“Mom!” Syl called as she threw the door open. “Mom?” she almost-shouted again when her mother didn’t emerge from the kitchen.

  “Mooooooooom!”

  “What’s the emergency?” Enna answered, pushing aside the curtain leading into her bedroom. Concern etched her face, a mother’s instincts responding to the way Syl called out for her.

  “No time to explain, come on,” Syl said and grabbed her mother’s arm. She led Enna outside and around back to the family’s small clinic. The empty ahbay wagon stood in front of the door, and Syl could see the others already inside.

  “What’s this?” Enna asked and gestured towards the wagon.

  “Easiest way to carry him back,” Syl said and went straight into the clinic.

  “Carry who back?” Enna asked. She got her answer as soon as she entered. Kilik’s body lay on the surgery table, but he was far beyond any treatment Enna could possibly administer.

  Enna immediately went over to inspect the body, starting with the obviously fatal wounds to the man’s neck. “What happened?” she asked her daughter.

  “I don’t know,” Syl answered. “We found him like that out on the road between Dena’s brewery and the village.”

  “What was he doing out there?” Enna asked as she moved her inspection to the scratches on his arms and legs.

  “I think he went to get more ahbay.”

  “When?”

  “Last night, during our Ka-Sho-Dan.”

  “That’s consistent with the state of the body. He’s been dead for hours. Leeze,” Enna didn’t look at the girl when she called her name. “Go find Lorac, he should be with your father. Reylo, get your aunt. Bring them both back here as quickly as you can.”

  The two youths left without question. Everybody in the village knew that when Enna told you to do something, you did it.

  “Did anybody see you bring the body here?”

  Syl slowly shook her head at the unexpected question. “I don’t think so. Maybe? We brought the wagon around the back of the village because we figured the main roads would be clogged for the feast. Why? What’s wrong?”

  Enna looked up and met her daughter’s eyes. “Nothing. I just don’t want people jumping to conclusions before I talk to Lorac and Velena.”

  Lorac, Leeze’s father’s best friend, and the finest hunter in the village. Velena, Reylo’s aunt, and the village chief. It wasn’t a good sign Enna needed to see them both urgently.

  It didn’t take long for either to arrive and both joined the inspection of Kilik’s body straightaway.

  “What do you think did this?” Lorac asked.

  “I think it was a Lake-Wolf, but I was hoping you could confirm that for me,” Enna answered.

  “Hard to say,” Lorac said, and leaned in close to the ripped-out throat. “Nothing else I know of could do that.”

  “What’s a Lake-Wolf?” Kule asked.

  Lorac looked back at the group as if he’d forgotten they were even there. “A predator from deep in the lakes. Twice as long as we are tall, and that’s not including its finned tail. When it’s on land, it walks on four clawed legs and has a long, narrow snout with saw-like teeth. A big one could look me straight in the eye.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Kule distinctly looked up to meet Lorac’s eyes, and visibly gulped.

  “From the lakes?” Syl asked. “How come I’ve never heard of one?” When she looked at her friends, the same confused expressions painted their faces.

  “We think a couple of the lakes go very, very deep. Some dangerous things live down there, and don’t often come up to the surface. But,” Lorac added. “This wouldn’t be the first Lake-Wolf we’ve had find its way into our valley. Last one was decades ago when my father was in his prime.

  “He tells stories of the hunt… sometimes.”

  “Sometimes?” Leeze asked, her thumb rubbing her pendant. “I’ve never heard that kind of story.”

  “He only tells it when he’s had a bit too much ahbay,” Lorac answered, and the grim look on his face told them how the story went even before he continued. “He lost his entire hunting party, and more than twenty other hunters were killed before they finally brought the creature down.

  “When one makes it into the valley, it runs rampant through our hunting grounds, devouring everything in its path. Boar, deer, bird, or person. They’re voracious eaters, and without competing predators, it’s paradise,” Lorac finished.

