The first thing I felt was pressure against my back.
Something slammed into me from behind with enough force to knock the air out of my lungs. My boots slipped on the damp ground, my arms flailed uselessly at the darkness, and I landed face-first in a mixture of wet leaves and mud. Pain shot through my shoulder. Before I could even gather enough breath to curse, the weight on my back shifted, a clawed paw pressed against my shoulder, and something hot clamped around my ankle.
Teeth sank into the fabric of my trousers.
"PLEASE HELP ME! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! ASURA, WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Where did you run off to, leaving this powerless dog in the middle of the forest?"
I stopped struggling.
For several seconds, I lay motionless with my cheek pressed against the wet earth, trying to make sense of the familiar voice. Then I slowly turned my head.
Two crimson eyes stared back at me beneath a pair of dark, floppy ears.
A black dog was standing on my back.
I blinked.
He blinked.
Then he released my trousers and sat down with the offended dignity of a king who had just discovered someone had stolen his throne.
"Asura," I said, my voice trembling with disbelief, "you bit me."
"You abandoned me."
"You bit me!"
"You abandoned me first!"
I pushed myself onto my elbows, wincing as pain flared through my shoulder. "How does that justify biting my ankle?"
"How does abandoning an ancient being justify leaving him alone in the wilderness?"
"You are a dog!"
The forest seemed to grow colder.
Asura’s ears lowered very slowly.
"Repeat that."
"No."
"Repeat what you just said."
"I said you’re a very respectable creature with an impressive set of teeth."
"Liar."
"Survivor."
I scrambled away before he could reconsider his decision to release me. My ankle throbbed beneath the torn fabric, but at least the teeth did not seem to have broken the skin. I checked twice to make sure. Given my recent luck, I would not have been surprised to discover that Asura had somehow poisoned me out of spite.
The little monster watched me from the ground, his tail moving in an irritated flick.
"You made me chase you through this miserable forest," he complained. "Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to run after a human who possesses neither strength nor dignity?"
"You were chasing me because you wanted to bite me!"
"I was correcting your behavior."
"With your teeth?"
"It was the most efficient method available."
I stared at him, briefly considering whether I could survive the forest alone after throwing him into the nearest ditch.
Then I remembered where I was.
A forbidden forest. No lantern. No familiar route. No idea what lived among the trees.
I decided against it.
"Fine," I muttered, brushing mud from my clothes. "Let’s pretend this is a normal disagreement between two reasonable individuals. Now, would you mind explaining where we are?"
"In a forest."
I closed my eyes.
"Remarkable. I understand why the gods feared you."
Asura lifted his chin. "They had good reason."
"I was being sarcastic."
"Then learn to do it properly."
I took a slow breath and looked around. The forest was much darker than when I had first crossed the barricade. Thick branches twisted overhead, blocking most of the moonlight, while pale mist drifted between the trunks. The ground was uneven, covered in damp leaves and tangled roots that seemed determined to trip me whenever I looked away.
My lantern was gone. I had lost it during my desperate escape over the barricade, and now I could barely distinguish one patch of darkness from another.
I had managed to leave the estate without Edwin dragging me back by the collar. I had crossed into a forest that sensible people avoided. I had survived an encounter with my own ancient companion.
And somehow, I had still managed to lose the one object that might have helped me see where I was going.
Perhaps I should have been less ambitious.
"Asura, do you know the way out?"
"No."
The answer came so quickly that I almost appreciated his honesty.
"Can you find it?"
"Perhaps."
"Wonderful. We have moved from complete ignorance to a vague possibility. I feel much safer already."
He ignored me and began sniffing the air, his ears turning toward the trees. I watched him carefully, hoping he might discover something useful. After all, he was an ancient being who had supposedly ruled over vast territories and inspired fear among creatures far more powerful than humans.
Surely he could manage something as simple as finding a way out of a forest.
Asura sneezed.
I stared at him.
He stared back.
"Don’t."
"I did not say anything."
"Whatever you’re about to say, don’t."
"You are remarkably sensitive for someone who spends so much time complaining."
"And you’re remarkably useless for someone who spent ten thousand years being worshipped."
