For one horrifying second, the air was silent.
Then—BOOM.
The ground shook. My ears rang. Heat exploded from the center of the firepit, and suddenly—the fire wasn't contained.
It was everywhere.
A crater had torn open where the flames once were, glowing red-hot. Ash and embers whipped through the air, licking at the trees, catching in the wind.
"What just happened?" Kevin muttered, rubbing his head, his voice dazed.
My vision swam, red and black spots dancing in my sight as I forced myself up. The first thing I saw wasn't the fire.
It was the bodies.
Seven of my rabbits, charred and unmoving. And then—a leg.
Not human. Wolf.
The crackling flames cast jagged shadows over the wreckage. Our camp was destroyed. The luggage was flung across the clearing, torn open like something had ransacked it. The air reeked of smoke, burnt fur, and something sickly sweet—like cooked meat.
I heard voices, but they barely registered.
"Were we attacked?" Hogan asked, his voice hoarse, absently running his fingers over a fresh burn on his arm. I didn't see any attackers.
Meili.
Where was Meili?
I scanned the wreckage. Hogan, Kevin, and Lance—still somehow in that shiny armor he apparently slept in—were standing. Fee was too. Bacon… alive. Silver… alive.
Ivory—
Fee was hunched over something near the fire. The wolf's body was still, her fur scorched and blackened. Too still.
I couldn't hear her breathing.
A sharp inhale cut through the silence.
Lance.
He stood stiffly at the farthest edge of the wreckage, staring down at something in his hands. It was small, glass, half-melted in the heat. A vial.
A tiny round vial with orange liquid leaking out.
His fingers trembled slightly. "Not again." His voice was barely a whisper.
Kevin took a shaky step forward. "Where's Meili?" he asked, looking around wildly.
No one answered.
Fee hadn't moved from where she knelt beside Ivory. She was silent. Too silent.
Hogan looked away. Kevin hesitated.
I didn't want to look.
But I did. And I saw the truth. Ivory wasn't sleeping. She wasn't resting. She was gone.
Fee's arms trembled as she stroked the wolf's fur, her fingertips pressing into the dark singed patches, as if she could still feel warmth beneath them.
Lance exhaled, rubbing his forehead. "We need to search for Meili," he said, his voice returning to cold, measured orders. "Hogan, go south, Kevin—north. Connie—"
"I don't take orders from you," I snapped, cutting him off.
Lance turned sharply, but before he could speak, Fee's voice shattered the moment.
"What about Ivory?"
Her tone was flat, but her shoulders shook.
Lance sighed, his face shadowed by the firelight. "Fee, I'm sorry. But we have to focus—"
"Focus on what?!" she snapped, her voice suddenly raw, breaking. "You never even cared about her, did you? You were always just focused on being pragmatic and saving that stupid kingdom no one cares about!"
His jaw clenched. "Because it's my duty as a knight to protect everyone—"
"Well, you can't even do that right!"
Her voice cracked.
"The kingdom is already lost! Meili is gone! And Ivory is—" She sucked in a shaky breath, but it didn't steady her. Her fingers curled into fists against Ivory's fur.
Lance's lips parted slightly, but nothing came out.
Fee's chest rose and fell unevenly. Then she exhaled, something closing off inside her. She was done.
"I don't care," she said, her voice quieter now.
She stood, scooping Ivory's body into her arms. The wolf was heavy, but she held on, turning away.
Kevin took a hesitant step forward. "Fee—"
"I'm leaving."
The words landed like a stone in my gut.
Lance stiffened. "Fee, wait—"
She didn't.
Kevin looked stunned, like he didn't know what to do.
Hogan finally broke the silence. "Look, guys—this isn't anyone's fault. We're all just—doing our best. We shouldn't—"
"I don't care." Fee's voice was steady now.
She started walking.
Lance took a sharp breath, barely restraining himself. "I'm sorry I'm not perfect," he said finally, his voice tired. Frustrated. "I acknowledge my weakness. I always have."
Then his voice dropped lower. Sharpened.
"But you."
His gaze locked on Fee's retreating back.
"You saved Meili the first time! Why don't you want to help find her now?"
Fee didn't stop walking. She didn't even turn back.
"Because I didn't think it'd cause me this much trouble," she said, her voice flat. "I'm not a hero. You are. This is your job."
And with that, she disappeared into the trees, swallowed by the night.
. . .
No one spoke for a long while.
Then Lance exhaled. A slow, tired sigh, like he had just let something go.
"We all remember our instructions, right?" His voice was quieter now. He was still holding onto the mission. Even now. "Kevin—left. Hogan—right. Connie—forward."
He still cared about that?
I frowned. "I don't feel like helping."
"We must find Meili before we leave," Lance said firmly. "And you can't go to PrideFall for your secret purposes without us telling you the directions."
I narrowed my eyes. "You're still holding that as a bargaining chip?"
"Yes." He didn't even hesitate. Then, quieter, almost to himself—"We can't leave anyone else behind."
For some reason, Fee didn't seem to notice, but Silver was still here. The wolf had stayed behind, following Kevin into the dark.
"Fine," I muttered. I wasn't doing this because I cared—I just didn't have another option. I sent my remaining rabbits into the trees, their soft paws barely rustling the undergrowth as they scattered.
Lance didn't tell me to hurry up. He just sat down, his armor clinking softly as he leaned against a tree.
The fire was dying, but the damage was still there.
I closed my eyes. Saw through their eyes.
