The next day, we broke down camp in a rush. There wasn't any room to sit around and talk; we potentially had a life in our hands, which Grace was very eager to drill into our heads as we wolfed down the morning's rations and bundled the tents up into our packs.

"This is going to be a rough day," she said. "We've got a whole mountain to search. Maybe even the surrounding hills, too. So we need to be fast but thorough."

«It shouldn't be too hard, right?» said Griffin. «I mean, we can fly. So getting up there isn't going to be a huge effort.»

«The problem is that we don't know where "up there" is,» I pointed out. «All we know is that the prince headed to the mountain. He might have made it to the summit, he might not, he could be trapped in a cave somewhere on the mountainside. He could have finished what he came here for, but got trapped when he left for the next leg of his journey.»

"How will we tell where he's gone, then?" asked Ingo. "You make it sound impossible."

«Search for signs of passage,» I said vaguely.

"Such as?" prompted Ingo.

«Campfire remains,» Griffin answered before I could. «Hopefully he's been instructed by hunters or rangers. If he was, he'll have marked his path on trees around where he made camp. Maybe some along the way if he changed direction.»

«Seems a little risky to pin our hopes on a royal being responsible before doing something dangerous,» I said.

«Yeah,» said Griffin. «But Ingo's right. There's not much we can do if he just wandered around. Short of using magic, which none of us have. We'd just have to fly around and hope he saw us.»

"Is there really no better way?" asked Grace. "I mean, finding people who have gotten lost seems like something that people would have a lot of practise and techniques for by now."

«It is,» said Griffin. «But they only take you so far. You've still got to deal with…scale. The woods are big. It's why parents tell kids not to wander into them. If you get lost and don't know how to help people find you, then you need some luck to get found.»

"So how will we deal with that?" asked Ingo. "We have our status riding on this mission."

«We'll worry about that if it ends up being something to worry about,» I said. «For now, we'll search the mountain. I think we should split up and go on foot. We can fly in bursts to keep the pace up, but we need to have our eyes at ground level so that we don't miss anything important.»

"Split up?" said Rosalie. "That seems reckless. How will each group find each other, if there's an emergency?"

I finally finished putting the tents away in the bags pinned to my saddle as I thought about that question. «We can…swap riders,» I said.

"How does that help?" asked Rosalie.

«Each of us can communicate with our partner over pretty much any distance, right? So if you come with me, and Grace rides with Arthur, then both you and Arthur and Grace and I can send the other group a message if we're in trouble.»

Rosalie scratched her chin. "Not a bad idea," she said.

Griffin's ears perked up as the light of an idea flashed in their eyes. «Oh! Maybe then we can have one group flying, and the other walking? That way the flying group can go fast and look for easy things to spot, and the walking group can look for the details. That way we can be both fast and thorough.»

I nodded. «Smart,» I agreed. «Okay. Brand, Yura, and Rosalie, you'll be hiking with me. Grace, Arthur, Ingo, Griffin, you can take the sky, search from all sides as fast as you can. If you cover the whole mountain, start hiking up from the other side as us. Sound like a plan?»

"Yes, sir," the whole flight gradually echoed. With a brief wish of good luck, the second team saddled up and jumped back into the sky, swerving off to go and view the north side of the mountain. I knelt down to let Rosalie on, and then me and Brand began climbing out of our little valley at the pond.

Very quickly, I realised that we should probably have a few practise sessions swapping riders like this so everyone could get used to it. The communicative effect of our bond was something that I'd certainly want to exploit again in the future, and right now the only issue was that I felt like Rosalie was going to dislocate my arms with how tightly she held onto the lines.

Even as I got used to that feeling and adjusted my movements to compensate, the hike was still a challenge. The rocks became sharply vertical as we climbed out of our campsite. There weren't any well-trodden paths or even trails made by wildlife. Most of the mountainside seemed to be steep cliffs and bald walls of bare rock that sloped gradually upwards forming a loose cone. We followed the easiest route in hopes of retracing where the human prince would have walked, but even that required us to climb directly up short ledges and hop across steep gutters where rainwater had cut a trench that one could easily tumble all the way down to the mountain's foot through.

Despite my improved strength and endurance, it was still rough going. Brand and I made frequent stops a couple minutes long to catch our breaths after longer climbs. Even Rosalie and Yura were getting tired from having to hold on so tightly whenever we went vertical.

