Goldie pointed out a gap area in the nearly invisible outer barrier of Goldie's deadly silken zone of death.

Then Adon and Goldie followed Samson's lead as he walked down what Adon quickly recognized was a gently down-sloping hill.

Oh, of course it's this way, Adon thought. How did I not notice that we were uphill before? Maybe it's because I usually fly everywhere…

Since he was still in his elf-like form and had temporarily retracted his wings, Adon was hoofing it alongside the spiders. Now he noticed these features of the landscape that had—apparently—become irrelevant to him since his Evolution.

It was a verdant forest, and Adon had barely seen it before, when he flew over it following his bird-hunting impulse. He looked around, carefully taking in all the greenery.

Perhaps as a result, Adon was also the first to notice when the surrounding flora began to show traces of blood. It was just spatter initially, scattered around what was now his head height—the spiders being much lower in stature than Adon at this point, since his quasi-humanoid body stood upright, while they were still spiders.

Adon knew what he was looking at instantly; he had seen and smelled—and tasted—a lot of blood in this life, and despite being almost dry now, the droplets on the plants were unmistakable. He considered what to say to Samson and Goldie, but then they rounded a tree, and both of them noticed.

The ground in the small open area ahead was doused with blood that the soil had not yet been able to fully absorb. This must have been where the deer was slain. Adon also saw long, deep claw marks in surrounding trees. The ground was disturbed where the deer and its predator had tussled. And there were marks of broken branches and trampled plants that seemed to form a trail leading downhill.

Do we want to continue this way? Adon sent instantly. I think there's some kind of predator that killed the deer—Goldie and I saw a dead deer earlier, by the way, bro—and from the looks of things, it headed the same way we're headed.

Isn't this a great opportunity for us? Samson replied immediately. We wanted to hunt, so we could get stronger. Isn't a predator a better opportunity to hunt? Mama already killed a fox…

Adon wondered if Goldie had something she wanted to say. Her posture seemed to indicate that she was about to speak when Samson beat her to the punch. But as soon as Samson gave his view, Goldie seemed to clam up.

A fox is not the same as, say, a wolf or a lion or a bear, Samson, Adon transmitted. We might get stronger quickly if we keep going and defeat whatever this thing is. But we could die.

They're the same in the sense that they all lack magic, Samson argued. That makes them nothing but dumb brutes to you guys, I think. Even to me. I might not have any magical disciplines under my belt, but I can still use Mana, and I completed an Evolution already. Nobody's going to kill me just by stepping on me, I can tell you that!

Ugh, I can't deal with you when you're like this, little brother, Adon thought silently to himself. That irrepressible enthusiasm had served Samson well in the safe environment of their last life together—it probably explained some of their difference in outcomes—but now it was making Samson reckless. Adon slowly shook his head and cast a sidelong glance at Goldie, who still had not said anything or changed her posture, as if she was actively trying to conceal her feelings on this issue from both Adon and Samson, to let them decide this on their own. He's not even thinking about how Goldie feels…

Adon began formulating his next telepathic message, but before he could get very far, Goldie suddenly broke her silence.

I think we can do it, guys, she sent with little inflection. We came to this forest for a hunt. So, let's hunt. If this thing is higher up on the food chain, it will give us more Evolution Points when we kill it!

Adon wanted to probe her thought process, because he thought she was trying to hide some fear. Her body had shrunken down slightly. It felt to Adon as if she was instinctively making herself smaller—perhaps imagining herself in danger.

He was formulating the message to ask her about that, when he suddenly thought better of it. Maybe Goldie was afraid. Goldie was often afraid, he knew, of the outside world in general and big, scary enemies in particular.

Perhaps this was her opportunity to overcome some of that. If she faced whatever monstrous predator they were likely following on the trail of, maybe she would not be afraid of moving around outside anymore.

After all, if they killed a lion, a bear, or a wolf, she would know they could handle anything.

Adon looked down at Goldie for a long moment and then simply sent, Do you actually want to do this, Goldie?

He wouldn't pressure her, but he was giving her one last chance to back out.

No, I mean yes, I want to go through with this, Goldie replied. For a moment, I thought you were trying to talk me out of it. She sent along a sound of nervous laughter.

Adon remained silent for a few seconds, wrestling with his impulse to actually try to talk the spiders out of this pursuit.

What are you worrying about? he asked himself. You're here. There's probably nothing that can hurt Goldie and Samson while you're protecting them.

We were here to hunt in the first place, like you said, Adon sent. So, let's hunt whatever monster is waiting further into this forest.

