Kozlo looked back at him, eyes bright, somehow happy. It grinned as far as a beak could and held its wings out harder. “Fight!”

  Arvey listened closely to the echo, counting the seconds it took for the sound to bounce back so he could judge the distance up the hill. Quickly, he reached out and hooked two fingers into the soft feathers on Kozlo’s chest. He pulled the owl down behind the nearest boulder, pressing him firmly against the dirt. Kozlo flapped his wings once in protest, but froze the moment Arvey held up two fingers in a warning gesture.

  “Two chirps means danger,” Arvey whispered, keeping his hand raised until he was sure Kozlo was paying attention. “Keep your wings tucked in.”

  Kozlo pulled his wings in with a stiff motion. “Okay,” he said, then leaned to peek around the rock. Arvey listened and tracked the sound again, then shifted his feet to keep balance on loose soil.

  Arvey’s gaze slid to the body near the center. The Stalker lay on the dirt with stiff limbs and dull skin. He rolled his shoulders and pulled a deep breath into his lungs. His skin held closed where the claws had cut him earlier, and his muscles answered with full strength when he moved thanks to the potions in his stomach.

  “The potions helped. A lot.” Arvey said, looking at the corpse and held the gaze for a beat. “May you find peace,” he said in a low voice.

  “We need to get out of here,” Arvey whispered, then gestured toward the narrow passage between the stone shelves. He looked at Kozlo and added, “You lead the way.”

  Kozlo gave a quick, sharp nod and immediately took the lead, moving ahead with swift steps.

  Arvey followed close. The dimensional pouch bumped against his hip, and he pinned it with his palm to stop the swing. Mist curled at ankle height and dampened the rock.

  A branch snapped behind them. The crack carried through the corridor and turned into a slow push of weight through brush. Kozlo chirped once and stopped.

  Arvey stopped with him and held his breath for three beats. His pulse climbed and heat pressed behind his knuckles. He leaned forward and looked through a slit between rocks.

  Leaves moved in a line as something passed between trunks. A heavy step hit the ground and sent a small tremor through stone. Arvey eased back and kept his voice low.

  “Which tier?” Arvey asked. He watched Kozlo’s eyes and the tension in his feet. Kozlo kept staring through the slit.

  “Two,” Kozlo said. Then he looked up at Arvey and asked, “Why hide?” His wings twitched like his body wanted to fight.

  Arvey answered with a short breath and a short sentence. “Tier two will kill us.” He shifted his stance and lifted Kozlo into his arms.

  “Let’s go,” Arvey said. Kozlo pressed his face into Arvey’s shirt and tucked his talons. Arvey started moving with tight steps and steady breathing.

  The scrape behind them turned into pursuit. Stone clicked under claws, and a wet breath rode along the corridor in short bursts. Arvey kept his shoulder close to rock and kept his pace even.

  The corridor rose over a waist-high shelf. Arvey planted his hand, drove through his legs, and lifted in one motion. Kozlo’s head bumped his chin, and Kozlo giggled under his breath like the bump counted as a game.

  Dust fell from the ceiling behind them as claws tore loose chips. The screech came again, close enough to push grit into Arvey’s hair. Kozlo chirped twice against Arvey’s chest and whispered, “Fast,” with a proud tone.

  Arvey left the corridor and hit a slope of loose gravel. His boots slid, and he dropped his weight to keep traction. He angled toward a line of boulders to break the approach into turns.

  A heavy body crashed out behind him. Vibration ran up through the ground and into Arvey’s calves.

  Arvey glanced back for one step.

  The beast burst through the brush on four thick limbs. Hide stretched tight over muscle. Front claws swung low, longer than his forearm, curved and dark at the tips. Its head rode low between the shoulders, jaw split wide with wet teeth, breath spilling in hot bursts. One eye sat clouded. The other fixed on him and held.

  Arvey’s throat tightened. His grip closed hard around Kozlo, and he forced his breathing back into rhythm. Arvey turned his head forward and pushed his pace. “If that thing catches me, I’m a dead man,” Arvey said, voice low.

  Kozlo chirped twice and sounded pleased. “Yes,” he said. Arvey cut right between two boulders, turned sideways to fit, and drove into a narrow run where roots broke through soil.

  He kept his knees soft and his stride short. Behind him, claws struck stone in quick bursts that gained ground. “Big feet,” Kozlo said, like he described a slow animal.

  A thin whistle cut through the air. Arvey heard it late and felt it pass close to his ear. The dart hit stone ahead with a sharp ping, and chips flicked across his cheek.