"More than ten thousand," he corrected sharply.
"Ah, my apologies. That extra time must have been essential to your development."
His eyes narrowed, but he eventually turned away and started walking. After a moment’s hesitation, I followed.
It was not because I trusted him. Trust was becoming an increasingly expensive luxury in my life, and Asura had done very little to justify the price. I simply trusted the forest even less. Walking beside a troublesome ancient creature seemed marginally better than wandering alone through the dark while imagining everything that might be hiding behind the trees.
We proceeded cautiously, avoiding the thickest patches of undergrowth. Every few steps, my boots sank into soft earth or caught against a root hidden beneath the leaves. I kept glancing over my shoulder, half expecting to see glowing eyes following us through the shadows.
Nothing appeared.
That should have reassured me.
Instead, the silence made me increasingly nervous.
A forest filled with ordinary animals would have been comforting. A forest where every broken twig suggested an enormous predator stalking me was considerably less pleasant. I had no intention of becoming a cautionary tale told to children who disobeyed their parents.
Then a distant howl rolled through the trees.
I froze.
The sound began as a low vibration, almost indistinguishable from the wind. It grew louder, rising into a long, savage cry that seemed to pass through the ground beneath my feet. The howl echoed between the trunks, spreading through the forest before gradually fading into the distance.
It was not the sound of an ordinary wolf.
There was something unnatural about its depth, something that made my stomach tighten and my fingers curl involuntarily. For one irrational moment, I felt as though the creature responsible had announced its presence to everything living within miles.
Beside me, Asura had stopped walking.
His ears stood rigidly upright, and his crimson eyes were fixed on the darkness ahead.
Neither of us spoke until the last echo disappeared.
I slowly turned toward him. "Please tell me that was a normal forest sound."
"It was a howl."
"I gathered that much."
"Then why ask?"
"Because I was hoping the terrifying noise might have come from something harmless. Perhaps a rabbit with an unusually large throat."
Asura gave me a look of profound disappointment.
"I do not recognize it," he admitted.
I blinked. "You don’t recognize it?"
"No."
"You have lived for more than ten thousand years."
"And?"
"And you don’t recognize the sound of something howling?"
"I was not under the impression that longevity required me to memorize every noise produced by every creature in existence."
"Then what exactly have you been doing for the last ten thousand years?"
"Ruling."
I stared at the black dog.
He stared back with all the dignity his small body could possibly summon.
"Remarkable," I whispered. "Ten thousand years of experience, and the moment something suspicious happens, you’re just as ignorant as I am."
"Do not compare yourself to me."
"Believe me, I’m trying very hard not to."
A second howl rose somewhere farther away.
This time, Asura’s gaze followed the sound. His body had gone still beneath his dark fur, and the tip of his tail no longer moved. He was not shaking, nor was he displaying any obvious sign of panic, but his attention had sharpened in a way I had rarely seen.
That bothered me more than the howl itself.
I lowered my voice. "Should we run?"
"Running without knowing what we are running from is foolish."
"So is standing here while it finds us."
"Silence."
I immediately shut my mouth.
A moment later, a branch snapped behind us.
Both of us turned.
The space between the trees appeared empty. There was only darkness, tangled roots, and the pale outline of a fallen trunk. I stared until my eyes began to ache, waiting for something to emerge.
Nothing moved.
I swallowed. "You heard that, right?"
"No. I have suddenly developed a hearing problem."
"Now isn’t the time for your usual charming personality."
"Then stop asking stupid questions."
Another sound came from the undergrowth.
Something was moving.
I could hear leaves being crushed beneath a heavy weight, followed by a faint scrape against the ground. Whatever it was seemed to be approaching slowly, without any particular concern about making noise.
My mouth went dry.
Asura moved closer to my leg.
I noticed immediately.
He noticed me noticing.
"Do not misunderstand," he muttered. "I am merely ensuring that you do not wander off again."
"Of course."
"I will bite you if you make that face."
"What face?"
"That one."
I was about to defend myself when Asura abruptly fell silent.
His head turned toward the darkness to our left. His ears flattened, and his entire body stiffened. I followed his gaze, squinting between the trees.
