That's it. He's dead. The bear runs at Rworg, as fast as a racehound. The ground shakes under its gait. I didn't expect it to charge so fast. There's no time to line up the shot.

The bear swipes at Rworg, coming in with both clawed forelegs ready to clamp on to him, to crush him. Rworg steps to the side. The bear misses him, crashes into the ground where he just stood. It skids to a halt, grass peeling off the ground and rolling up into a bunch under its paws.

Rworg swings down, a massive cut at the bear's neck. The blade connects, but the bear is fast as well. It ducks and kicks its body back, barking at Rworg. The speed at which bears move is stupid. They look like flabby things with funny round ears, but can outrun a horse or kill a bull with a single swipe of their paws.

Rworg barks back, teeth bared in a wild grin.

The bear bleeds, drops of blood trickling on the ground as it circles Rworg. Its growl thrums my insides. I circle with the bear, keeping Rworg between us. The teratome all the way back then taught me the lesson well. I need some kind of cover before I shoot. A tree to hide behind or rocks between me and the bear or something to slow it down. If the bear decides to come after me in this open clearing, Rworg couldn't do anything except shout at it and watch it eat me.

Rworg and the bear circle each other, and I circle them. I bump into something, colliding with it with my shoulder. My head knocks against something hard, and I lose my balance as my hip hits the thing at the same time. It feels like I've walked into a solid wall.

I stumble to the side and glance to the side. There's nothing there. The sun shines, and trees sway on the other side of the clearing. The air ripples from heat, or perhaps from something else.

A roar wakes me up from my confusion. The bear stands on its hind legs and lunges at Rworg, trying to grab hold of him with its front paws. Rworg slides out from under it, holding his sword on his shoulder like a fisher could carry a fishing rod. The blade cuts into the bear's torso as it drops, opening a massive gash running from its chest to its armpit. Rworg spins and swings his blade up at the bear, cutting another gaping wound in its neck.

The bear roars. An animal that's wounded that badly is as dangerous as it'll ever be. Completely crazed by pain, far beyond thinking about running away. Rworg stands behind the bear, it sideways to me. I nock an arrow and shoot.

The arrow strikes the bear near the eye, lodging itself into its face. It looks awful. It is awful. The hit isn't lethal. Maybe I could shoot through a bear's skull if the angle was perfect, but I'm not sure. That's not the point.

The bear roars. The arrow shifts in its head. It turns to face me, jaw wide open, all teeth visible.

Rworg shouts a warning or a challenge. The bear launches into a run. Rworg cuts at its hind legs. The sound of the hit makes shivers run down my spine, steel parting flesh. Still, the bear doesn't flinch. It runs at me, exactly as I planned.

Now that it's actually happening, I'm not sure if I like the plan as much as I thought. I spin and run, running my left hand along the invisible wall, staying as close to it as possible.

The heavy steps of the bear come closer. Rworg shouts something. He's running as well.

The wall disappears. I kick at the ground, sliding as I turn left. I hold my hand out and find the wall again, running to get behind it.

The bear growls. Rworg makes a confused sound.

I didn't know what a bear the size of a bull running into a solid wall would sound like, but it's loud. The bear crunches, thumps, barks, and yelps. Something cracks.

I turn, readying my bow. Most of the bear shimmers like it's behind a thick plane of glass, crumpled on the ground. Rworg catches up to it and swings his blade down at its neck. He hacks at the animal, his blade rising and falling. Splatters of blood hit the wall, painting it into the air.

Rworg peers out of the invisible corner, then steps out from behind the wall. He's breathing heavily. The sword dangles from his hand, dripping blood onto the grass. "Folke, are you well?"

"We just took down a bear," I say, chuckling. It's a huge waste. We have to leave practically all the meat. The carcass will draw scavengers, and who knows how they'll act once they get near to this place, with all the mana in the air. Still, a bear!

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"We did. Are you well?"

"I'm fine, fine." I feel lightheaded and drop to sit on the grass, landing hard on my butt. I let the bow drop from my hand and grasp my head with both hands. Chuckling or sobbing, I'm not completely sure.

Rworg nods and sets his sword to lean on the invisible wall. He runs both hands on the wall, searching for the corner. "How did you know there would be a corner?"

"It... made sense?" I say.

"Lucky that the corner wasn't in the other direction, hmm?" he says.

I think about it for a moment. I guess it was.

