The human woman collapsed at the jagged edge of the silver lake, her breathing a ragged, wet sound that echoed hauntingly off the ancient white stone pillars. She looked like a creature from another dimension compared to the moss-covered Ancients and the fur-clad wolves of my weary pack. Her tactical suit was a matte-black polymer, now torn and scorched by the Forbidden Forest’s defensive briars, and a flickering holographic display on her wrist projected a dying, frantic blue light into the mist.
I stood over her, my silver dagger drawn and gleaming with a cold, moonlit hunger. Behind me, the pack had gathered in a tense semi-circle, their low growls a vibrating warning that resonated through the damp earth. They wanted blood for the trauma of the last few days, and this woman wore the
