Shadow Beasts–the village really only knew of a few, but when one of the hunters spotted one on the other side of the shrooms? You had better believe they’d tell everyone and their mother. These things that kept us from straying far were the subject of everyone’s wonder and nightmares.

  Everyone quieted up at the thought of hearing my story. There was even some fear in people’s eyes. Only Kolm and his father drank from their mugs as they waited. Runica, looking like she was about to pass out, clutched my arm and rested her head against me.

  “So, the Mauler… that was the first one. But after that? I saw so much. There was this one…”

  I exercised caution. We didn’t have ‘monkeys’ in our hunting ground.

  “It was like… imagine a goat, but with the hands and feet of a man.”

  The family gasped as I nodded.

  “Yeah, it was fast. Chased me. Got away from it by leaping over this gap.”

  “You leapt a gap?” Ruth squinted at me like I’d just said I could fly.

  “Yes? It was just a gap?”

  “Like, how big a gap?”

  “Big enough that I had to catch this vine to land on the other side. Steep, too. If I missed, that would’ve been it.”

  Eves gasped again. “He’s lying.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Then you’re insane!” he said, blue eyes beaming. “That’s so cool!”

  The door opened. “What’s so cool?” asked the new arrival, Runica’s mother, Tess.

  The kind Tess, a vision of Runica’s future, came in smiling and greeting her excited family. She put down her bag and went over to Runica’s father, taking his empty mug and giving him another.

  “Mom!” Eves said. “Set’s telling us about Shadow Beasts!”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh?” She smiled at me, completely unbothered by her daughter and how close she was to me. “I’m glad I didn’t miss that.”

  Tess, a silver-haired beauty with paler blue eyes than Runica, was someone who held the admiration of all of her family members. I was looking at her fondly too, but for a different reason.

  “Miss Tess… Selma? Is she?” I looked toward the doorway, gulped, and then looked at the table.

  “Don’t worry, Set. She’s at home. Poor woman. She tore that place apart when that cocky bastard spread those lies…” Tess showed me a sympathetic smile. “We cleaned up a good bit of it, but Selma wanted to make sure everything was set right for when you go back.”

  I nodded. “I’m going back tonight.”

  Tess chuckled. “Kolm will walk you. Make sure no one gets any bad ideas.”

  “Damn straight,” Kolm said. “Set’s blessed now. He tells me to punch someone? Then I’m just as much of a lackey as Kastel was, and we all saw how much the rat got away with. I’m excited. I can’t wait to strike in a Blessed’s name.”

  Eves chuckled. “Does Set even need help? What else did you see, Set?”

  I chuckled. “So, yeah. Vine. The vine was alive, everyone. It had a stinger.”

  Again I got gasps out of everyone.

  “Set…” Duster’s face twisted like he’d just eaten something sour. “You sure that thing was a goat? Because, you know, goats are cute.”

  Blaster poked his brother’s head. “He thinks that because his girlfriend cares for goats.”

  “Goat was just the best thing I had to describe it. Its head was like a hairy human, but it was on all fours like a goat.”

  “That’s not a goat,” Jaster whispered, disturbed.

  “Y’all shut up,” Kolm muttered, half-laughing, half-grimacing. “Let him finish. I want to hear more about these things.”

  “So, Shadow Beast was hanging off the ledge. I went and stomped on the ledge–”

  “So that it would break!” Uncle Castor shouted, astounded. My nod caused him to laugh so heartily it shook the walls. “And you know what, if he had a bit more meat on his bones, he would have dispatched the crumb faster.”

  “So, after that, I went to hide in a nook in the cave wall. These nooks, everyone, they’re where I got my breaks. But this time? A Shadow Beast’s hand broke through.”

  Blaster’s beer paused halfway to his mouth. “Through the cave wall?!”

  “And Set was being quiet too.” Ruth shivered dramatically. “Ugh. What hope would there be for me? I would’ve sneezed or something. That’s how I die. Sneezing at the wrong time.”

  “She sneezes when she drinks,” Laster added unhelpfully.

  “She sneezed into my cup once,” Jaster added, scowling.

  “None of that matters!” Ruth barked. “Set was all quiet, trying to take a break, and that thing had its nasty cursed fist inside the wall just waiting for him!”