  “With all the people travelling the roads for the Ka-Sho-Dan, and at night no less, we need to take care of this immediately,” Velena said, taking charge. “Lorac, gather the hunters. All of them. That includes you lot,” she said to Syl and the others.

  “What about the feast?” Edar asked.

  “Go get your families and spread the word I’ll be making an announcement within the hour at the Ka-Sho-Dan ring,” Velena said to the youths, ignoring Edar’s question. She’d given her instructions and that was that.

  Velena, Lorac, and the others quickly filed out to see to their duties, and only Syl remained with her mother.

  Enna hardly seemed to notice the others leave, one finger on her lips, like it always was when she was puzzling something out.

  “What is it, Mom?” Syl asked as she walked over to the operating table opposite Enna.

  “What do you see?” Enna asked, pointing at the body in front of her. It was the doctor in Enna asking the question, not the ‘mother’.

  Syl’s parents had groomed her to be the village’s next doctor. She’d spent years helping set bones, sew up garish wounds, and even conduct autopsies. Whenever her mother asked her “What do you see?” it was meant as a learning opportunity. Even in a situation like that, Enna was going to teach her.

  Syl put aside her emotions, her empathy for Kilik and the family that would grieve his loss, and looked at the body in a purely clinical way.

  “The cause of death is obvious,” Syl said, gesturing towards the torn-out throat. “The injury itself might not have killed him outright, but he would have bled out within minutes regardless. The scratches on his arms and legs are fresh. You can see where they haven’t had a chance to begin healing. They happened only a few minutes before he passed.” She pointed towards the small cuts and waited for her mother to nod before continuing.

  “There don’t seem to be any other defensive wounds. And no broken bones.” Syl lifted and inspected each of Kilik’s hands. “No cuts or scrapes on his hands to indicate he fought back either.

  “He knew he was being hunted, so he ran,” Syl theorized. “But he wasn’t fast enough, and the Lake-Wolf must’ve gotten around in front of him, or somehow otherwise been able to sneak up on him. He was dead before he had a chance to fight back.”

  “Good so far,” Enna said, her arms crossed and her foot tapping. The woman only did that when something was really bothering her. “What else?”

  What else? Syl went over the body from head to toe. There weren’t any other injuries telling her anything. What was she missing?

  She looked to her mother for a clue.

  “What did Lorac say about Lake-Wolves?” Enna asked her.

  Syl went through everything he’d said in her head, and her eyes widened when it hit her.

  “Voracious eaters,” Syl said. “Lorac said they ate everything in their paths. Kilik wasn’t eaten. He was hunted and killed.”

  “Exactly,” Enna said. “I know the story Lorac spoke of. My father kept a journal of the most unusual patients or injuries he encountered, so your father and I would be prepared if we ever encountered something similar.

  “Your grandfather believed there were actually two Lake-Wolves responsible for Lorac’s story. The first was a regular Lake-Wolf, a voracious hunter like Lorac suggested.”

  “What was the second then?” Syl asked. “And why didn’t Lorac mention a second one?”

  “The hunters didn’t believe there was a second. The killings stopped after they’d finally exterminated one.”

  “But?” Syl prompted.

  “But my father believed the second Lake-Wolf was what he called a deviant. It hunted for sport, not for food. It hunted the hunters, but it didn’t eat them.”

  “What happened to it?”

  “It vanished, like smoke. Which is why the hunters don’t believe it was ever really there. If we’re dealing with another deviant now, this could be much more dangerous than Lorac or the others believe.

  “Lorac’s father caught the Lake-Wolf by baiting it. That won’t work on a deviant.”

  “Mom,” Syl started as a cold fear settled in her gut. “What about Dad? Did he already leave?”

  Enna’s jaw clenched the way it did when something worried her, but she didn’t want to show it. “He’ll be fine. He went in the other direction.”

  “What if he isn’t?” Syl asked, a slight tremble sneaking into her voice.

  “He has to be,” Enna answered, the same fears reflected in her eyes.

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