing me to lose my breath. I coughed as I inhaled a lungful of dust and dirt.

  You have suffered 94 damage!

  With a crash, a galvonson larger than the one they had just killed landed between me and the stone tunnel entrance. Hari and Milo were both on the opposite side of the creature, and I had no way to get back to the safety of the tunnel. I couldn’t even stand from the shockwave of the blow, and to make matters worse, just the shockwave was enough to cause me to lose nearly 50 percent of my health.

  “Trevor! Get back!” I heard Jen yell as she took aim with her bow, standing between me and the creature.

  The enormous galvonson faced us, raising its wings as it reared up, preparing the same attack I had seen blast through Milo’s wall and knock Hari back.

  It moved in slow motion. This is it. I have no defense, I thought to myself. Then, as the creature reared back and was just about to unleash its attack, there was a blur of darkness. I couldn’t even tell you what I saw. One second, the galvonson was reared back to cast its attack, then—thud—its head hit the ground.

  Not the whole bird, just its head. Its decapitated head.

  “How...?” I cried as the body of the creature fell to the ground.

  Then I saw it—we all saw it.

  The shadow cat. It had decapitated the galvonson in a single blow.

  Now the cat stood next to the head of the bird, looking directly at me, its piercing green eyes glowing. It didn’t move, nor did anyone else. Then I heard Jen say something. I didn’t catch it, but then she said it again, a little louder, not looking away from the cat or making any movements.

  “Trevor—food. Give it some food or something!” she half-hissed at me.

  In my bewildered state, not knowing what to do, I pulled out the leftover Juvenile Phase Spider and placed it on the ground in front of me.

  In the blink of an eye, the cat went from the head of the galvonson to arm’s reach of me, where it started sniffing the meal. Even as it bent down to smell it, its eyes never left mine, that piercing green cutting through me like it could see into my very soul.

  Then, as suddenly as it came, it was gone, along with the Juvenile Phase Spider.

  There was a long silence as I just took in the scene in front of me. That silence was broken a second later by Milo.

  “What the fuck was that!” he yelled.