Something pale shifted behind a thick trunk.
At first, I thought it was a patch of mist. Then the creature stepped into the open, and every explanation my mind attempted to produce collapsed.
It was enormous.
A silver-gray wolf stood between the ancient trees, its shoulders nearly reaching the height of a man’s chest. Thick fur covered a body built from layers of muscle, and its enormous paws rested silently upon the forest floor. Its muzzle was broad, its teeth pale and cruel, and its eyes shone with a deep crimson light.
Then I noticed its second head.
It was not a deformity or a trick of the darkness. Two distinct heads rose from its shoulders, each connected to the same massive body. Both had the same silver-gray fur and the same terrible rows of teeth.
One head watched me.
The other watched Asura.
I forgot how to breathe.
The two heads tilted in opposite directions, studying us with unnerving concentration. One pulled back its lips, revealing a mouthful of fangs, while the other lowered its nose toward the ground and drew in our scent.
I had seen illustrations of monsters in the original novel. Most had been accompanied by dramatic descriptions, mysterious origins, and convenient explanations of how the protagonist would eventually defeat them.
Seeing one in person was a rather different experience.
This thing did not look like something that belonged in a story. It looked like something that would eat the protagonist, the supporting cast, and the author if they all happened to cross its path.
"Asura," I whispered.
The black dog beside me did not answer.
"Asura."
His gaze remained fixed on the wolf.
"Please tell me you know what that is."
For several terrible seconds, he said nothing. Then his voice reached my ears, lower than usual.
"A Guardian Wolf."
I waited.
He offered no further explanation.
"That name explains absolutely nothing."
"It is one of the twelve mythical beasts that ruled the animal kingdom before humans rose to power."
I slowly turned toward him. "One of the twelve?"
"Yes."
"And you thought this was information worth sharing now?"
"You asked what it was."
"I was hoping the answer would be something small and harmless!"
"The creature in front of you is neither."
"Thank you. Your ability to describe the obvious continues to impress me."
The Guardian Wolf shifted its weight.
Both heads lowered, and a deep growl rolled from its throat. The sound travelled through the clearing, making the leaves tremble around us. One head opened its jaws, and a thin strand of saliva stretched between its teeth before dripping onto the earth.
I took a step backward.
Both pairs of crimson eyes followed me.
My heart began beating so violently that I could feel it in my throat. Every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to run, but some deeply unhelpful part of my brain kept insisting that turning my back on a predator might be a terrible idea.
I looked at Asura.
"So," I whispered, "what do we do?"
His tail lowered.
"Run."
I had never heard a better suggestion in my life.
I ran.
My first few steps were clumsy. My injured ankle protested as I forced it to carry my weight, and my boots slipped over wet leaves before finding firmer ground. Asura raced beside me, his small paws barely audible beneath the sound of my own footsteps.
Behind us, the forest exploded.
The Guardian Wolf charged.
I did not look back immediately. I could hear it tearing through the undergrowth, smashing aside branches and sending loose stones tumbling across the earth. Its pursuit grew rapidly louder, and my imagination supplied several unpleasant possibilities involving its teeth, my spine, and the probable inability of any local healer to put me back together.
I ran faster.
A thick root rose across the path. I jumped over it, landed badly, and nearly collapsed as pain flashed through my ankle. I caught myself against a tree and shoved away from the trunk just as a crash thundered behind me.
I risked a glance over my shoulder.
The Guardian Wolf had lowered its head and smashed straight through a fallen tree, breaking the trunk into splintered pieces. One head focused on the path ahead while the other turned toward us, its crimson eyes shining through the drifting debris.
It was not merely chasing us.
It was studying us while it chased us.
That was considerably worse.
"Faster!" Asura shouted.
"I AM MOVING AS FAST AS I CAN!"
"Then move faster!"
"YOU HAVE FOUR LEGS! STOP JUDGING ME!"
I darted between two trees so close together that my shoulder scraped against the bark. The wolf followed without hesitation. One of its heads twisted sideways, its muzzle brushing a trunk as its enormous body forced its way through the narrow opening.
A branch struck my face. I stumbled over a buried root and went down on one knee, pain bursting through my leg. For one horrifying moment, I couldn’t get back up. The thunder of approaching paws filled my ears.
