The clearing was hushed beneath the weight of night. Clouds had rolled in, pressing low over the jungle, muting the stars and sealing the camp in a claustrophobic dark. The fire at the center smouldered low, casting more smoke than light, and every flicker of its orange glow stretched long shadows across the shelter walls.
Raif sat hunched beside it, knees drawn up, a stick in his hands turning slowly. The spearhead at its end was freshly bound, flint splinters lashed into place with boiled bark fibers, hardened sap sealing the knots. But his eyes weren't on the work. They were on the trees.
Something wasn't right.
It wasn't just the silence, though that alone had teeth tonight. It was the air itself. The way it hung. How the vines near the edge of the clearing seemed to sway despite the absence of wind. The low buzz that wasn't quite sound, not quite sensation, just a sense of being watched.
Raif stood slowly, testing the soil with careful steps. The ground was damp, still holding the memory of the rain, slick with a fine skin of dew. His gaze swept the perimeter. The jungle loomed in its usual tangle, but some patterns were wrong.
Too many broken ferns near the south tree.
He approached, squatted low.
A footprint.
No… not human. Wider. Longer. A paw, maybe. Heavy.
Another. Then a third, and finally a fourth.
Raif followed them around the edge of the camp. They looped near the cellar, circled the shelter, paused just short of the firelight.
"Shit," he whispered.
He bolted for the shelter, ducked under the low frame, and kicked Goss's foot. "Up. Quiet."
Goss groaned. "What-"
"Quiet."
Raif grabbed his makeshift spear, then moved to Naera, shaking her shoulder. Then Eloin. Then Thomund, finally Lira.
Each of them stirred slowly, but when they saw his face, when they saw the tension in his jaw and the grip he had on his weapon, they woke fully.
"What is it?" Thomund asked, already reaching for his spear.
"Tracks," Raif whispered. "It followed us back. The bark wolf."
The silence cracked, just a little. The jungle beyond the fireline shifted.
Then it growled.
Raif crouched low, just beyond the dim firelight, his breath shallow. The sounds from the jungle were clearer now, pacing steps, the rustle of foliage brushing against something large. The bark wolf wasn't hiding anymore. It was circling. They could guess where it was from the sounds it made, but that only heightened the danger. It was moving, and it wasn't slow.
Behind him, the others stirred in silence. Thomund had a spear in hand, one end burned to a point. Eloin crouched near the fire, slowly rotating a second weapon through the flames to keep the tip hardened. Naera stood with a shard of bark in her grip, dull but jagged. Lira was already half-standing, limping toward Goss, who sat upright now, blinking through a haze.
Two of them were out of commission from previous dangers. There was a chance… a very faint chance that they would be targeted first if the bark wolf noticed they couldn't escape. Raif's body tensed at the thought. His teeth clenched. Hands sweaty.
"Where is it?" Thomund whispered.
Raif gestured toward the jungle's edge. "Near the vine cluster. Fifteen meters. Moving left."
They heard it then, a low, grinding growl like wet wood dragged against stone. Not loud. Deliberate. The wolf was toying with them. It was teasing them. Letting them know it was there, and it wasn't afraid of them. It was like a child playing with its food.
"Lira, get Goss back," Raif said.
"I can't carry him."
"He walks, or he dies," Raif hissed.
Goss's legs buckled under him as he tried to stand, but with Lira bracing him, they made it behind the fire. Lira grabbed a few branches that Naera had collected earlier in the day and tossed them into the fire. She wanted the flames to burn as bright and as hard as they could. She knew she was just a liability. There was nothing she could do to help.
Naera shadowed them, never turning her back on the trees. She tasked herself with protecting the two without anyone telling her. Her thought process was the same as Lira's and Raif's. If she didn't protect them or at least try to, then one, if not both, were dying tonight.
Suddenly, the wolf burst forward, silent until its claws struck the hardened mud, kicking up sparks and dirt. Raif barely shouted in time.
"MOVE!"
Thomund lunged, jabbing his spear. It struck the creature's shoulder but glanced off a twisted knot of bark embedded in its hide. The wolf's weight hit him full force, driving them both down. It was a lot heavier than he'd expected, and the spear he'd made in a hurry wasn't going to help much against a creature like this.
"Thomund!" Raif roared.
Eloin launched forward, jabbing his weapon into the beast's flank. It howled, a sharp, keening sound, and reeled away. Thomund rolled aside, blood at the corner of his mouth but moving. Raif quickly stood in front of Thomund as he wobbled to his feet. He spat out blood and gripped the spear once more. His eyes stared daggers into the wolf's.