  Kozlo’s head snapped toward the sound and he chirped twice with excitement. “Needle!” he said, happy, and leaned to look back. Arvey tightened his arm around the owl and kept moving.

  Arvey shifted line at once and drove into thicker brush. Branches snapped against his shoulders and slowed the next throw. Kozlo chirped once again and sounded like he wanted to count.

  “Two,” Kozlo said. His voice carried excitement, and his eyes stayed bright. Arvey breathed out hard and increased pace.

  He stepped over a fallen trunk and landed on packed soil. Behind them, the heavy creature hit the trunk and cracked it. The trunk rolled and cleared the path under brute force.

  Kozlo lifted his head and chirped twice again, then shouted, “Danger! Danger!” with admiration. He spread his wings a little inside Arvey’s arms, then folded them tight again like he remembered the order.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Arvey cut left, then right, using trees as moving walls. He tracked the timing of the impacts behind him and matched his turns to the creature’s corrections.

  A third whistle came from behind. Arvey dropped under a low branch and felt the dart tear bark. The object spun away into the undergrowth.

  Kozlo laughed once, then chirped twice in quick taps. “Miss,” he said. Arvey kept his jaw set and ran towards a giant stone wall.

  Kozlo lifted his head and pointed with his beak. “Stone pocket,” he said. Arvey saw a split in the rock face ahead and drove his pace for the last meters.

  He turned sideways and pushed his body into the gap. Stone scraped his shoulder through wet cloth. Kozlo’s feathers brushed rock and left damp streaks.

  Inside, the gap widened into a thin passage with a low ceiling. Arvey moved in a crouch and kept one palm on the wall. Dry grit slid under his soles and held enough traction for controlled steps.

  The tier-two creature slammed into the entrance. Stone shook and dust fell in a sheet. A claw reached in and raked along the wall with a grinding scrape.

  Kozlo twisted his head to watch and chirped twice, then whispered, “Hello,” like he greeted a neighbor. Arvey pushed deeper until the passage kinked left and the turn cut the line.

  He stopped for one breath and listened. After a while the heavy steps slid away, then fell silent. The wet breath faded with them, and the corridor stopped shaking.

  Arvey eased toward the edge and looked out for a half second. The monster had swung back and prowled right along the entrance, claws scraping rock as it waited.

  He kept his palm on the wall and tried to think through one clean answer. He needed distance. He needed a line the creature could not follow with speed.

  Then the monster screeched again, tearing Arvey out of his thoughts.

  This one carried a different shape. It was like.. the monster was afraid. The sound lasted longer and rolled through the forest like a call meant to pull things in.

  Arvey lowered Kozlo to the ground and held two fingers up. “Wait,” he said.

  Kozlo sat at his boot and stared at the opening. His eyes stayed bright, and his wings twitched like he wanted to lean out first.

  Arvey leaned out a fraction again to watch the monster at the entreance.

  The attack hit suddenly.

  Several huge flying shapes dropped from above and slammed into the monster’s shoulders and neck right at the split. The monster snapped its head up and opened its mouth too wide, yet it lost ground under the impacts.

  Arvey pulled his head back at once. His pulse jumped, and he forced a slow inhale through his nose. He turned and met Kozlo’s gaze.

  Kozlo grinned and lifted his wings a fraction. “Fight?” he asked, happy.

  Arvey grabbed Kozlo and held his beak shut. “Stay quiet,” he whispered. Kozlo’s eyes stayed bright, and he nodded under Arvey’s palm.

  After a while, the rock outside stopped shaking. The beats shifted away, and the forest went quiet in broken pieces. “Seems like the beasts are away,” Arvey said.

  Arvey eased his hand off Kozlo’s beak once the forest settled. “Seems like the beasts are away,” he said, and he kept his voice close to the stone. His eyes stayed on the entrance while his feet shifted for a clean sprint.

  “This is our chance,” he said. His voice stayed low and hard. “We run.” Kozlo nodded full of energy and scrambled forward as if he started a race. “Run,” he repeated, pleased, and his talons scratched stone in quick taps.

  Arvey grabbed Kozlo by the feathers and lifted him for two steps, then set him down once the ground opened. The split continued deeper into the stone, and a second mouth showed ahead between slabs. Arvey kept his shoulder near the wall, then pushed out through the other exit as the air turned damp and green again.

  They returned to the forest on a shallow slope. Kozlo ran on the ground again and looked over his shoulder with a grin. “Kozlo had fun,” he said, voice bright. “Kozlo never had so much fun with monsters.”