Then something seized the fabric near my ankle.
I was dragged sideways just as the Guardian Wolf’s claws tore into the earth where I had fallen.
"MOVE!" Asura barked.
I scrambled upright and followed him without asking questions.
We plunged down a slope where rain had loosened the soil. I slid more than I ran, arms flailing as branches whipped at my face and dead leaves filled my boots. Asura raced ahead before doubling back when my footing failed, snapping at my trousers until I stumbled forward again.
I would have complained about the indignity of being herded by a dog.
I would have done a great many things if I had possessed the time.
At the bottom of the slope, Asura abruptly veered toward a dense patch of bushes.
"This way!"
I followed him and threw myself into the undergrowth just as the Guardian Wolf thundered past the gap between the trees. We crawled deeper beneath a web of low branches and thorny vines. I landed on my stomach, and Asura disappeared beneath me with a muffled yelp.
"Get off my spine!"
"Be quiet!"
"You are crushing me!"
"Would you prefer that I move and allow the wolf to eat us?"
"I would prefer that you develop some consideration for your superior!"
I pressed one hand over his muzzle.
His teeth closed around my palm.
I nearly screamed.
I yanked my hand away and glared at him. He glared back, his eyes promising a violent end to our temporary partnership. Then the undergrowth ahead of us began to move.
Both of us fell silent.
The Guardian Wolf had stopped nearby.
I could see its enormous paws through a gap between the leaves, each one broader than my hand. Its claws dug into the damp soil as it slowly turned. One head remained raised, watching the trees behind us, while the other lowered toward the bushes.
Its nostrils flared.
I held my breath so tightly that my chest began to ache.
The wolf approached.
A faint tremor passed through the branches above us as its second head drew closer, its nose moving from one patch of earth to the next. The creature was close enough that I could hear its breathing, a deep, steady sound that seemed far too calm for something capable of tearing through a tree.
I pressed myself flatter against the ground.
Asura’s fur brushed my wrist. For once, neither of us had anything clever to say.
The Guardian Wolf lowered its head until its crimson eyes were almost level with the bushes. A strand of saliva fell from its jaws and landed on a leaf less than an arm’s length away.
My entire body went cold.
Then Asura’s nose twitched.
Once.
Twice.
His eyes widened.
I slowly turned toward him.
No.
Absolutely not.
He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to hold his breath, but the pollen trapped among the bushes had already done its work. His little black nose trembled violently, and his shoulders began to shake with the desperate effort of suppressing the inevitable.
I stared at him in silent horror.
Asura stared back.
The Guardian Wolf sniffed the leaves directly above us.
Asura sneezed.
It was a sharp, explosive sound that seemed to travel through every branch in the vicinity.
The forest fell silent.
The Guardian Wolf raised both heads.
I closed my eyes.
For one brief moment, I considered the possibility that death might be painless.
Then the wolf roared.
The bushes erupted as its enormous jaws snapped toward us. I hurled myself sideways, dragging Asura with me, and felt the rush of air as its teeth closed on empty space. Branches shattered overhead. One massive claw swept through the undergrowth, tearing out a section of bushes and exposing the muddy ground beneath.
We ran again.
I no longer cared about dignity, strategy, or whether the black dog beside me possessed a single redeeming quality. I ran as though my life depended on it, because it did, while Asura raced beside me and shouted increasingly unhelpful instructions.
"LEFT!"
I turned left.
"NOT THAT LEFT!"
"THERE IS ONLY ONE LEFT!"
"YOUR OTHER LEFT!"
"That isn’t a real direction!"
A roar thundered behind us, ending the argument.
The next stretch of forest became a blur of dark trunks and tangled roots. I ducked beneath one fallen tree and scrambled over another, my lungs burning with every breath. My ankle throbbed so badly that each step sent pain shooting up my leg. My clothes clung to my skin, soaked with sweat and the moisture shaken loose from the leaves.
The Guardian Wolf did not slow down.
Whenever I glanced back, I saw its silver-gray body surging between the trees, both heads fixed on us. Sometimes one head veered toward a different route, forcing us to change direction. At other times, the creature simply smashed through whatever stood in its way.
