Maya's POV
"Run!"
Kael shoved me toward the back of the shelter just as the door exploded inward. A massive creature burst through—bigger than any of the four beastmen, with matted fur and eyes that looked completely insane.
I screamed.
Torrin met the attacker head-on, his bear form fully emerged. They collided with a sound like thunder. Wood splintered. The whole shelter shook.
"Go, go, GO!" Riven grabbed my arm, yanking me through a back opening I hadn't noticed. His grip was strong but not painful—more like he was trying to save my life than hurt me.
We stumbled into chaos.
Rogues were everywhere. At least fifteen of them, all different species, all looking half-starved and completely wild. They moved like animals, no intelligence in their eyes, just hunger and rage.
"They've gone feral," Shen hissed, appearing beside us. "Lost their minds to isolation. They'll tear us apart to get to her."
"Comforting," I gasped, my heart trying to burst out of my chest.
A rogue wolf lunged at me. Kael appeared from nowhere, slamming into it mid-air. They hit the ground in a tangle of claws and fangs. Blood sprayed. I couldn't tell whose.
"Maya!" Riven's voice cut through my shock. "Can you climb?"
"What?"
"CLIMB!" He pointed to a tall tree. "Now!"
My body moved on pure instinct. I jumped for the lowest branch, pulled myself up. My arms screamed in protest—I'd spent my life in labs, not gyms—but terror gave me strength I didn't know I had.
Below me, the four beastmen fought like demons.
Kael was pure violence, all teeth and claws and lethal precision. Every move calculated to kill. Torrin used his massive size to shield the others, taking hits that would've killed a normal person. Shen moved like liquid death, his strikes quick and poisonous. And Riven—
Riven transformed mid-fight into a massive golden hawk. He shot into the air, then dove at the rogues with talons extended, raking across faces and eyes.
They were winning. Barely.
Then I saw the archer.
A rogue crouched on a distant rock, bow drawn, arrow aimed directly at Kael's back. Kael was too busy fighting three others to notice.
"KAEL!" I screamed. "BEHIND YOU!"
He started to turn. Too slow.
The arrow flew.
Without thinking, I grabbed a branch and hurled it. My aim was terrible—I'd never thrown anything in my life—but somehow, impossibly, it hit the archer's arm. The arrow went wide, missing Kael by inches.
He whipped around, saw the archer, and his eyes found mine in the tree. Something passed between us. Understanding. Gratitude.
Then more rogues came.
"There's too many!" Torrin roared, blood streaming from a wound on his shoulder.
"We need to retreat!" Shen shouted back.
"We can't leave her!" Kael snarled.
"I'm not suggesting we do!" Shen's eyes flashed green. "Trust me!"
He moved to the center of the fight and did something impossible. His scales began to glow. The air around him shimmered. Then he breathed out—not fire, but some kind of gas. Green and thick and definitely poisonous.
The rogues inhaled it and started coughing. Choking. Falling.
"It won't kill them," Shen called out, "but it'll give us time. Move!"
Riven swooped down, transforming back mid-flight to grab my waist. "Hold on!"
We dropped from the tree. I clung to him, terrified I'd fall. The ground rushed up. At the last second, he spread his wings—actual wings—and we glided to a rough landing.
"Run!" Kael ordered. "To the valley center!"
We ran.
My lungs burned. My legs felt like jelly. Behind us, I could hear the rogues recovering, their howls filling the night. They were coming again.
"I can't—" I gasped. "Can't keep—"
Torrin scooped me up without breaking stride, cradling me against his massive chest like I weighed nothing. His fur was soft despite being matted with blood. His heartbeat thundered beneath my ear—fast but steady.
"I've got you," he rumbled. "Just breathe."
Something about his gentle voice made my eyes burn with tears. These four strangers were risking their lives for me. They barely knew me. I was nothing to them. But they fought like I was worth dying for.
We burst into a clearing. The valley opened up before us—barren and rocky but defensible.
"Here!" Kael pointed to a rocky outcrop. "We make our stand!"
"Against fifteen rogues?" Riven demanded. "We'll die!"
"Then we die protecting her!" Kael's eyes blazed. "I'm not running anymore. I'm not losing anyone else!"
The pain in his voice was raw and real. This wasn't about me being valuable. This was personal for him.