Samson did a strange little leap, and moved his left forelimb in what Adon interpreted as a spider version of a fist pump. Then he rushed ahead, moving nimbly around the puddle of blood, now seeking the trail of the predator that had mauled the deer.

The three continued their descent downhill, now conspicuously quiet.

Adon and Goldie moved side by side at first, letting Samson lead the way, but Adon felt strange walking in silence—and faintly guilty that he had not tried to lead Goldie away from danger. Although, as she would have pointed out, it was not his responsibility to keep her safe, that didn't mean he felt no responsibility.

The transformed butterfly and the spider walked for only a couple of minutes, until they caught up to Samson, who had stopped moving forward.

"What's up, Samson?" Adon spoke aloud, and Goldie jumped slightly at hearing his voice in the real world rather than inside her head for a change—which made the butterfly smile. Then Samson spoke up. He had not been startled at the sound of Adon's voice, which Adon thought was strange.

Adon tried to follow which way the young spider was looking, but it was difficult owing to Samson's arachnid eyes.

Um, guys, Samson sent, I think I found part of the trail, but I don't exactly know how to follow it.

He pointed up with his left forelimb, and Adon turned his head and followed the pointer.

Crushed against the tree in a feathered, bloody pulp, there were the remnants of a dead bird. It looked like it had been smashed with a great club. Only the beak remained intact.

At least it was quick, Adon thought.

Don't worry, guys, he sent to Samson and Goldie. I'll pick up the trail from the air.

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And that way, I won't have to keep fighting this urge to talk you both out of this, he added to himself.

Adon altered his Transformation, keeping himself in his elf-like form but allowing his wings to emerge from his back once again.

Then he took to the air.

From his elevated vantage point, he could see more than the dead bird. Through the nearby trees, there was a dead possum, and beyond that, he saw a boar staggering around, bleeding from a wound where it looked almost as if someone had tried to scalp the creature. A bit of brain was exposed, and the beast's movements were extremely clumsy.

Whatever did this didn't bother killing all of its prey, Adon thought. Unless the boar killed it. Or the boar did this. He thought of the smashed bird, which had been smeared against the tree at a point too high up for the boar to reach. All right, not the boar, then. But what kind of creature did this? Or was it even an animal?

He knew mankind was capable of extreme brutality. And he knew that this was a world in which monsters could exist, though he had never yet seen one.

Adon, what do you see? Goldie asked.

Just a minute, Adons sent back. I'm going to take a good look and give you guys a good route.

He flapped his wings and took his body higher into the air. He only noticed now that his flight skills were considerably slower and clumsier than they had been in his normal butterfly form.

Things to practice, Adon thought half-absently. He was focused on getting a good butterfly's eye view of the area.

As he got to the height of a small building, he could see a large gap in the trees around twenty feet ahead of himself and the spiders. In that gap, Adon caught a glimpse of shimmering water.

That's a lake, he thought. Maybe the catchment area thing Samson was talking about. Or whatever other kinds of lake there are.

Bro, are you coming back?! Samson's voice carried up into the sky, but it stretched thinner and grew weaker as it reached Adon.

Yes, yes, one moment! Adon sent back hastily. He fluttered around in a spiraling motion, trying to get a quick view of everything nearby.

Besides the boar, he did not see many large animals the spiders might need to worry about—not that the even needed to worry about a dying boar, when they had Mana to reinforce their bodies with, but he wanted the smoothest path he could arrange for them. Adon also spotted a trail of broken branches and bloodied foliage that he guessed marked where the creature that had killed the possum and maimed the boar had gone.

Then Adon allowed himself to float gently back down to ground level.

"All right, I'm back," Adon said aloud as he landed beside the spiders. "I saw a dead possum and a wounded boar when I was up there, so I would suggest you guys go around them…"

He outlined a path for the spiders to follow in the general direction of the trail of broken branches and explained what he had seen.

Samson seemed to become fired up.

It's really happening, the little spider transmitted. My first really real fight!

Goldie was more thoughtful.

You said which way we should go, she sent. What about you?

I want to go back up into the sky and scout ahead, Adon replied. Don't worry about me. I won't let a bird eat me or something.

He left unspoken that he was beginning to feel more unsettled about the situation they were walking into. He still wasn't trying to countermand the two spiders' expressed wish to continue the hunt. It would be patronizing, especially when he hadn't even seen what the threat was yet.

