Maybe I’m not seeing things …
There’s a shrill yowling sound, and I whip my head around, seeing a huge metallic smudge now perched on the opposite bank, contrasting the stone’s warm tones.
“What’s going on?” I murmur, ready to leap into the river and never learn the answer to this particular riddle.
The shape sharpens, becoming a fluffy silver beast that looks like it could swallow me in two mouthfuls, twin metallic sabers protruding from either side of its upper jaw—so long they reach well past its chin.
Big pale eyes stare at me, unblinking, slit through with a line of slate that contracts and tightens.
Contracts and tightens.
Like it’s imagining what I’d taste like lanced through by its munching maw.
“Fait Hatdah!” one of the males behind me yells, pointing past. As if I can’t already see the enormous creature perched over the other side of the river, certainly large enough to stomach all three of us.
“I really hope that thing can’t—”
It leaps.
My heart drops.
For a moment, all I see is this massive creature flying through the air, claws outstretched, like it’s reaching for me—lips peeled back from its bared teeth. Until one of the males grabs my arm and yanks me backward.
I fall into a pile of limbs, a heavy thud telling me the creature has landed on our side of the shore.
Fuck.
I scramble to get up again.
Get away.
Finally making it to my feet, I whip around, finding the animal between us and the river. It oscillates between an argent haze of barely-there shape and a strong, sturdy feline with a tufted tail and flowing mane that tangles with the wind. Like the tendrils are dancing with Clode.
My heart leaps into my throat as it lowers onto its thick, powerful haunches, the piercing tips of its sabers almost scoring across the ground.
It looks me right in the eye, lifts its upper lip, and snarls.
I sigh.
I survived a thunder of Moltenmaws and nearly choked to death on Sabersythe saliva only to be eaten by this thing?
“Fait Hatdah gah te nahh,” one of the males beside me says, the tone of his voice laced with a twinge of wonder. “Fait Hatdah. Fait Hatdah … comá feir Kholu.”
Fait Hatdah? What the fu—
My eyes widen, heart skipping a beat.
Fate Herder …
It’s the fucking Fate Herder.
The creature is more legend than reality, so rarely spotted in the flesh. Those who have seen it are often considered crazy or delusional, boasting stories about the beast nudging them to make a different decision from the one they’d intended.
Physically nudging them. Like a bossy handler.
The creature’s slit pupils swell, its large flat tongue coming out to lick across its muzzle, as though in confirmation of the revelation.
My shoulders loosen, some of the tension leaving my body.
Surely this thing doesn’t go around eating folk …
Surely.
Flicking a glance behind me, I wonder which of the two males the creature’s here to herd, my heart stilling when I find them both on their knees—looking at me with reverence. Certainly not like I just heaved my guts all over myself in front of them.
Weird.
“I’ll just … move out of your way,” I say, holding the Herder’s jarring glare as I step to the right.
It prowls sideways, keeping itself firmly positioned between myself and the river, a low growl boiling in its fluffy chest.
I frown, passing a glance over my shoulder at the others, certain they must have also moved—my heart plopping into my stomach when I see them still in the same place, looking at me with raised brows.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
No.
Not happening.
Narrowing my eyes on the creature, I shift my weight like I’m about to leap to the left, then throw myself right and sprint along the bank as fast as my legs can take me, curving toward the river—
A snarl cuts through the air a split moment before something big and dense charges into my side, knocking me off my feet. I careen along the ground, certain flesh is grating off my shoulder as I grind to a halt in the dirt.
Groaning, I lift onto my grazed elbows so I can look right into the slit eyes of the creature now doing slow, prowling arcs between me and the fucking river. “No!”
It growls, the sound like a sawtooth slice.
Maybe it does go around eating folk.
“I want to go that way!” I say, pointing in the direction the water is flowing.
The Fate Herder begins tightening its arcs in loping strides, crushing the space between us, its message blatant.