The wolf didn't retreat. It circled again, slower now, dragging one leg slightly. Its eyes were no longer playful; it was calculating now, like a predator in a duel against another. It sensed that the people in front of it were different from normal prey. They were smarter. They worked together. It had to think more. Find the weak points. Exploit them.
"We hurt it," Eloin said, panting. His grip on the spear was tight, evident from the red marks on the inside of his palms.
"Not enough," Raif muttered.
They tightened formation. Raif moved in front, spear lowered, while Eloin and Thomund flanked him. A simple arrowhead formation, but the three of them were ready and moving as one. They stood in front, knees bent. The fire flickered, casting their shadows tall and frantic. A second passed. A long second. Both parties stood poised.
Then it happened.
It charged.
This time, the group didn't scatter. Raif feinted left, drawing the creature's gaze, while Thomund swept low with his branch, smashing into its injured leg. The bark wolf stumbled.
"NOW!" Raif shouted.
Eloin jabbed for its eye. Missed, barely. But the blow struck its muzzle, splitting the lip and revealing dark, glistening tendons beneath. Raif aimed for its back, but the spear shattered into splinters the moment it connected. Its hide was tougher than the simple wooden weapons they made.
The creature shrieked, an unearthly sound that silenced everything else, and turned, leaping back into the jungle. It came and went like a tornado. Leaving only destruction in its wake.
"Everyone still breathing?" Raif called out, chest heaving.
"Barely," Thomund groaned, clutching his ribs.
Naera emerged from behind the shelter, eyes wide but calm. She didn't need to take action the whole time, but she was watching. "It'll remember that."
Raif nodded. "So will we."
For a long moment after the bark wolf vanished into the trees, no one spoke. The clearing was awash in the light of half-dead torches and the wavering glow of the orb. Their breaths came ragged, echoing off the wet leaves. The air smelled of scorched bark and the acrid tang of the sap-blood the creature had left behind.
Thomund lowered his spear first. The point was black with charring where it had met the beast's hide. His hand shook as he set it down. "It'll be back," he said quietly. "Things like that don't forget."
Raif nodded, swallowing the burn in his throat. He turned to Eloin, who was leaning against a half-collapsed shelter, his shoulders heaving. "You all right?"
Eloin's eyes flicked up, pale in the firelight. "Aye. Nothing broken. But next time we need better weapons."
Naera sat back on her heels, one hand still braced protectively across Goss's chest. She checked his condition. He had to move when he was still busy recovering, and she wasn't sure if he was going to be okay. However, Goss weakly nodded his head, signaling that there was nothing wrong. She met Raif's gaze over the fire. "That was no random attack. It was waiting for us to be tired, distracted."
Lira limped forward, face drawn. She still held the half-burned branch she'd used to keep the vines at bay. "It was watching. Testing the perimeter. Just like the vines do."
Raif let the words sink in. He felt it too, that sick certainty that nothing in this place was driven by instinct alone. Even the predators were deliberate.
Thomund crouched to examine the spot where the creature had fallen when they struck it. A thick smear of resinous blood soaked the ferns there, still tacky. "It's wounded," he said. "Badly."
"Will that keep it away?" Lira asked.
Thomund's mouth twitched into something like a grim smile. "Or make it angrier."
The group fell silent again. Somewhere beyond the trees, a low rustling carried through the night, as if the bark wolf were reminding them it hadn't gone far.
Raif exhaled slowly. "Everyone stay close to the fire. No lone watches tonight. We rotate in pairs."
Eloin nodded. "And if it comes back?"
"Then we finish it," Raif said, voice flat.
Naera stood, wiping sap off her fingers onto her trousers. "I'll check the perimeter."
Lira shook her head. "I'll go with you."
They limped off together, torches raised. Thomund sank into the ground with a groan, rolling his shoulder where the bark wolf had clipped him. The raw edge of adrenaline was starting to ebb, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion.
A faint shimmer passed over the orb.
Raif looked up, frowning. The glow steadied. Brighter than before.
A message blinked across his vision, sharp, brief, undeniable.
[Challenge Survived: Repel Hostile Entity
+4 KE]
[Total KE: 78 / 100]
[Next Upgrade: LOCKED]
[Required: 100 KE]
Raif read the words in silence.A reward. For not dying.He didn't smile. He didn't speak. Just stared at the orb with something like resentment simmering behind his eyes.
Lira returned from the treeline with Naera beside her. She saw the expression on his face and the flicker of light in the orb."What did it say?" she asked.
Raif didn't look away from the glow. "Four points. For surviving."
Naera's voice was quiet. "That's what we are to it. Numbers."
"No," Raif muttered, almost to himself. "We're currency."
Thomund added another log to the fire, watching the flames catch and rise. "Then we'd better make it expensive."