  Kolm rubbed Ruth’s back. “That’s why you won’t be going out anytime soon.”

  “Anyway, thing rattled me good,” I said, silently noting the smile Ruth showed Kolm. “I ran and came to a real strange cavern–we’d never seen anything like it. But this Shadow Beast—it was bigger than I thought. A real titan. It grabbed me and threw me into a wall.”

  A couple of cousins reflexively scooted back in their chairs, like they expected a hand to burst through the walls right then and there.

  Duster blinked at me. “And then what? How’d you survive that?”

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  “The regen,” I said, exhaling. “Slipped ride down though, into the biggest pool of the clearest water–water the color of this family’s eyes… Everyone… I drank fresh water as it poured out of a wall. It was the greatest thing I had.”

  The room went dead quiet. You’d think I’d just declared I kissed the gods and slapped a Shadow Beast on the ass.

  “...Fresh water?” Kolm repeated, voice low.

  Runica lifted her head, bleary-eyed but alert. “Like… drinkable? Without cooking?”

  I nodded. “Didn’t burn. Didn’t sting. Didn’t make me puke. Cold and clear. I swear, I saw my reflection when I drank it. I could even see the little creatures living in the pools of it.”

  The room erupted.

  “Get out of here!” Blaster yelled.

  “No way!” Uncle Castor followed.

  “Where?!” Laster said, almost falling over.

  “Describe the smell! Was there moss?!” Eves yelled.

  Jaster was on his feet. “Did it have the little floaty things? You know, like the puddle water near the second tunnel?”

  “No,” I said. “It was clean. Like... so clean it was offensive. Why’d the Shadow Beast get access to this stuff?”

  Tess put a hand over her heart like she might swoon. “Oh Spirit’s mercy… I dream of pools of water one can just drink from.”

  Blaster was shaking Duster. “Didn’t I tell you water had to be somewhere?! Didn’t I?! You called me a dreamer!”

  “You are a dreamer!” Duster shot back.

  Ruth was gripping both sides of her face. “I knew it! I told Kolm! Didn’t I tell you there had to be some secret spring somewhere?!”

  “I never doubted there was!” Kolm said, smirking.

  I raised a brow. “This is a bigger reaction than I expected.”

  The cousins looked around and then at their father, Uncle Castor, who grunted. “Aye. See, Raster, my darling boy… He’s got hobbies. One of them hobbies be collecting books. Raster’s got a lot,” Castor said, nodding. “One of them books mentioned that long, long ago, water that did not have to be cooked with fire, burst from the ground in the forest. That’s why we know—cause Raster read that to us.”

  Uncle Castor stood and raised his mug.

  “To water! To the boy who found it! To Set!”

  Eves stood up and struck mugs with Castor. “And he’s still got more to share.”

  “Yeah… After the pools of water, there was this real freaky place… Hundreds… There were hundreds of these stone hands coming out of the water. And in that chamber, there was a Shadow Beast like no other. It was… a skeleton, sort of, stuck to the ceiling. I came across it when it was sleeping…”

  “And you scooted right through, right?” Laster asked.

  “Better believe I did. It was freaky.”

  Laster sat back in his chair. “Wow… So you came across a lot of Shadow Beasts… How are you alive, Set? Seriously?”

  I nodded and sighed. “Regeneration for sure… Maybe don’t tell people about this, but…”

  I leaned in just a bit, voice dropping to a conspiratorial murmur.

  “Every single Shadow Beast laughed at me.”

  That hit like a silence spell. Even the creaking of chairs stopped. Duster blinked, eyes wide, mouth ajar. Ruth slowly put down her mug, and even more slowly leaned against Kolm.

  Kolm straightened, arms folding tight. “What do you mean by ‘laugh?’”

  I locked eyes with him. “The bastards laughed at me. Every single one–except for the sleeping one. They grew these crooked mouths and they laughed.”

  Duster leaned forward. “The goat one too?”

  Blaster whacked his brother in the back of the head. “Kid just said all of them.”

  Duster winced. “I’d hate to hear a goat laugh…”

  “Me too,” I admitted. “But yeah… I think that’s why I was able to get away from them. Because after a point, they just liked seeing me struggle… That’s what I think. If a Shadow Beast wanted me dead… It would kill me. They just got arrogant and underestimated the blessing. They probably wanted to slowly weaken me, but the blessing threw them off.”