The rogues emerged from the trees. More than I'd thought. Twenty, maybe. All surrounding us slowly, like they had all the time in the world.
We were trapped.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "This is my fault. If I hadn't come here—"
"Stop." Shen's hand touched my arm, his scales cool against my skin. "You didn't ask for this. None of us did. But sometimes fate throws impossible things at us, and we have to decide who we're going to be."
"Poetic," Riven muttered, but his eyes were soft. "But he's right. We made our choice."
Torrin set me down carefully, positioning himself in front of me. Kael flanked my left. Riven my right. Shen behind, protecting my back.
They formed a circle around me. A living shield.
The rogues charged.
What happened next was beautiful and terrible. The four beastmen moved like they'd fought together for years instead of being strangers. They covered each other's weaknesses, anticipated each other's moves, fought as one unit.
But there were too many rogues.
Kael took a claw across his chest. Torrin's leg buckled from a bite. Riven's wing torn. Shen moved slower, his poison reserves emptying.
They were losing.
I had to do something. Anything. I was a scientist—I solved problems. There had to be a solution.
My eyes scanned the area desperately. Rocks. Dead trees. The rocky outcrop. And then I saw it—a precarious pile of boulders above the rogues, held in place by a single rotted log.
"Torrin!" I screamed. "The rocks! Can you hit that log?"
He followed my gaze. Understanding flashed across his face. "Everyone DOWN!"
He charged the log with the last of his strength, slamming into it with his full weight. The wood shattered.
The boulders fell.
Rogues screamed as tons of rock came crashing down. Not all of them—some scrambled away—but enough. The ones that remained looked at the destruction, then at us, then made a choice.
They ran.
Silence fell. Broken only by heavy breathing and the sound of someone crying.
I realized it was me.
My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. We'd almost died. We'd been seconds from death, and I'd—
"You saved us," Kael said quietly, limping toward me. Blood dripped from his wounds. "Your idea. Your quick thinking."
"I just—I saw the rocks—"
"You saw a solution." Shen smiled despite his exhaustion. "Like a true survivor."
Torrin collapsed to his knees, breathing hard. The wound on his shoulder looked bad. Really bad. Bone-deep and bleeding too much.
"Oh God," I whispered, dropping beside him. "You're hurt. You're all hurt."
"We're alive," Riven said, folding his damaged wing carefully. "That's what matters."
"But Torrin needs help. That wound—it could get infected. Do you have medicine? Bandages? Anything?"
Four pairs of eyes stared at me blankly.
"We have... nothing," Kael admitted. "This valley is barren. No herbs. No supplies. We've been barely surviving here for months."
Horror washed over me. "Then how—how do you treat injuries?"
"We don't," Shen said flatly. "We heal or we die. That's the way of things."
I looked at Torrin's wound. At Kael's bleeding chest. At Riven's torn wing and Shen's exhausted face. They'd saved me. Now they were dying because they had nothing.
But I wasn't nothing.
I was a scientist. I knew biology, chemistry, basic medicine. And this valley—barren as it was—had to have something I could use.
"No," I said firmly, surprised by the strength in my voice. "Nobody's dying. Not today."
I stood up, ignoring my own exhaustion. "Kael, I need you to find me any plants—any at all—within walking distance. Shen, water. Clean as possible. Riven, something I can use as bandages. And Torrin—" I touched his massive shoulder gently "—you stay still and don't you dare die on me."
He smiled weakly. "Yes, ma'am."
As the others moved to follow my orders, I knelt beside Torrin and really looked at his wound. It was bad. But not impossible.
"I'm going to save you," I promised him. "All of you. And then—" I looked at the four beastmen who'd risked everything for a stranger "—we're going to turn this wasteland into something better."
Torrin's eyes widened. "You're staying?"
Before I could answer, the ground beneath us trembled. A low rumble echoed through the valley. The rocks around us began to shake.
"What now?" Riven shouted.
The trembling grew stronger. Cracks spider-webbed across the ground. And from the largest crack, something began to emerge.
Something massive.
Something ancient.
Something that made the rogues look like puppies.
A creature the size of a house pulled itself from the earth, its body covered in stone-like armor, its eyes glowing red with hunger.
It looked directly at me and roared.