We were about a quarter of the way up, with the sun nearing its noonday peak, when I heard Grace sending a message. «This is Grace,» she said. My claws slipped on a shelf of rock I was climbing at the sudden sound in my head, and I had to flare my wings out and wave my tail wildly to keep my balance. I glanced back at the cliff behind us I had almost just fallen off, the bottom filled with small spires of rock that looked like jagged teeth. «Just letting you know that Ingo heard some nasty roaring sounds near the peak. We couldn't see what made them, but you should stay on the lookout for big monsters just in case.»

I didn't spare any concentration to respond until we were at the top. «Got it,» I said. «We'll keep an eye out. Haven't seen anything yet, so—»

I was suddenly cut off as I caught a distinct smell in the air. It was blood, no doubt, sweet and metallic. But there was something else to it. It was sort of human-smelling, but also not. The sweet aspect was off, like the scent of rotting fruit.

«So…?» said Grace. «Are you okay? Did something happen?»

«No, I…» I trailed off. «Give me a minute. We found something strange.»

I felt the mental equivalent of a shrug, and Grace left me alone for the time being. I reached down to help Brand up the ledge, and once she reached the top, her face crinkled up in disgust.

«You smell that too?» I asked. She nodded.

"What kind of smell is it?" asked Yura.

«Blood,» I said. «But…wrong.»

He squinted. "Wrong?"

«I can't explain,» I said. «We need to find where it's coming from.»

He gestured to the forest ahead. "Lead on, then."

The scent led us to a small clearing. It would be a little idyllic glade that would move romantics to poetry, what with the tiny bell-shaped blue flowers that pushed up from the grass all around and the low trees sprouting with greenery and a few brightly-coloured berries, but for the scene of carnage that dominated it instead.

Blood was scattered all around the clearing, having splattered across the ground in fat droplets that suggested more that its owner had been passively bleeding rather than engaged in a fight. The remains of a small campfire had the black-rust ash that marked the remnants of burnt blood. The ash smelled normal; but the rest of the blood did not.

Moreover, a corpse laid to one side of the fire. It was a huge beast; it would have been taller than I was long if it stood on its hind limbs. It seemed roughly bipedal, with relatively short legs and arms that were large yet skeletal, boasting wicked sickle-like claws. It had a shaggy coat of fur on its back that rested underneath it like a heavy cloak, but its tail was scaly and tipped with a nest of spikes that were gnarled and twisted, as though they had never stopped growing. Its head looked like a cross between a wolf and a deer, with a narrow snout and great branching antlers that were just as twisted and tangled as the spikes on its tail. Its teeth were sharp, growing in rows and stained with gore.

The beast had clearly been dead a while. Its gut was cut open, exposing a set of organs in its lower abdomen that seemed bulbous and misshapen, as though full of unseen tumours. The cut didn't look like the tearing of wild animals, though, more like the intentional motion of a surgeon or maybe an undertaker. Despite the creature clearly having begun decomposing already, with its flesh sloughing off its shockingly thin bones, it didn't seem to have been picked at by scavengers. Perhaps it was because of the state of rot it was already in. Mould sprouted freely from its exposed chest cavity, and the air smelled strongly of must. Insects crawled through the carcass, mostly flies and their larvae, but some of them were familiar long red centipedes.

"Eugh…" said Yura as Brand hesitated to get any closer. "What is that thing?"

«What the prince was after, I think,» I said, gesturing towards the dead campfire with my tail. «Other than that, I have no idea.»

But it was so familiar! I wanted to get a closer look, but first, I let Rosalie down. I stepped closer with caution, stretching my head as far forward as I could manage to sample the scent a little better. It was enough to convince me that the giant mould was almost certainly toxic, and I reeled back before I got too much of the miasma. There was a difficult distinction to parse. It was specifically something about the blood that tickled my memories, but I couldn't tell what, and the actual corpse didn't share that similarity.

"How old's the campfire?" asked Rosalie.

«Uh…» I hummed, stepping away from the monster to inspect the ashes. «The ash hasn't really been blown away much. I can still smell that they burned blood, too, so…a day, about?»

"Then we have a good direction." Rosalie tapped a tree next to her. "He marked his path, it seems."

Like she said, there was indeed a small X-shaped cut in the more exposed lower trunk of one of the shrunken trees. I sidled to the side, aligning my hand with the sign and then tracing upwards, to where it crossed the sun's path. «North?» I guessed.