A rabbit perched on a branch, watching Hogan and Silver move through the trees. Another sniffed at the edge of a pond, its tiny nose twitching.
Then—the third one. Sniff. Pause. A scent. I focused in. Meili.
Her footprints were pressed into the soft soil, leading deeper into the trees.
But something was wrong.
The sickly sweet smell. The one I had noticed earlier, near the bushes. It thickened in the air the closer I got to her trail.
I followed it, my ears twitching instinctively. A shape came into view. Small. Still.
Meili.
She was standing with her back to me, half-hidden in the darkness. The fabric on her back was burnt through, revealing raw patches of scorched skin. Her arms, her legs—covered in burns. Some fresh, some still peeling.
But she wasn't in pain. She didn't flinch. Didn't move. Didn't breathe. She just stood there. A single tendril of slime stretched toward her outstretched finger.
I froze.
The slime had wrapped itself around the tree beside her, its sickly green veins pulsing through the bark. The tree itself looked... wrong. Its sap had turned to sludge, its roots bleeding something viscous and dark.
I knew what they had said about the slime. But I had never seen it up close. Never seen it alive.
And Meili was reaching for it.
The smell hit me first.
I had noticed it before—a sickly-sweet stench that had been gnawing at the edges of my nose since we got here. But now, standing this close to the source, I understood.
It smelled like berries. Like something ripe and bursting with sugar. Like something that had fallen from the branch onto damp, rotting leaves. Like something you picked up, turned over—
—and found crawling with maggots.
I gagged.
It was decay. Purified, concentrated, distilled into a single breath. It was the kind of smell that curled into your throat and clung to your skin. The personification of corruption.
And Meili was reaching for it.
Her small fingers trembled as she stretched toward a single slime tendril, pulsing gently like it was waiting for her.
I reacted on instinct. My paw connected with the back of her head, snapping her forward.
She stumbled, blinking slowly. But she didn't gasp.
Her face was blank.
The dark circles under her eyes had grown even deeper. Her skin was pale, almost colorless, her pupils dilated.
I grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her. "What do you think you're doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
She didn't flinch.
She just looked at me—really looked at me. And then she spoke. "Do you think it would be that bad?"
I let go of her. My arms dropped to my sides, a chill crawling up my spine.
"What?" I said hoarsely.
Meili didn't answer. She just turned back to the slime. The tendrils stretched higher, curling slowly around the tree, sinking into the bark. Corrupting. Hollowing. It was like watching a body being drained of blood.
"I didn't wake up when it killed my parents," Meili said softly. Too softly. "That means they didn't scream. It must not be that painful, right?"
I stared at her.
It was acceptance. It was her trying to convince herself.
I stepped closer, my voice sharper now. "Are you stupid?"
Meili didn't even blink.
"How do you know it didn't close their mouths so you wouldn't hear them? How do you know it doesn't feel like drowning? Like your entire body is being eaten from the inside out?"
She kept staring at the slime. "It must be easier," she murmured.
Easier.
"There's no way we can stop this," she continued, her voice empty. "Even if we get that cannon. Even if we burn it. It'll always come back. Even the smallest piece of it will regrow. So what's the point? We should all just... give up. Let it happen."
I clenched my fists.
She was serious.
"The easiest answer is usually the best," she whispered. "That's what my dad used to tell me."
SLAP. Her head snapped to the side. Still, she didn't react.
Her eyes flicked back to me, still clouded, still vacant. Like she was sleepwalking. Like she couldn't even feel it.
"Disgusting. You humans disgust me."
My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn't care. She needed to hear this.
"You think dying is easy? You think you can just run away and pretend it'll all be over?
That's pathetic. Slothful. Cowardly." I stepped closer, voice lowering. "Tell me, is this what your parents would have wanted?"
Meili's glassy eyes hardened.
"You don't know anything about my parents," she said coldly.
"Maybe not," I shot back, "but I know they must have fought for you to be alive. And here you are, throwing it away like a spoiled brat who couldn't handle a bad day."
She sucked in a breath. And then, for the first time, she winced.
Her gaze dropped to her arms, where blackened burns crawled over her skin. The wounds were ugly, angry, pulsing.
"I see what you're doing," she murmured. "You're trying to use my pride to motivate me."
I bared my teeth. "No. I just genuinely think you're pitiful."
That got a small, tired smile out of her. "And you actually seem to care about people."
I opened my mouth to shut that down—but something felt wrong. The hairs on my arms stood up. A prickling sensation crawled down my spine. The smell of rot grew stronger. I turned—
Too late.
A red mass the size of a boulder had already slithered up behind us. My rabbits—my rabbits—were trapped inside it, their tiny bodies suspended in gelatinous death.
They struggled, kicking, drowning.
I reached for them, trying to send my awareness into their bodies—
Agony. It was like dissolving from the inside out. The slime didn't just eat—it unmade. It sank into my bunny's lungs, burning through her veins, erasing her.
Her mind collapsed into nothing.
I gasped, yanking myself back. My rabbit was gone. And in that instant, I knew:
Meili's parents didn't die easily.
I swallowed bile and grabbed Meili.
"No time for this." I hauled her up and took off, tearing through the forest as fast as my legs could carry us.
The red blob slithered after us, slow but relentless. But it didn't matter—I was faster.
Even as I ran, I pushed my consciousness into the other rabbits, sending out a frantic signal. Warn them. Tell them. That thing—it needs to die.