Brin gathered them all together and urged the group into a circle as the cries of the khiladri echoed around them. The sun itself seemed eager to participate in the terror, sliding behind the clouds and casting everything into shadow.

Those who had swords, Brin, Eselwol, and Rial, held them ready. Shaleigh produced a crossbow from somewhere, loading it with a single stone-headed flechette, and Gryrne held the staff he used for the climb in front of him, both hands gripping until they turned white. Rei had withdrawn a wickedly curved blade and another long-edged knife, one held in each hand.

From somewhere ahead, in the direction they had been going, came a sound like nothing Rial had heard before. It was a wicked snarl that reverberated through the trees as if it meant to go on forever, a sound that went straight down the spine and paralysed him with fear. It didn't sound like anything a living being could produce.

A wild baying came from somewhere off to the side, moving rapidly towards the source of the snarling. The cries came so fast that Rial couldn't tell if it was the cry of one creature or many, the sound drowning the senses in an almost physical wash of noise.

Rial could see nothing through the trees, no movement whatsoever, yet it sounded as if there was a huge mass of action and violence mere metres ahead. The sound of something struggling and smashing through the leaves that littered the ground was audible under the noise of the animals.

"Tomasu," said Brin, and leapt forward into the vegetation. The snarls abruptly ceased.

The rest of the group closed up to fill in the gap Brin's departure had made. They looked at each other over their shoulders, standing nervously with weapons held out. All that could be heard was the soft breeze and the sound of their rapid, fearful breaths.

"We should go after him," said Eselwol.

The group nodded in unison.

Eselwol led the way through the undergrowth, the group maintaining a rough circle as they clambered over the roots that now seemed to deliberately ensnare their feet at any misstep. The shadows were dark and full of menace, filled with nightmarish visions of teeth and claws.

Brin was not far ahead, standing with his backs to them and sword hanging loosely at his side. They gathered around him, following his gaze.

Tomasu lay sprawled in an area of torn earth, his limbs rent at strange and unnatural angles. His clothing was split with wide, ragged cuts that exposed the lacerated flesh beneath. Claw marks covered the body and the ground around him, and his sword lay a short distance away. He must have tried to draw it but quickly been overwhelmed.

"But... they don't do this," said a breathless Gryrne.

Brin said nothing, but stepped forward and turned over a sod of ripped earth. Silver hairs lay tangled amongst the twigs and thistles that covered it.

"We move, now. We find an area out of the trees, and from there..." Brin trailed off, clearly lost for what to say.

"What about Tomasu?" asked Shaleigh, eyes still sweeping the forest for movement.

"We're too exposed. We can't bury him here."

"And we can't just leave him," she said.

Shaleigh crouched down and, before anyone could react, swung the corpse over her shoulder. It hung limply across her pack.

"You can't carry him. We need to move fast," said Brin, but he was clearly not going to waste time arguing. He strode off swiftly, leaving the group little time to think.

Rial walked behind Shaleigh as they hiked, pace far more rapid than before, and stared at the body slung across her shoulders. Tomasu's lifeless eyes stared up into nothingness, head bouncing with every step.

He cursed himself for his slowness. Mead could have dealt with the attacking animals in a second, had Rial but realised what was happening in time.

"They move like lightning," came Rei's voice from behind him.

Rial's steps faltered as he turned to look, then he was forced to increase his pace as he raced to keep up with the overtaking woman.

"They don't give you time to react," she said, eyes never falling from their path ahead.

"You speak as if you know them," replied Rial. "How? I've never heard of a khiladri attack before."

"The village spreads rumour like a nekota spreads fleas," she said, referencing the cat-like rodents that scampered beneath the village kura[1]. "I would not trust what you have been told."

"But... khiladri? The village elders told us stories of being rescued by them!"

"As did my father," she said, voice flat. "That did not save him."

"Save him?" said Rial, confused. He remembered what Eselwol had said about...

"I did not kill my father," said Rei, as they pushed their way through some particularly deep undergrowth.

Rial didn't know how to respond. He had not been prepared for such a blunt statement.

"He was teaching me to hunt. Hunt! He was a tanner, not a hunter. But he thought it would be a valuable lesson for a daughter to learn from her father, so he took me out. It was along almost this same way. They came for us on the second night. I told him I didn't like the howls, but he just laughed and repeated the old stories of the khiladri protectors. He was still telling me the stories when they attacked, dragging him out into the night."

"The khiladri killed your father? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I did. They did not believe me. My father had a... temper after my mother died. When he wasn't working he would rage and drink and fight, but he never laid a hand on me. Not once! Everyone 'knew' he did, though, so when I came back from the forest, crying and carrying his tanning knives, they all put two and two together and made five!"

Rial said nothing as he walked alongside her. What was there to say?

"You know what the worst part was though? People's knowing smiles. They even winked at each other. They were proud to keep the secret, as if they were doing me a favour."

Rei stopped abruptly, causing Rial to as well, the rest of the group continuing ahead of them.

"Maybe the khiladri were once as the stories tell, but I have seen the opposite twice now. I gave up telling people what happened after a while. I got less of a response than you do from that rock you talk to."

She started out again, leaving Rial to stare at her back and worry at that last comment. His hands itched to take Mead out and check on it, but there was no time. He hurried off after the others.

[1] The storehouse for the village's grain and rice