It was not growing tired.
I was.
That was the problem with running for one’s life. People in stories always seemed capable of sprinting for hours while delivering inspiring speeches about courage. My own body had apparently read a different book. My lungs felt full of broken glass, my legs were shaking, and the world had narrowed to the miserable rhythm of one foot landing after another.
I hadn’t even enjoyed a proper meal in the capital.
I hadn’t bought a house of my own, tasted the interesting food the city supposedly offered, or experienced a single peaceful year without some ancient disaster deciding I looked particularly convenient.
Was this really how I was going to die?
Chased through a forbidden forest because my dog had suffered an allergic reaction?
The unfairness of it almost made me run faster.
"Asura!" I gasped. "Use your powers!"
"I cannot!"
"Why not?"
"My existence is still being rejected by this wretched body!"
"Then stop being rejected!"
"Do you believe I am choosing this?"
"Honestly? At this point, I wouldn’t rule it out!"
Asura shot me a murderous look before turning his attention back to the path ahead. His breathing had grown heavier, and his paws struck the ground with less of their earlier speed. Whatever strength remained to him was not enough to make the Guardian Wolf disappear.
"Can’t you do anything useful?" I demanded.
"I am keeping us alive!"
"Then you should be better at it!"
The Guardian Wolf struck another tree. The trunk shuddered, leaned, and crashed across the path we had just passed. Splinters flew through the air, and the earth shook beneath my boots.
I stumbled.
Asura immediately doubled back, caught my trouser leg in his teeth, and tugged me away from the falling debris. I lurched forward, nearly tripping over him, and we continued running as the tree crashed to the ground behind us.
I did not thank him. There was no time, and he would almost certainly have made the experience unbearable.
Still, I noticed that he had come back for me.
We kept running until the forest began to thin. The trees grew farther apart, revealing a jagged cliff ahead. Its dark stone surface rose into the night, and at its base lay a broad opening partly concealed by hanging roots and dead vines.
A cave.
I had never been happier to see a hole in a rock.
"THERE!" I shouted.
Asura glanced toward it. "Do not assume every dark opening is safe!"
"Would you prefer the wolf?"
"No."
"Then keep moving!"
We raced toward the entrance. The Guardian Wolf’s roar thundered behind us, closer than ever. I threw myself through the hanging vines, struck the stone floor with my shoulder, and rolled into the darkness. Asura shot past my face, his claws scraping against the rock as he struggled to regain his footing.
I crawled farther inside until my back struck the cold wall. My chest heaved violently, and for several seconds, I could do nothing but gulp air into my burning lungs.
Asura staggered beside me and collapsed onto his stomach.
Neither of us spoke.
Outside, the forest continued to echo with breaking branches.
Then the noise stopped.
I raised my head.
The Guardian Wolf stood just beyond the cave entrance.
For one terrible moment, I thought it was preparing to charge straight through the opening. Its two heads watched us from beneath the vines, crimson eyes shining in the darkness. Its enormous body blocked most of the moonlight, and its breath drifted into the cave in pale clouds.
I pressed myself harder against the wall.
Asura struggled to his paws, though his legs trembled beneath him.
The wolf took one step forward.
Then it stopped.
One head turned toward the darkness behind it. The other lowered toward the cave entrance, its nostrils flaring as it drew in the cold air. Something about its posture changed. Its ears flattened, and its shoulders sank as though it had encountered something it did not wish to approach.
The creature looked back at us.
Then it looked into the cave again.
A low growl rumbled from one head. The second answered with a quieter sound.
I stared in disbelief.
Was it afraid?
The Guardian Wolf was powerful enough to crush trees and chase us through half the forest without slowing down. Yet now it stood at the entrance to an apparently empty cave, hesitating as though the darkness beyond the stone threshold belonged to something far more dangerous than us.
It shifted backward.
One enormous paw scraped against the soil.
Then it turned and retreated into the trees.
I waited for it to come back.
It did not.
The forest slowly swallowed the sound of its departure.