  “Wow,” Uncle Castor muttered. “By the skin of the Spirit’s teeth, our Set survived. Aye, that’s a good tale.”

  Others around the table agreed.

  “Hey, Set,” Eves whispered as the others laughed. “Did you kill Veyrith–”

  The silence that came immediately was shattered by Kolm’s angry stomping and the sound of his hand whipping through the air. He slapped Eves on the back of the head, vein throbbing.

  “Dumbass!” Kolm yelled. “You don’t ask that, Eves. It doesn’t matter what happened. You don’t have to ask!”

  Tess quickly went to her son and urged him to sit down while Eves laughed off the assault, rubbing his head. “Sorry, sorry, I just got curious. Never mind me, Set,” Eves said with a sincere smile.

  The room settled once more. And then, someone raised a hand.

  “I’d like to say something… So that there are no misunderstandings. Especially if people come asking our opinions…”

  The one who spoke, Runica’s father–Kolson–looked at me, those dark eyes showing not a single shred of sadness over the recent death. Now, more than ever, he looked like the grizzled, chronically hurting man, who had nurtured such a huge family.

  “I believe that Veyrith got what was coming to him. I don’t care much for how or why it came about… All I can say is good riddance.” He became just a little more stern as everyone else quieted down. “You agree, don’t you, Set?”

  I nodded. “Wholeheartedly, sir.”

  Kolm broke the silence with an angry chuckle. “Didn’t you hear him at the square, Dad? Guy, told everyone how he felt.”

  Kolson chuckled and sat back, Tess lovingly massaging his shoulders. It was clear to everyone that she was his anchor right now. “Set, you were always such a quiet boy–almost looked afraid of your own shadow.”

  I winced, unable to hide from that fact–yeah, ‘Set’was quiet and scared. In my defense, I still did what had to be done. I still learned how to hunt and was good at it. I just had trouble with gauging people. My Earth memories fixed that, so I would never regress to that.

  Kolson slowly shook his head as he recalled the rage-inducing memory. “But that night–that cursed, black-blooded bastard… When I heard what you had done. I praised your name eight times,” he said, a tear rolling out of his eye. “That bastard… making my little girl,” he choked, voice breaking. Uncle Castor got up and went to his brother, patting the man’s shoulder.

  Runica, having had too much to drink, was smiling, almost falling asleep against my shoulder. I was sure the sight brought everyone peace.

  “I hated it, but I was glad that you didn’t kill him, because then, what would we do? I don’t think we’d be able to help you if you had actually killed that guy that time. It would have been a riot. Can you imagine?” Kolson said, sucking back his emotions, and washing it down with a mug of beer. “The boy goes and saves my daughter, and we let him get lynched for going after no-good Veyrith. What bullshit,” Kolson said, shaking his head.

  Kolm looked my way. “Set, you didn’t know, but that night? My Dad, my uncles, me, the four crazy cousins here, Selma too–we went to the elder’s house with fire, and this special, real good explosive Raster had made us. The elder’s a wiser, more fair guy than you’d think. But if he had done something stupid that night–Raster told us the explosive could wipe out a quarter of the village, how much concentrate of his he put in there. We were ready. Would love to see how Veyrith would survive Raster’s concoction.”

  My eyes widened. “I didn’t know…”

  “You didn’t need to know, kid,” Uncle Castor said, ruffling his brother’s hair. “All you needed to do was stick with Runica and make sure she was fine. And you did that.”

  “Thank you.”

  Uncle Castor winked. “No. Thank you for everything you’ve done. If you’ve got any guilt, you can leave it there at that door. No one here’s got anything to berate you about.”

  I cracked a grin as I looked around. “So… You guys still have that explosive?”

  The loudest laughs erupted all at once.

  “Set, you wanna go blow up some Shadow Beats!?” asked Laster.

  “Yo, with Set, we’d be set! He’s the guy you want to hunt Shadow Beasts with,” said Blaster.

  “Or maybe we could get one of the mini ones from Raster,” said Duster.

  “And then plug Kastel’s asshole with it and watch him piss himself,” said Jaster, coming up with a fun image.

  I chuckled. “You guys really are crazy.”

  “It’s mostly Jaster,” almost everyone replied.