"Northeast," corrected Rosalie.

«Right,» I said. «You go ahead and let the others know about this.»

Rosalie nodded and leaned against the tree with her eyes shut, while I knelt down by the bloodstains on the ground. The question was really killing me, but I knew I couldn't just sit here forever to figure it out. We were on the clock. I wondered if there were some other way for me to answer what this creature was from its blood.

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Eat it, a whispered thought said, but I easily flicked that one aside. Even though the rot had only taken hold of the corpse, not these bloodstains, the corruption was still enough to make even the Fiends in my head take pause.

"Do either of you know much magic?" Yura asked out of the blue.

«Not yet,» I said. «Why?»

"There's a technique I've heard of," said Yura. "I've never seen it in use, but tales say it's a regular tool of magi, especially what are called around here 'occultists'. It's called 'clairvoyance', I believe. A skill that allows one to see the stain that magic leaves behind. Stories say that occultists use it to identify one another, since each channeller of magic has a unique signature." He gestured towards the fire. "I wondered, because if you could, then perhaps we could follow a magic trail, or at least identify what sort of magic was done here. But if not, then traditional tracking methods will work as well."

I glanced at the fire. He was ringing a few bells, that sounded like something I had learned about at some point. But not only did I have no idea at all how to do it, I didn't have any blood to burn to use it. But I made a mental note for later. If it was as ubiquitous as he said and I recalled, it shouldn't be too difficult to learn clairvoyance for situations like this, right?

For now, though, I bent down to let Rosalie back on, and kept pushing through the trees in the direction of the marker, to the northeast. "Arthur said they found a svarnuli den," she said. "More importantly, he said it was empty. Keep your eye out."

I nodded in silent agreement. Soon, the trees shrank into nothingness as the forest gave way to just evergreens, and then to snow. It was odd being this cold in the summer, even with the Vale being an especially cold northern region compared to other parts of the world, and it made the climb far more treacherous. Here at the tree line, the air was just warm enough in the day to melt some of the snow, then just cold enough at night to freeze it into sheets of ice that coated the rocks. I never felt so grateful to have claws before, and I made good use of them, digging into the ice to keep myself steady as I walked on the slippery stone.

As the sun marched westward, we finally spotted another sign of life. A bedroll laid on a patch of rock that had been mostly cleared of snow. There was a circle of stones in the middle, but it was only half-complete, with what looked like a collection of rocks meant to finish it lying by the edge, looking out over the mountains. The bedroll was torn to shreds, scraps of cloth littering the rock, but there wasn't any blood.

«How long ago?» The question is on my mind as soon as I spot the torn bed.

"Can't have been long," said Yura. He poked the pile of rocks with his bruiser. "No snow on the rocks, but it would have been snowing up here last night. Brand? Do you smell anything?"

I tested the lingering scents myself, inspecting the area around the piled stones while Brand took care of the bed. There were some scents that felt important. One seemed to be all over the camp, and the notes of evergreen and wet fur vaguely familiar, though this time I actually figured out what it was. There were svarnuli in the Fountainheads too, big cat-like monsters with razor teeth and a pervading warmth that turned snow to hard, sharp ice. They had been here, as well as a scent that was decidedly human, sort of citrusy with some of the lingering rotten-sweetness that we had found at the previous camp.

Brand growled to Yura, and he reported, "Six svarnuli were here, she says. Only a couple hours old. This must have been where he was planning on resting for the night."

I followed the scent to the edge of camp. Concerningly, the svarnuli scent trails went in the same direction. «Looks like he ran this way,» I said. «And he was followed. We need to hurry.»

The others nodded, and we picked up into a run. Rather than double back on the path we came up, the scent trail led around the other side of the mountain, along slanting slopes almost too steep to walk along. Rocks jutted out from the mountain to make several craggy landings along its side, and out here in the open, I was pretty sure that I could see that one of them was the end point of this trail. A small overhang above the rocks seemed to lead into a cave up there, it wasn't far, less than half a mile away, but us needing to climb the slope slowed our pace greatly.

Despite the svarnuli's trail leading in that direction as well, I couldn't see them anywhere. I searched for them, but they could easily be lost in the cloud of snow up the hill from us, what with their camouflaged white pelts. As I looked at that cloud, I realised that I could feel a faint rumble in the ground. A rumble that was steadily growing in power.