I let out a shaky breath and slid down the cave wall until I was sitting on the cold floor. My entire body ached. My ankle throbbed, my shoulder felt bruised, and my clothes were so thoroughly covered in mud that I doubted even the most expensive laundry service in the capital could save them.
I had survived.
I had actually survived.
Then I turned toward Asura.
"You sneezed."
The black dog slowly lifted his head.
"Do not start."
"You sneezed."
"It was involuntary."
"The wolf almost ate us because you sneezed!"
"I am aware of what happened."
"We were hiding! It couldn’t see us, and it had no idea where we’d gone. Then you opened your nose and announced our location to the entire forest!"
"My nose betrayed me."
"Control it!"
Asura stared at me as if I had suggested he personally rearrange the stars.
"Control my nose?"
"Yes!"
"I am the King of Shadows!"
"Then shadow your nose! Make it disappear!"
For a moment, he seemed genuinely incapable of producing an answer. He simply stared at me with an expression of cold, ancient outrage.
It was the most satisfying thing that had happened to me all day.
"You are the most irritating creature I have ever encountered," he finally said.
"Funny. I was about to say the same thing."
"I could leave you here."
"And I could leave you outside with the wolf."
Neither of us spoke.
Then Asura looked toward the cave entrance, and my satisfaction faded.
The darkness beyond the vines remained perfectly still. I could no longer hear the Guardian Wolf, but its retreat did not make me feel any safer. If anything, the cave had become more suspicious.
I drew my knees closer to my chest. "Do you think it’s gone?"
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"Would you prefer that I tell you it has certainly vanished?"
"I would prefer a great many things. A comfortable bed, a warm meal, and a world where every monster doesn’t want to eat me would be excellent places to start."
"Then you should have remained at your estate."
I gave him a bitter look. "Thank you for reminding me that my terrible decisions have consequences. I was beginning to worry I might learn something useful from this experience."
Asura opened his mouth to reply.
The ground shook.
Dust drifted from the ceiling, and small pebbles bounced across the stone floor. A low grinding noise rose from somewhere deep within the cave, growing louder until it sounded as though an ancient machine had awakened after centuries of silence.
I scrambled upright.
"What was that?"
Asura was already on his feet.
His exhausted expression had vanished. He stared into the depths of the cave, his ears raised and his body tense. The sudden change in his demeanor made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
Another tremor passed beneath us.
Stone groaned against stone.
"Asura," I whispered, "what is happening?"
He did not answer.
That was never a good sign.
A narrow passage lay farther inside the cave. I had not noticed it when we first entered because its opening was partly concealed behind a jagged outcrop. Now, however, a faint line of pale light traced the edges of the stone, revealing grooves carved into the wall.
Something was moving beyond it.
I backed toward the entrance.
"We should leave."
Asura took a step toward the passage.
I stared at him. "Did you hear me?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you walking toward the mysterious noise?"
"Because something has moved."
"Yes, and that is precisely why we should leave!"
"Perhaps the mechanism has revealed a deeper chamber."
"Or perhaps it has opened a chamber containing something even more eager to kill us!"
Asura glanced back. "Do you intend to spend your entire life running away from everything you do not understand?"
"Absolutely. It has been a remarkably effective strategy so far."
The cave shook again.
A long grinding rumble echoed through the stone. The pale line widened, and part of the wall shifted inward with a heavy scrape. Dust billowed from the opening, carrying the stale smell of sealed rooms and ancient stone.
I coughed and raised an arm over my face.
When the dust settled, a narrow corridor stretched beyond the passage. Its walls were lined with weathered carvings, and a faint light glimmered somewhere deeper inside. Two enormous pillars stood near the entrance, their surfaces engraved with twisting shapes that resembled wolves.
Asura stepped across the threshold.
I remained where I was.
He looked back at me.
"Well?"
"Well, what?"
"Are you going to stand there until the mountain collapses?"
"I’m considering it."
"Consider more quickly."
I glanced toward the cave entrance, then at the newly revealed corridor. Somewhere among those trees, the Guardian Wolf might still be waiting. Behind me lay an ancient passage that had apparently opened itself for reasons I could not begin to guess.
It was an excellent selection of terrible options.
