Grant rose to his feet, circled around the table, and stepped out of the tent but even he hadn't expected this.
His breath caught as his gaze locked onto Kaelor, mounted atop a beast that defied natural sense: a massive, three-headed creature, larger than any cow and black as ink. Each of its heads moved with eerie awareness, its thick, sinewed necks rippling like coiled ropes of shadow.
For a heartbeat, Grant stood motionless, his boots rooted to the earth as if the very soil had seized him. Around him, the once-busy merchant grounds erupted in gasps and cries. Conversations halted mid-sentence, purchases forgotten, and even hardened traders stepped away in alarm. The creature's presence cleaved a path through the crowd like a blade through silk.