  “Fun,” Arvey muttered, and he kept moving while his eyes checked trunks and gaps. He watched Kozlo’s back as the owl bounced ahead on uneven roots. Kozlo lifted his wings once and hopped higher like he wanted Arvey to see.

  “Kozlo plays,” Kozlo said. “No one plays with Kozlo.” He spread his wings wider and trotted forward faster. “Everyone plays with Arvey.”

  Arvey stared at the owl’s head bobbing ahead. He let Kozlo keep his lead. “Fine,” Arvey said. “You lead.”

  Kozlo chirped once and fluttered his wings as if he took a bow. He kept moving with a proud sway, and he hummed under his breath. The tune had one repeated line and a rhythm like marching feet.

  Arvey used the noise as cover for his own thinking. He needed a weapon and he needed a plan that held when a tier-two beast found him again. He scanned the ground for stone shards with an edge, then for branches with a clean break that could hold in a fist.

  He found a long piece of hard wood and tested it with his grip. The branch bent, then snapped at a weak point, so he tossed it aside and kept walking.

  “I need a weapon,” Arvey muttered to himself. He kept his breathing steady and kept his steps light. Kozlo replied with a happy hum and spread his wings again.

  “I am mighty,” Kozlo hooted in a soft voice. “Big warrior. Wing sword.” He flared his wings at a fern and pushed through like the plant stood as an enemy.

  Arvey let the sound roll past and tried to pull memory into shape. The elder in his village used to talk about tiers. He remembered rough drawings in the dirt, circles for bodies and the soul.

  Tier one meant the body crossed a line. Heat in the veins and a pulse that felt heavier carried the change.

  Arvey remembered the second screech of the monster, the one that shifted in tone. He remembered how the flying shapes dropped with speed and how many hit at once. He sensed their weight in the air and somehow felt they sat below the tier-two beast on tier-one, the same as him.. yet they came in a pack that turned the fight.

  “Fifteen,” Arvey whispered, counting the impacts he heard and the shadows he saw. He pictured the tier-two beast pinned by many weaker bodies and felt a thin relief move through his chest. “That thing had no chance.”

  Kozlo hopped over a root and puffed his chest. He held his wings out for two steps and sang again, louder this time. Arvey watched him and felt the pattern.

  Kozlo named tiers with ease, he read danger without fear.. or more like with a kind of joy that made fear irrelevant. Arvey watched the owl’s head turns and realized Kozlo recognized the monsters living here and the Stalker's race.

  “Hey, Kozlo,” Arvey said. “Do you know which race I belong to?”

  Kozlo stopped and looked back at him. His eyes held a bright shine, and his beak opened in something like a grin. “Arvey stupid? Forget own race?” he asked, sounding amused.

  Arvey breathed out once and kept walking. “I belong to the Corriph race,” he said, and he kept his pace even. Kozlo trotted beside him for a moment and tilted his head.

  “Corriph?” Kozlo asked, stretching the word like it tasted new.

  “Humanoid beastfolk,” Arvey said. "We come in various subraces." He kept his eyes on the trees while he spoke. “That’s why I asked, if you were Corriph. You can speak.”

  Kozlo puffed his chest and stepped ahead again. “Kozlo speaks,” he said. His wings spread a little as if the statement required display.

  Arvey kept his voice low. “Monsters like that tier-two beast usually stay silent,” he said. “So which race are you?” Kozlo hopped twice and looked back.

  “Kozlo is Kozlo,” Kozlo said, happy, and he trotted forward again as if the answer solved everything.

  Arvey watched him for a beat and muttered, “Ah, whatever.” Then he kept walking. While he moved through the undergrowth with measured steps, keeping his eyes on movement at the edges and using trunks as cover while he advanced. Kozlo moved ahead on the open line, hopping, tripping once, then recovering with a proud hop and wings spread like a banner.

  “You understand we have no idea what lives here,” Arvey said. He kept the sentence flat and kept his gaze forward. Kozlo blinked and flapped his wings once.

  “Kozlo knows,” Kozlo said. He stepped onto a fallen log and marched along it with his wings spread, singing the same line again.

  Arvey sighed. “Of course Kozlo knows. How could I forget?” He let out a quiet breath and kept his thoughts tight. "I need to learn to control my tier-one power."

  Suddenly a sound snapped above them.

  Arvey’s head tilted up for a fraction, and his body reacted before his mind could catch up. He grabbed Kozlo by the scruff of his feathers and yanked them both behind a thick trunk. His palm covered Kozlo’s beak. Two fingers rose in the danger signal.

  Kozlo’s eyes stayed bright, and his wings trembled under Arvey’s forearm as Arvey froze. “Oh shit..."