I chose the one that seemed marginally less likely to end with my body being eaten.
"I’m only coming because the wolf might still be outside," I said as I followed Asura. "Do not interpret this as trust."
"I would never insult myself by doing so."
"Good."
"And if you begin screaming again, I will bite you."
"Try it, and I’ll feed you to the next monster."
Asura gave a low growl, and I kept walking.
The corridor was colder than the cave outside. Our footsteps echoed through the passage, carrying far ahead of us before disappearing into the darkness. Strange markings covered the walls, forming long patterns that twisted around carved figures. Some depicted people kneeling before enormous creatures. Others showed warriors carrying spears and shields, their faces worn smooth by centuries of erosion.
The creatures in the carvings all had two heads.
I slowed beside one of the larger murals.
It depicted a pair of wolves standing upon a raised platform while dozens of human figures bowed before them. The artists had carved every strand of fur and every curve of their muscles with astonishing detail. Even after the passage of countless years, the creatures’ jaws remained unmistakable, frozen in what looked like an eternal roar.
I glanced at Asura.
He was studying the mural with unusual concentration.
"You recognize this?"
"Not specifically."
"Then why are you staring at it as if you’ve seen it before?"
"Because I have seen many things in my existence. It is possible that a similar image once crossed my path."
"That is a very elaborate way of saying you don’t know."
"Would you like me to demonstrate my knowledge in a more immediate manner?"
"No, thank you. I’m quite satisfied with the current arrangement."
We continued deeper into the corridor.
The carvings gradually changed. The kneeling figures vanished, replaced by rows of tall stone structures resembling pillars or monuments. Between them stood more two-headed creatures, some with their forelegs raised and others crouched low to the ground.
Their expressions had been carved with such care that I found myself glancing at them more than once. The nearer I looked, the more details I noticed: individual claws, layers of fur, scars etched across stone muzzles, and tiny symbols engraved into the pedestals beneath their feet.
Whoever had built this place had wanted its visitors to remember these creatures.
Or fear them.
I found that possibility much easier to believe.
The corridor widened ahead, opening into a chamber so large that my first glance failed to take in its full dimensions. The ceiling disappeared into shadow, while rows of stone statues lined both sides of the chamber. Ancient pillars supported the structure, and a thick layer of dust covered the floor.
Every statue depicted a wolf with two heads.
Some were small enough to stand beside a man, while others towered above us, their carved paws resting upon broad stone pedestals. Their manes had been sculpted into intricate ridges, and their long tails curled behind them in carefully defined spirals. Their bodies were positioned differently, as though each statue had been captured in the middle of a distinct movement.
The nearest one had its heads turned in opposite directions.
One watched the entrance.
The other stared into the chamber.
I stopped walking.
Asura moved a few steps farther before realizing I was no longer beside him. He turned, following my gaze toward the silent stone figures.
For once, he did not make a sarcastic remark.
I swallowed.
"Tell me we’re not in the Guardian Wolf’s home."
"These structures were built," Asura replied.
"I can see that."
"Then you have answered your own question."
"I was asking whether the monster outside lives here!"
"I do not know."
"Of course you don’t."
I looked back at the statues. The stone faces were expressionless, yet their bodies had been carved into positions of unmistakable alertness. The nearer I looked, the more uneasy I became. Every statue seemed to represent the same creature, but no two were identical.
I could not shake the feeling that we had stumbled into a place we were never meant to find.
Behind us, the last tremor faded into silence.
I turned toward Asura.
"Where are we?"
He stood perfectly still, staring at the chamber and the rows of stone wolves. His ears had lifted, and the tension in his small body reminded me of his reaction when the Guardian Wolf had first appeared. Whatever arrogance remained in him had given way to something older and more cautious.
When he finally spoke, his voice was quieter than before.
"A dungeon."
The word echoed through the chamber.
I looked at the statues, the ancient carvings, and the corridor that had opened beneath a mountain in the middle of a forbidden forest.
Then I looked toward the entrance, where the Guardian Wolf had refused to follow us.
For the first time since entering the Ghost Forest, I found myself wishing that the monster outside had chased us a little farther.
At least then, I would have known what was trying to kill me.