«Shit!» I whispered. «Run!» I took off towards the landing, sprinting as fast as I could without falling. I considered jumping into the air, but decided I'd rather not have my wings broken to bits if I couldn't make it in time.

"What's wrong!?" Yura shouted as Brand hesitantly copied my speed.

«Avalanche!» I answered.

It became clear to them too, as the rumble rose above the ground and was audible in the air. The cloud of snow was massive, stretching wide in both directions, and it was coming in fast. We couldn't outrun it, but just hunkering down here would get us buried at the bottom of this slope, hundreds of feet below.

I had an idea, and just enough time to enact it. «Rosalie, unfasten yourself,» I ordered, speaking as fast as I could. This might get her caught up in the flow, but if she stuck with me, she could be bludgeoned to death. «Get down below the rock, and keep your hands close to your head!»

She did as ordered, and with the speed of adrenaline, she was able to fling herself free of the saddle, landing in a ball below the rock just as I leaped forward and clung onto the stone myself, sinking my claws into any imperfections on its surface I could find. Yura and Brand were too far back, though, and the best they could do was crouch low and cover their vital areas.

The snow impacted us like a crashing train. Most of what I could see coming was dust kicked up by the rush, and the little particles blasted my scales like a hail of tiny knives, but they did little more than irritate me. What I was afraid of were the boulders of compacted snow and ice that they concealed. They rammed into me again and again, until the impacts numbed my sides. I could feel bruises developing, though thankfully I hadn't yet broken any bones. The larger boulders came behind the smallest ones, slamming into my side, my fingers, my head. Now I was sure that one of my fingers was broken, but I held strong, pushing through the pain even as my claws skidded against the stone and dragged deep grooves behind them.

Several seconds later, and it was already all over. The rumbling faded, and the biting snow was replaced with a cool, downward blast of air that followed along behind it, filling the void it left behind. I opened my eyes. My hind legs and tail had been buried in a drift at the base of the landing, thankfully in the loose dusty snow rather than the hard, compact stuff. I felt down for Rosalie, but she was gone. She must have gotten carried away. I glanced down at the low fell where the snow had come to a halt in a massive pile of white at the edge of the forest. Brand's head and one arm were sticking out, and she tried to use fire to free herself. I should have told her earlier that that wouldn't work, but at least one of them was able to move. It wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Then it got much worse. Snarling sounds were approaching me. My heart started to race as I hurried to drag myself up, out of the snow and onto the rock. I struggled to get to my feet with how sore the muscles in every one of my limbs felt, but I managed it.

On top of the overhang above the cave, the svarnuli stood. Eight creatures that looked like a cross between a cat and a bear, with extra long protruding canines and fur as white as the snow they hid among. Their tails were tipped with bony spikes, and many-rayed fins flared out from their sides, a heat haze emanating off of them as the snow beneath their feet sizzled and melted together into hard ice. They were only slightly smaller than me. I was confident that by now I could handle one svarnuli on my own, a great improvement from when I was human, but eight….

«Grace!» I shouted in my mind over the pain. «The svarnuli triggered an avalanche on us. The other three are buried. Get Arthur to check with Rosalie, and get here as fast as you can to help them out. They could suffocate under the snow.»

«Bloody hellfire,» Grace cursed. «Do you need help? Are you okay?»

I lowered myself down, snarling back at the monsters. «Don't worry about me,» I said with a growl. «I'll be fine.»

«Damn it, Belfry, not this again…» said Grace, but I wasn't listening anymore. I watched the monsters expectantly, waiting for them to make the first move. My main goal was to delay. I definitely couldn't handle all of them alone, but if I could hold them off long enough, the other group should be able to divert at least two people to come and help.

The svarnuli stood, continuously growling as two groups slowly slid down the sides of the overhang, three going to the left and three to the right. I backed up, keeping the ledge behind me.

There was a momentary lapse in the svarnuli's growling, then they all pounced at once. The two groups to the sides leaped to the ground and ran to encircle me, while the two atop the overhang sliced their claws along the ground, kicking up shards of ice they had made and slinging them at me like a swarm of needles. With no place to dodge, and no time to do so, I had to take it. The needles were small, but the force was enough to scratch my scales and lodge in between them, drawing a small thread of blood from my chest.

