A loud squeal interrupts my sleep before abruptly going silent. I open my eyes, blinking a few times as my body begins to uncurl. When the darkness still doesn’t go away, it finally clicks. Oh, it must be nighttime. But what would be squealing like that this late?

  I drowsily crawl over to the edge of the cliff to peek over it and see if I can figure out what’s happening. A general outline of my surroundings becomes increasingly more visible as my eyes adjust to the darkness. I easily make it to the edge, but just as I’m about to look over, the instincts, and Heightened Danger Sense, scream at me not to.

  The sudden burst of mental noise banishes the last vestiges of sleep. I recoil away, before forcefully stopping myself. That’s bad. It must be something really dangerous for the warning to be that intense. But I still want to know what’s happening. Maybe if I listen I’ll be able to figure it out? I hold my body in place and stay completely silent, listening intently to get but a hint of what’s going on.

  Nothing comes of it, though, the night just as quiet as before. I scoot closer to the edge and strain my ears even further. There’s no way that whatever’s happening is completely silent. Right as I stop at the very edge of the line Heightened Danger Sense and the instincts are constantly warning me not to cross, something becomes audible. It’s at the very edge of my hearing range, but I can hear the incredibly quiet sound of something being crunched.

  What is that? I lean even further forward and force myself to listen even harder. The more I listen to the crunching, the more familiar it sounds, but I still can’t quite place it. It’s definitely not sticks or leaves being crunched; far too consistent to be that. So what i-oh. It clicks. That’s the crunching of bone.

  Almost as if in confirmation, I hear a squelch reminiscent of the few times I’ve stepped in blood. I crawl away from the edge of the cliff until the sounds fade away. That explains the squeal and the danger. It probably killed some, if not all, of the boars, and is now eating them. So what can I do?

  I ponder for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion. I have no idea where it is, and I can barely see, so I wouldn’t be able to get the drop on it. A straight on fight isn’t really possible either for similar reasons, and I’m not in good enough shape to fly over the cliffs and get out of here. I guess the only real choice I have left is to hunker down until it leaves. Just like I had to with the boars. Not a particularly good option, especially with what must be a stealthy killer down there, but it’ll have to do.

  I slowly sneak back to the smooth dip in the ground I fell asleep in, then slip inside. This is probably the best place to stay, since something looking over wouldn’t see me immediately. A quick turn has me facing the direction of the edge of the cliff so that I’ll know if the creature comes over.

  As I sit staring into the darkness, plans for the future slowly reach the forefront of my mind as the vague fear of the threat fades to the back. The next chance I get, I definitely need to leave this clearing. And I probably won’t be returning. I look up, the omnipresent silhouette of the mountain visible even through the gloom of night, before quickly refocusing on the cliff edge.

  Just a bit more practice and I should be able to fly high enough to find a good cave. Then I’ll have somewhere to retreat to, and I should be safe from anything like that squirrel, or whatever is down there, attacking me when I’m exhausted.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  My parents might even pick me up at that point! That would be nice… My eyelids begin to droop as I ponder the future. Some point soon after I end up falling asleep, dreaming up plans and possibilities for the coming days.

  …

  The beams of light peeking over the cliff shine right onto my eyes, waking me up from my slumber. I slowly stir, stretching a bit as clarity comes back to me. So that creature must not have found me then. Good, that means it’s time to leave.

  I crawl over to the cliff edge again, paying far more attention to Heightened Danger Sense this time. Not even the slightest hint of a warning comes through, so, slowly, I look over the cliff into the clearing. What comes back is a far gorier sight than I expected, far more intense and widespread than anything I’ve seen so far.

  Pools of blood lay around the clearing, with a few splatters dotting the cliff below. From my vantage point, it is easy to see the bone shards unevenly spread around the grass, some with small scraps of meat still attached, others completely clean.

  It must’ve killed a lot of the boars, then. At least eight of the smaller ones, judging by just how much blood there is. And that’s not even mentioning that there are no corpses! This thing must’ve been huge to eat that much meat! I definitely made the right choice staying up there and not trying to attack it.

  Now, I just have to glide down real quick and I can be on my way. My wings extend to their full wingspan, the tips brushing against the cliff walls to my either side. Then, I jump off the edge. I can feel the magical energy flowing through me, although it is far less intense than it was while getting up here.

  I glide down to the edge of the clearing, then land far away from the pools of blood. It’s unfortunate I can’t get the scent of whatever killed the boars. All I can do is hope that I don’t encounter it again. Now, where should I go next?

  A pang of hunger has me answering the question fairly quickly. On a hunt, then. After that I should probably find somewhere else to practice. Somewhere a little bit safer, hopefully. A quick search for tracks doesn’t turn up anything, which does make sense as I’ve looked in this area before. I’ll have to go a bit farther out then. And unfortunately, I can’t spare the energy for Plant Control this time.

  Just a little bit farther out, and after a little bit of searching, a newish-looking hoofprint comes into sight. My excitement rises as I think that I may have found something to hunt so quickly. That same excitement diminishes, however, when I get close enough to realize that the print bears a striking resemblance to that of the boar’s. I do not want to get involved in that kind of mess again.

  Turning away, I begin my search anew. To my surprise and delight, that turn reveals another, even newer footprint that is facing the opposite direction of the boar’s. Now this, on the other hand, is perfect! Just gotta follow it until I find the owner and I should be good! All that I’ll need is a bit more practice with flight and then I can be out of here, in a much safer place.

  I crouch down, as is my custom by this point, and begin to follow the trail. More footprints quickly become visible as I now know what to look for. They are quite strange, however, and that has me a bit uneasy. The tracks are deep and uneven, with gaps between sets being quite large. It almost looks like whatever made these jumped with its back feet. Or it’s some large wounded creature.

  Either way, I think Plant Control would be my most effective option here. If it’s a jumping creature, a restraining vine would stop it in its tracks and hopefully neutralize it. If it’s something large and wounded, then a root or vine could stab it and do a lot of damage. Well, these tracks look pretty new. I should find out soon enough.