Page 60 of Heir of the Beast

“Mort!” I kneel beside her. “Talk to me!”

She takes another breath and sits up. “I have a r-red alert.”

I start to panic. “Something worse than this?!” I wave my hands around at the insanity of this.

“Pierce is obligated to send any player a red alert no matter what,” she says, and regains her breath.

I glance around the spooky dark forest. “Where is the other rider?!”

“Queen Irena wants you dead. She sees Apollo’s infatuation with you and knows that Laura will never get to marry him. This is what me and Pierce talked about earlier.”

She continues at my stunned expression, “Now I’m not definitely saying he is madly in love with you, because we don’t know. He still could be crazy enough to kill you for lying to him.

“He seems wildly unpredictable.”

I swallow, wiping the rain from my face.

“But Irena is an evil witch and knows you are the lost daughter of the King of Galleon. And if her infidelity is found out, she will be publicly executed. So you see why she would want you dead—and fast.”

“Ok.” I look around, feeling spooked. “So what’s the red alert? And why is there no one around us?”

Without answering me, she takes off into a sprint. “What in the hell?!” I call after her, following her, my skirts almost making me trip.

We stop at an unconscious soldier that apparently was slammed into the tree by Mort. She turns him over and takes off his bow, tossing it to me.

“You will need this.”

I glance up, seeing the sky reflecting a deep purple, and the ground rumbles as if the gates of hate opened. “Talk to me!”

“We have to make it to the village of Demour, which is not far, but we can hide out there until we can come up with a plan of action. I have to talk to Pierce ASAP when we get there.”

My eyes widen, and I see dark shadows darting in the trees around us. “Mort?! What are those?”

I whip around to my left then to my right, my breathing harsh and frantic. I hear branches breaking, and I look to Mort, who is backing up, wide-eyed.

“I’m not sure! I’m not logged in, but I think that they are a very dangerous animal. Some wolf breed brought on by Irena. Use your bow!” And with that, she becomes the gray horse, stomping about nervously.

Right!

Awesome sauce.

~Please don’t freak out.~

I hear a deep growl that is so low it almost sounds like vibrations, for the human ear is most likely unable to pick up octaves that deep. Mort rears up on her hind legs and neighs loudly.

I swallow and turn slowly to see a wolf-type animal—except that it’s not. It’s not at all a wolf. Maybe if a wolf had a baby with a grizzly bear.

It is mere feet from me, eyes glowing yellow and long trails of saliva falling from its knife-like teeth. I stop breathing, too scared to move, for it may make it come after me.

I hear Mort making lots of noise, but the creature is crouched low and homed in on me. The ground is rumbling again, but I am locked eye to eye.

I slowly try to take a step back, but that only makes the low rumble from its throat become louder.

I’m so screwed.

~Don’t cry.~

Be brave.

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