"First, you would have run your face into it, then the bear would have hit you," Rworg says.

"Yeah, that's--" I say.

"It would have crushed you between it and the wall, and then rolled all over you, roll, roll, roll." He holds his hand in the air, turning it from side to side. "Then--"

"Yes, thank you, Rworg. It was indeed lucky."

Rworg grins. "It was a good fight. And we have found the place we searched for. Fortune favors us." His face becomes serious, and he crouches next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "But let us not trust in luck, Folke. There's too much at stake."

"Steak," I say, nodding at the carcass.

Rworg frowns and tilts his head to the side, then bursts into laughter, his white teeth and red tongue the only thing I see. He slams a hand on my shoulder, probably dislocating something. "Indeed, Folke! I'll make the fire."

The fire crackles. We sit near the entrance to the Monolith. The illusion holding it invisible is obvious if you focus on looking. The forest behind it looks unreal, like a painting that's moving. Something in me wants to look away, stop staring, and go away. It must be part of the protection Tenorsbridge placed on the location. If I didn't know something was there, I think I would have avoided the clearing and thought it too boring to pay any attention to.

I reach out my hands and warm them. It's so nice to have a real fire. Lictor left us cookware and more provisions. We have a lot, enough to survive at least a week. There's no way for us to really preserve the meat. I don't want to field dress the bear, start digging into its insides, pulling out internal organs, and so on. There's no running water anywhere, so I'd look like Rworg after a fight and have to do the rest of the trip smelling like an abattoir.

I cut us a big portion of the backstrap. It can be just cooked directly on the flames and will still be a feast like few people ever get to have. Rworg seasons it with just salt. It needs nothing else.

"How long will we have before Finna... thaws?" I ask.

"Lictor said about a day. We have until evening. We will eat, and we will explore," Rworg says, glancing at the empty clearing and the entrance before us.

Inside, black stone replaces soft grass, the sunlight cutting out as black stone replaces the sky, as black stone replaces the forest. It's not completely dark, the stone shining with an internal light, just like in Rworg's story.

Rworg runs a hand over the wall. "The stone is the same. The light is different. It flickers."

I look closer to the wall. The motes of light inside it are in constant motion. They change color, vanish, and reappear quicker than the eye can follow. Seen close, the effect is disorienting. I blink and turn my head away, rubbing at my brow.

Building a travois for Finna wasn't necessary after all. She's hard like a diamond. Rworg tied a rope around his waist and her ankle, dragging her behind her easily. She slides along the floor, leaving a clear line with her hair into the black stone.

I'm not sure if this is weirder than the Rides in Tenorsbridge or the auroras in Kerthar. Walking into a black, invisible monument in the middle of the forest, dragging her along like a plow. I wonder if I will ever get used to all this. Will all adventuring be like this? Probably not. No one told stories like this in the village, and maybe I shouldn't either. No one would believe them, anyway.

"Do you think there will be more animals inside?" Rworg asks. He holds his sword in his hand, ready for anything.

"Not likely. The bear would have scared them all away," I say. The bear has claimed the entrance for itself. The smell is intense: droppings and a half-eaten deer spread on the ground. I hope the smell of the bear lingers, so we won't have other animals taking over while we're still inside. I remember Lictor's parting words about the teratomes and shiver. We just have to hope there aren't any around, even if all the mana might lure them like moths to the flame.

I hope there won't be undead either, like in Rworg's story. They sounded gross. And fighting them would be a nightmare for me. What would arrows do against something dead? And punching one would be too nasty.

"Folke, what are you thinking?"

Rworg's words nudge me out of my thoughts. "Nothing. This and that. I'll focus." I take a look around the entrance area. It's a large cube, no decorations, no nothing. "Any ideas where we should head?"

"We head forward," Rworg says. "We consider what to do once we have something to consider."

It's true. There's just a single corridor reaching further ahead from the entrance cube.

We walk, and we walk.

I walk behind Rworg and watch the line Finna draws on the floor. The entrance is behind us, a small square of light in the distance. How can it be that far? We must be much further than the clearing's edge.

We keep walking. The silence stretches. The only sound is Finna scraping against the floor.

"Long corridor," Rworg says.

I have to agree. I've been thinking about home, about Lille, and seeing Bann and Lien and the rest again. Finna scrapes a second line into the stone, next to another already there. I frown at the line and glance back. The entrance is behind us, a small square of light in the distance.

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