If he managed to get a glimpse of this thing, however, and he discovered that it was a dragon or some other terrible beast, he could at least warn the spiders and probably get them to turn back.

Adon fluttered into the air again after the exchange, and for a few minutes, he floated in a widening gyre, allowing himself to enjoy flying unburdened in the open air again and checking the surroundings in all directions as best he could despite the tree cover.

There were more dead animals and more wounded animals, he saw. Some were still walking, while a few looked to be nearer to death.

This really isn't right, Adon thought.

He had little in the way of scruples as a hunter. He had happily killed many beasts without worrying whether they were a match for him or not, as long as he thought they would give him Evolution Points and feed his voracious appetite.

But I at least try to eat what I kill. I don't leave animals wandering around wounded, unless I can't finish them off.

He felt a quiet stirring of pity as he saw a badger—perhaps the same badger he had seen when he was looking for something that Goldie could hunt, earlier—with a missing leg and half its face ripped off. The creature stumbled on, still moving somehow despite clearly being in agony and badly wounded. Blood continued steadily draining from the stump of its amputated leg.

Finally, moved by sympathy, Adon turned himself invisible and then descended.

He got as close to the badger's back as he could without setting off alarm bells—though perhaps he needn't have worried; its mind seemed to be gone—then charged his Mana ball and fired it point blank into the badger's skull.

A quiet kill.

Adon passed a few minutes this way, putting animals out of their misery. There were a few that were less sorely hurt that he healed, but mostly, he operated a one-butterfly mobile euthanasia clinic.

Finally, he fluttered back into the sky and resumed scouting the way to the beast that had left that trail of destruction. Adon found he was unable to locate his friends on the ground from his position in the sky, now, which was perhaps unsurprising. They had been moving forward, probably, and they were still small compared with the other animals he had spotted from the air. Even with Goldie's striking coloration, she would not stand out so much. Many leaves on plants that were not evergreen had turned shades of orange and yellow.

Adon began to grow a little nervous. He flapped much harder and faster, pushing Mana into his wings as he accelerated in the direction of the lake. That was the general way that the trail of destruction down below led, and Adon was flying too fast to look at the fine details below, so he just followed the broad line of the creature's trajectory.

He reached the lake in a few minutes. Despite the cool air around him, for the first time in this new life, he felt sweat dripping down his body. Adon saw a large form near ground level, and he descended to get a better look.

Twenty feet up from the water's surface, and forty total feet away from the incredible figure, Adon could tell what it was more easily.

At the lake's edge, glaring down suspiciously at the water's surface, stood a great, powerfully built, brown bear.

Adon could clearly see caked on blood around its snout and on its claws, like the bear had decided to wear dark red gloves and a burgundy muzzle that day. But the illusion was shattered by the little flecks of gore and blood that had not yet dried, slowly dripping down into the water.

Still in his elf-like form with its human-style organs, Adon felt his heart beat faster.

Even in his caution—even in his desire to scout ahead—he knew immediately that he had underestimated this situation. He sensed that this creature was different from anything he had encountered before.

Identify.

Mystic Iron Bear (Male) (Rabid)

Adon swallowed hard. Shit. It's a mystic beast—and it's rabid. I guess that explains why it was just mauling other animals and not even bothering to finish them off.

He had been right that this bear was different from any of the animals he had hunted in the past. More right than he could have guessed.

Adon tried to move slowly backward through the air. His wings weren't as graceful while he was in the elf-like form, as he had already noticed, but he managed to inch further from the bear without making sudden movements that he thought might draw its attention. He would retrace his steps and find wherever the spiders were, and he would warn them that this hunt was not worth the trouble.

The bear had not noticed him yet. It had not seen either of the spiders, presumably, nor would it if they just silently retreated. There was no reason for them to walk into a deadly battle.

Backing down from this situation should be easy, hopefully.

Barely a problem.

Adon, we finally caught up! Goldie's telepathic voice cut through the air.

The butterfly turned toward the sound and saw Goldie burst through some long grass that marked the barrier between the forest and the lake. Samson stood on her back.

Then she and Samson could see the bear.

Oh, Goddess! Goldie exclaimed.

Shit, Samson added.

Please shut up for a minute, guys! Adon sent urgently.

He turned back to face the bear.

The bear's head had tilted up, and it stared at Adon, then looked back and forth between the elf-like creature fluttering in the air and the dinner-plate-sized spider with the much smaller spider on her back, processing these new presences in its domain.

Then its nostrils flared, the bear lowered its head, and it charged in the direction of the spiders.

Damn it! Adon thought.

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