I swept my tail to the side, aiming to bash the three circling to my right. The strike went too high as they ducked, only managing to clock the last one in the shoulder and knock it to the ground. The other two darted forward, taking advantage of my need to control my momentum to snap at my hind legs. Their jaws were powerful, enough so to crack my armour and pierce my hide. I hissed in pain, but had to focus on the three charging my front. I raked upwards with my left hand, catching one on the neck and dragging shallow cuts across it, while I lunged to grab one between my teeth. I caught it as it pounced, its claws scratching ineffectually towards my eyes as I threw my head to the side, flinging it off the ledge.

I went for my axe with my right hand in the hopes of using it to deny the monsters their space, but the third svarnuli in front of me went for my weapon rather than me. It snatched the handle in its jaws, tugging hard enough to rip it free from its holster and hurl it several feet away into the snow.

Smart buggers, I thought. The ones behind me dug their claws into my legs, trying to pull me to the ground. I lifted my wings, ready to beat them down and buffet all my attackers with wind, but the two leaders on top of the rocks finally made their move, leaping towards my back. One landed on my right wing, slamming it hard into the stone ledge, and the other landed on my back, digging its claws into my scales to hang on as it crushed me down with its weight. The ones in front of me took advantage of the loss to my balance to jump onto my neck and shoulders, trying to cut through my neck with their fangs, and one of the ones behind also joined the dogpile, hurling itself onto my lower back and gnawing in a frenzy at the joint of my hip.

I tried to stay standing, but though I was strong, the monsters combine must have been over a thousand pounds. I slid slowly onto my belly, pinned against the rock. All my limbs were crushed under their weight, and no matter how much I tried to thrash my tail or work my head to a position I could bite them from, I couldn't.

I could feel the armour in my vital spots failing. The Key had made us heal faster, but I wasn't keen on finding the limits of that, especially when it came to something as delicate as the veins in my throat. I had held my calm thus far, but was now finally starting to panic. The others would be several more minutes, at least. I had to find a way out on my own.

But every motion seemed to just secure the pin more and more for the monsters. Damn it, I'm not going to die on our first mission, I thought to myself, doing my best to steady the ship. What can I do? I'm not strong enough for this, so I need more than strength. Like a plan. Or…or something….

But there wasn't much room to think, nor was there time. You could have strength, a whisper of a Fiendish thought said.

No….

Just give in, only a little. Its voice was like a balm to the cuts being slashed into my hide. I couldn't shake the feeling that I didn't have much of a choice. I had to stay alive. That was the first and most important priority I had, all my life. I could afford to take a small gamble if it meant guaranteeing I made it long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

Only a little, I assured myself. Like when I was flying. I just need a little more strength. No, not strength. I need…I need…

Power.

Something in my mind clicked, like the satisfying moment when I found the last slot in the mechanism of a lock to pick it open. I felt the click in my body, too, like all my muscles had been slightly out of place all this time and had only now found where they were supposed to be. In the cramped shadow underneath the pack of svarnuli, I saw a blue glow, and it was coming from me. The veins in my throat, chest, wings, everywhere had been outlined in faint azure, the colour of a late evening sky.

The Lock! I realised through the thin haze I had allowed into my head. It must be a Lock. So…that means…maybe I can….

I pushed against the ground. The feral strength that the Fiend afforded me trickled into my muscles, giving me enough to start pushing myself upwards, but it was quickly counteracted as the monsters repositioned to spots with more leverage. I let a tiny bit more of that haze in, and stopped thinking in full sentences. There wasn't anything other than the need to survive roaring through my head.

I let that roar out into reality and shoved upwards. The monsters would get off me, or they would die. As I rose, I felt a burning pain surge through my blood. It wasn't a bad pain; it felt comforting, somehow. And as it reached where the monsters had slashed me open, the blood that leaked from my wounds transformed into sanguine, dark red flames that shot from my body into the cold mountain air. The svarnuli yowled as the flames licked their fur, leaping free from my body and leaving me free to draw up to my full height.

I looked down at the monsters around me, slowly circling as what they thought they could make their prey stood defiant and a hundred times as vicious as they were, snarling final warnings at them. Warnings they refused to heed as they inched closer to me.

They would pay for having the insolence to dare.

I tensed, turning the gentle plumes of fire that vented from my wounds into harsh jets, and made ready to bloody my claws.

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