[Mother Mossbear: ???? sigils]

  The beast was massive - easily three humans tall, maybe more. Its antlers, covered thick with moss and vines, stretched even higher, looking like tree branches. Its fur, somewhere between brown and gray, was almost buried under all that moss clinging to it.

  The weight of this beast’s presence pressed down hard, making my fur and feathers bristle and my lungs struggle for air. The last time, when I came face-to-face with that huge mossbear, my instincts screamed at me to run. But now? My whole body was telling me to lie back, belly up, and just leave myself to its mercy.

  And I would if I could.

  Instead, the shock of seeing the beast made me lose my grip on the mossbear’s fur, and I dropped right onto my face, eating dirt - still dangling by my foot out of its mouth. Even down there, dragged along the ground like a piece of rag, something caught my attention - the mother mossbear didn’t chase us.

  The massive beast just gave a low grunt, obviously displeased with the behavior and weakness of her cubs. Her growl - no words needed - made her feelings clear. Her cub, the one who was chewing on my leg and dragging me along behind him, however, ignored her, forced by that bitch sitting on its back.

  'Let me go, you stupid beast!' I screamed my mind out, the agony in my limb driving tears to my eyes. You better believe I would love to tear that mossbear apart right now - with my bare teeth. ?Fight me!? I growled, digging my claws into its hide - though mostly for the grip.

  ‘Or at least kill me.’ Better dead than this - if only for a while.

  Nevertheless, despite my hatred for the young mossbear, the truth was that I knew the helplessness - that sickening way of your body not listening to you and having your feelings twisted to your master's liking. Well, at least the mind-twisting bitch got a taste of her own helplessness.

  It wasn't long, just a few breaths in, before we crossed paths with another mother mossbear in the woods, no weaker than the last one. Of course, that threw the bitch off, much to my delight. Annoyingly, though, without a second thought, she urged the young mossbear to change direction.

  When we ran into a mother mossbear for the third time, she finally got the hint - we weren't just walking out of these woods. Not now that the beasts had heard my call. We were being herded. Knowing that and actually being able to do something about it, though? Two very different things. She tried hard, making the mossbear she was riding tear around the clearing in a wild loop. But this wasn’t her backyard to show off in, like she’d bragged. This was their home turf, and we? Mere trespassers. Heck, maybe even pests in their eyes.

  ?Accord!?

  “Shut up, mutt!”

  'Fuck you, too! Anyway, YES. Accord. The best chance to get out of this was to strike an accord with them.' Beasts and animals weren't all that unreasonable. Even though I was basically stealing from squirrels, they had agreed to help me. Unlike her, though, I hadn't gone messing with their heads and was actually able to talk to them.

  On that note, ever since Mr. Scoresby told me about the mossbears, I couldn't help but wonder why the Sahal Empire didn’t just wipe them out. Yeah, I get there was this Lord of the Forest, but that was only one beast. Surely they must have been able to deal with it somehow, even at the cost of casualties. No one would want that kind of danger sitting right in the middle of their empire, right?

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Well, it made more sense to me now. The Lord of the Forest wasn't the only powerful beast around. So far I had seen five mother mossbears, and I was quite sure that wasn't all of them. How many were there? Even the thought of half a dozen of them, led by the Lord of the Forest, was terrifying.

  Hence the accord. A wise decision on the part of the Empire, as far as I could tell.

  My decisions, though? Not so much.

  If I hadn’t cut through that damn alley just to save a few minutes getting home, I wouldn’t have run into the Fae. If I hadn't done this and that, I wouldn’t have my leg stuck in the jaws of some beast bigger than any bear on Earth. If, if, if....I didn't need to be able to read minds to know the same thing was on the bitch's mind right now. Despite her best efforts and growing desperation, we found ourselves right back where it all started - in front of the ruins of a human dwelling.

  "You brainless, mutt!" the bitch yelled at me, for the umpteenth time. "This is all your fault!"

  ?Fuck you, too!? I growled back, flashing a grin, showing my teeth. Sure, a bit odd to smile like that when my right leg was basically in shreds, but at some point the pain just dulled. Now it just felt like I had been sitting on it for too long.

  'Should probably freak out more.' But just like with everything else - pain, the mutations, whatever - you eventually grow numb to it. There was also [Indomitable Will], soothing my mind, among other things. And a lot of my peace of mind came from my regeneration. It was able to fix my face, so...

  A rustling sound from the bushes, just a few steps away, caught my ear.

  It turned out to be Ward and his two Shadowbreaker packmembers, all looking like they had been dragged through the mud - especially him. His usual elegance and confidence? Gone. Floral scent, too.

  "I take it you didn’t get a choice either," the male remarked, sympathizing with her frustration. "Mother mossbears or the adult ones?"

  The thoughts-twisting bitch shot him a venomous look. "Shut up! When my father hears of this..."

  “Yeah, he’ll be furious,” Ward muttered, waving her off. "I certainly am, but I think we have a bigger problem." He nodded toward the heart of the fire.

  ?Just… move your bloody head!?

  ‘PLEASE!!!’

  With some coaxing of the young mossbear and a painful twist of my neck, I spotted what he meant - or who. There, in the clearing, now a field of ash with flames licking at the forest's edge, stood a group of people, surrounded by beasts. No, they weren't the brainwashed Shadowbreakers. Their group, now numbering only six, stood their ground not far away, fighting with two young mossbears.

  It was my pack, Vara and Elira. The foul-mouthed knelt over Harcon, the fire-wielder, while the shy one stood guard, armored up now, spear in hand. How she had gotten that gear was plain enough. Along with her there stood a male. One I had never seen before. Like her, clad in armor, unlike her, without a weapon. Didn’t seem like he needed one, though. When one of the young mossbears braved too close, he leapt faster than I could blink and kicked it hard enough to send it crashing to the ground.

  "Deckard, I suppose," the mind-twisting bitch spat, her teeth clenched tight as she sized him up for the first time, too.

  "Indeed," the not-flower-scented male replied with a nod, fixing his burned head cover. "Believe it or not, the man has earned his reputation. How he got here so fast, though, that is a mystery to me."

  "I would say the opposite. Your incompetence seems to know no bounds."

  "Just like your arrogance," Ward shot back. "Might as well have been you who brought him here."

  "Tsk. Mind your place, Bastian," she sneered, her mind working. "We don’t need to waste time on him. We just have to make our way through."

  "I don't think he'll let us."

  "You're letting yourself get blinded by talk of..." She stopped, the words cut off as Deckard's eyes locked on the group. In a matter of a few strides, he covered the distance that would take dozens, appearing a few steps away. He may not have been young as the workhand or me, or tall as Ward, nor was he as buff as the big human female, but he was strong, stronger than any of them.

  [Master Fighter: ??? sigils]

  He threw a lazy glance at the human bastards, then his eyes locked with mine. A teasing grin curled up on his lips. "You must be Korra Grey. Came to find out why you're so damn late to training."